Happy days!

A busy and enjoyable week so far! Last Saturday morning Lillie saw her Nannie - and came home with a kids laptop and a Crayola Glow Board! In the early afternoon our time was spent on the shopping trip to Bluewater, which was a long one! Talk about shop till we dropped! Though Lillie did well with getting her new summer clothes. And a visit to Waterstone's was on the agenda! I purchased some CGP study books covering Key Stage One Maths, English and Science. Decided not to have any of the 'test' paper books at this stage as I think Lillie is still far too young for them!! The study books are designed to introduce topics and they will certainly give me some guidance for when doing more 'formal' work with her. Lillie spotted another 'Charlie and Lola' story and two further books, one on castles and the other on butterflies. Lillie has decided that she would like to start two new topics - castles and palaces/butterlies and flowers. There was also a new shop or one I hadnt noticed before. http://www.littlemissmatched.co.uk/ - Lillie loved it and I felt it rather fitting regarding our HEdding philosophy! No conforming to social construction of what 'should be', but rather exploring what 'can be'... The staff were very child friendly and took on board Lillie's ideas of not having all the ballons blown up to being the same size!! She also suggested different colour balloons, but this may of been stretching her ideas somewhat as 'orange' is the company's advertising colour! Anyway, we left with 3 mismatched vest tops for Lillie! Will definitely be going back, especially for christmas gifts! Once back home, our intended BBQ did not occur as the weather had changed suddenly. However, we had an 'indoor' BBQ as Lillie had set her heart on having one!

Sunday was relatively quiet, as the Amir Khan fight had been delayed Saturday night due to the football being extended, so Lillie's Daddy and I were feeling in a kind of slow and quiet mood! We had a lovely dinner and sat down to watch Harry Potter DVDs. Lillie and her Daddy seem to know the script very well compared to me who doesnt watch these movies on such a regular basis! I dont know who prefers them more - Lillie or her Daddy!

With the fine weather on Monday, I was up earlier than usual and ready to tackle the front garden. Lillie entertained herself with making collages out of the leaves and litter that made its way to being in her eyeshot. Usually it can be quite difficult to work around her while gardening, but this time she was a little angel for me. The afternoon was spent in the back garden - more beautiful pictures created by Lillie were displayed on the patio. I also chalked out 'Hop-Scotch' for her to play. Our neighbour Marie popped over for a while, she is very fond of Lillie and it is reciprocated. Marie often states that Lillie reminds her of her Great-Granddaughter and to be honest we have kind of adopted Marie as a Grandmother type figure in our lives.

Tuesday, the fine weather continued! Our food shopping was done quite early, so the afternoon was spent back out in the garden! I did forget some more bottles of bubbles for Lillie, but thankfully she is a forgiving type of child and replied that I must not forget them next shopping day! With having such good weather, I still had not got on with my studying! By early evening Ive been totally exhausted! I think all that revision was keeping my adrenalin flowing in large quantities and without it this week really proved how tiring exams can be! I have it all to do again in October! But hey, its worth it!

Yesterday was spent indoors - the messy mat made an appearance as were all the messy things Lillie enjoys using! After so many years I finally dont see the point to those messy mats, as in our house sequins find their way off the table, into our hair, on the furniture, stuck to the soles of our feet and yes all the way upstairs!! Im still finding them today! I also used the comp for the first time in a week - so many emails to get through, but I did need that good break from this machine! The afternoon was enjoyable as Lillie and I made some bracelets - I suggested we save some to make as christmas gifts for Lillie's female relations. Lillie also worked on some literacy and numeracy work. Its been a while since doing any 'formal' work and you wouldnt of thought so with the way Lillie worked through some sums! After, I won our 'Connect 4' tournament much to Lillie's disappointment. She has just started to grasp the aim of the game so now I have taken it to another level where she has to play to win rather than be helped to win! Also I am trying to educate her in that losing doesnt hurt and that its participating that provides the fun!

Last night after my first 'proper' study sesh since last week, I watched a beautiful and heart warmimg programme on BBC2 - 'Tribal Wives'. It was the story of a woman who ventured outside of the UK to spend a month with the Waorani Tribe in the Ecuadorian Jungle. On comparing this society to that of 'ours', it seems we have forgotten or lost ways in how to interact with one another. I would even go as far as to say we are fairly primitive regarding our relationships and the important things in life. You only had to see this difference at 10pm with the interactions going on in the Big Brother house!

Today has been another productive day - my front garden's hedge has now been straightened up! Im only just over 5 foot tall and had difficulty reaching the top of the hedge on Monday. So Lillie's Daddy done his good turn for the day by levelling out what was a very uneven hedge, lol... Marie also popped over for a cuppa and Lillie presented her with a lovely box of 'Thornton's' chocs. Marie is always treating Lillie so we thought it was about time Marie got a treat herself! Also approved another member for the Yahoo! HEdding group! Lillie has now reached the end of yet another HP DVD so I better wrap this blog entry up! I should also think about getting tomorrow's dinner out of the freezer as my son Louis will be visiting tomorrow and he does love his Mum's cooking! A mother's work is never done even when they have left home - but then again I wouldnt want it any other way!