Dad came over first thing this morning with his jump leads to help get my car started. Ady and the kids went off to Croydon to do some store visits and Dad and I had breakfast together before doing a quick tour round the house to discuss decorating requirements :). We then headed outside to jump my car which had been all but flat of battery and with no intention of starting at all yesterday. Predictably it roared into life as soon as I turned the key, so no need to jump it at all :rolls: Dad didn’t mind as he was over our way to go to a local fencing shop which doesn’t open til 9am anyway and he’d got breakfast :). I took the car for a long-way-round (which still isn’t very long) drive to work to ensure the battery would have enough charge to start again later and arrived at work about 20 minutes early. So I nipped to the nearest charity shop for a quick look. We’re off to see Harry Potter on Friday night and the kids want to dress up as you get a free drink if you are in costume. Ady and I had already said we wouldn’t dress up. My Mum rang me about 3 weeks ago to say a HP cloak had come into her charity shop and she knew we were getting rid of stuff but would Davies like it? I said he would and she bought it but has been holding it back and says now she intended giving it to him on Scarlett’s birthday. I explained it would be useful a couple of weeks early so she is bringing it over tomorrow evening which left Tarly without a costume. In the charity shop they had a vicars cassock (is that the right word) fancy dress for an adult which with the sleeves rolled up and the bottom 6 inches chopped off makes the perfect cloak for Tarly. Sorted :).
Back to work and I had a nice morning. Clearly some residual bad feeling about the Christmas rota with a couple of pointed comments but frankly I’m leaving anyway and got Christmas eve off so I have broad enough shoulders to take a bit of flack.
I arrived home and Ady, Davies and Scarlett were already here having had lunch. Ady went back off to work and I made some lunch for myself then Caz and the boys arrived. The children spent most of the time up in Davies’ room. There were some murmers about going outside which I had said no to as the garden is very muddy and an attempt to get us to agree to them playing X box in the lounge (erm, no!) and Scarlett came and joined Caz and I for a while when the boys got too rowdy. She made us both a cup of tea and contributed to the conversation quite well but it did put me in mind of Tilda and Beth and wonder if I have some of that child hanging with the adults sometimes ahead. I think there is a critical age where you realise the grown ups don’t cease to exist when you are not in the room with them and actually they might just be doing something pretty interesting too… our Home Ed kids are even more attuned to this I reckon as they spend more time in the company of adults and are used to being included in conversations generally too.
Caz and I had a lovely few hours putting the world to rights and it felt really sad to break up the afternoon to go to Badgers but we had to so we did. With just one more proper session, a presentation night and possibly a Christmas party left to go I finally seem to have won over the trickier Badgers. We were discussing all we have done this term, talking about what we remembered and planning what to present as little show and tell type bits for presentation night when parents come along and see badges and certificates presented and hear about what we’ve been up to. Loads of positive stuff came up about what we have done, I persuaded some of the reluctant ones to be prepared to stand up and talk, split them into pairings they don’t usually work with and went round each group coaching them about what to say, what to present and how best to work together. I felt it went really well :). One of the least forthcoming little boys sat and talked to me for ages about being bullied at school which was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It sounds like it is being dealt with but I think he just wanted to chat it through with someone. He and his sister come to Badgers and are both really shy and timid, it’s taken me ages to even get them to really talk to me and last week they confided their mum is pregnant again and we talked about how they are feeling about that. I am confident they will do well telling all their parents what we’ve covered and we have some props to create next week in the form of giant recipe cards, pictures of fruit and veg etc to create which they all seemed to be looking forward to doing. I guess it will be good to go out on a high :). The three tricky girls were all very well behaved and pally with me and Scarlett said two of them had told her I was scary, which Scarlett seems to think is a fair evaluation 😉 😆
Back home Ady had got the kids tea ready so they ate and watched Wallace and Gromit, Ady and I had baths and watched The Apprentice.