Playing a waiting game

The FGs must have asked me the time every half hour this morning! We got up earlier than we have been doing as a practice run for school starting back tomorrow. That meant that all the animals jobs were done early and they were twiddling their thumbs by 10 am - wish I had been! The ironing baskets were overflowing last night so I had some left to finish this morning, which I did whilst watching a gymnastics training DVD ready for the new term starting at gym tomorrow as well. A Bulgarian master coach has made a really good DVD about using ballet strength and flexibility training to help gymnasts. Some of the postures and stretches looked really painful - I am glad that I only have to teach and not demonstrate!!

This afternoon, the girls' patience was rewarded and we went to a stamping studio for a couple of hours and they made Christmas cards whilst I was making a scrapbook page and a couple of cards, under expert instruction. Jackie has a blog too and I will have to get a link in here when I get the address.

An hour at the Junior Band tonight, practising their cornets, and then home to toad in the hole for tea. There has been an air of excitement coupled with some apprehension today as both the FGs go back to school tomorrow after the holidays - the YFG into year 5 at the village primary school and the EFG into year 8 at the local community college. The YFG has a male teacher this year, but he is a good teacher, in my opinion, and I think that she will have a good year with him. It will be her second year at school, and she is loving it, so I really hope that this year builds on and develops the progress she made last year. The EFG will have some new teachers and a new form tutor, so we will have to see what happens tomorrow. All is ready tonight and we have the alarms set for an early start in the morning.

The greenhouse now has a bench for potting and storing stuff on - my fuschia, Delta's Sarah, has already taken up residence and is looking better for the warmth. I think that it will not be long before the cat sneaks in there for a snooze, too, and the FH has made sure that the path is wide enough that he can fit a deck chair in there for his 40 winks!

We have been watching the news and were pleased to see that the flooding of Katrine 3 years ago has so far not been repeated in New Orleans. The hurricane has also been downgraded to a category 2, so we are praying that there will be less losses this time, although it was disturbing to hear that there are a few other hurricanes developing in that part of the world. We will be continuing to pray for their safety.