One word? When seven would do…

one of those healthy ones with carrots and bran and crap in which don’t even really deserve to be called muffins with all the chocolate chip if American or dripping with melted butter if English type loveliness it summons up.

Someone should probably come and rescue me actually before I succumb utterly to housewifelyness and start dusting my skirting boards, creating a rota for tasks such as sock darning (currently if they have a hole they go in the bin, unless Ady is wearing them in which case they last until I chuck them in the thrice yearly Goddard sock cull), washing of the nets (we don’t do nets. This was once a catch phrase of mine in a workplace of long ago before children where a middle aged spinster lady who lived nearby with her parents was utterly horrified, but secretly titilated, by the fact that we often wonder naked round the house despite not having nets! So I’d need to buy some, nay, make some for the purpose of washing them) and sorting the spice rack into alphabetical order. So if anyone wants to come get me (on a bus obviously!) with emergency supplies of wine, attitude, a T shirt bearing the slogan ‘I read Twisty!’ and armfuls of Germaine Greer books then please feel free! 😉

So let’s get it over with first shall we? Today I made curry and pilau rice as from scratch as you can without rearing the chicken from an egg and then slaughtering it yourself and picking the rice from paddy fields. I also made some choux buns (and Katy I promise I am not recipe stalking you, we made them once before – we have the same first cookbook as you – and the kids were desperate to make ’em again). And they all turned out well but I’ll brag about my frugal genius elsewhere! 😳

Scarlett has been a ‘challenge’ today but I had a feeling yesterday that she might be on the cusp of ‘going down with something’ and I retain that thought today so I’ll let her off. Davies OTOH has been a perfect child to the point of inspiring me to write some sort of raising children manual such would my confidence in my perfect mothering ability be if I didn’t have Tarly (and a full two years worth of blog archives!) to prove me wrong! I heart Davies lots today!

Ady left around 7am and I had full intentions of getting up but somehow the next thing I knew it was 8am and the doorbell was ringing. I suspected it to be my Dad but it was actually Ady who had not gone off to work as I suspected but headed off to Asda as an online search had shown them to be selling the cheapest Guinness so he’d gone off there for some St Patricks Day supplies and returned home to get them in the chiller ready for this evening. I stayed up and started making the curry and indeed within about half an hour my Dad did arrive so I sat and chatted to him for a bit while Davies played with the straw art kit. He’d got the scissors out and cut up some of the straws to construct some bits and pieces while Scarlett played with her soft toys.

We ended up (surprise!) leaving in a rush so left the lounge strewn with stuff and dashed out to meet Julie at the potential venue for a new HE group. It took just 10 minutes to drive to although it would unfortunately be a bit of a bugger for public transport I suspect 🙁 Other than that though (and let’s face it with a bit of cooperation collecting people from stations should be fairly feasible) it seems ideal. It’s an excellent space with chairs and tables and lots of lovely natural light, it has a shared garden with an on site nursery which with careful management and some relationship building could be a real bonus. The room itself is actually a converted barn detached from the main building which is where the toilets and kitchen are which has obvious fors and againsts but at least it negates the possibility of kids hanging round the loos turning the taps on full blast and getting underfoot in the kitchen. The kitchen also has an oven which we could use for baking 🙂 Julie and I were both impressed enough to decide to go ahead with a trial run so I will get it booked up over the weekend and start advertising it locally. 🙂

We had planned a walk round the lake at Arundel but it had been very cold again here today so we decided to head back into town to soft play instead. Except soft play was closed 🙁 We went to the main library instead where we all chose a book each and generally disturbed the peace before deciding to come back to ours for lunch and a play. This was actually a really good plan for me as I had been cautious about both previous options costing money so that was a result! 🙂 The children ate peanut butter sandwiches – I had warned Julie it would be white sliced bread 😉 and then disappeared off to play while we had a good chat about all things Activeo and new group and so on. They headed off around 2pm and we are seeing them again tomorrow.

Which left an hour during which we made choux buns and the children played before Jean arrived. Jean is the ‘ex’ from Bruce and Jean. Bruce is the friend who recently married Paula. Bruce and Jean are the couple we did loads of things with pre children including going to New York. Ady knew Bruce pre Bruce and Jean but I did not and was delighted when Jean got back in touch a respectable amount of time after the split. We chatted generally and also specifically about the wedding, she is still upset but her broken heart is slowly mending and she was surprised to report that actually she is quite enjoying being single and is loving being independant and not answering to anyone. 🙂 Jean is excellent with the children – she has similar aged grandchildren and also works with learning disability adults with mental ages of under 10s so D & S were delighted with an additional audience of grown ups. We managed lots of chatting and tea drinking (oh and choux bun eating 😉 ) while the children played and then we were all invited to Davies’ room where he had set up a cafe with daily specials delights as Buzz Lightyear Lasange, Drusillas cup dessert and Shaun the sheep spaghetti, all seasoned with wikkistix condiments! So we enjoyed that and then it was time for Jean to head off for single woman Friday night pursuits and the children’s tea. Ady arrived home just as Jean left and we have been celebrating St Patricks Day with Guinness and The Pogues (and shedding a small tear for Kirsty 🙁 ).