So for once it will be brief. Well brief for me. Which let’s face it rarely counts as brief by anyone else’s standards. Infact it probably doesn’t even count as standard by anyone else’s brief. Maybe I should get on with it…. 😉
Monday Having continued the 5am waking it was a late morning for Davies, Scarlett and I as I went back to sleep. Poor Ady was back to work with a vengence – I think he is clinging to that ‘only X months to go’ feeling of an end in sight.
We had no milk so I nipped to the shop for some so we could have cereal (them) and tea (me) before getting started on the serious business of uploading photos and beginning the epic blogposts you see below this one. Having realised it was not just milk we were out of (I had a plan to make cheese scones for lunch but realised we had neither cheese nor butter) I decided to have a go at a short drive to Sainsburys on the basis that few gear changes are required in that short journey.
So off we went. The drive was okay, I’d not want to do any length of driving as yet and when I was stopped at traffic lights I did the handbrake / neutral thing so I could release the clutch, I think slow and steady is the way forward with this but I certainly wouldn’t have been driving last week or the week before. The supermarket was fine, the kids were stars :). I went with their requests for lunch food (Davies: crumpets, Scarlett: tuna in french bread) and got a whole chicken to do a roast dinner with on the basis we’d missed two roast dinners and all of us could do with a proper home cooked in an inside kitchen dinner. (and yes I know I have mentioned beds, baths and kitchens and missing them and I know our current plan means we won’t have any of those things as such but there will be access to them every so often.)
Back home we had lunch and the kids caught up on various things they’d missed: Davies, X box, dvd player, the garden, the geomags; Scarlett: the chickens, the ducks, the chicks, the quails, aqua beads and her paints.
We harvested the potato council spuds – a pretty balanced crop from the two varieties, most of which we used for roast and mashed potatoes for dinner that night. We emptied them in the chicken’s cage so they could pick over the compost, eat the woodlice and rotted seed potatoes.
I did some more flickring and blogging and cooked a roast chicken, rpast and mashed potatoes, stuffing, various veg and gravy. My Mum appeared while I was peeling potatoes and Ady arrived home shortly afterwards so her and I caught up on holiday news while Ady caught up in the garden.
Dinner was lovely, I enjoy eating with the kids although we are nowhere near ready to do it every night but are working towards it given they are often awake long past when we’re eating anyway.
Tuesday Further lateness, particularly as when I woke at 5am I really couldn’t get back to sleep so got up and had a cup of tea for an hour of so before going back to bed and sleeping for another couple of hours. Not at all keen on this nights-sleep-in-installments business 🙁
Having finished ‘flour’ in River Cottage Family Cookbook we moved on to ‘milk’ and I read aloud the first bit. At Sainburys the day before we’d bought some gold top milk, some goats milk and some yoghurt, double cream and buttermilk. I also had some ‘on the turn’ double cream in the fridge so we did a taste test of various types of milk and then made some butter with the old cream. We’ve done butter making several times before but I don’t think it ever loses it’s magic 🙂 We also made some cheese scones to go along with it and then harvested some lavender to make some lavender shortbread (RCFC called for normal shortbread and didn’t mention cheese scones but they seemed fitting in this section 🙂 ).
It was swimming lessons and as it is the last one before the summer break I was keen to get D&S there but rather nervous about the drive as it is very trafficky both way being along the coast road. I’d rung my Dad to see if he could take us but he wasn’t home so I was really pleased when Ady appeared home in time to take us and drop us off before shooting off to his last meeting of the day and coming to collect us again later.
It meant the kids had nearly half an hour in the pool before Scarlett’s lesson, so the best part of an hour for Davies before his. I was surprised at how very wobbly and nervous I was being back there after the falling down the steps accident. They both had good lessons as they were fun end of term type stuff such as team races and messing about with floats. They are both to remain in the same groups next term which I’m slightly disappointed with as I felt they were both ready to move up really although I am aware that the ‘trial’ week when they were graded was the week I hurt my ankle so neither of them would have been at their best. Ultimately I want them to enjoy being in the water, gain water confidence and increase their survival chances in water so it’s always been less about climbing the ranks of swimming levels.
Scarlett had a short time in the pool after her lesson before declaring herself worn out and coming to sit on my lap – in her soaking wet swimsuit! I was feeling very overheated having sat there for over an hour by that time though so it wasn’t entirely unwelcome, although I did feel slightly self conscious limping out, saturated when we left 😆
Ady collected us and did dinner and getting to bed duty while I went out to Book Club at the library. It was a good group, we’d read ‘After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell which we’d universally enjoyed and sparked some interesting conversations.
And so to today, Wednesday. I’d read a book for an hour or so at today’s 5am waking before painkillers kicked in and I went back to sleep. This morning I stuck on the chicken carcass to boil up for soup and some bread dough for rolls for lunch, did several loads of washing – have now caught up 🙂 and the kids watched TV, spent time with the birds and watched more Harry Potter dvds.
Ady came home at lunchtime which was nice, we’ve missed him being with us after such a long time in each others company. The rest of us had a later lunch by virtue of a later breakfast 😉 Scarlett and I having soup and rolls and Davies having rolls with peanut butter – rolls were a hit 🙂 .
In the afternoon the kids played in the garden and we visited the allotment briefly to water and check all was okay. Back home for dinner and Davies made himself an omelette. He didn’t like it (I don’t blame him, I don’t like them either 😉 ) but the chickens did 🙂 .
I read some story and then made some flatbreads to make tortillas for dinner for Ady and I. Time rather ran away with us and we were back to a 10pm dinnertime again proving that eating with the kids is not quite within our reach yet. But I have caught up with blogging 🙂 .