Reassured

I suddenly realised that all the things on my list of things I needed to get done before December sort of had to be done today today. So we planned on leaving the house at 9am, which was an impressive aim given I didn’t get up til gone 8am. But we would have pulled it off if Julie (SIL) hadn’t rung for a chat at 9am. As it was we were still out before 9.30am, at the library car park, straight into a parking space and taking back overdue books. I saw my new boss but I was all disorganised and trying to persuade one child to put the Bambi video back while agreeing with the other that yes, this is where we have to be super quiet but actually I think coughing is probably allowed so I didn’t do more that smile and say hello. I’ll be so relieved when I actually start working there, it’s been really weird going in and seeing my boss and soon to be colleague without feeling strangely embarrassed – I’ve almost avoided going in, but that would be too weird. 😆

We popped to Woolworths for a quick look round, then to the stationers for advent calendars -this year I was adamant they were not having chocolate ones and even if we didn’t get ones with baby Jesus in a stable full of animals we would have something more festive than Thomas wearing a bit of tinsel. So unlike last year I took the children to a shop only selling ones with pictures behind the doors instead of chocolate and gave them the choice of three or four different designs each. They both went for one with Father Christmas on. Whilst in the queue sandwiched between several old people we talked about why I loathe the chocolate ones and what the actual point of advent calendars are – Davies made me laugh by saying ‘I do agree the chocolate ones are not so good Mummy, but there is one good thing about them you know. When you have eaten all the chocolate you can rip the cardboard off and use the plastic moulds to make more chocolates with melted chocolate’. True point, but not a good enough one to win a chocolate advent calendar :lol:. We then went back to Woolies having remembered that our other task was to get a box of chocolates for Julie for her birthday this weekend. I also picked up a couple of boxes of candy canes for decorating the tree at home which meant we spent over a fiver and could choose a half price dvd. I got the Jim Carey version of the Grinch as it is a book they love and it is festive. Might watch that this weekend :).

Back to the car and off to collect Lucy, Richard and Rebecca. After a stop for petrol and chocolate (thanks Luce 🙂 ) we arrived at the woods and met up with Julie, Jack and Maisie and Elaine, Jessie and Maddy and their mad dog Orlaigh. Tarly instantly remembered the dog from a walk we had with them way back in the spring and was delighted to see her again. Maddy was delighted to see me again and spent the whole walk holding my hand and asking to take pictures with my camera :lol:. Jack was not feeling so well so Maisie stayed with us (holding my other hand) and Julie took him off with her to do a few errands. We had a nice walk although it was very strange to be walking along holding hands with two small girls, neither of whom belonged to me while my own children ran off ahead – strange and not altogether what I was that comfortable with tbh ;-). We paused for a while at one point while all the children scrambled over tree trunks and threw sticks for the dog. Tarly was looking very much like she should have been on a woodland photoshoot rather than a messy walk today, due to wearing the long skirt she’d had on yesterday and a trendy coat which needed a wash anyway so I got her to wear knowing she’d get muddy. She liked the suggestion of a photo shoot though so I got her to strike some poses 😆

Davies was not to be outdone and called me over to take his picture in the tree
but Tarly definitely had the best accessory!

We had lunch, which included Richard falling backwards off a log – heartstopping and one of those moments where everyone stands and flaps their arms rather than actually catching the falling child, but he recovered quickly and was more than happy to sit back on the log. We headed back into the woods again (well Lucy and I did, taking Maisie and our four children) for a short play before deciding we’d had enough even if the children hadn’t. I had to stop in town on the way home to pop to the bank but having Lucy to stay in the car and mind both the car on double yellows and all the children while I ran in made a huge difference.

Once home various bits of post meant I had loads of phonecalls to make but I did manage to make a drink for us both before Ady got home. What it did all show was that Lucy is going to be just fine looking after Davies and Scarlett, they are totally at home in her company and clearly feel very safe and comfortable with her, which is a massive weight of my mind. 🙂 It’s making all the difference to me being able to look forward to starting work next week and worry about trivial things such as what to wear and how to style my hair instead of whether I am giving the children therapy fodder for years to come :lol:.

I dropped them home and returned to bath very grubby children. We all watched Supervets or some other such vet related titled programme which we caught last week too and then they finally had a relatively early night. We had phesant and partride for dinner (lovely) and I’m about to head to bed myself.

Quiet morning planned tomorrow although I have various ideas for films I want to talk through with Davies but I think it might be just too ‘end of a long week’ to try it tomorrow morning with him, and then we’re off to Ali’s in the afternoon. It’s all go here :lol:.