Lists are good

I feel my August plan to do bugger all is working.

Just for August, and thanks to my medical miseries, I changed tack, and abandoned my uptight imperative to do stuff; life of doing stuff comes with a permanent feeling of inadequacy. I fail to sit down, never relax my head, am unable to kick the kids out the hammock without feeling guilty. Doing stuff means I should always do more; fill the space available with more activity, go more quickly to more places, offer more inspiring educational moments, complete more laundry cycles, cook more dinners and dust more roof tiles. But it's never enough, is it? So I am taking August off. I am making lists instead. Of stuff I would do, mixed with stuff I should like to do, mixed with stuff I never will do but since this is a fantasy to-do list I may as well add it.

In other (disconnected, unfocused) news for my educational record, last night I picked up Shark from her week spent dossing down with the Woodcraft Folk at Venturer's Camp. Woodies, she loved it. Thank you. (Loving mama not so much, since I suggested on the drive home she could review her physics course wot we bought for her so we could start properly in September.)

I see the September things-to-do are rolling in from the home ed lists. This year I am trying to be choosy, and not dash everywhere to do everything. My plan is to stay home for longer, settle into book-bound routines, and help teenagers be teenagers.

Obviously there is something in it for me. This is an important message for would-be home educating mamas. It has to work for you, too. If it doesn't work for you, home ed is not going to work.

Staying for longer periods at home means I can build up my Knicker Drawers for a more rewarding 2014. After all, these three kids are not going to need me for more than food and laundry in a couple of years, so I plan to be off, exploring life in other dimensions.

Finally, in medical matters, I have not only taken August off to rearrange my body, today I have given my soul and another squillion dollars to Doctor Quack and his compelling potions. And this is from a woman who has read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science (I recommend it). If Doctor Quack can do me over good and proper then you seekers of magic mixtures for chronic urticaria and angioedema can be sure I'll be posting the formula.