Froglet

Thank you! I have got the absolute bare minimum done and have given up for today. I will get up early tomorrow to do other stuff. Right now I’m drinking proper hot chocolate, watching Strictly and crocheting a baby blanket. Lots of other people at school have had the autumn cold and although I don’t feel ill it wouldn’t surprise me if it was on the way. Louby - yep 2 weeks off. We lose a week in summer to get two in October.

I am having serious motivation problems today - am not feeling great (pretty sure it’s just tired but not quite tired enough to sleep nor ill enough to be off school. Even if I were the things on my to do list are for other classes so I’d have to do them anyway. 🙁 Just one week until half term - I can do this!

I’m still here! Just very, very busy (I didn’t think it was possible to e busier than last year but I am). HT keeps saying to slow down but the TDL is still there. Today however, after waking up at 5am I have not done much - one urgent school job some crochet - I’m making new cot blankets for the two reception classes at school, binge watched a lot of episodes of Poirot and had a nap. At least it was 2 1/2 hours long - I’m not sure that can still count as a nap!

Sunnyday maybe sprinkle with bicarbonate of soda for a bit?

That is so true! I traumatised two of them the other day by telling them they had to stay in at playtime until they’d done enough work. Oddly enough, the next day they wrote more quickly and chatted less! I hasten to add - I only ever do this with children who I know should have been capable of completing all that was expected. I am probably being old fashioned and grumpy but so many of them just don’t seem to realise that their actions have consequences.

I’m not sure I could at the moment - my new class don’t really get “pace” - their world includes words like amble, stroll and ‘those instructions apply to everyone else but me”!

I rarely stop wearing them - my house is always freezing!

Oh how lovely!

Very definitely cooking!

We have been thinking lots recently about the things that many children don't have the opportunity to experience and contemplating running clubs at school related to them. Firstly it made me realise just how very lucky I was as a child! Secondly, I'm looking for ideas.... things I have come up with so far include: - board/card games - woodwork - playing recorders - sewing - gardening What other kind of things might you add to this list?

Anaya and Rusty (my niblings named them for me).

The new classmates!

Well, quite frankly, no! Steady now! Congratulations for those with GCSE results. I have been in to school today, got very little done in classroom terms but I did have lots of good ‘team building like conversations’ with people. Also went out for tea and cake with someone. I finished my second crochet classmate and am really pleased with them - will post a photo in the makes thread shortly. In the last week a colleague has said a few things to me which have really boosted me and made such a difference. I kind of want to say thank you except that the things they did were just ordinary - just including me in a sentence etc. I kind of want to say thank you but don’t know whether that will seem over the top as they are more senior than me. As many of you lead/have led your settings what would you think? I slept badly last night so think I will make it an early one tonight.

I have been a bit ‘flat’ and a bit wheezy (asthma is playing up a little at the moment) so I bought the yarn, made chocolate chip cookies and have spent the rest of the day eating, crocheting and dozing on the sofa. I will shortly take the dog out for a walk - she’s showing all the signs that she needs to ‘go’ but she won’t in my garden so we’ll be off to the park. I think it will be a short walk tonight though.

I am so very, very sorry to hear that. My thoughts are with you all.

It is a day for procrastination... (and it really shouldn't be!) I want to go to the yarn shop because I genuinely need some yarn for a new project I'm starting but I know that if I get it then I won't be able to resist starting it and the project itself is a several days one, not a quick crochet fix. There are a lot of lemons in the fruit bowl and some chocolate chips in the baking cupboard both asking for me to do something delicious with them. I have just finished a book so I ought to start another one so that I'm into it enough to be able to read it when I go to bed. I could do with doing some clothes shopping (online but I'm no good at it so will inevitably involve a lot of faffing and very little decision making), I ought to try and find some paperwork to do with my gas fire which needs fixing. Oh, and I perhaps should mention that there are approximately 50 different school jobs which I could do - several of them are in the should do category and some of which are in the must do group. I have a horrible feeling that I am going to bit and bob around and not really achieve anything! I think I maybe need a list or a plan...

That sounds fascinating - I'm going to have to look it up now! I sort of do that but I'm used to living on my own - I talk to myself a lot but usually just in my head and when I'm reading or crocheting I don't generally talk. She's a golden doodle and I think about 5 years old. We've done a walk of about 3 1/2 miles today (with a lunch break in the middle), the other days we've probably done around 2. I am definitely getting more steps in! I am enjoying having her, I was told today it 'suited me'. At the same time it's a lot of responsibility and it makes me think I'm probably pretty selfish (or just very self-sufficient!) the rest of the time - I'm finding it a bit weird needing to take someone else's schedule into account. It really is! It's hard when the pressure comes from others too (even unintentionally). I find that friends/family will say 'you shouldn't be working that long, just do what you need to, don't obsess over things, don't do the 'nice to do' stuff only the 'need to do' but sometimes I really am only doing what I need to.

Hello all, I am feeling quietly pleased with myself. I set myself some sorting out challenges as well as various other things which I find difficult or just tend to avoid and I have been doing them. It is a good feeling to be achieving something and this week completely off work has been good for me. The challenge, of course, will be maintaining it when school goes back again! This weekend I am also dog sitting for the first time. A friend at work was going away and couldn't take her dog and her usual dog sitter was away at the same time so I am stepping in for a few days. It's been lovely, I am shattered from the increased walking - my legs ache but it is good for me! My main concern is that I am not speaking to or playing with her enough. I used to be very allergic to furry creatures growing up and whilst I'm not any more it has tended to mean that I avoided them so I'm just not that used to being around them alot. I wish I could read her mind and know whether I'm doing the right thing!! She's been very quiet today and I keep wondering if we walked for too long this morning. I've been thinking on and off about getting a dog for myself for ages so this is good practice! Apart from the sorting out and general cleaning this weekend has just been very chilled, next week I am going to work some of the time but 'play' half of the time too as well as trying to keep on with the sorting out! Right now I am contemplating some chocolate chip cookies!

I love it too! I have to admit that I was making the doll mainly so I could use that technique for the hair! The doll is all finished now, I've just made a cardigan in uniform colours for her and she'll be joining me in school. Hopefully with some classmates when I get them made - a boy with red hair and freckles is in my head! Next on the project list is some gold crochet bunting to decorate a tree to celebrate our golden anniversary. It's not quite what I visualised because the yarn is metallic and quite hard to work with but I think it will still be pretty. I haven't yet. It was a little overwhelming but not so much that I wouldn't go again - have just been doing other stuff on Saturday afternoons.

I just took some homemade biscuits round to say hello to my new neighbours. It’s the kind of thing that terrifies me so I’m feeling pretty proud of myself!

One summer holiday project almost done - I need to make a cardigan for her (school uniform colours) but I was so chuffed with her hair that I had to share!

A few spots that’s all. It was only meant to be starting about now though although the sky is very clear at the moment.

You brought a tear to my eye! Congratulations!

Thank you all, exactly the encouragement and advice that I needed. I think I will also try to break the planning down into the tiniest steps possible so that I can tick things off a list rather than just having ‘sort MTP’ on the TDL.

I love this idea! I am struggling today. I have a planning task to do which is making me incredibly anxious and therefore I’m avoiding it. Any tips for making myself get on with it gratefully received. Part of me says ‘leave it till tomorrow, you work better in the mornings’ but I intended to do that today and failed!