Annoying thing

One of those metal puzzle things. Imagine the scene, about three weeks ago, at Nana's house - Corin managed it in about 2 nanoseconds, whilst I repeatedly swore at it and tried to apply brute force to overcome ignorance. To no avail. Corin smiled sweetly at me and said "Can't you do it?" I resisted the urge to swear at him - it wouldn't have been a good thing to do.

It turned up tonight when I was clearing out the wardrobes in James' old room.

So after a full, and at times, frantic and frustrating day, I came home to find that Corin had been mega busy today and phase 659 of the renovations had gone into action. Can't believe how much he has done. That meant I had to get everything out of the wardrobes ready for them to be removed tomorrow. SO James' new room returned to chaos as I spent 3 hours shifting boxes, then sorting boxes.

I had explained to Jimbo that there was a need to be exceptionally ruthless and objective about his toys. "Ask yourself - do I really need it and when was the last time I played with it". This resulted in the recycling bin being filled to the brim and our non recycleables too. 5 Crates of actions figures with various degrees of injury are to be taken to the tip, as they are fit for nothing. 1 box has been salvaged which has good stuff in it. Apart from that, he has kept his lego, his boards games, teddy bears, nerf guns and his Warhammer stuff. I'm am impressed with his ruthlessness.

I am less impressed to find that his phone has disappeared, and the last time he remembers seeing it was just after we returned from Spain. I have barred the SIM now that he has told me, and discovered that the handset is insured. I suspect I will find it tomorrow, probably in my laptop case at work from when he came in on results day with me!!! We'll see.

In an attempt to redeem himself, James did his homework without being asked. I sat with him whilst he did. He can do his maths so well - he just lacks confidence that he has the right answers. The absence of reassurance makes him question himself.

Rewarded with ice cream, flake and strawberry sauce (for both of us. I needed a reward too - Maths homework is boring!)

Right, its 11.05, I have 15 pages of A4 signage to be laminated, so I am off to sit in front of the telly whilst feeding plastic coated sheets through the ironing machine for paper. Somehow tomorrow, I am going to have to cram in some work, along with teaching, observing a lesson and being corridor patroller and official school photographer from about 1.15pm through to the end of Open Evening at 9pm. If I think I am tired now, I am going to be royally goosed by 10pm tomorrow night.

Is it only Monday?!?!?!?