When I went to bed last night – at 2am -it was with the knowledge that I didn’t have to be up too early this morning. The kids were awake just after 8am though and being noisy. I yelled at them twice to be quieter and then gave in and got up. I then had an OMG moment and realised the arrangement I’d made to see Lucy and The Rs was clashing with the arrangement I’d made to meet up with Julie and co some 15 miles away. As I had a swear word thought so the phone rang and it was Julie ringing to see what I was planning to do about lunch. We agreed it was cold and likely to be muddy / wet so we’d just meet for a walk and then call it a day before lunch. This was good as it meant I could contact Lucy and change our arrangement back to them coming over after lunch (rather than before) and all would be well and dandy.
Ady then rang me about 4 times in 10 minutes to check various Christmas present purchases while I put our new breadmaker on a speedy 10 min cycle to season it before first use. I then weighed out ingredients for a loaf and battled to get the breadmaker to accept it, while trying to wash up and chivvy the kids to get dressed.
Eventually Ady appeared home on his way past for a coffee so I left him with the definant breadmaker and the kids and I dashed off, about 15 minutes late. I ‘rah rah rah’d at them for a few minutes about squabbling and being nice to people who you love and have to live with. That shut them up 😆 Then I turned the cd up and sang along for two songs by which point my mood had dramatically improved and I was ready to be cheery again.
We got to Slindon at about the same time as Julie, wellied up (oh how I greater than three my wellies) and went for a nice muddy, sloshing through puddles and soggy leaves Nearly Winter Walk. We tried to feed some completely disinterested ducks, spotted a heron, had some time in the playpark and generally talked ten to the dozen to catch up. The sun shone for the whole hour and life was good :).
We were then late heading back again so Davies rang Lucy and left a message to that effect as well as sending her a text. I did the dictating from the front seat and he did the execution from the backseat. I made a speedy lunch (most of which the chickens ate in the end), baked some cookies and then Lucy and The Rs arrived. We had a nice couple of hours chatting while they played with very minimal intervention, then they left.
I made the kids some tea, chatted to Scarlett about a world map wildlife puzzle she was doing (she asked me where she’d find a kiwi and I said NZ so she looked for a small island at the bottom and then she spotted lemurs and decided that must be Madagascar).
Davies had made a PSP from a cardboard box including the screen, disc player and controllers, must get a picture actually, it’s fab :). I went to look at that. Then I encouraged the chickens to go in their shed as some of them were looking fairly traumatised by the hailstones and the kids had tea.
Off to Badgers where I was rather taken aback to be asked if I’d consider becomming an Assistant Badger Leader. I have lots of reasons for saying yes and lots for saying no, need to think about it further really, along with talking to Davies and Scarlett about it more as one of them wants me to and the other doesn’t!
I sat with five other parents and Ady joined us too chatting in the coffee lounge there which was nice and then Ady took Davies and Scarlett home while I headed off to a local Home Educators’ for a Adults Only Home Ed support meeting. These have been happening locally for about a year but prior to the October meeting I’d never been invited. Not sure what has changed but it was nice to be included and the other people there were all nice. I had the oldest children which is happening more and more and is an odd feeling really. We chatted about approaches and I talked a bit about our autonomous approach and how it works for us. Hopefully I’ll get invited back next time ;).
It was yet another late return home and as I sat down to my dinner so Ady went up to bed. I’m out again late tomorrow working til 9pm so actually I’ll probably be looking forward as much to having some time with Ady next week as the rest of you ;). I’ve now spent more time trying to chase around and find out who is coordinating the various petitions I gathered signatures for tonight and am really looking forward to life not being quite so busy soon.