This morning Ady and Davies went into Lancaster with Ruth who was doing the food shopping so they could visit Halfords for some dampstart for Willow. They ended up with an hour or so to wander round so also picked up a DS game for Tarly and a PSP game for Davies second hand too. Meanwhile Scarlett and I carried on sanding and filling holes in a door. It had started to get less rewarding as the door simply refused to come up well, but it was good to have some time with Scarlett who always amuses and entertains me with her incessant chatter. She had a most interesting and indignant take on the debate of the day on Vanessa Feltz sitting in for Jeremy Vine 😆
The others were back for lunchtime and an offer was extended to Davies and Scarlett to join Rochelle at the open air swimming pool in the next village. I was not happy about them just being dropped off as I felt expecting a 13 year old to be even nominally in charge of D&S is not fair and could potentially go wrong. In the end Ruth then said one of us could go along and I sent Ady as I didn’t really fancy sitting watching kids swim. Actually I should have gone and taken the kindle as I think he had a far nicer time sitting in the sunshine than I did continuing to sand and polish the door!
I was struggling to get it up the stairs on my own when one of the lads here saw me and helped me up the stairs with it and then then others got back from swimming in time for Ady to help me re-hang it. By then it was gone 4pm and I’d had enough so I took myself off to the bedroom to read for an hour or so while Ady did some more door sanding to make up for the fact he’d been out all day.
Dinner was fairly crazy as there is another child here this week on respite care – Chloe, aged 10 with severe Downs Syndrome. She is non verbal, very aggressive and requires round the clock supervision. She had to be fed and spent much of the time spitting it back out or mushing it into her hand. Also here was Andy and Ruth’s eldest daughter Yannicka who is staying for the week to help out with Chloe and Sarah and although I am sure very nice was very bossy and loud and I found rather annoying. Deborah is back with her son Jasrah, 11 and Alex had brought his toddler god-daughter Verity for dinner as her parents are moving house today. So we were 15 for dinner and it was bedlam!
Once everyone had eaten and operation clear up was in full swing (there is a washing up rota here) I adjourned to the balcony for some peace and was joined briefly by Alex and then by Ady. I went and had a bath, which Ady and then both kids had after me and I had some time in the bedroom with the laptop as the cables downstairs were being used. Rochelle came to join me for a bit and we had an interesting chat about WWOOFing, about travelling, about broadening horizons – a phrase she had never heard before so I explained, and what she thought she might like to do herself when she is older. The girls are really nice kids, actually I find all the teens here really good company and very interesting to talk to. Andy and Ruth do an excellent job of giving them constant, unconditional love and a real family home environment. It is certainly not without it’s frictions and shouting and arguments (which I hate being around but know are an everyday part of life with teens) but they are all refreshingly normal and seem like any other kids facing impending adulthood and dealing with it the only way they know how.
Ruth came down for a bit of a chat before she went to bed and Ady and I sat up chatting for another hour or so about what we do next. We’re trying to come up with various plans A, B and C as we are waiting on Jill for one possibility which would be our first choice but need a couple of back up options incase that doesn’t happen.