Oh yeah, blogging

Sort of forgot to blog yesterday…

Davies woke up with the cold that had Scarlett laid low over the weekend so a quiet day was required. We needed to pop into town to pay the mortgage so we slowly got breakfasted and dressed and headed out. The money needs to be withdrawn from one bank and paid into another, at opposite ends of the town centre. If I am organised enough in advance I can withdraw up to my card limit from the cashpoint for 3 days running and then only need to go to the paying in bank but it rarely happens. The withdrawing bank rarely has parking outside and it is outside the police station and regularly checked by traffic wardens. The paying in bank has a double loading bay right outside so it’s often possible to park there and dash in. In that instance the children can wait for me in the car.

A quick drive by the withdrawing bank showed no spaces outside so we decided to park up properly just outside town, walk in, have a look round some shops and get lunch at the bakery. At the paying in bank we talked about the glass dividing you from the cashiers as we have done before and I told Scarlett why she shouldn’t push her soft toy monkey through the gap. Davies reckoned he could fit through the gap but I said he couldn’t, he then suggested a baby could fit to which I said a baby being put through was not a recognised bank raid technique. The cashier said he thought that it could work well though as he knew plenty of people, himself included who were terrified of babies and would hand over the money straight away! 😆

We went to the cheap clothes shop as both children are very low on pants. We got some for Tarly but there appears to be some sort of national shortage of boys pants for 7-8 year olds as that shop and the other 2 we tried were all out of stock. While we were there we also got two pairs of trousers for Davies in the sale – both a bit on the big side actually but cheap and nice enough for keeping to grow in to. Scarlett did really well and got: a coat, four tops, some pjs, pants, a dress, a pair of trousers. I got a pair of jeans and a pair of cords and they both got a light up sound effect pig toy (quid each) all for £40 – bargaintastic! 🙂

We got food from the bakery for lunch which we ate in the car and then as they’d requested to go to the park we drove there via home for me to collect inhaler and water and change into sports bra and trainers (and put clothes back on again obviously :lol:) and went to the park. They played on the swings and slides while I had a short run around the place. We then spent ages lying on the big saucer shaped swing all three of us looking up at the perfect blue sky and chatting – one of those perfect, remember forever moments :). Scarlett played with a little boy on the see-saw while Davies and I went on the roundabout until we were dizzy and then I had another brief run before we all ran back to the car together.

That pretty much finished Davies off so we came home. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. Davies was very floppy and a bit pathetic and really just wanted Ady (who is far better at being sympathetic and pampering to ill people than I am). I think we did some DSing (Big Brain Academy remains a hit with all), watching some TV etc. Oh yes, they had the Doctor Who stuff out and played with that for ages.

I spent a good couple of hours entering online competitions. Inspired by Kirsty and her many wins I thought I’d have a go at entering a few things and see if I am lucky. I’ve done some more today – an hour a day seems a worthwhile investment if I actually win something, particularly as I often find myself infront of the laptop with nothing specific to be doing but not wanting to turn it off.:oops: I made some more jam and set some more eggs (from Tom) in the incubator. Our other hen is broody and she is sitting on 4 eggs too so more chicks on the way hopefully. Out of the 7 we hatched in the ‘bator I am pretty certain 3 are roos (all of Toms speckledy ones) and 3 are hens (our brown ones) with Spatchcock uncertain but not particularly relevant. I doubt he will crow or lay tbh. It’s still too early to tell on the remaining little chick with the hen.

Despite saying all day he wanted an early night Davies was still up and down the stairs for ages and Scarlett was even worse. Ady is on a mission to stop this and is going to get them up really early every morning. I suspect this will simply mean they are grumpy by mid afternoon rather than actually working as an early to rise early to bed technique but I guess it’s worth a try. They are certainly getting enough fresh air and exercise, not to mention mental stimulation so I suspect they simply don’t need so much sleep and the light evenings and mornings are meaning they are awake longer each day. We’ll see.

Today I woke up with the cold and it is indeed one where you feel crap :(. Based on D and S I should be feeling better tomorrow which is just as well as I am working in the morning. But for today everything is a supreme effort and I feel like I could crawl back into bed and sleep for days. I hung three loads of washing out earlier and it completely exhausted me. I’ve spent time enterting competitions again, read some of my book, done some baking (flapjacks, brownies, cheese scones) with Scarlett, done several loads of washing and brought several loads in, discovered there is a platinum level on Big Brain Academy, sat still while Scarlett put make up on me and felt generally whingy.

Davies played x box, did some drawing, played with the spirograph, wrote out ‘to be’ and got me to help him spell ‘continued’ using geomags to make the letters and spent some time picking flowers to dry to make pot pourri with Scarlett.

Scarlett picked flowers, planned potions, put make up on me and herself, helped with the baking – she is now reliably tall enough on a stool to stir things over heat and can do things like check if things are cooked and take them out of the oven. Despite never using cutlery for something like roast dinner she sat and ate two chocolate brownies using a knife and fork today :lol:. She did some drawing, some DSing (she is excellent at some of the games which I really struggle with so that is an intresting thing to watch as clearly her brain works in a completely different way to mine on those tasks), joined in a game with the geomags with Davies and spent ages and ages outside with the chickens.

Ady has a definite home for one of the roos so we’re debating which one should go first at the moment. Despite not intending to various chicks have now been named – there is Spatchcock the crippled chick, Accelerate (or as I should probably spell it given it is after one of Ben 10s aliens XLR8) who we think is a hen and has taken it upon herself to be the Protector of Spatchcock, I assume she thinks it’s her chick or something. Big Boss is the fiestiest and most obvious cockerel, Scar is the one that Scarlett had her acccident with and appears to also be a cockerel, the other of Tom’s seems to be named Scrufty by the children and I think is also a cockerel. It appears that all of Tom’s chicks are cocks and all of ours are hens which may of course mean we end up with no cockerel as I’m a little reluctant to dilute the breeds and not at all sure how well they’d mix. The new chick is still too young to sex and we do have a potential 8 more eggs being incubated or sat on so I guess more hens of Tom’s breed could still hatch.

After lots of agonising and stressing over childcare Ady and I came up with a proposal for his work for him to formalise one morning a week off – either to work from home if there is suitable work to be done or to make the hours up elsewhere in the week. As this only really equates to one hour a day and Ady regularly does 50 hours a week rather than the 40 he is contracted for this won’t be a problem. It’s a huge relief to have it sorted and while it still leaves one morning a fortnight not officially covered we have had several offers from friends for occassional help and Julie intends to offer her morning a month again as soon as she is settled into being a MOT ;).

This new arrangement meant that Ady met us at the swimming pool after lessons today rather than getting there to watch which was actually a shame as both of them had fantastic lessons. I’d been toying with the idea of going to the pool earlier and going in with them for an hour before the lesson as having checked the timetable the slides were open but having been exhausted by the effort involved in hanging out a couple of loads of washing earlier I thought swimming might just have been beyond me today. Davies did fantastically, he swam across a width on his back for the first time and did it several times and was strong, fast and developing some actual skill in strokes on his front too. Not sufficient to be moved up to the swimmers class in September I don’t think (and actually for my own convenience I hope he isn’t, it’s nice having them in the same class rather than trying to fit two into our week) but certainly properly swimming now :). Scarlett also had a bit of a breakthrough and although using breast stroke arms and front crawl legs (a style I admit is pretty much what I use so may well be copied from watching me in the pool while we were camping the other week) she managed to get across a width putting her feet down just a couple of times, so several strokes at a time. She suddenly got the grace and coodination and was looking all long limbed and natural like I’d been expecting her to from the start as she is fairly athletic usually. She was thrilled 🙂 She also did some excellent floating and a handstand with her feet coming right up out of the water :).There are 3 more sessions left this term so you never know, it might have been the breakthrough that leads to her cracking it before the summer break :).

I sat and actually chatted with several of the other mums which I don’t normally do. Mostly mindless chitchat and early information gathering type stuff (which child is yours? how old are they? sort of thing) but quite nice.

Ady met us in the foyer and we got chips for the children and took them down to beach to eat. I had the idea that the sea air might be a tonic to aid our recovery like in olden days when people came to the coast to recuperate after illness :lol:. Home for story and bed for the children. My head feels far too heavy to stay on my neck much longer so I think I should probably go to bed too.