Pah!
Gone midnight and Davies is still wide awake!
This morning Ady and I did some more work on the bathroom door, we should finish it tomorrow, while Andy, Ruth and the girls were at church. We had a lengthy tea break and then they all arrived back from church. A bit more door sanding and it was lunchtime.
Lunch was leek and potatoe soup. We have certainly made up for not having eaten much soup before we started WWOOFing this year. Some is very good and has converted me to thinking I will in future eat more soup. Some is pretty dire and is frankly not fit to call itself soup. This was thankfully in the former category.
After lunch Ady went with Andy to the shop across the road which is a community run venture which Andy is the current chairperson of, to move some magazine racks about and have a general shuffle of some fixtures. I did the washing up and then sang some songs with Sarah, the little girl with CP who lives here. I went through my full repertoire of rain based songs as it was raining heavily all morning and then moved on to some sunny songs to try and encourage the sun to break through. I can’t take full credit for the sunny afternoon that followed but I am claiming some of the glory ;). Spending time with Sarah, who is almost exactly the same age as Scarlett has been A Good Thing for all four of us I think. Ady is excellent with her, happy to sit and read books to her and chat to her, I am less good and it is definitely not a calling for me and makes me ever more admiring of Ruth and Andy and friends (like you Sarah!) who work with disabled children but I am trying really hard and the odd times I feel I break through and Sarah actually engages with me and seems to enjoy me singing or chatting to her are very worthwhile moments. Davies and Scarlett have not really talked much to Sarah but I am very aware that they are taking in what her life is like and how very different to them she is, they have not had much exposure at all to severely disabled people generally, let alone children. Tomorrow another girl arrives here – a non verbal 10 year old with Downes called Chloe – for a week, along with Deborah and her son bringing the tally of children in the house to 8 – a real mix of disabled children, fostered kids with all sorts of issues, a child from a broken home and our two home ed kids – not a ‘normal’ one among the lot of ’em!
I did some more door sanding and then Ady arrived to say it was time to head off. I speedily got changed out of my rather sawdust encrusted jeans and hopped in the car – Ruth drives Sarah in a specially adapted vehicle to allow her chair to wheel straight in but it only has space for 3 other people including the driver so they go everywhere in two cars anyway, so we four went with Andy. It was a Fun Day at some local stables, where one of the lads they foster’s girlfriend works and was in aid of the local air ambulance service. It was pretty small with a cream tea stall, cake stand, tombola and raffle and three inflatable bouncy things. Andy very generously treated us to cream teas, we bought all the kids a cake and a go on the tombola and then Andy got all four kids (our two and the twin girls) in to the bouncy rides for the price of one so they had about an hour playing on them while we sat in the sunshine.
On the way home we stopped at the Big Stone for a clamber up and marvel and read of the information board and stunning view of the three peaks. It is very pretty if a bit bleak round here. I don’t love this part of Yorkshire like I do the bit where Jan and Jonathan live although it has a similar sort of wild beauty.
Back at the house it was nearly tea time. Sarah was very upset and in pain so we all took turns to try and comfort her and then sat down to tea. After eating Davies did some movie making with the camera on his psp and some duplo while Scarlett and one of the twins did some pond dipping and caught some newts. I notice the moon rising and looking very large and luminous so we all looked at that and Andy got his telescope out for a closer look which was amazing. Unfortunately as it got dark the sky clouded over again so we have still not seen Percy Wotsits. One day, one day…
The kids went to bed, I read a chapter of story to them having not read to them all week and then we chatted and shared a bottle of wine with Ruth and Andy until bedtime. Things seem to have settled down and I am happy enough with the work now. I still don’t think they are very WWOOF like in the jobs they have for us to do but it’s been a very cheap fortnight and they are nice and interesting people. Tomorrow we have to move rooms as we are in the room where Chloe will be sleeping but we are staying in the house. That strawbale house really was awful and we’d definitely not go in there again although D&S keep saying how much they liked it and would happily go back there again.