Saturday

It's cold, dark, probably dismal, but I don't care!  Friends are coming round for lunch, people I haven't seen for a while, and I'm all excited about it.

Looking round the room, oh, drea!  It's not going to be tidy right now, not with spare room stuff piled up, but I think it could be better than it is, so a quick tidy up is in order.

As they are coming for lunch, I dithered about what to cook and decided comfort food in the shape of cottage pie or something similar would just fit the bill.  With that in mind, I wandered out to the shed and brought in two packs of mince before going to bed.  On Friday morning I started preparing the mince for the slow cooker and realised I had defrosted pork mince, not beef mince.  Doh!

Never mind, I did the necessary with the frying pan and piled it all in the slow cooker to simmer all day long.  I used carrot, onion and celery, cumin, coriander and cinnamon, chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, stock, lentils and oats and some salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar and as an after thought I threw in some dried cranberries (no idea why, it just seemed like a good idea).  The resulting goo is quite tasty and I've decided that I will serve it with pasta (home made) with parmesan on top and garlis bread on the side.  A right mix up but I reckon it will taste well OK.
I need to saute some mushrooms and peppers and might also add some red wine and frozen peas too and boil it all off.  It'll be a right conglomeration but I reckon it will be more or less OK!
Casual, that's me!!

I hope it's not too bad because it's going to provide the basis of several meals through the week too!

And now I need to start getting things ready!
Have a great day.

Friday

Well, I survived yesterday.  As I suspected, it was terribly busy and I didn't get a break all day.  I was a bit late in, nearer to eight than seven thirty but it was straight into preparation, the the children arrived, I took assembly so we could practise songs, then I was on playground duty.  Over lunchtime I had a meeting and a rehearsal and then the afternoon was our first full rehearsal followed by an extended playtime and guess who was on duty.  Yup!  Me.

Mind you, I am reminded that if a thing is worthwhile it is worth working for.  I was amazed at how good the first full rehearsal was.  Very few glitches, everyone did their dance (we allow a 'walk through' for the first full rehearsal if the dance isn't quite ready) and now I am worrying that it is peaking too soon.  The weakest point was the singing so we have to blitz that over the next week.

I've been really nagging my littlies about listening to the music in our dance.  In the dance practice they were much more confident and, as often happens, started anticipating the next bit too soon, so we worked intensively at that and it worked.  They were SO proud of themselves afterwards.  And so was I.

And I slept like a log.

Thursday

Good morning, everybody.  When I peeped out this morning it felt cold but not freezing and it hasn't been raining, which is good.  I'm on playground duty morning and afternoon today so staying fine is definitely what the teacher ordered.  Warm would be better but I'm not daft enough to expect that!

Yesterday was another lovely day with a lot going on and, for a change, staff meeting was encouraging and positive.  We looked at the new maths curriculum and compared it with current expectations.  As we have always delivered beyond what the expectation for the year group there weren't too many nasty surprises although I suspect those responsible for the new curriculum don't have an awfully in depth understanding of maths and very little children.  Having said that, we left the meeting feeling pretty encouraged and not too worried about our ability to deliver it without too many unsettling changes.  So all very good really!
I suspect it will be very different when we look at the new orders for english/literacy!

Today is a right mish mash of a day.  It starts normally enough with Reading Revelry, Word Workshop and literacy but then it morphs into Christmas show stuff for the rest of the day.  I am taking over assembly to continue teaching/practising the songs, after play my class has a dance practice and the afternoon is taken up with our first complete run through.  That, combined with playground duties and a lunchtime rehearsal for the cast, gives me a very busy, packed day and I suspect I will be fit for nothing this evening.  Never mind, the show must go on as the saying goes!!!

And so must I - I need to iron some clothes and get myself ready!!
Have a good day and Diane - take it easy and stay warm and rested.

Wednesday

So sorry about the non-appearance of the blog yesterday.  Somehow it just didn't get written one way and another.

On Monday, as I wandered around a few shops, I remembered that my duvet had become rather lumpy and bumpy.  That's what happens when you buy cheapos, I guess.  My Internet friend, Diane, has a silk duvet and I'm sure she never has that problem!!  Anyway, I do like a fluffy duvet so I bought another one (still cheap) and have enjoyed the last few nights with a bouncy, soft duvet wrapped around me.  Bliss.

I suppose that if one must buy from a posh place like Liberty, one must expect great service, but I wasn't prepared for the arrival of the owls on Tuesday, seeing as I only ordered them on Sunday evening, but there they were, beautifully packed  with tissue paper and a lovely purple carrier bag laid on top (not sure why but I'm not arguing), each owl in a rather nice purple box that I will be able to use for other stuff (like jam).  And the owls are bee-yoo-tee-ful!  What with flu and stuff, I didn't manage to get a special decoration last year so maybe I'm just catching up!

Yesterday was coordinator time followed by PPA and I managed to get so much done!  Report back to the head, message for the newsletter, pupil perception questions prepared,  next week's planning done and most of the reading assessment data entered into Tracker.  Amazing!  No wonder I was tired in the evening.

However, today I have my class all day which is really very nice.  Reading Revelry, Work Workshop, literacy, maths, D&T, library time and a dance rehearsal.  No wonder they go home rather weary.  Then it's staff meeting, just to finish things off nicely!

I should sleep well again tonight!

Monday

Aren't they cute?  Owl baubles and I have ordered three from Liberty at an outrageous price but they are my 'special ornament purchase' this year.  Each year I try to buy something different for the Christmas tree, just one thing (or, in this case, three):  it's now something of a tradition.  As soon as Beth showed me the advert (an insert in one of the Sunday Times magazines) I knew I would HAVE to buy them.  There was also a card with £30 off which would have been nice, leaving the shop owing me money but, unfortunately, you have to spend £150 and much as I love the ornaments I don't want that many!



See - overkill!  Too many eyes following me around!
I did take a wee look at rugs (for the 'new' bedroom) but after recovering from the choking fit brought on by the price, I decided maybe not this month/year/decade/century!

Today is a non pupil day so no rush.  I have to go into town later anyway, to have a whinge at my bank which I don't like doing but I'm going to have to.

Yesterday was, as I hoped, lazy.  I made the plum and apple jam which turned out scrummy and we had the Saturday made soup for lunch and that was also scrummy.  Alex, having gone to karate in the morning, had three bowls full as he was very hungry.  Beth and I were full after one bowl.  There's a bit left over for tomorrow too so that's great!


(and that's how many I could buy for £150, not counting postage!)

Sunday

Still cold, still damp, still dark!

What a lovely day it was yesterday.

I made bread.  I decided to try and up the oat content so I used 150g oats and 350g strong flour.  The flavour is great, as it the texture but the colour is not so fantastic.  Probably better to use wholemeal flour from the colour perspective.
This week I tried a five strand plait and I looks as if I am getting used to the whole pattern of plaiting, because it worked!

I used up most of the shop bought carrots making a spicy carrot and butterbean soup.  the spices (cumin and coriander) have counterbalanced the sweetness of the carrots and it tastes great (I think).  The recipe is here.

I got George to pull the remaining carrots from the garden while he was doing his hour and I then prepared, par boiled and froze them, ready for Christmas.  I am sure most of my readers can do this standing on their heads but I described what I did here.

I had some punnets of plums that really needed using and a bag of apples, very sound windfalls, that also needed using so, with Christmas pressies in mind, I made a large bowlful of plum and apple jam - well, I did the first half of the process and the actual jamming will be done this morning.  The jars are in the dishwasher as I type!

In the fridge I have some puff pastry that needs using up so, for lunch dessert today, I will make some mincemeat puffs.  Fancy name, simple thing - just like pasties but sweet.  Dead easy.

Today is going to be a lazy, easy, cosy, comfortable day.  I need one!

Saturday

It's still cold but, joy of joys, the inside of my freezers are much colder.  Yes, the electrical problem has been sorted and it was as I suspected, connected to the work in the spare room.  When the power was restored the warning lights came on for both freezers because the temperature had warmed to minus 10 but that's not going to be any kind of problem, is it?  Three cheers.  A plus is that now I know where the power from the shed enters the house.  Another plus is that now all the extension cables can be stored in one place.  I seem to have a fair number of them one way and another and very useful they have proved themselves to be over the last 24 hours or so!

This is the best I can do at the moment.  I can't get any further away because on all the desorating clutter, etc.  It's starting to look really good (potentially), although there's a way to go yet.

I got up really early today - before four o'clock - so I came down and pottered, then felt the sleepiness returned so went back up to bed again.  I woke suddenly after seven, remembered that my friends, Sonja and Milli, were dropping in at about nine-ish so got going with my bath.  Little did I know that they were outside the house, having had a good drive around London and they had sent me two texts and an email.  Well, I never hear much until I have put in my hearing aids!!!
Fortunately, as I got out of the bath, I peeped out of the window and saw their car!  Eeeek!  So I let them in and rushed with drying and dressing!
They're on their way again now but it was so lovely to see them and to have a bit of time for a chat.  And that's why this entry is late!

It was another good day yesterday.  I didn't do half of what I wanted to do but never mind, I had a great meeting with a brilliant LSA and I got some paperwork done and dusted.  It was cold all day and even the children didn't ask about coats, they just put them on!

And now it's the weekend.  The house is tidy, well, downstairs is anyway and I had a panic tidy up of my bedroom yesterday morning in case the electrician needed access.  I really couldn't have let anyone in in the state it was.  Another half hour or so and it will be spick, span and tidy too.

It's bread making day, of course.  As well as that I want to pull the remaining carrots and deal with them (blanch and freeze).  Also I have a pile of apples and plums and intend to make some more spiced apple and plum jam which will be Christmas presents for all the lovely school people who help and support me so much from day to day.  Then I will defrost and use a couple of the packs of mince I got from Donald Russell.  I have veg to use up so it will be ideal for that.  Cottage pie for lunch tomorrow, I reckon

The planning is done, the resources are made, the weekend looms, plenty of cooking and the electricity is working.  Sheer bliss!

Oh - and a bedroom to finish tidying (you never know!!!).