One word? When seven would do…

Urgh 🙁

Ady was up and out super early this morning to go to a trade fair in Birmingham. I did wake with his alarm (5am so he tells me!) and didn’t go straight back to sleep. My alarm went off at 7am (which is at least 90 minutes before I am happy to get up) and the kids and I were fed, breakfasted, dressed, spare clothes packed for them and out of the house by 8am. They got in the car while the windscreen defrosted and I fed the chickens so we were away by 810am. Last time I took them to Liza’s before work we left at about 745am, were there in about 15 minutes and I was back at work by 830am so although I knew I was cutting it a bit fine leaving after 8am we should have been fine.

Not so 🙁

I knew when we still were waiting at a roundabout only a couple of miles from home at gone 830am I wouldn’t get to work on time and we just hit traffic on every road. I dropped them off at 850am and rang work to say I was coming but was in the wrong half of the county! I was actually there at 920am. Yvonne was fine about it – I still have many housepoints stored up for good behaviour but I was really pissed off.

In the car we listened to Maxwells Silver Hammer several times and talked about how long it takes for things to biodegrade – I found this tonight which answers some of their questions:

Here’s how long it takes for some commonly used products to biodegrade, when they are scattered about as litter:

Cotton rags 1-5 months
Paper 2-5 months
Rope 3-14 months
Orange peels 6 months
Wool socks 1 to 5 years
Cigarette butts 1 to 12 years
Plastic coated paper milk cartons 5 years
Leather shoes 25 to 40 years
Nylon fabric 30 to 40 years
Tin cans 50 to 100 years
Aluminum cans 80 to 100 years
Plastic 6-pack holder rings 450 years
Glass bottles 1 million years
Plastic bottles Forever

Work went quickly – I guess it would being 20 minutes shorter than it should have been ;). There are two new members of staff at the moment, one of whom I went for tea with today and had my first proper getting to know each other chat with. She has 2 children aged 5 and 3 and a stepdaughter who lives with them part time too. Her daughter (5, nearly 6) sounds a lot like Scarlett and we were comparing notes and agreeing that as tricky as feisty daughters can be to parent they are pretty fab and wonderful too :). She was a teacher, as was her husband but now he is a landscape gardener and she works part time at the library and HE is something they are familiar with and have considered on and off for their children.

I left work and headed back to Hove again – this time in a far more sensible 15 minutes. I realised along the way that Ady had raided my purse for change last night for coffees today so I had no money for parking. Fortunately Liza came to my rescue with money for parking and a lovely cup of tea upon arrival :). The kids had been playing on her treadmill with Scarlett running, gazelle-like, at top speed and still chattering away and not getting out of breath at all. Really must find something for her to do running-wise this year. She has always seemed to have a real skill for it and it seems to be increasing as she gets older. Liza has lent us a treadmill which hopefully will get plenty of use from me aswell as the kids. I like the idea of sticking them on it for 20 minutes when they get too giddy and it’s too dark / cold / rainy / snowy to chuck them outside ;).

Liza and I crammed a few weeks worth of chatter into half an hour with small people as our audience craning to hear every word ;). Thanks for tea, change, childcare, treadmill, clothes for Davies and erm, everything 🙂 x

On the way home we stopped at Sainsburys for all the top up items I’d missed off our big food shop last week. The kids got a comic relief red nose each and I got Tarly two new swimsuits as I realised yesterday she seems to have grown again and her one was looking very stretched. Davies’ trunks had died too but we already had two pairs of bigger ones that had previously been too big but now fit fine so they are both properly swimsuited again. Tarly needs goggles as she is spending more time underwater and her eyes are stinging after her lessons. She does have a pair, we just need to find them!

Back home they started to play with the lego but couldn’t agree on a game so instead watched Igor [2008] that I’d bought home on dvd from work for them.

I knitted – I finished Tarly’s bag last night and am working on a second attempt at a hat for Ady. A huge pile of knitting books had come in for me at work but all but one were not inspiring at all. I think hats and gloves are going to be more my thing -nice and quick to knit and finish before I get bored of them.

The kids had tea and then got changed for Badgers. I sat in the car listening to the radio and knitting (oh and eating toffees) while they were in there – roll on the lighter nights when I go walking on the beach again for that hour each week.

Scarlett was learning about breathing and had two drinking straws that she’d been using for that. Davies did tell me what they did but I’ve forgotten 😳

Back home we made a start on our next Humphrey book – Surprises According to Humphrey.

Ady arrived home, with a large collection of leaflets for him and clothe bags for me :). The kids went to bed, we had a very late dinner and watched Grand Designs. Tomorrow is soft play which enables me to sit around knitting and chatting while they play with mates and use up loads of energy – sounds great! 🙂

No further snow fall here so we have a few grey clumps and the rest has gone away. Apart from our never-goes-out-in-her-garden next door neighbour, who still has a perfect back garden full of it. Quite tempted to ask her if Davies and Scarlett could go and play in it!

Davies was really hungry and had three bowls of cereal, then they got dressed before connecting their DSs on a Star Wars game. I sorted the chickens, dealt with some dry, wet and dirty laundry, got swimming stuff ready and cleared a pile of paperwork which also meant sending a couple of emails.

We’d arranged to see Tasha and Toby today and she texted to say they’d meet us at the park first as they were heading there to feed the ducks. The park is on the seafront and pretty much equidistant between our houses at about a 10 minute walk for both of us (more like 15 to the centre of the park, its pretty big with a boating lake, go karts, pony rides, pitch n putt golf and mini train). We drove there and parked up and walked to meet them at the lake. We fed the birds (loads of swans and even more seagulls, not actually any ducks at all) and then walked round to the playground. One of Tarly’s socks had fallen down inside her welly so I sorted that out for her which meant the boys had got to the swings first and there are only two swings. She had a bit of a wobble about that and about being left out generally but fortunately it didn’t last long and she soon headed off to play with them.

It’s really hard sometimes, particularly for Scarlett but actually Davies struggles with it too. They genuinely are best friends and play with each other so well about 99% of the time. They are inseperable, with the same interests, in-jokes and views on most things. This means that unless when they play with someone else the other person either slots straight into their games or that there are two or more people so they come away from each other and neither feels left out there is almost always friction with the whole threes a crowd thing.

That was soon smoothed over today though and Davies made a special effort to coax Tarly back into the game and ensure she wasn’t left out. I have been very proud of him several times in the last week or so. He is a very cool person :).

We parted so that Tasha and the boys could walk home and we went to collect our car. I’d parked on the road rather than in the pay and display car park. I needed petrol too so we arrived at their house a few minutes after them.

We had lunch and the children headed off upstairs to play. They spent most of the time DSing and then some time in the study on the computer looking at the Bamzookis website. Tasha and I chatted and I knitted :).

We went from there to swimming lessons. I’d taken my costume to go in too. The thought of it is never very appealing but as usual once I’m actually there and in the water I enjoy it.

Scarlett had her lesson first while Davies and I played about. We did several lengths, he did some handstands and stuff, we played ‘it’ and chucked each other about a fair bit. It was fun :). Then it was time for his lesson and Tarly came and joined me in the big pool. She came over with a big grin on her face and said ‘I was the best in the class!’ and then proceeded to swim about, do handstands and stuff too :). She really is properly swimming which is excellent, I’m really proud of her :). The slide opened so she spent the rest of her time on that while I did some more lengths until Davies’ lesson finished.

We managed to get dried and dressed fairly quickly and then they sat in the car with their DSs while I popped to the chip shop to get them a portion of fish and chips to share for their tea.

They had their tea while I sorted out the chickens and ran them a bath (Davies and Scarlett, not the chickens!) which they then played in for ages. I brushed Tarly’s hair and then Ady came home and made them hot chocolates. I’m rubbish at hot chocolates!

I was feeling very grumpy and tired so Ady read them a story tonight instead of me while I listened and knitted. They read The Mousehole Cat and then they headed off to bed while I had a bath.

I cooked dinner and we watched Boys and Girls Alone and then a taped Masterchef. Tomorrow everyone’s up stupidly early as Ady’s off to Birmingham for a trade fair and I’m off to work via Liza’s to drop off the children.

It snowed steadily all night so we had a pretty good covering of it this morning. We so rarely get snow right down here on the coast so it is a real cause for excitement.

I could hear the chickens going mental so went to check on them and they were clearly terrified of it and just stood at the door of their coop squawking at it. Eventually they did come down and scratch around in it but they were less than impressed! 😆

I got in waterproof trousers and wellies from the car for the kids and they togged up and went outside for a play. Scarlett was out for about half an hour before sensibly coming back in to play her DS in the warm. Davies lasted well over an hour, shovelled the snow off the garden path and made a fairly sizeable snowman complete with stick arms and flowerpot hat :). He was still out there when Lucy and The Rs arrived but came inside shortly afterwards.

We managed a good couple of hours of chatting while the children mostly played okay together although both Davies and Scarlett had returned to their DSs and each other by the time they went home and Richard and Rebecca were both sitting with Lucy, but they didn’t fall out with each other which was good :).

I had been thinking we’d go for a walk this afternoon but it was gone 3pm by the time Lucy and The Rs left and it had stopped snowing for some time so although it hadn’t melted away there was unlikely to be any virgin snow to crunch though and get photos of anywhere. As it was Scarlett went back out for all of about ten minutes before she came back in again and then when I said I might go outside to play with Davies for a while she got really upset about being left in the house on her own (I would only have been in the garden obviously) so it didn’t seem worth the hassle.

Davies came back in and I made their tea then Ady arrived home and it was time to head out to give blood. As usual my initial finger prick test floated rather than sank so they did a second one of those. That also floated which meant I had to have a proper sample taken to be tested in their machine. Scarlett came over to watch that (the finger prick thing has failed to remain interesting but she hadn’t seen this one before, although it is at least the 3rd time I’ve had it done). That passed – whatever they were testing for had to be at a 125 level or above and mine was 130.

They then struggled to find a vein to actually take blood from and the second nurse eventually found one. It twanged a fair bit but didn’t hurt as such and for once was very quick. He told me to tell them next time it’s the middle vein just below my elbow crease :). He also helped Tarly with a Spot The Difference thing she was doing in a magazine. Ady meanwhile had finished donating while I was still having the second blood test so he and Davies were scoffing mini chedders and biscuits at the refreshments table. Scarlett and I discussed the difference between the sugar and the sweetner sachets and then when we were suitably refreshed we came home again.

Tonight’s story was the first few chapters of Tom’s Midnight Garden which given Tarly was lying awake last night talking about being scared of ghosts and wishing I could believe in God so I’d go to Heaven after I die I thought could be problematic but clearly she was just overtired and emotional last night as she was fine with it and enjoyed what we read.

I’ve finished the front and back of a knitted cat rucksack I’m making for Tarly, just need to finish the gusset and make it up and then Davies has requested some gloves. At least all my knitting is being used, I wore my hat and gloves today and very snug and warm I was in them too!

Friday seems a long time ago now. In the morning there must have been DSing and lego-ing just because that is what happens round here! I know when the food shopping arrived from Asda at about 1145am they had just put Star Wars on to watch. I also recall they had second breakfasts around 11am which they went and sorted out for themselves.

The food delivery was a big one – 14 crates so the delivery driver told me. He was really impressed that it was such a huge order and there was not one substitution, every single thing I’d ordered was there :). I was quite impressed too actually. Scarlett helped me put it away and then I spent some time clearing out the fridge a bit and re-organising a cupboard so I could fit stuff like sugar, pasta and flour in it. It meant I had two carrier bags full of toddler cups and beakers and things like ice lolly moulds which I’ve stuck on freecycle.

We had lunch and then headed over to the stables to meet Julie, Jack and Maisie. Oh and Lorna :). We’d loosely arranged a time of 130-2pm and as Julie is almost always late I’d made sure we were not there until after 2pm as it was too cold to be hanging around waiting. As it happened Julie had been there a little while but as she was sorting out Honey (feeding her and collecting droppings from the field) they weren’t actually waiting for us as such as we were going for a walk rather than a ride. Davies and Scarlett joined Jack and Maisie leaping about on the muck heap and I walked down to Julie and Lorna in the field. It was the first outing for my new wellies and not only were they very much needed (both the field and the walk were very, very muddy) they were also very comfortable :). I’m SOOOOO pleased with them :).

We had a walk in the woods which Davies, Scarlett and Jack were thoroughly enjoying. They ran ahead, played with sticks, did lots of hiding and clambering and generally enjoyed themselves. Lorna wasn’t happy being strapped to Julie’s back and cried, increasingly louder to the point of drowning out conversation 🙁 Julie did try and feed her which didn’t work and eventually strapped her to her front instead which did calm her and she fell asleep just before we got back to the stables. Maisie was also on bad form and did lots of stropping, moaning, demanding and generally being difficult. It was a shame as we’d not seen them for a few weeks, Julie and I were keen to catch up with chatting and D&S and Jack were enjoying themselves but it wasn’t to be so we cut it short and parted company. We had about an hour but we had been hoping for a longer walk really. Davies and Scarlett are lacking outside time, we don’t seem to have had nearly enough Winter Walks ;).

We came home and the kids stripped off (very muddy) and got in the bath to clean themselves up. I made a pizza for Davies’ tea and another batch of pizza dough. Scarlett had some toast and got changed ready for Rainbows. Her and I headed round there leaving Davies and Ady getting the house ready for our weekend guests.

Rainbows was good – we missed last weeks. I recognised one of the mothers from Storytime at the libarary with her older daughter who started school in September so doesn’t come anymore although she still brings her younger daughter who is only 2. She was sitting in as it was H (her daughter’s) second time and she’d said she’d stay for the first two. I sat and chatted to her. She said she’d known she knew me when I walked in but had struggled to place me – obviously I look different in my grown up clothes singing nursery rhymes to my ripped jeans and DMs with a small blonde person by my side at Rainbows ;). We talked, predictably, about Home Education.

The Rainbows coloured in cardboard angel fish and then threaded them onto string on a cane to make a fish on a rod. Scarlett gave hers to Davies as a present :).

Back home the children got ready for bed and headed upstairs with their DSs while I knitted, having done my share of guest preparation by getting the playroom cleared of drying washing and pulling the sofa bed out. I also made dinner :).

Chris, Helen, Elinor and Alys arrived around 10ish I guess. Elinor went straight up to Davies’ room and the 3 of them mostly stayed upstairs in bed but remained loud and rowdy until after we’d all gone to bed at 2am :rolls:

We had pizza and wine and chats. I was ribbed for my knitting and table ownership 😉 It was all very pleasant. The kids eventually did shut up around 230am I guess.

Saturday I was up again at 8am to get ready for work. Ady got up with me and surprisingly Davies was downstairs with me too before I left although we sat at opposite ends of the sofa just groaning at each other like a hungover couple :lol:.

Work was fine, I was very tired and would rather have been at home in bed and then sitting drinking tea but the four hours went quickly enough. I talked to the children’s librarian as they want me to run a special storytime for 4-8 year olds as part of the Adur Festival so she wanted to discus themes, activities etc. I’m not at all sure I managed to drum up my usual amounts of enthusiasm for it ;).

I got home just after 1pm in time for cheese toasties and cups of tea 🙂 The children were watching a film and it was all quite peaceful. They spent some time playing in the garden and we didn’t really see a great deal of them. They had pizza for tea, followed by a film upstairs with the idea they might fall asleep. They didn’t of course and had yet another late night. But then again so did we ;).

Sunday Ady went off this time as he had arranged to go to Tom’s to chop trees down for firewood. I heard his alarm go off at stupid o clock but ignored it and went back to sleep. Eventually noise from the children was sufficiently loud to rouse me so I got up. It was long since 10am by then though 😳

I organised croissants and once we were all fed and dressed we headed off to park at the allotment for a quick drop off of the kitchen waste to the compost heap and a showing the allotment to Chris and Helen before heading up the hill to the woody bit. Davies, Scarlett and Elinor were raring to go and would probably have been up for a long walk actually but poor Alys was less keen and able and it really was incredibly cold. Helen and I stood and observed from a more sheltered area as the 3 older ones explored a huge field, with Scarlett and Elinor stopping and only Davies carrying on the top of the hill before they all came back.

My lovely wellies got another outing though – still heart them 🙂

We came home again and Ady had just arrived before us. The kids had hot chocolate and then Ady made more toasties for lunch. It began to snow quite heavily so Scarlett and Davies togged up and headed out there for quite a while. Elinor joined them and then Scarlett came in. Eventually the other two came back in too.

I think a combination of tiredness and coldness had overtaken them all by then so the last hour or so was a bit fraught with slightly less than sociable children but they had all had a great time for the majority of the weekend and managed to all end on a high 🙂

Davies and Scarlett stuck Star Wars on, Ady cooked them some tea and then we snuggled up and read the end of Humphrey. Neither of them went to sleep much before about 10ish just the same :rolls: We watched Lost, which we are indeed lost with and I cooked ham in coke for our dinner.

It was a really nice weekend 🙂 Lovely to see Chris and Helen, lovely to see the children getting on so well and having such a nice time in each others company. A shame we didn’t manage a longer walk but it really was very cold. Just before they left Ady and the kids were looking at photos from the first Melrose, back when Davies and Elinor were Aly’s age :).