Three-Thing Wednesdays and Four-Thing Thursdays and Logistics

Tuesday 8th
We had a day at home and did a bit of sorting in Freya's room but didn't get very far, need some Really Useful Boxes.

Wednesday 9th
Freya had Forest School, French and Fencing. Wednesday logistics are very challenging! She comes back from Forest School, potentially covered in mud, between 1.30 and 2 and we need to try to be on a bus to Brighton by 2.40 for French at 3.30, then coming back is even tighter, though no mud involved. So far the traffic has got us most times, but fortunately R, who runs Fencing, is very chilled about our mostly late arrivals and Freya doesn't miss too much. At Fencing they did some 'proper' one-on-one fencing, which looked great!
While she's at Forest School I usually work, and while she's at French I have a cuppa with A round the corner from French, which is a good catch-up hour. And while she's at Fencing I sit with M and we talk quietlyish. So apart from the logistics of journeying and providing snackage, mud removal and clothes changing, I don't have a bad Wednesday really. 

Thursday 10th
A 4-thing Thursday, busy, took Freya to play at her friend K's house in Brighton for a couple of hours late morning, where she had a lovely time, I had a chat, then went to a cafe and wandered a bit, before picking her up to come back over to Lewes for Dancing. I completely forgot to be where I was supposed to be at some point soon after that, but quickly repaired the error with a bit of help! Then took Freya to Art at 4, where she carried on painting her chair, I came home again for a while, went out again at half five with her Guide uniform, picked her up at 6 and took her to have chip dinner on way to Guides at 7. She enjoyed Guides, think they did something with Lebekuchen.
This blog is largely turning into Logistics Log I note. Huh.

Friday 11th
Friday Club was on the subject of "What's Happening to Me?", with varying degrees of engagement and success I expect. Think it gave rise to some conversations about such things, which is good. Afterwards Freya embarked on a bus adventure with L and L - they had planned to take the bus from town up to L's - the first time for any of them going on a bus without an accompanying adult. They went to the stop and soon found that the bus wasn't going as a passenger had had an injury, and was being attended by an ambulance! So they had to be super-resourceful and work out/find out about other buses, etc. Which they managed very well, took the bus we often get and walked the rest of the way, arriving with an exciting tale to tell. 
Think Freya had a good afternoon there at L's and both she and other L ended up being allowed to stay for an impromptu sleepover!
J and I had curry and I think we watched some Breaking Bad, still inching towards the end.

Saturday 12th
Last LAMDA drama before half term, Freya went directly from her sleepover, as L was going too. Think that is going OK. She has some lines to learn and we have the date of the exam in March.
Strictly Come Dancing was good, enjoying it.

Sunday 13th
J made some garlic focaccia - he'd made a less successful one the day before but Sunday's was good, with fresh rosemary too, delicious. Freya went swimming with lots of others and had a nice time. I did home-made beanburgers and some roast veg and chilli for dinner, with J's focaccia, was very yum.

Monday 14th
Freya had Geography and then stayed at N's again after, which was fun. I got some work done, October has been good for work so far.

Tuesday 15th
Freya had Creative Writing (Little Green Pig) and M came back for an hour or so afterwards. I got a bit more work done. We walked up the road with L and M too, who were going swimming.

Wednesday 16th
Freya had Forest School in the morning, got soaked and muddy, so ran her a bath when she came back, contemplated not doing but she needed it desperately, from a comfort point of view as much as cleanness. We still managed to get to French early, hooray! I went with M and had a cuppa at A's, for a good chat. Then we set off to get bus back to Lewes for Fencing, popped into Mr B's shop for first time, good to see him in his Kingdom! Late again for Fencing and the steep twitten that we have to rush down was slippery with rain so not much fun I thought. Controversial at Fencing, Freya had to wear the protection for females over 10, was not keen but braved it. It doesn't show from the outside as she feared I think. We stayed after to watch some epee fencing by the next adult and older children's group with the buzzers and lights, which was pretty exciting!

Thursday 17th
Another 4-thing Thursday - this time Livewires in the morning. The theme was Favourite Books - we took a 'draw like a favourite illustrator' activity and a video on the iPad of children talking about favourite books. In the end though, my table was mostly the home of 4-8 yr old boys doing drawings, which made a change for me. I took the coloured pencils we have that make nice bright ink colours when you wet them - like these. I joined in too, it's enjoyable to wet your finger and spread the colours around, blend them, etc. M had made a great Tolkien 'dungeons and dragons' style game and N had produced a Harry Potter quiz, there was also sewing owls and making a page about your favourite book to go in a Livewires book, was a good session, excellent theme.
K gave us a lift there and back, so dropped us in town and we got Freya a smoothie then got the bus most of the way to Dancing. M said that Freya could go with her, J and D, from there to Art, afterwards, which was very helpful. I came home and did a bit of work again before taking Freya's Guide uniform out at half fiveish, meeting her at 6, taking her for cheesy chips and delivering her to Guides early enough to change into uniform before starting at 7. Hope you are all noting down these times and travel and clothing arrangements and will be ready for the Ali's Logistics Test on Monday!
At Guides, Freya did her Promise, she was the first of her unit to do the new form. I wish I could have been there to see it but hadn't realized until too late that I was allowed, so we were a bit disappointed at not having done that how we would have liked, afterwards. But she says she will do Promise again in Senior Section, so perhaps I can be there then. I didn't go and see mum while Guides was on as I was just knackered as 4 things is probably my maximum daily coping amount (take note Logistics fans).

Friday 18th
Friday Club was a songwriting workshop, which Freya had been unsure about going to. I'm very glad she did go as the verse she made up for the song they did was much admired by friends and is very catchy (she sang it to me later) and the group chose it as the chorus. The words are:
Maybe you didn't hear
Maybe you shed a tear
Let me explain this, dear
Your thoughts were nowhere near
The Truth

So a good thing she went, I reckon, very proud of her.
She and L came back to ours together by bus, less of an adventure than the last unaccompanied bus trip, and in fact there was an adult they knew on the bus, so not so unaccompanied, but all good experience. L stayed for tea and they wanted to do a sleepover but can't always do impromptu ones I'm afraid.

Frazzled Catch-up

It's been far too long so this is sadly lacking in detail.

Saturday 21st
Freya went to new LAMDA drama session - for the previous 2 LAMDA exams, she, L and M formed a little group who went to M's house and did their drama lessons there, just the three of them, but now M has started a group on Saturday mornings. Although I miss the chance for a lie-in, it's working pretty well so far as I can usually have coffee and chat with someone for that hour and it's a chance to pick up anything I need in town and still only 11.15 when we get home. It's a bit of an adjustment for Freya and for L being in a bigger group, with older children and both sexes, but it seems OK so far.
Back home Freya had a bath (and we had a bit of an unbloggable thing) before we went to the pool where she was meeting a group of other girls for N's swim party and sleepover.
They all had a lovely time, with a swim, pizza and a film. J and I watched some things and I think I made some home-made burgers, or did we have curry?

Sunday 22nd
Picked daughter up, and in the afternoon we went to Apple Day, which I really don't like, so I mainly did sitting at the cafe bit and complaining about it on Facebook. 
It's a chance for Freya and friends to wander around with a bit of independence though, and I had some nice chats with people. And a portion of apple crumble, so no harm done.

Monday 23rd

Freya had her first Geography session. A teacher comes to K's house Monday mornings and there are 4 girls in the group. So far she is liking this too. She was invited to stay afterwards to play. When I picked her up I was invited in for a Red Rose Restaurant experience (see previous bloggage or you might have seen photos on Facebook). This time round the food was a bit less experimental and very good indeed!

Tuesday 24th
Think we had a day at home, but I can't remember, really should have kept up better, damn.

Wednesday 25th
Freya had Forest School, then a quick bath, then off to Brighton by bus for French, back for Fencing - it's our most difficult day for logistics, but luckily Fencing guy R is very genial about us being late, so the stress levels don't get too high overall. I usually get to spend an hour at A's having a cuppa and a catch-up, which I like, too. 

Thursday 26th
Took Freya to Dancing, had a nice sit and chat at C's, with C and M. Later on, took Freya to Guides, and I went to see my mum, who was happy and healthy. There were some beautiful big photos in the lounge of film stars and other pin-ups, such as Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Audrey Hepburn, Elvis and others. So we did a bit of looking at those and talking about them. Freya had a good session at Guides.

Friday 27th
Friday Club - the 2nd of two Magazine making workshops run by M. They all took in their pages to put together. The finished magazine is great, massive variety of ideas in it. We popped back to K's for an hour or so.
Strictly and Curry in the evening, hooray! Maybe some Breaking Bad later, can't remember.

Saturday 28th
Took Freya to LAMDA drama, had nice coffee/chat with C amid complicated phone and text arrangements for swimming or not later. 
M's mum M kindly took Freya to the pool in the afternoon and back - slightly different group of 6 there, for the usual Super Splash inflatable obstacle course.
J cooked even though not his turn, which was much appreciated - I am often getting dinner for us on Thursday from the kebab shop (wraps, falafels, houmous, grilled veg, salad, chilli sauce...), when I pick Freya up from Guides.
More Strictly, hooray again! Liking this year's group.

Sunday 29th
Working day for me I think, trying to remember. I certainly had a ton of work on. And more curry in the evening, oops. Busy busy.

Monday 30th
Again, Freya had Geography (mainly at the moment studying water cycle and rivers), and she stayed afterwards to play. Back at home, I worked like mad, as I was gradually realizing I'd taken on a bit too much.

Tuesday 1st October
We had M dropped at ours earlyish to hang out for an hour before I took them both to Creative Writing. I came back and worked like mad again. Freya was being picked up by C to go back and play with L and M at theirs, so I had a long working day, which I needed.

Wednesday 2nd October
Freya went to Forest School and C kindly took her to French for me, due to my scary workload. I worked and worked, took Freya to Fencing later and took my laptop with me. M made sure I didn't miss out on a photo opportunity and took this:

Thursday 3rd October
More work for me, having had 2 hours sleep, not the easiest of weeks. Was supposed to deliver at midday but had to ask for an extension. Fortunately a very reasonable and understanding client. I took my laptop with me when I took Freya to dancing, sat and did a bit in the doorway area! Then home briefly before heading out to another new activity for Freya - an art group. Really good, she went to a couple of summer workshops there a few years ago and I thought it looked good then, but couldn't really afford it at the time. Two of her friends go. 
While she was there (2 hours), I sat in Costa and worked more, feeling very stressed and tired and frazzled really and facing more of the same as would need to pull an all-nighter on top of only 2 hours sleep the night before. When Costa was closing, I decided to go and sit in the church near the art group venue - it has beautiful stained glass and I knew it would be cool and dark and I needed a moment just to sit and do nothing and breathe. So I went in and sat down, still having to lug my laptop (have to have the big heavy one for my work as the little convenient one can't run the software), plus Freya's Guide uniform, ready for her to change after art. 
Gradually felt the calm of the old church creeping into me, was lovely. Just reached a proper stopped feeling and then my phone rang and I panicked as it felt all wrong to have to talk on phone in church, dropped my bag with laptop in, in efforts to rush out whilst saying hello to J, who wanted to talk about dinner, nearly tripped over bag, said 'bugger' then a sort of 'oops' about saying 'bugger' in church as I reached the door. Calm destroyed!
Was nearly time to pick Freya up, so headed over there. They had been preparing designs to paint on their chairs and then painted the chairs white, ready to paint the designs.
Picked Freya up and we walked to Guides, realized I hadn't brought any snackage or drink for her, and she really could have done with it, so not an easy walk at all. 
She enjoyed Guides though. I lugged my laptop (survived encounter with hard church floor, probably protected by Guide uniform) home, and came out again 20 mins later to get dinner and pick her up.
Freya had been making a magazine to take into Friday Club, all week, so she and J stapled those whilst watching some Quantum Leap episodes, instead of me doing a 'bedtime'.

Friday 4th October
Finished work 8am or ish, what a relief! Shame as it was a fun job, but not the best week for it really, but just the way it turned out. 
Then planned Book Club very speedily, had already got most of it but needed to pull things together and print out some things.
At Book Club, Freya gave out her magazine, which was well received. It has an interview with J and I about our propensity to wear black, a bread recipe, how to draw a Minion, a guide to onesies, anagrams to solve (of Strictly Come Dancing people) and many other great articles/items.
Book Club was on the theme of "Growing Up" and we had read "Geek Girl" by Holly Smale, "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret" by Judy Blume, and only a couple of us had read some of "Every Soul a Star" by Wendy Mass.
We got off to a late start, discussed the books very vigorously. We do questions for discussion on pieces of paper, folded in a cup. The first question took more than 20 mins as so many of us had lots we wanted to say, so had to speed up a bit after that. We still didn't get through everything I had planned, so am going to carry the subject over. I was assisted by L, who gamely joined me in answering personal questions live e.g. "did you look forward to growing up?" "what did you want to do when you grew up?", "what do you like best about being grown-up?" and stuff about periods and crushes and posters on our walls...
The discussion got very loose in the last half hour, but the girls wanted their say on a lot of experiences they have as part of increasing independence. The details they mentioned really brought that age back to me, how the realities of growing up aren't so much about your body changing at all, often more about the mystifying world of other people and analysis of interactions in detail. Anyway, it was all very lively as usual, and interesting.
Afterwards Freya and I went back to K's for an hour or so, where I had a good chat with K and Freya had a good time with N.
It was nice to get home and actually not have to do work and I tried to watch Breaking Bad later but had to go to bed, unsurprisingly.

Weekend
Saturday Freya had LAMDA drama again, and I had another lovely chat and coffee with C. 
Came home to find J making bread - yum! In fact I think I'll have a bit of that toasted in a minute!
I did a nice veggie bake for dinner, with marrow, potato, carrot and a cheesy (not cheese though) vegetable sauce. And we watched Strictly.
Sunday we met old friends in Brighton for a pub lunch, which was lovely. Good to see them, must be a couple of years or more I think. Good food, good company, lovely day.

Monday 7th
Had a bit of work, which I did whilst Freya was at Geography and playing afterwards with N and L there.