for me today, which feels strange so long after the beginning of the week and Ady going back after the holiday. Ady was home with the children this morning but it did mean he didn’t get home tonight until nearly 10pm as he had to catch up. This is looking to be a less and less sustainable situation but I am being a bit head in the sand about dealing with it and hoping that something will come up. Something normally does…
It was slightly odd at work as the manager, Yvonne is on leave this week and the person ‘in charge’ is a lovely but very dizzy part time librarian who really struggles. Consequently I looked over the timetable she’d done for her to check it as she was wobbling about it not working, the library was opened five minutes late (cue much grumbling from the 3 old men who are outside prompt at 925am waiting to be first through the door to read the papers) and I was scheduled to spend most of the day on the enquiry desk. But first I was doing Storytime. I rummaged through the picture books and chose Quentin Blake’s All Join In which is a personal favourite, My Granny went to market selected for lovely bright illustrations, easy rhyming text and good read-upside-downability and All afloat on Noah’s boat which was just ace.I checked it through first to ensure it didn’t contain any religious references (we can’t even theme for Christmas so pulling ouvert bible stories out wouldn’t go down well). I drew outline pictures of the butterfly from the Noah book and Granny and her magic carpet from the market book which were both good for creativity and colouring, photocopied them and unleashed myself on my audience :). They are really too young to sit in a group and listen to a story and it’s very hard to pitch it right as there are babies up to 3 year olds there which makes it tricky to get the right length and complicatedness of story just right. I got several compliments at the end from the mums though so that was nice :).
In my lunch break I bought two little instrument and instruction book kits in a charity shop cheap, one is a penny whistle and the other a harmonica. They were unopened and the books are really good first introduction to the instruments ones :). I also spent some time on the phone to a local and fairly newly opened arts centre who are advertising a youth theatre group from September that I think Davies would really like. They are planning to meet weekly and hold regular productions at the arts centre and include drama, circus skills, comedy and more. They have not firmed up details for it yet but I’ve put us down on the contact list so we’ll hear when they do. Sadly there is a high risk of it clashing with Badgers, Swimming or Rainbows I guess so it might not happen, we’ll see.
In the afternoon it was very quiet and I sorted out all the display materials for the Summer Reading Game which starts in a couple of weeks. It has an Olympic theme this year and is called ‘Team Read’ with bronze, silver and gold awards, the usual stickers to go on a wallchart and a medal at the end for all six books read. I’m going to speak to the children’s librarian next time I see her as I have a few ideas for events which would be really cool to tie in with it to chat to her about. Every so often I see a little niche in working for the library service which would so suit me and it is frustrating that I am struggling to commit to 11 hours a week so certainly couldn’t do any more as I really do believe I could pitch my ideas to the right people and be listened to and carve a little career out for myself. Ah well, need to wait for that era ;).
I got home and we opened the instruments and played with them for a while. We looked at a riddle book that I’d brought home which we all liked and want to try and find more of the same. Then I made some tea for them while they listened to the Horton Hears a Who soundtrack I’d brought home. Very loud. 🙂
I read some Famous Five and then our months food shopping arrived. I dealt with that while they played Cooking Mama together on one DS at which point I said they could take their DSs to bed and play there til Ady came home aslong as they stayed in bed and let me get the shopping away, the hoovering done, the dinner sorted and have a bath. Ady was later than expected – I’d thought he’d be home for 9pm so it was a late night for the children. I watched PS I love you which was based on a book I’d loved when I read it and I’d heard mixed reviews about the film. Ady watched bits of it with me and found it bearable which is surprising for him. I thought it was a very good adaptation and the cast were good too.