The other things I've done this week, as far as I can remember are:

On Monday did lots of tidying.
On Tuesday went to funeral for old man from church we had been visiting in hospital sometimes. He died very peacefully. The last time I saw him he held my hand tightly & gave a lovely smile. A lot of people at funeral & a very moving service. On Tuesday afternoon our minister & Linda from church came & prayed with me, P was there too. Just had a very simple time but there was a real sense of peace & I have felt more peaceful since.
Wednesday was coffee morning then watched some Wimbledon then picked up J, scooted round town quickly & got him another Bear Grylls book, picked up P & took J to dentist. J liked it a lot more than old one which is good. Had been concerned he would need orthodontic treatment on front teeth but seem to be straightening out now. For some reason quite a few of his adult teeth have come through before the baby teeth have fallen out so they don't have enough space at first. Dentist said some of his back molars are deformed, too small & missing the top layer but there is a new treatment that can build them up so he did first layer & will do another at each checkup for a while. Then went home & watched more Wimbledon.
On Thursday went into town, met up with P, got J's photos from residential trip back, for some reason he took a lot of pictures of his bed. Did a bit of shopping, rushed back to get J, went swimming, I went to doctors for check-up, doing fine, then more Wimbledon.
Friday did a bit of sorting out paperwork then fell asleep. Watched a bit of Wimbledon, just when Federer match got interesting had to go out as had arranged to go round Lucy's for coffee. Took her some flowers as after many attempts & thousands of pounds she has just passed her driving test. She had left her car in Village Hall car park as she couldn't get it into her garage. She has this horrendously narrow garage. Did I mention that last week my wing mirror collided with her garage wall & was quite badly cracked? 'How can you crash into a wall?' P asked. 'The same way you crashed into a post.' I felt like saying. Actually he was quite reasonable about it, just a bit mystified & the post he reversed into he really couldn't see whereas I can't really say I couldn't see the wall, I was just looking the other way.

This is what we've been doing a lot of this week - going swimming. It's been so hot (although today is cooler so far). I'm so thankful for the use of the pool, J & his friends get lots of fun & exercise & I just sit there with my feet dangling in the water chatting to the other grown ups. Bliss!

My boy is home safe & sound & had a really good time. He even liked the food.
What is really astonishing is that he actually seemed to like his tidier room especially when we said that it was tidy enough for him to have Tim for a sleepover last night. What is even more astonishing is that both boys went to sleep quickly & had a good night's sleep.
We went to church this morning then met up with Louise & Steve & others for lunch at pub then have been at local church flower festival & fete. Flowers amazing, cake in tea-tent delicious, gymnasts scary & J won first prize in his age group for the pet drawing & painting competition!
Now J wants to go swimming as he bought some flippers for 50p at fete although at the moment he's chatting to my Dad on the phone probably completely mystifying him with his talk of computer games.
This feels like a non-stop (but fun) day.

Yesterday evening we went for the first time to a new dentist. Mavis has recently started going to them & we decided to try them because while in my opinion our old dentists was never all that close to the top of the hill it's definitely been sliding further downhill recently. I won't bore you with the details. Anyway yesterday poor Mavis had to have 4 teeth out & false teeth fitted & we had check-ups. Going in for a check up with P wasn't really a good idea because he never has to have anything done. So he went first & was fine & while the dentist was peering into my mouth & ordering 6 x-rays & muttering that he could try & redo the root canal which he reckoned the last dentist bodged but it wouldn't be easy & they might have to take the tooth out in the end & that upper molar has a hole & that crown's definitely dodgy but perhap's he'll leave it for now, during this P was brightly saying 'It's funny how I never need anything doing & Liz nearly always does' & I lay there contemplating which part of his anatomy to kick.
Then I got up too quickly from the chair & went to see how Mavis was & everything was going black before my eyes & I was trying not to let her see I was almost fainting. She was a bit shaky but not too bad really considering. They had real trouble with my x-rays as my mouth is very small which is part of the reason I have so much trouble with my teeth - they're crammed in too close together. But apart from all that the dentist was very nice & it was much brighter, more modern & high tech (they even had a computer!) & cheaper than our old one.
Then we took Mavis home picked up an Indian take-away, P brought his Dad over & we ate it.
As you can see the diet's really on track!

Today P was off & our 'fun' consisted of a walk in woods by a lake. This was nice to start with but P is a bit of a keen bird watcher & there are several bird hides at this site. This is fine if there are interesting birds to watch but today there weren't. He however wanted to sit & wait for something to come along. After sitting for quite some time waiting in 3 different hides I rebelled & refused to go into the fourth much to his consternation. It was after all a bit cold & the hides are a bit smelly & I was tired & wanted to go home & have a hot drink & a ginger crunch biscuit.
'That's all you do in your life,' he said 'sit and wait for something to happen.'
I don't think this is strictly true, sometimes I make things happen. I did play a part in making J happen. And I'm determined to make him have a tidy room.

On Monday J went off on residential school trip. It was all a bit of a rush getting ready, I don't know why but I always get a bit stressed when it comes to packing but we arrived at school almost on time. Louise & another mum helped us get from the car park & we joined the parents & children milling round in the hall. The girls all seemed to be staying close to their mums while the boys stood together in a group acting like the adults were nothing to do with them. Louise & I pondered the real possibility that our sons could go for a whole 5 days without washing at all. Then we went out to take group photos of the children in their special tee shirts. This was the moment when my camera ceased to function. Hopefully someone will let me have one of their photos.
Then the girls were flinging their arms round their mums' necks & going 'Mummee I'll miss you' & the boys were rushing out of the door with a casual 'Bye' & they were on the coach & gone. Only one mum burst into tears. I don't think any of the boys' mothers would dare.
I wasn't worried about J as he's been to cub camp so hopefully he won't get homesick. I'm sure he's been having a wonderful time. Meanwhile although it's been really strange without him we've been using the opportunity to go out & have a bit of child-free, no need to worry about a babysitter fun. This included a really yummy meal on Tuesday night - seafood risotto, hot chocolate fudge cake & vanilla ice-cream. Bliss!
I've also taken the opportunity to sort J's room out a bit. I'm sure he's going to be so grateful.

P isn't keen on me putting photos of us on my blog but there's one member of the family I can show you:

Digger!

On Monday P went in and did another teaching day at school, teaching science to year 5. Again he really enjoyed it. On Tuesday while J was getting wonderfully muddy in the woods with the scouts P & I went to the 'new parents evening' at his new school. It was quite reassuring as the staff all seemed so friendly & helpful. Of course there might be some of the teachers they don't put on display. It's like when we went looking round the schools, I got the feeling there were some children that were kept hidden from view.
This happy feeling about senior school lasted until last night when I went to a 'managing transition' course for parents whose children are starting senior school. They came up with this long list of potential worries for parents, most of which we hadn't thought of. They gave us some 'coping strategies' which we can 'role-play' with our children.
Actually it was quite traumatic for me because at one point they were talking about bullying & how a danger point can be if the child walks into the toilets & there's a whole gang in there standing around. I said 'What would they do then?' & the leader replied 'what do you think?' & I said 'I don't know' because at that moment all these memories came flooding back of being badly bullied when I had only just started school and I felt like a helpless little four year old.
'What would you do?' she asked.
'I'd walk out.'
'Right.'
'What would you do if you walked into the toilets at school and there was a threatening looking gang in there?' I asked J when I got home. 'Walk out,' he said without looking up from his book.
It took me a while to get to sleep, all these horrible thoughts were coming into my mind about my school days. Still as they said, we mustn't project our bad experiences onto our children & we mustn't show them we're anxious & I'm sure J is going to be alright. And right now I need to go & pick him up.

On Saturday we had the school summer fayre. At the start the new school extension was opened by a local dignitary. Thankfully the weather stayed nice, it had poured with rain the day before. It was all really nice and everything went well. There were just a couple of minor hiccups but everyone took them in their stride: the vicar was very good-natured when the end of his holy water sprinkler flew off as he was blessing the school, it didn't take all that long to untangle the maypole during the country dancing and P managed to rescue the little girl who couldn't unlock the door of the new toilets.
The children were so sweet doing their dancing, only seems 5 minutes since J's reception dance when he brought himself & his partner crashing to the ground.
One of the teachers has just had a baby boy, so cute. He was due the same day J was due but while J hung on for 8 days he was 14 days late. Like me she ended up having an emergency caesarean after a long labour, poor thing.
For some reason they were desperate for helpers this year so J & I volunteered to man the lolly stall for a while. There were all these lollies sticking up in a tray & some had coloured dots on & if the children got one of those they got a prize. I don't know why but they kept losing, even though there were a lot of dotted ones in there. At least they got to keep their lollies. I think one little girl's got a bit of a gambling problem, I really do. She kept having go after go. She was the same with our treasure map on the fun night. In the end I gave her a prize, saying that everyone who had 10 goes got a prize. After I finished on the stall I went over to talk to Becky on the 'Bowl a Pig' stall & there was the same little girl, having go after go.

I saw my brother & nieces again last Friday because they came down to help my brother's mother in law sort out her house a bit cos she's moving. She's going to live part of the year next to my brother & family & part in a flat in the town where she lives, as she doesn't want to lose contact with her friends. A pretty good arrangement I think. Anyway we went down so P could help sort out the cellar. Needless to say we ended up bringing back a carful of stuff. Some of it is really useful actually. We had a very nice lunch together & fitted in a quick shopping trip with my nieces. Poor J missed out as he was at school.

This was the view as we went down in the lift from the Centre for Alternative Technology.

This is the view from my brother's garden. A bit blurry but you get the idea. It's nice!

We took this photo on the way home. The blue haze is bluebells.

This is what stands out in my mind from our holiday:

• Had fairly good journeys both ways, both times turned off just before major jams. Took a bit of a circular route through mountains cos I got confused in dark & rain. Told P there were only so many times I was prepared to listen to his Clannad tape.
• On the way home called in on some friends which was really nice.
• Most of the time had good weather except on the Wednesday which P spent lying around having a bad cold & I spent playing Monopoly with J & older niece & then I played barbies with younger niece while the others made Tudor biscuits from a recipe in J's horrible histories book. You boil them, then bake them. They had a nice flavour but consistency a bit strange, not sure they got quantities right.
• J did a lot of bouncing on trampoline.
• I went to see my younger niece in a dancing show which was really lovely. While we were there P & J went off & explored the area.
• Also went to watch a film of a Swan Lake performance. It's so nice to do girly things sometimes.
• P & I went out to a noodle & wasabi bar. Food delicious but restaurant crowded, not like at home mid-week.
• We all went to the Centre for Alternative Technology. They had some really good children's activities. All 3 children joined in the story telling. They had to collect some objects from wood - stones, leaves, twigs etc & make up a story about someone going on a journey using their objects. I was really impressed how well J did. Perhaps if they taught story telling like that at school?
• Countryside absolutely beautiful. Still lots of bluebells out.
• Took older niece for a test at hospital. Car park full so P dropped 3 of us off & said entrance just through passageway. It was - through passageway & up steep hill. J & older niece took one handle each & pushed.
• Brought some of our stuff back that was in my brother's loft.
• Older niece decided to teach J to ride a bike. Was doing well until P decided to help. I think he realises now that when he said 'Whatever you do don't brake' he should have added 'unless you're about to crash into the side of the house.' J's grazes have nearly healed.
• Had really wonderful time with my family. Want to go back!
  

We're almost better from our colds, had really busy weekend & are having a frantic tidy-up cos tomorrow the housegroup are coming here!!

Had wonderful relaxing week last week. The last few days I've been up to my neck in washing, J & I have had really, really bad colds (P had it on holiday, poor thing) so I've been being ill myself, looking after J & at the same time organising the church children's activity day & writing the prayer bulletin. In a way it's been quite good he's been off school as I haven't had to do the school run. Anyway today we are both feeling a lot better & hopefully he'll be back at school tomorrow. Then I shall update you on what we did on holiday.

Hello I'm back. Most of you don't know I've been away but I have. We spent half term with my brother & his family in Wales & we had a wonderful time.
This is just a quick hello, will write more later.
Hope you've got gorgeous weather like we've got.