Badgers revenge

Just liked Jan’s title so nicked it 😆

I worked this morning. Ady took Davies and Scarlett in with him and they did some store visits. We are just a few weeks away from me working at the library for four years – I know, four years how did that happen?! Childcare remains an issue but we are now on the home straight so will muddle through to the end. I forgot to mention in yesterdays post that when I was telling the Book Group about the WW adventure I had to come clean about Home Ed to those who didn’t already know and the usual questions about that came up. I was really touched and proud when Rose piped up with ‘I think Davies and Scarlett are delightful. They are really lovely children and a real credit to Nicola. And I say that in my official capacity as a teacher’ and then Brenda, the Big Boss added ‘and they have spent lots of time here at the library and are helpful, polite and generally lovely. I certainly think what Nicola is doing is working really well for them’. Which reassures me that if they do need to come along with me for the odd shift here and then in my remaining weeks they will be quite welcomed :).

I coughed my way through work and arrived home shortly after Ady and the kids. We all had lunch together and then Ady headed off to work. They’d been looking in charity shops for Collins Gem books – we have a small collection; mushrooms, trees, herbs, birds, farms, food for free, but I want to gather more as they are excellent little books and will be both relevant to us next year and perfectly sized for bringing in the van with space at a premium. They didn’t find any but the kids had both taken some of their own money and Davies had found a Simpsons cd rom he’d seen advertised on one of the Simpsons videos we had and been hankering after. He picked it up for a pound and spent the afternoon playing with it. It’s an animation, cartoon creator thing with lots of scenery, characters, sound effects and so on to put together little cartoons.

We’ve been talking about Christmas (and indeed Scarlett’s birthday) and suitable presents given our downsizing and planned lifestyle. Davies has been agonising over a DSi or a PSP and finally decided on a PSP, second hand so he can get some games and films to go with it. We’d said he could have a new DSi as he could trade in his DSlite towards it as there would be no need to have both types as games could be played in the DSi, or a secondhand PSP with some games to have aswell as his DSlite. The PSP was the better choice for us as we’d already sourced a second hand one from one of Ady’s workmates so once he’d made the decision we bought that and now just need to get a couple more games and films. Davies also wants a journal to bring along for the year and a sheath knife. Scarlett isn’t sure yet about Christmas but wants a penknife and fishing rod for her birthday (Davies had a fishing rod for his birthday, fishing is on both their lists of things to learn next year) along with some small books about animals and art materials to bring along with her.

Scarlett had found a newly hatched chick in the henhouse last night when she put them away. It was being picked on by some of the hens so Scarlett popped it under one of the broody hens and we kept our fingers crossed it would all get sorted out overnight. This morning she took the chick out as it was getting really picked on and rejected and she was worried it would be pecked to death (a very real fear, they are brutal and will kill any chick they deem not strong or developed properly). So she brought it in the house and persuaded Ady to make up a box for it. We have got rid of the brooder lamp so they put a hot water bottle in. Scarlett thought the chick had splayed legs so I got the tape out to do some splinting but on inspection it’s legs were actually okay, it was just a bit dazed by what had been a fairly crappy start in life.

Scarlett spent some time getting it to eat and drink this afternoon, gave it lots of attention and it perked right up, then she took it outside and introduced it back to the broody hens and got them to accept it. Time will tell whether she’s succeeded but I was really impressed and proud of her knowledge and understanding of the whole situation and dealing with it all accordingly :).

Ady went off to work and we had a quiet couple of hours, Davies playing with the Simpsons cartoon maker software, Scarlett drawing / painting and dealing with the chick and me blogging before it was time to go to Badgers.

Today was painting the air drying clay diva pots we made a couple of weeks ago. We did that and then I got really cross with a couple of the girls who were messing about again and told them off. Scarlett said I was scary and I guess I must have been because the rest of them were suddenly super helpful. I’m glad it’s half term next week, I’m really not cut out for making kids do things they don’t to do and I’ve no real interest in getting them to do either.

Davies and I had a chat on the way home as he told me that he is feeling anxious about the parent he’s not with when he’s not with one of us. I think we may have overdone the Morpurgo parents dying stories along with a couple of rather too close to home examples of real life ‘other childrens’ parents’ dying this year and mortality is suddenly an issue for him. I recall having similar moments of grown-up type worrying at a similar age but don’t remember sharing them so am pleased he is able to both recognise and articulate them along with sharing them so we can talk stuff through. His specific concerns at the moment are tsnunamis, tornados and car accidents. We discussed the geographical unlikeliness of most natural disasters living in the UK along with the real possibility but highly unlikely probability of car accidents. I agreed that terrible things do happen and I can’t lie and make promises that nothing bad will ever happen to Ady or I but the chances are incredibly small and spending energy fretting about such things gets in the way of life and these fears need to be thought through before being put away. More tough parenting 🙁

Back home for dinner, Apprentice and now I’m debating staying up to watch a friend who was in the audience for Young Voters Question Time which is being repeated on BBC3.