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Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Grammar Rulz

Posted in Family, tagged , , on 17 October, 2008| 1 Comment »

The Engineer said today

I make-ed a sandwich in nursery and I eat-ed it.

He doesn’t like his verbs irregular.

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A Trip to the BarBars

Posted in Family, Inner city, tagged , on 1 October, 2008| 3 Comments »

On Monday, on the way home from school, I decided that the Joker and the Engineer could do with a haircut, so we called in at the BarBars (their pronunciation).

We like going there. The haircuts are swift and cheap, although I seem to have no control about the final look. I am trying to go for the slightly long-haired-sweet-little-lad-who-surfs effect, the sort you might find in mini-Boden – I am middle class, after all).

But stepping into our barbers is stepping into an Indian barber’s in Delhi, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. A telly showing cricket or Bollywood movies, a picture of a Hindu god/a Sikh guru/a verse from the Koran, a pungent smell of some strong cologne, some tatty newspapers in a swirly-lettered language I don’t understand and some magnificent barber’s chairs, upholstered in vinyl. The barbers themselves have elegantly coiffured hair, gold chains around their necks and a gold tooth or two.

Our barbers know how to cut hair and they don’t get the Boden catalogue. So despite my attempts to describe the look, my boys always come out with the hair cut that the barbers like. And what they like is a traditional short back and sides. The only variation (after going a good few times now) is that it gets left longer at the back. This time only the Engineer got that version. And they both got gel.

Last time we went I took a few photos of the barbers at work. And this time I took a shot when we got home to show why my boys would fail to make the Boden catalogue but are still gorgeous. Enjoy.

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Concealing my age – some chance

Posted in Family, tagged , on 16 September, 2008| 3 Comments »

It was my birthday last Sunday and the Curate very kindly wished me a happy birthday during the notices at church. He mentioned that I was twenty-one again. However, my children were keen to put him right. Straight away and very loudly.

‘Not TWENTY-one. She’s FOURTY-one’ they chanted from the pew. Good to know that they know their numbers…

It reminded me of the time that a friendly local shopkeeper asked a very chatty Joker his age a while ago.

‘I’m three, the Queen is four and Mummy’s thirty-eight’ he informed the grocer.

I think I might just get a large badge announcing my age so the kids don’t feel the need to tell everyone.

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RML

Posted in Faith, Family, School, tagged , , on 11 September, 2008| 3 Comments »

As a concerned Christian parent, I am always pleased to hear when my child is being taught truth from the bible.

So I was extremely impressed when I was told by his Year 1 teacher at our church school that the Joker is studying RML. This course is well known to Anglican Evangelicals for providing excellent in-depth bible study at St Helen’s Church in the City of London.

Eventually my brain clicked, since we were talking about the Joker’s reading and writing, and I twigged that she was actually referring to his literacy programme (which is very good, by the way, synthetic phonics and all that). Hopefully once he’s completed his first RML, he’ll be ready for the other one.

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Toys

Posted in Family, tagged , , , on 6 September, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Our new church assistant arrived a couple of days ago. Gentle is in his mid-twenties and has joined us from Ghana. He’ll be here for a year to help the church in all sorts of ways and, hopefully, to learn something of our culture and more of our Lord.

Last year’s church assistant, Gambit, was here and we were sitting around the kitchen table discussing the recent tragic loss of the Joker’s much-loved toy dog (don’t panic, a replacement has now been sorted, thanks to eBay.fr). Both Gambit and I had tales of lost soft toys in our childhoods and then I asked Gentle if he’d had a favourite toy when he was growing up.

‘Not really. In Ghana, children don’t have toys,’ he said. ‘There isn’t the money for toys.’

I looked around my chaotic kitchen, stuffed with children’s toys and games and felt a mix of emotions – guilt, gratitude and excitement at the prospect of learning more of life in Ghana, where kids have no toys but the Sunday school classes are packed.

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The Olympic Effect

Posted in Family, tagged , , on 3 September, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Well, it’s been the holidays and so I’ve not been posting. My brain goes to mush when the hoards are around. Anyway, I have a great list of things I want to blog now school’s back and my brain is recovering some rigidity. We’ll see how it goes.

Today’s summer tale is of the Queen and the Joker having a tussle in the back garden of the holiday house we were staying in. They were laughing their heads off and pulling each other’s clothes. The Queen made a particularly vicious-looking grab at the crotch of the Joker’s shorts.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ I asked.

‘Jojo, Mummy.’

‘Jojo?’

‘Yes, jojo, you know, like on the Olympics,’ said the Queen as she successfully threw the Joker to the floor in what I took to be an ippon.

I was just pleased they weren’t practicing escrime instead (amazing what useless new vocabulary you learn when watching French telly).

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Holidays (and strike days) – survival tips

Posted in Craft, Family, Holidays, tagged , , on 18 July, 2008| Leave a Comment »

On Wednesday, when we had an enforced day of holiday because of the public sector strike, Wonderfriend came round to play with the Queen. I was able to keep the two big girls and both my small boys occupied for a good part of the morning using a great present sent by Auntie Icklesis. I had to draw the figures but they did all the colouring.

From left to right, Wonderfriend, the Queen, the Joker, the Engineer

From left to right, Wonderfriend, the Queen, the Joker, the Engineer

So many thanks to Auntie I and to the inventors of Paint a Puzzle. Now we only have to do something similar on the other side!

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Pros and cons of clergy wives conferences

Posted in Faith, Family, tagged , , on 11 July, 2008| 2 Comments »

I’m just back from a Proclamation Trust‘s Clergy Wives Conference. This was my sixth year of attendance. A conference full of the wives of ministers seems a very peculiar thing, so I thought I’d list a few pros and cons of going away for four days with women whose husbands have similar jobs to mine.

Pros

  • Refreshing and challenging bible teaching (thanks to David Jackman and Giles Walter this year) – listening to six whole talks without kids interrupting or rota duties for Sunday school is brilliant
  • Wonderful opportunities to catch up with friends and hearing news of others
  • Great resourcing for ministry by nicking everyone else’s ideas
  • Food you don’t have to shop for or cook
  • Table-clearing and washing up done by others

Cons

  • Feeling very refreshed but also shattered by so much talking
  • The Queen getting hold of some scissors and chopping off her fringe in my absence ‘because my hair was in my face’. She has been telling people at school that she fell over and bumped her head and the hair rubbed off.

Have you been on anything like this? What are your pros and cons?

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Tea for a Tiger

Posted in Family, Food, tagged , on 7 July, 2008| 1 Comment »

My kids love Judith Kerr’s book ‘The Tiger who came to tea’. Last week the Joker’s class spent some time reading the book. They also drew a dinner plate full of food for the hungry tiger who ate all of the food in Sophie’s house.

The Joker tells me that the following foods are on the plate:

Fishfingers, broad beans, ice cream, a sweetie, a jelly baby, peas, a carrot, baked bean, broccoli, a packet of prawn cocktail crisps, a radish, ribena, pizza and chips.

Check out the great food selection
Can you spot them all?

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Modern reports

Posted in Family, School, tagged , on 4 July, 2008| Leave a Comment »

My kids had their school reports today.

One of the comments in the Queen’s one was

The Queen has good mouse control.

My rodent capabilities were never commented on when I was at school….

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