As I’m sure I have mentioned before, Bob was diagnosed with severe dyslexia earlier this year and I’ve been trying to find ways to help him with his particular issues. Specifically, Bob’s dyslexia manifests itself in processing – you could give him a list of six things to do and by the time he’s done the second, he’ll have forgotten the rest. This makes things like going shopping great fun because unless it’s written down he will remember maybe four things out of a list of ten. So! I got him a diary and notebook, knowing that he’d only use them if there was a way to keep them together.

It’s just a very simple sleeve with a pouch on each side to accommodate the A6-sized diary and notebook, with snap closures. It’s small enough that it’s not an encumberance and big enough to do what he needs it to do. He seemed pretty pleased with it but whether it gets used is another thing entirely

It just dawned on me too that I hadn’t mentioned the other new additions to the house. Our cat, Sia, had a litter of kittens (underneath Nairn’s bed, ugh) on Erica’s birthday. This is the only kitten left that we haven’t secured a home for yet, and he’s been named Horatio. I always wanted a ginger cat I could name Titian but I was heartily overruled by the kids.

On a final note, Bob and I had a big conversation last night about ethics and cheating. What spurred this on? Well, in this photo Bob is embroiled in a water fight with approximately ten kids…

…standing behind a 7ft+ wall with an umbrella and a hose. Ah well, Findlay seemed to enjoy it.

Posted under family, sewing

My sister’s ex-flatmate has a cat, a very lovely cat who had seven kittens. C was really not having much success with getting them rehomed and I finally managed to talk my lovely husband into letting me have a kitten to keep our last cat company. After chatting to a few friends I managed to find homes for six in total and I collected them yesterday. Unfortunately, someone changed their mind last night so I may have to keep an extra kitten. Bummer, eh? Two of them left me late last night to go and live on a farm and here are the rest:

As I’m sure you’ll understand, my life as I knew it has now ceased and I’m spending much of my time staring at them and making cooing noises. My eldest sat for the better part of three hours last night with three of them asleep on his lap. He’s going to be gutted when the other two leave on Saturday for their new lives!

Craft-wise, I haven’t done anything since wrapping up the Give a Hoot mittens. I’ve just signed up today to Apryl’s Owl Swap which I have around six weeks to work on. I’ve also been eyeing up the Make 50 things in 2009 craft challenge. A few of my friends have signed up to it and I love the idea in theory, but I know in practice how sporadic my crafting is. Actually, how sporadic I am in terms of meeting deadlines too – November’s NaBloPoMo attempt proves that! Anyway, the lovely folks on the Crafteroo forum have set up a 50 things Flickr group which I’ve joined in the meantime…

Posted under general crafty updates, swaps