Thursday I worked all day. The first day of my new shifts since the opening hours changed. My all day shift each week is now 930am-6pm rather than 9am-5pm. This does mean my morning shift each week is a mere 3.5 hours rather than 4 so I probably shouldn’t complain as that will sail by but working til 6pm is rather tedious, particularly when it is deathly quiet. Yesterday we had 4 people in between 5 and 6pm and given there were 3 of us on duty it did rather drag.
Not much else to say about the day really. I spent some time preparing for Chatterbooks. I have been persuaded to run a further block of sessions for the children on the waiting list but will be doing it in four weeks rather than six and I will be being paid for it this time. I rang all the children on the waiting list, rewrote the letter changing the times and dates, made new paperwork for the folder and planned the four sessions and ordered in some books and dvds in preparation. I still have a couple of weeks and of course I know the material well now to deliver the sessions with but I want to be super prepared this time.
Dad had been here with Davies and Scarlett and they’d done some duckling swimming lessons. Scarlett had done some painting and Davies had made a marauders map from Harry Potter which thanks to the acquisition of an audio book of he is back into again with a vengence.
Ady had beaten me home and had had a fairly stressful day at work (which just isn’t right on one’s birthday) but had been very appreciative of his presents :). We all got changed and headed out to the local Harvester for a meal, meeting my parents there too. The evening was pleasant and my parents came back here for a while afterwards for coffee. Ady and I were both so tired we were in bed (and probably even asleep) before Davies and Scarlett were asleep so I drifted off to the sounds of various audio books from various rooms.
Friday Today we were off to an event held at the home of some local-ish Home Educators. A family we first met when we first moved home but due to distance (they live about 20 miles away) and both being busy we simply don’t see as often as I’d like. Thanks to going to the local book club we have re-entered that circle and I’m really enjoying catching up with people I know on facebook and have crossed paths with occassionally and finding I have loads in common with some of them. Some of the friendships between children are taking a little longer to gel but are getting there :).
Today was a May Day event and was just fab. There was raffia garlands to make with fresh flowers (we were all asked to bring some flowers) daisies, bluebells and various other beautiful spring flowers, felt and ribbons and bells to sew wrist or ankle janglers and in the afternoon a local folk dancer arrived with a maypole and taught us to do dancing wearing our garlands and janglers.
She started with 12 ribbons and some experienced maypole dancers to demonstrate, then put 24 ribbons on so all the children could have a go.
Eventually she took it back down to 12 and some of the older children and adults had a go – me included 🙂 It was excellent fun 🙂
I had some lovely chats with various people and it was just a fab, warm, friendly, fuzzy day :). We left about 4pm and hit all the going home traffic so took nearly an hour to get home. Davies finished watching the HP dvd he’d started this morning but run out of time on, Scarlett did some painting and I did some sewing. I made a couple more sandwich / food reusable bags for things like flapjacks and carrots as I packed our picnic this morning with our sandwich wraps but realised I still needed plastic bags for other bits. I also mapped out some more squares for a patchwork picnic mat or quilt but got bored and need some wadding / backing to finish it so stopped. I then decided to make a bag but went wrong and realised it would be far better with matching thread and made when I have time to do it really nicely rather than rushing through to get it done so stopped.
Scarlett cleaned out the ducklings who have grown massively and were a bit smelly while Davies supervised them having a bath. I fed the children and they went off to Sainsburys with Ady. I tidied up while Ady had a bath and then the kids and I read the first half of the latest Mr Gum book (just as good as the others – if you’ve not read them please do so, they are very funny :)) and then I had a bath, Davies and Scarlett went to bed and Ady cooked dinner.
Tomorrow we’re once again away overnight – we’ll only be sleeping at home for one out of the five Saturday nights in May I think, such jetsetters we are. And all totally unaffected by ash clouds or double dip recessions ;).