Group hug

Efficient morning with us taking three parcels from ebay to the post office, returning one book and collecting two from the library, getting bread and milk and home again before 10am.

That was about the sum of it mind you 😉

No point in doing washing as the last lot is still swinging wetly on the line 🙄

The children had started a game with some wooden blocks before we went out so they carried on with that. Davies built a pyramid and I showed him how to make it 3D with some cube blocks – a bit of guessing numbers as it decreased toward the top – starting with a four by four layer moving to a ??? sort of thing. All very low key but sometimes I like to offer not remotely challenging things which set him up as excelling so next time he is prepared to stretch himself a bit more.

Scarlett brought me a pile of books so we sat and read through them, with Davies listening from his pile of blocks on the floor and occassionally coming over to join in, see a picture etc.

I was in the middle of all this trying to write a blog post about autonomy but it wasn’t happening so I think I might start that one again as having read the draft back it is quite disjointed with the points I was disturbed while writing it very apparent in the flow. Ros texted to say she wouldn’t make it to us for lunch due to technical faults so we had lunch and headed off to HE group, grabbing a jigsaw puzzle about space on the way out of the door.

Although I was five minutes late I was first there with Julie arriving shortly after me. We sat on our own for over half an hour with Davies, Scarlett, Jack and Maisie fairly occupied by drawing a communal picture about all things space related. At 1.30 I spoke to Ros with proper directions and she arrived soon after, followed at nearly 2pm by Lucy who had also had a stressy morning. So just as well I have friends and a sister in law really as all three attendees this week were already well within my first degree of seperation. 😉

We’ve booked the hall for the next two weeks which takes us to the end of May and with some helpful input from Ros have decided to break from hiring venues through the summer and decamp to a local park (which is handily nearer to me anyway) for three hours every Wednesday bringing picnic lunch, ideas for games, maybe some Kessingland style outdoor crafts and general running around in the (ha!) summer sun. We’ll charge reduced subs to start building funds for the Autumn venue hire again and hopefully return with boosted numbers again. I am still confident there is a need for a Worthing group and I don’t think 3 weeks is anywhere near long enough to gauge success so I am really happy with that plan. 🙂

As it happened we had a really nice group today – the adjacent nursery had left a box of sporting type toys (balls, cones, hoops, skittles etc) and after Julie checked we were OK to make use of them Davies led a set up of some sort of game involving throwing a dice and rolling a ball to knock cones and skittles down. They were all involved in it, taking turns and it seemed pretty well set up. Davies also thrilled himself (and I confess quite surprised me) by managing to throw a ball through a basketball hoop not once but twice too – normally his aim is very shaky so that was good. 🙂 In the car on the way there and back Davies played a xylophone he’d brought with him. Despite the fact it was quite annoying and distracting he played it quite well. We had the tumble tots action songs cd on too and he was hitting quite a few of the right notes trying to play along to some of the songs. Must think about some sort of musical instrument for him at some point.

Ros came back with us for very late lunch, chat and ‘Nic’s sewing salon’ – she brought her sewing machine in from the car and finished off her brothers curtains and I started on a small Wallace I am making next for Davies (Totty finished last night, will take photo later). Nice to see you darling, Happy Anniversary and hope you have a lovely romantic night tonight 🙂

Scarlett managed to fall at least part way down the stairs while they were here (that child!!!!) and when asked where she hurt she sobbed ‘everywhere!’ but no blood, no broken bones and no chin split back open, just a small scrape on one leg and her back 🙄 The community nurse had only just rung to say she’d had the discharge form from A&E and was phoning to check she was OK and healing well. She asked if I was at all worried and I reassued her she was fine and I was not worried at all. Slightly concerned that it would take anyone the prompt of such a phonecall to realise they were worried and take further action really but I guess she was just doing her job…

Ady arrived shortly after they left with yet another charity shop find Gromit to add to Davies’ rapidly growing collection – we’ve decided that once he outgrows them we can probably sell them on ebay to fund his university education however so that’s fine 🙂

Football tonight so I have very lovingly said I’ll cook dinner (even though it’s not my turn and as it is one of my speciality dinners tomorrow he won’t even get to swap with me!) but he has done every Wednesday for weeks so I can watch The Apprentice so it only seems fair, and I do have my new Jodi Picoult book to read in a week so I’ll happily read that.

I woke up with the kids’ cold this morning and felt pretty rough first thing, slightly better through the day but increasingly shit again now so I think comfort food of toad in the hole and a large glass of warming red wine should have me in bed fairly early too.

Tomorrow Scarlett is having her stitches out in the afternoon – we’ve talked about it and she knows it might hurt a bit. She wants to have the stitches to keep after I told her sometimes people do that and I offered for Daddy to go with her instead of me (he’s coming home so Davies doesn’t have to come witness it too) but she wants me – quite chuffed about that actually 🙂 So a quiet day in otherwise planned.