Long Old Wednesday

Work for me this morning and today I was at Shoreham library which is the next town along. As part of my development review my boss asked if I’d like to go and do the odd shift at other libraries and this was one of those shifts. It was fine; I prefer Lancing and Wednesdays are a fairly frantic day as the library closes at 1pm so there is always a bit of a rush to get everything done. I felt like a bit of a spare part and had to ask loads of ‘how do you do this?’ type questions but I did get to peruse their junior section and came home with a big pile of books to read to the children so that was a bonus :).

Mum was here with the children this morning. She is struggling with not working and in a bit of a sorry for herself state of mind which is understandable I guess but she has always been prone to wallowing rather even when there is nothing actually wrong, whereas I am of a rather more positive mindset and struggle to remain sympathetic for very long. Harsh, I know. We had a brief chat and then she headed off when I got home just after 1pm.

We finally managed to get out of the house, dealing with a Scarlett and the Fleece of Doom fleece in the process. It was so named during our last camping trip when it was the focus on one of her and I’s fallings out and even she refers to it as The Fleece of Doom in the middle of stropping about it which is rather comical. She did wear it in the end. She’s been a bit fragile today, apparently she caught her fingers in something while Mum was here which had her in tears, then she cried about a wasp getting squashed in her car door (it didn’t) and then when I put some petrol in my car I got back in to find her in tears again because she had put her muddy boot on the car seat and got mud on it and thought I’d shout at her. I didn’t.

We got to the stables and met up with Julie, Jack, Maisie and Lorna. The kids had a run around while Julie saddled up Honey the pony and we headed off for a walk. Davies had first ride, then Maisie and then Tarly; Jack declined. Both my two enjoyed it lots and are ready for the next challenge on the pony really. We’ve planned a visit in 2 weeks when they should get a chance to ride in the field on a lunge lead. And I shall take some bags up with us to gather some manure for the allotment too.

I spent half the walk carrying Lorna who was being all stroppy about being in her sling and the other half leading Honey while Julie carried Lorna. Aside from my own children I’ve never really had huge amounts of contact with other little people and although I still maintain babies are boring I am enjoying limited cuddletime with Lorna :). Less sure about Honey! 😆

It was a gorgeous afternoon, the sun was shining, the children were all really happy to be together and out in the fresh air, the trees were turning all fabulous autumn shades and we were on the top of the downs looking out over the sea and landscape below and it was just beautiful :).

We left and got caught in traffic which meant our journey home was nearly an hour. Ady had just beaten us home so he warmed up some stew for the children while I dashed about getting their clothes for Badgers ready. They had a visit tonight from Bee Fit a local fitness place so needed to wear trainers and loose trousers. I found Davies’ old Beaver bottoms for him and a pair of outgrown Beaver bottoms for Tarly and they looked all PE-ish and sporty :). They both groaned and moaned about the stew and both LOVED it! Davies didn’t like the carrots but LOVED the parsnip, sweet potato and swede; Tarly liked all of it. So that was a bit of a result :).

We dropped them off at Badgers and Ady and I headed straight off for a walk. It’s become something we try and do every week if Ady can get there in time and its so nice to walk along just the two of us chatting and remembering that we are a couple as well as the parents of the same children. When we got back to collect them we discovered that Tarly had cut her knee open when doing aeroplane slides across the floor. I assume from a nail or something in the floorboards as it has ripped quite a cut in her knee 🙁 . Apparently she cried lots and wanted me 🙁 but everyone rallied round her – Davies said the whole group was trying to cheer her up and offering to get tissues to wipe it. It bled lots although it had stopped by the time we got there. I feel crap that I wasn’t there although I know that’s not feasible for every little bump and scrape 🙁 . Davies cleaned it up for her properly when we got home with his first aid kit using an alcoholic wipe and plaster.

I read various stories and then they went to bed – but not to sleep. Davies’ current fascination is with war stuff (spurred on from festival of history in the summer) and he’d been asking for a set of those cheap plastic toy soldiers in all different poses like Andy has on Toy Story. Ady got some today from a pound shop so the children split them between themselves and Davies set about making a’war museum’ in his bedroom. He labelled the door, made a ‘No PUBLIC’ sign for the roped off area and set up a whole battle reenactment scene complete with props from his room, an art section of pictures he’s drawn of tanks, planes, what soliders uniform and armour looked like, an interactive bit with a voice changer set to a mode that sounds like machine gun fire and loads more. He adores things like that – his bedroom is currently ‘dressed’ for Halloween with cobwebs and spiders draped over everything including door handle, dalek, bookcase etc.

Lovely stir fry cooked by me for dinner and now I am ready for bed. It seems a long time ago since this morning!