Saturday

Phew - back again.  Thank you to everyone who stuck with me and continued to come in, despite the empty room!

What happened was that I tried to upgrade my anti virus and something went wonky.  I have no idea what as I am a technoidiot, but I seemed to be left with only a partially working anti-virus - not a very comfortable thought.  I contacted my lovely ICT expert who gave me some advice, I followed it and it all seems to be working fine now.  It's doing its 'first time optimisation scan' as I type.

It's been a long week.  Two consultation evenings for a start.  Both went well, everyone seemed pleased and sees progress, and I had some very helpful and informative chats. 

We had a visitor into Y1 on Thursday - a less than two month old baby and his lovely mum.  The children were entranced, asked loads of really good questions and then made some super posters about how to care for a baby.  Now we have a super whizz photocopier that does colour, I am going to enlarge some of the posters to A3 size for a display.

Yesterday afternoon was a very important meeting which I chaired, supported by the other SENCo.  It went well, what we wanted was agreed and we were very pleased with the outcomes.  There was a bit more paperwork afterwards, but I got that done and posted off, so it's a bit weight off my mind.

Next week feels odd.  Every other school year I have ever taught has seen this weekend as the start of half term and in many parts of the country it is half term.  However, we have another week before the break - rather a shame really, because the children are very tired now, everyone is noticing that their classes are slow and weary.  But another week we have and it's going to be Book Week with a focus on poetry - yay!!  Andrea and I had a lovely time last PPA, devising a week of  activities around the rhyming story 'This is the bear'.  Foundation Stage is focusing on Nursery Rhymes and I know one of the junior year groups is doing the Charge of the Light Brigade.  We have a poet in school who will be taking each year group in turn for a session and then on Friday it is non uniform day and we will be dressing up as story or poem characters.  I think I will resort to my old favourite, the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe.  Easy peasy!  Andrea and June are talking of getting teddy one piece pyjamas, but there's no way, absolutely NO WAY . . .

So that's my week.  One more and then it is half term.  And that's filling up rapidly - I'm going to have to be strict with myself or I won't actually get any kind of break.

And now I'd better go and start in on the kitchen which shows serious signs of neglect after such a busy week . . .

Sunday

I think one of the greatest of the many simple pleasures I am fortunate enough to enjoy in my life is waking up to the aroma of freshly baking bread.  Having a loaf in the oven while you are showing potential house purchasers around your home is old hat nowadays, but the truth remains that it is one of the most heart-warming, evocative smells in my world.  I'm breathing deeply and enjoying . . .
I love my Panasonic!

Today the loaf came out of the pan easily.  The other day (Friday) it was more trouble and, as I bagged the loaf and took it out to the freezer, I failed to notice that the paddle was still in the bottom of the loaf.  As a result, on Saturday morning I had to get said loaf out of the freezer again and thaw it so that I could dig out the paddle.  Fortunately, Beth came round and took it home with her together with three others for her rationing week ahead (loaf, not paddle).  I was a bit cheesed off by the paddle sticking so went onto Amazon (where else) to look up replacement parts and saw that Panasonic now do a non-stick paddle that has very good reviews, especially as regards to not sticking in the loaf .  So, with a couple of clicks, they were ordered and I got an email from the company supplying them yesterday evening to tell me they are on their way and should be with me tomorrow.  Now that's good service!

This rationing eating thing is obviously good for my grandson.  A month ago he was a couple of centimetres taller than Beth and I; now he towers over us both.  I remember that my son had a sudden growth spurt at more or less this age too.  Both Beth and I did our growing (growing up, anyway) good and early and by the time we started secondary school we were more or less the same height as we are now and have been all our adult lives.  For Alex, the growing up has been accompanied by a slimming down in that he's finally lost his little boy podge and he looks really good!  Fortunately, he's still nice and huggly, bless him!

Today is a school day.  I have to prepare for consultation evenings next week and have brought home all the necessary paperwork.  It's not hard, it won't take for ever, but it's got to be done.  In between that I will be popping to Sainsbury's.  Morrison's is very convenient but there are things it doesn't have.  It doesn't do the 'value' crumpets I like to buy (because they are smaller and thinner and therefore lower calorie) and it didn't have any maple syrup last time I looked which was a pain because I need some more.  Today I want to make the Hairy Dieters meatballs in a rich tomato sauce recipe and Sainsbury's has a much better selection of beef and pork minces.  The fact that Sainsbury's has good clothes and homeware departments has nothing to do with it, dear me no, who would ever think of such a thing, goodness me . . . etc.  Thinking about it, their new magazine should be out by now . . .

I have four bananas, very ripe with skins that are browning.  They're not going to last much longer so I'm going to have a go at doing what the Frugal Girl does and bunging them into the freezer whole, to use at a later date.  I have a good recipe for banana muffins but, as I made a batch of muffins yesterday, I don't need any more for now.  I don't want to waste the bananas though!  

Well, better get on with the reports.  Or maybe I will have breakfast first!  Secisions, decisions . . .

Don't spiders have wonderful markings?  I never realised before.  They may be the stuff of nightmares but they are 'fearfully and wonderfully made'
And my spider seems to have got his knitting in a tangle!