Chef was busy yesterday!

On Saturday morning, I catch up with book packaging and posting. Jamie took fourteen parcels to the Post Office for me today. My printer finally died so I can't take advantage of the print your own label thing yet. It was good to get those books out the door and now I can try to get the next set of book lists out some time next week. Last chance for people to buy before Christmas.

I sometimes get emails from people asking if they can come and look at the books or they want my phone number so they can talk to me about them. I wish I was a full-time person in my own shop able to do those things, but I'm a frazzled home-educating mum, fitting the books in piles and boxes around the house, including under my bed and NO-ONE is rummaging around in there! I also have to fit the time I spend on the work in around all my other responsibilities, which can mean at very odd times of the day. I just can't cope with phone calls from customers on top of that. So, as I explain, it's an internet-only business, which is why the books are so cheap!

Jack did 4 hours of gymnastics training yesterday, with a cold, so I am pretty impressed with his dedication. He is sleeping late this morning so I hope he is a little better and not too stiff and sore.

Grace had a bad attitude about helping me with work around the house so I had to withold two of her favourite things until she sorted herself out. She did in the end. Having no music and no catalogues to draw from is a serious issue for her and it demonstrated how serious I was about her stinky attitude. {sigh}

I've never been much into punishment (consequences some people call them) as I believe it simply serves to harden the child's heart and foster resentment toward the parent. So I was acting untypically with Grace today. Her ASD means she has not developed normally in this regard though and her self-centredness, though part of her condition, needs to be handled continually. We talked to her when she had calmed down. I felt very bad about removing those two things (after separate events in the morning) because she uses them as a coping mechanism, like other autistic kids would 'stim' (rocking back and forth, hand-flapping, strange repetitive movements etc.)

Jamie tried to fix the roof in the conservatory. Actually, it's more of a a single-thickness brick-built shed with plastic double-walled roof attached to the kitchen. It's an important space for us though, as we keep washer, dryer, bikes, freezer, guinea pig and yet more books in there. Recently it's been flooding and Jamie has tried several things to fix it. He spent most of the afternoon up a ladder scraping, sticking and whatever else and was quite hopeful it had worked this time. But there was a bad storm in the night and we woke up to observe water running down the walls again. Oh well, need to think of something else to try. Pitch? I don't even know what that is, but it sounds like something Pa Ingalls would have done. {vbg}

Me? I cooked all afternoon!















I baked chollah, one has sesame seeds and one has poppy seeds on. And yes, my cooker cooks unevenly, despite being a fan oven. I made 3 quiches, one Lorraine with bacon. One with yellow and red peppers and one for the freezer with both. Also, I made two broccoli and celariac in home-made cheese sauce. One of those for the freezer too. And a carrot and orange salad with raisins.

We had a lovely Shabbat meal and then watched a film Jamie and the kids had picked from Blockbuster. Bruce Almighty. Hmmm...I wasn't impressed with the premise or the continual blasphemy, but as films for 12+ go, I suppose it was 'mild'. No recommendations from me. I'm not a fan of Jim Carrey, but there was one extremely funny scene which had both kids and Jamie in hysterics...it's always nice to see them laugh, especially when they are only laughing at extreme silliness. {g}

And then, we had to clear up.