One word? When seven would do…

I didn’t get downstairs until nearly 10am this morning but for once it wasn’t because I was languishing in bed, I was sorting through the wardrobe getting stuff out for camp and trying to find this very expensive stuff I bought for the first Kessingland which you paint on over make up and it turns it waterproof. Yes I know 😳 which is probably why I’ve never actually used it but thought I’d take it with us this time and got a real bee in my bonnet about it when I couldn’t find it. It did turn up in the end, it had fallen behind the cupboard in the bathroom so I needn’t have gone through the wardrobes at all but it was a job well done. Then I put away all the clean washing with the children ‘helping’ (why is it so difficult to carry a neatly folded pile of clothes from one room to another and get them put into a drawer without screwing them all up in the process? :roll:) and then we came downstairs.

They got dressed, ate breakfast and lolled around infront of Class TV, it was Watch this morning and lots of it was about religion so that started some conversations about Heaven and Hell and God and Jesus including Davies saying:
D: so God is in charge of Heaven isn’t He?
Me: Ye-es
D: so who is in charge of Hell then?
Me: the devil
D: so Jesus was God’s son?
Me: yep
D: so who is the devil’s son then?

Various answers sprang to mind 😉 but I explained that little has been written about the life and times of the devil and that seemed to suffice. There was also some talk about earthly bodies and heavenly bodies and why it is only our soul that would go to Heaven. I tend to let them decide for themselves about such things on the basis that I have no belief at all and if they are going to develop one of their own, then it should be just that – their own. Surely there is no right and wrong in their interpretation and if they are going to ‘find’ something then it needs to be on their terms and fit what they want it to – for now at least.

I left them to it and went to saw up some more pallets but Dad had left me a very crappy saw – I demonstrated to Davies how crappy by sawing on my hand with it without it leaving a mark and explained that with good tools the hard work is done by the tools with you guiding them but with crappy tools you are the one putting all the effort in. I did lots of working out angles and drawing lines to be cut when Dad arrived with a decent saw and removing rusty nails before giving up and deciding I needed something indulgent to reward myself for a long hard week. So we made some scones to have with our home made strawberry jam. 🙂 While they were cooking we walked round to the local shop for some cream to have with them. As we went we were discussing when Davies might be able to go to the shop on his own. It would mean crossing one very quiet road which he could do infront of our house and then going round two corners (the shop is on the same block as our house, just the parallel road to ours). Surprisingly, as Davies historically has been loathe to take any independance, he was really up for it and keen to do it right now. We decided he would need to be a bit better with money first – able to know what money to give and get change etc. He was quite adamant he is able to do this now, demonstrating it by pointing out price tickets he knew and telling me there is 100 pennies in one pound and that 8 pence is four 2 pence pieces etc. I think the time for pocket money is nigh and equally the motivation to control it and be able to go to the shop to spend it might well prove his maths trigger :). Have decided to give them both ‘holiday money’ for next week to spend as they so wish and today he bought sweets for him and Scarlett at the shop too. Very excited about this next phase of growing up for him, only this weekend we were talking about when he’d be ready to learn how to make cups of tea but he’s still too short to manage that without standing on stools, which I’m not keen on the idea of with boiling water involved – hurry up and grow Davies! 😆

We came home, Davies whipped the cream for me and we all had scones with jam and cream for lunch which was gorgeous and did some henna body painting, which we then all washed off too early so it’s already fading but at least I’m getting the practise in. Then we were off to the PYO farm for some fruit picking. We met Lucy and The Rs there and Julie, Jack and Maisie joined us after a short while (or as Davies very specifically answered when they arrived and Julie said ‘have you been here long?’ 15 minutes! He was actually about right too and I should probably start assuming that every similar incidence is a fluke rather than a genuine understanding of how long ‘about 15 minutes’ is which he probably has). We picked peas and strawberries, but in modest amounts as last year we went fruit picking a couple of days before Kessingland and came home with tons of stuff I had to give to my parents as we were going away. I got enough strawberries to finish up with the scones and some peas to eat raw tomorrow, or even bring with us as a present for Alison ;).

The children all love it there and they had a whale of a time, they made friends with two other children and Davies, Scarlett, Jack and Maisie befriended a young couple with a small toddler too, chatting away to them at the other end of the field. Then we hopped on the tractor that goes round the crop fields for a ride round the circuit, with the children talking to everyone on the tractor. We pulled in at the start and as it was quite pleasant Julie and I and our four children stayed on while Lucy and The Rs hopped off and we went round again. 🙂 Scarlett’s shoe (pretend crocs) had broken a rivet again so on the spur of the moment we dashed into Rustington to get a new pair for her which come complete with a set of jibbitz which you can use to fix instead of rivets – so fixing her pink shoes and getting her another new pair for just £5.99. I parked right outside and as she’d already requested ‘orange like Davies’ I dashed in, leaving them in the car to grab a pair – and found Lucy and The Rs in there crocs-a-like purchasing too :). Dashed back out again and home in time to meet my Dad at 4pm.

The children played in the garden while we built our chicken coop. It is far from perfect and certainly not a work of art or even much to be proud of but we were working with the crappest wood – dismantled pallets which were rotten in places, riddled with nails and very rough and ready. It has made me long for money to buy decent timber and do it properly as my design worked fine and is totally suitable – might take some pics tomorrow if I get time. It’s butted up to the run we built which we’ve made a hole in to allow them to be in and out of the coop and run during the day and then herded into the coop at night with a door coming down to keep them in. It took until nearly 8pm by which time we’d both had enough. Ady had come home and fed and bathed the childen. Dad left and I remembered we’d run out of cat food so had to pop to Sainsburys to get some so that cat would stop mithering us, then home for a bath and cooking dinner while Ady did various outdoory things.

We started doing a mental checklist of all the stuff for camping and realised we don’t know where the airbed it. We have 3 potential places we’re thinking it might be – cupboard under the stairs, garage or loft space in Davies’ bedroom so that’s tomorrow morning’s job. We also need to pack up all our clothes into a folding crate each and then we’re pretty much ready to go. Ady is loading the car up tomorrow night, I’m working Saturday morning and then Ady and the children are collecting me from work and we’re off at 1pm. In honour of camping holidays and the chicks spending their first night outside it has been pouring with rain for about 2 hours. I’m off to bed now having genuinely felt that today deserved it’s Longest Day title this year. 🙂