Ady took Davies and Scarlett to work with him today. He is doing it fairly regularly and while I suspect the three of them spend most of their day in charity shops lunching at McDonalds and he often comes home rather exhausted by them I think this is in general A Good Thing. I do worry that Ady still maintains something of a Novelty Parent status which I don’t think is healthy or great for anyone really. Maybe I’m lazy and not really trying hard enough but I do feel that Parenting is something I do very little of and just spending time with Davies and Scarlett rarely feels like a chore or work or effort. I am aware I can be a bit controlling though and maintaining a hands off approach rather than meddling in other peoples relationships is something I struggle with, so the more time they all have in each others’ company without me around the better really ;).
So my day was fine. I did some reassuring and comforting a colleague who freaked out when Storytime got too big and rowdy for her to contemplate doing, enjoyed talking to an old American guy who came in and when I asked how I could help him tried to persuade me to to adopt him. Apparently my children and chickens were potential deal breakers although he thought he’d get on just fine with Ady. Then he told me about his property in France and I tried to persuade him to adopt me instead! 😆
I had part two of my PDR (personal development review) which was about setting objectives for the coming year. I reiterated once again that I am happy to take on as much responsibility as they can offer me whilst remaining very aware of the constraints of 11 hours a week. There is a long term opportunity possibly for the next grade up position but would required more hours per week and the hourly rate is not really sufficient for the amount of additional responsibility but I might give it more thought when it becomes a real possibility. I suspect at least one other of my colleagues is thinking the same however and I’m definitely not in the market for competitive stress for the brief hours I spend at work as it is by far the smallest and least important parts of my life. A combination of pushing myself forward with the Chatterbooks thing, volunteering my time and being ever helpful and up for taking things on and being a bit over familiar has definitely got me in the loop with the important people though and it’s nice to feel recognised and more than just an assistant.
Back at home I finished sewing my first patchwork project, rainbow squares from a swatch book. The resulting rectangle wasn’t really big enough to do much at all with so I have made a bag with it and used some denim scraps for handles. It’s very long and shallow so perfect for stuff sticking out the ends, like french bread or rolled up towels. I’ve used it to pack my clothes for camping this weekend so it’s already proved useful :). My next project is definitely trying to recover the sofas which will either prove way easier than I’m expecting or totally impossible – place your bets now! 😉
Scarlett rang to say they were all stuck in traffic so I had a chat with her and Davies (and Ady shouting in the background) and got their tea on ready for their arrival home. Ady and I looked out the camping stuff from the Cupboard of Doom (under the stairs) and I chucked out one bin liner full of stuff, a load of cardboard boxes into the recycling and three bags of clothes that are too good to be chopped up for scrap material but I’ll realistically never get round to ebaying either are now by the front door for the clothes bank / charity shop tomorrow.
Davies and Scarlett went to bed, Ady and I had dinner and I’m hopeful of decent weather tomorrow as we’ve an allotment visit planned.