Slacking!

Three days to catch up!
Sunday was a bit of a disappointment really. K was asked to be in the colour party to welcome the Mayor to a civic service at the local parish church, so we all decided to go along and support him rather than going to usual services. Lots of standing around at the beginning and a service at the end to which we were not given the impression we were invited (so we went home instead) but enlivened by some jolly clothes and a man with a big sword in the middle (also spurs – the original heelies?) so not a total loss 😉
Lunch and a spot of baking and we set off to visit Grandad, aiming to arrive at the hospital during afternoon visiting hours so the children could see him, then go from there to Grandad’s house to see my dad, leave Bob and children there and get an evening visit for me in too. That bit of the plan worked, but Grandad was clearly tired and a bit confused and generally so unlike himself that J ended up in tears more than once 🙁 He did know who we were though, and even remembered A’s name without any prompting (he does like babies!) so definitely better than he was a few months ago – just sad to see him going downhill again when he was so much better when living at home with my dad. I think the biggest problem is that he is bored – they were going out every day to keep him busy and now he’s stuck in a bed with eyes not good enough for reading and ears not good enough for radio 🙁 If only we could get him home I think things would improve dramatically again, but he needs too much physical care at the moment for my dad (who is nearly 70 himself ) to manage and social services are dragging their feet over assessment meetings – when pressed they finally arranged one and then failed to attend 🙁 My aunt has applied to the local Methodist home, for which he should be eligible as a local preacher of very long-standing, but it all has to be cleared by HQ and then depends on there being a place. In the meantime he is giving up and deteriorating with each passing day, despite the fact that the doctors say there is nothing in particular wrong 🙁
The evening visit was far worse, as apparently it often has been (Daddy drew the short straw, I think, as my aunt usually does afternoons and he does evenings) and Grandad was tired, crotchety and distracted. At least my being there meant my dad could take a break and run away for a few minutes (while I got closer to various sanitary and continence products than I ever thought I would) – it was hard enough for me on a once-a-week basis, but it must be incredibly hard to be there every evening, especially having already nursed him back from the brink once 🙁
While I was out, Bob and the children did a bit of catch-up work and made the most of the very large tv screen (colour too!) for Scrapheap Challenge and Last Chance to See… 🙂

We got back very late, which meant a slow start on Monday. We got music things done, then went to the park, where the children stayed and played (with a babysitter) while I went to another meeting about breastfeeding peer support, an individual one this time. We talked about my experience, what I hoped to get out of the course and so forth and I said that I thought it would be easier for me to do the course next time around, assuming it runs again, when I would only have 3 children for the creche (I am seriously impressed that they were happy to lay on creche/kids club for 5 children so I could do a free course though) and was reassured that there will be another course and my name will be on the list 😀

By the time I got back to the playground Big Alice was there too and she came back with us, which helped a bit with dividing children up to do jobs 😉 After lunch Alice read them a Story of the World chapter and then we did the activities together, ending up with some science as we tried out Newton’s theories about gravity and inertia 🙂 Then I left Alice looking at John Locke’s ideas with the older 3 and A while I took L to gymnastics. I got back to lots of lovely pictures (their selfless acts having been to do pictures for me) and made a quick tea for K and Alice so that they could get off to Beavers nice and early (field trip to find fossils at Grafham Water), Bob picked up L and the rest of us had our tea, then J and M had some ‘puter time before bed.

Today was a work day for me, with a sling coffee morning which meant taking lunch with us as not enough time to get back home before violin. We took lots of work with us and the children sat round a table in a back room (behind a curtain, anyway) and worked their way through a fair pile of normals while I talked slings. One young mum was fairly obviously there because her parents thought a sling was a good idea (go parents!) and only tolerating my explanations, with no real interest, but another, also there with her mum (and I still have slight pangs of envy over mums with mums 😕 ) wanted to know all about supportiveness, best fabrics, carries, positions and newborns. Talking it through she opted for a woven wrap, learned FWCC with my weighted doll and then with her baby and left with a lovely new Hopp and a smile on her face. That’s when I really like my job 😀

Violin was good – J has been making progress such that M may not catch him up after all (or at least not yet) but M is now only a few pages behind L, who is going more slowly mostly because of her age. She doesn’t seem worried about it, fortunately, and is still really enjoying playing 🙂 We certainly got a good value lesson this week – we only just made it back in time for K to run and change into gym clothes then nipped into town to see if the £ shop had exercise books (sadly not) before dropping him off at gym. Two lots of piano and a quick tea later it was M and J off to gym and K back home – Tuesdays are a nightmare in terms of feeding children!