I was woken by Tarly crying this morning. I knew as soon as I heard it that it meant she had gone down with The Bug Of Doom and sure enough she has. She came and got into bed with me for a while but we were both up early and Davies wasn’t far behind us. Ady had left home at stupid o’clock as he’d volunteered to go into London for something which everyone at his work thought was madness on Good Friday but his plan was to get there, get it done and get out again before the traffic built up. He managed it too and was home again by 930am and off for the rest of the day.
We did manage to get pictures of the kids eating breakfast at the table and me letting out and feeding the chickens. The children were dressed and we decided to melt some chocolate to make some easter shapes in some molds Ady had brought in the shapes of chicks and bunnies. It’s not worked quite as well as expected as they have stuck in the molds but we might have another go tomorrow, or bake cakes in the tray instead or something.
Next Scarlett and I put the rock tumbler onto it’s next phase which involved removing all the rocks and rinsing and drying them, cleaning out the tumbler barrel, checking all the rocks for damaged or chipped ones and discarding a couple which aren’t tumbling so well due to cracks and rough bits, then putting them back in with polishing compound, polishing pellets (I think the purpose of them to to soften the impact of the rocks against each other), water and a pinch of washing powder. Davies helped and has suddenly become quite interested in the whole process. We’ve all been pleasantly surprised at the results so far.
Scarlett and I spent some time looking online for more supplies of grit and polish and found some great websites with lovely images and rough gemstones you can buy to tumble. I think we’ll stick to collecting from the beach but we got some nice ideas from it. Meanwhile Ady and Davies played some Xbox together.
We all got a bit restless then and debated going to the circus which is on at Brooklands (the park by the beach just down the road) or for a walk but it was pouring with rain and Ady said he didn’t want to go and I didn’t want to go without him so we gave up on that idea. We half watched a film about a cat starring the children who played Jane and Michael Banks in Mary Poppins which led to looking them up online to see what they are doing now. The actress who played Jane is still acting although Mary Poppins was probably still the peak of her career, the actor who played Michael is now dead (sadly when he was still very young although the causes seem a little hazy – drink and drugs or some tropical illness?) and the only 3 films he was in were all co-starring ‘Jane’.
The children then both really slumped – which was when we stopped photoblogging – and both retired to our bed to watch cartoons in bed. Davies slept for about 2 hours and Tarly dozed a fair bit too. Ady did various things also including dozing and I worked through the whole of the first unit of an online course on Healthy Eating I’m doing. It’s very interesting and I’ve learnt loads about nutrition and food groups today. I vaguely recall being taught it at school in Home Economics, which seems to be the lesson I learnt the most useful stuff in when I look back. I do think the school I went to, although not particularly good as schools go, did have loads to offer, it’s just that I wasn’t in the right place to learn it. I know it was in pre national curriculum days and perhaps teacher then were still in the job as a vocation rather than because they didn’t know where else to go after uni but it does make me think that I had all those people on hand now who were passionate about their subject and knowledgable and actually wanted to share that information with me I’d probably be far better placed now to listen to it. But still not all of it and still only on my terms and still only when it seemed relevant or interesting to me. I guess that’s what I’m trying to offer Davies and Scarlett really – access to all those people and all that information as and when they want it without the structure, desks or school bells.
Scarlett and Ady planted some peas and then her and I did some Dsing together. Ady ran a bath for me and dug out the bubble mat as my back is very stiff again. He put a tiny amount of bubble bath in and it created a foam party in there worthy of an Ibizan nightclub which entertained us all lots!
Davies had a bath and then picked at a slice of pizza and we all watched an interesting programme on the Eden channel which I suspect is about to become our new favourite about cavemen and ice age.
They went to bed, we had dinner, and now I’m sitting waiting for Scarlett to stop calling out in her sleep so I can go to bed although I suspect we’re in for another broken night.