I decided yesterday afternoon when feeling down myself and looking at Davies and Scarlett all shadowed under the eyes and squabbly with each other that a day at home was in order today. We had planned to go fruit picking with Tasha and co but the weather forecast put paid to those plans anyway and I didn’t want to be driving about in my unreliable car with six people so we agreed to postpone that plan.
It’s felt quite unproductive really, but in a non-guilty way. I couldn’t do any laundry as there is still a full line full dripping onto the patio, the playroom is filled to the brim with stuff to be sold with no room for any more to be added to the piles and as we’re away from next weekend it’s not worth starting any ebay auctions as they will be ending just as we’re not here to post stuff.
I did need to post some parcels for things that ended this week though. I should really have posted them yesterday as the auctions ended on Tuesday and most of them paid straight away so to appease that guilt I sent everything first class instead of the quoted second – I’d not been confident about going back out in the car in the end yesterday so had not managed it. After agonising over suitable packaging for all the Barbie I eventually went for the black bin liner with lots and lots of sellotape option which will hopefully be okay.
I was gone and back really quickly – the car did take a bit of turning over to start but was fine once it got going, I found a parking space, there was no real queue in the post office and I think I was back home again within about 20 minutes.
Davies wanted to do some work on a pop up book kit he has and had decided to make a book for Scarlett. He was debating what character to go for and we discussed using some of her favourite toys, particularly as Davies has gotten into sketching the last few weeks and has done some excellent pen drawings of my Dad’s stuffed owl and some of Tarly’s cuddly toys. He decided to go for a story about Day who is a character Davies made up that lives at a landfill site with his friends; a broken TV set, a rusty fork, a sweet wrapper and a chipped plate. He’s done about 5 stories featuring them and they are very charming and well thought out, with a real emphasis on the illustrations obviously. He particularly wanted to use some of the ‘props’ in the kit such as an envelope with a letter to take out and read so was trying to write a story around those, then said he preferred to just draw the scenes and tell the story as he went and then wanted to have a go at writing some of it down. He did a great job of spelling stuff and carefully choosing words, debating for ages over ‘want’ and ‘need’ and ‘must’, working out how to spell words like ‘collect’ and ‘America’ by himself, just checking with me as he went. Was all very lovely and remains a work in progress.
Both Davies and Scarlett have been quite cuddly today which is always lovely. I’d brought home a couple of dvds from work yesterday so I made a big vat of popcorn and we settled down with the curtains drawn to watch films together. We started with Cast Away which had come up last Sunday ay dinnertime when we’d caught the end of a Ray Mears Extreme Survival Stories programme which talked about soldiers stranded on an island and how they lived to tell the tale. I remember Cast Away being quite an epic movie to watch and had thought Davies and Scarlett might enjoy it so ordered it in.
We all really enjoyed it although Ady did ring me twice at crucial moments so I missed a couple of bits of the action and so consequently was not in tears when he loses Wilson as I was talking to Ady about throws. Scarlett cried though. I distinctly recall the first time I cried at a film as a child and now although I rarely cry for myself I am often moved to tears by books and films. It’s tough to see her upset, particularly as like me she doesn’t often cry for herself but nice to see her getting the whole empathy thing.
Then we put on another film I’d brought home called Hachi – a dog’s tale which I sort of dipped in and out of really as I was knitting and it was about a dog but Scarlett got very into and ended up sobbing at the end which was all very GreyFriar’s Bobby and based on a true story. Cue another session on keeping animals and the perils of loving anyone / anything mortal.
Ady arrived home having bought some throws from Ikea which joined together have covered our very disgusting and tatty sofas and made them look all comfy and snuggly and cosy which is good :). Scarlett and I nipped out to Sainsburys for some bits while Ady and Davies made crazy videos on Davies’ phone. The kids had a bath before dinner, then dinner, then we read the first chaper of King of the Cloud Forest before they went to bed.
I’ve bitten the bullet with the WWOOFing hosts and emailed the other 12 potentials on our shortlist for Zone one on the basis that if we do get too many we’ll just stay in Zone one for longer and if we don’t get enough we’ll move onto Zone two quicker. We do have 3 yeses and one who made contact to ask where we were now but hasn’t indicated whether he can take us or not. Hopefully more replies will trickle in over the next few days and I can start making a short list for Zone two.