List of jobs for today:

Put Halloween stuff away
Fix dishwasher
Put Halloween stuff away
Check F's homework
PUT Halloween stuff away
Make pudding/s for dinner
PUT AWAY the Halloween stuff

As you can see, putting away the Halloween stuff was quite important, can't understand why it took me 'til noon to accomplish it, especially considering how little of it there was!  S had to fix the dishwasher, it's been on the fritz for a week.  He googled it, turned it on to listen to the error code & there wasn't one, it just ran fine with no problems seemingly, so we're calling that fixed for now & keeping our fingers crossed.  Give him his due he did clean it as well just for good measure.

Seeing that he was already on a roll he decided gain even more brownie points so he went on a Starbucks run to get Gingerbread Lattes all round (well, for Mum, Dad & I anyway) which is a surefire way into my heart.  Mum & I were so excited that Thursday was red cup day & Gingerbread Lattes are back for the season.  I have just invented Gingerbread Hot Chocolate for the kids which is VERY popular too (hot choc from the Tassimo & Gingerbread syrup, mental note, must get another bottle!).

F's homework (to design a spaceship) is satisfactory, that's all I'm gonna say about that!  J had maths homework & needed a lesson in how to use his scientific calculator (which used to be mine!), then we were dividing fractions, always fun!  Still he got 'er done & still had time to mess about on the Wii before rehearsals.

Spent a little time on Christmas Project number 2, slow going as it involves gluing & waiting for it to dry in between stages but I'm pretty pleased with how they look & am considering doing some more.  Got the Halloween box put back in the loft, then went hunting for winter decs which somehow turned into sorting out Dad's hoards of lightbulbs (found about 20 that don't fit any of the light fittings we have in any of our 16 or so rooms/areas!)  by the time that was done I didn't feel like putting ruddy winter decs up anyway!

Put the chicken in the oven etc & then some strange urge overcame me & I got S to put me a table up in our room & started wrapping Christmas presents, even for me doing that in November is a bit keen!  At least now I know what paper I still need to get.

The kids came back from rehearsals - F was very tired again - & the 6 of us sat down to roast chicken, roast spuds, cabbage, carrots, runner beans (from the garden), leeks, peas and sweetcorn, followed by rice pudding (out of the slow oven) or lemon flat pie.  What?  Never heard of lemon flat pie?  It's what you get when you plan to make lemon meringue pie but you cock up making the meringue, ah well, it tasted the same!