Work all day for me today. Davies and Scarlett went out with Ady for the day and had a good day apparently. I do miss them lots on my all day at work day each week :(.
I was doing Storytime today which is the 3-5 year olds session we do each week where we read a couple of books, sing a few songs and give them some colouring in to do. There is a sort of loyalty scheme whereby they get a Storytime card stamped each time they attend and after 7 visits they get a free dvd loan voucher. I tend to do Rhyme time which is for the under twos fortnightly and just involves singing nursery rhymes and jiggling shakers for 20 minutes. I think I prefer storytime as I like reading books but the colouring and card stamping at the end always feels a bit crazed.
We had a massive turn out today of 23 children and 23 adults so it was pretty full in there with 46 bodies and me – quite an audience! I’d chosen ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and a rhyming book about a cranky bear as the stories and Bear Hunt went down well as it always does – Gruffalo, Very Hungry Caterpillar and Bear Hunt are Storytime staples really. So there was lots of joining in of that from adults and children, we did some singing and then I read the cranky bear story at which point some of the adults started to shuffle and hold whispered conversations. I brought them all back by shouting one of the lines from the book VERY LOUD though 😆 More singing including taking some requests from the floor – always iffy and predictably someone asked for Miss Molly had a dolly which I always get lost and flounder in the middle of. I had pre-warned them that they’d need to carry on without me if I looked confused though :). Colouring and card stamping and then I got to escape.
I wrote down the numbers in the statistic book and recovered a bit including confessing to a couple of colleagues who didn’t already know that actually I really don’t enjoy the Rhyme time and Story time aspect to my job that much. It’s funny that at work they think of me as someone who does that sort of thing whereas friends outside of work are always surprised to learn I do do that sort of thing. The real me is the one who would really rather not have snotty children clambering over me demanding row, row, row your boat ;).
I had lunch and managed to get a good haul of two tops, a cardigan and a dress in the charity shop in my lunchbreak. I also got called over by a woman selling cut flowers to tell me she used to babysit for me and Frazer when we were little (as in Davies and Scarlett age) I’d never have recognised her but did know who she was when she said her name – funny to try and mesh my memory of a 17 year old rake thin girl with the big middle aged woman she is now. She asked what I was doing, whether I was married etc and I said I was 36, married for 10 years with 2 children. She said ‘you look really happy – I noticed you walk past on your way out of the library and was sure it was you so I had to ask. You look really content’ which was lovely to hear :). I always think I have a look of concerned fretfulness on my face when I catch a glimpse of myself in shop windows but that may well hark back to being called ‘worry face’ at school when I was about Scarlett’s age and used to play ‘A gypsy came a-riding’ in the playground :lol:. So there you go, Julie, who used to look after me in the school holidays when I was little reckons I look happy :).
The afternoon dragged rather. I talked to a couple of the librarians about Chatterbooks after the event and one of the mums is on a computer course on a Thursday and came over to thank me again for running it and say how much her kids had enjoyed it. I’m writing a report up and attending a debrief session next week and it all seems to be being taken quite seriously now it has finished and was clearly a bigger thing and more of a success than they anticipated.
It was finally home time and I was home a clear 90 minutes before Ady and the kids which always feels most strange. I chopped some firewood and lit the fire, collected eggs and put the chickens away, talked to my Dad on the phone and then they came home.
I had cuddles and a catch up with them both then nipped back out again as Ady had brought home a £14 duck reduced to £3 that needed using tonight so I went out to get spring onions, cucumber and pancakes to make crispy duck while Ady got it roasting and fed Davies and Scarlett.
I’d just slipped on my old green dms and a coat over the dress and leggings I’d worn to work so was looking a bit of a state but only expected to nip into the supermarket quickly. In the end I was out for nearly an hour and tried 3 different supermarkets, failing to get Chinese pancakes in any and settling for wraps instead and desperately hoping I wouldn’t bump into anyone I knew :lol:.
I read some Firework Makers Daughter and we looked at the local paper which has covered the Mad Hatters Gala event we went to and features Davies in his fancy dress as a prize winner – can’t find an online link but will have another look tomorrow :). Nice picture though :).
I don’t know about them but I’m looking forward to not doing very much tomorrow.