NotSheep

On Saturday morning I told Freddy to have breakfast and then we were going out shopping for what he needs for Germany – and didn’t get a groan and a moan and a grumpy face, so I knew he must be getting excited. I forgot to mention that earlier in the week Tim had phoned us – he left a super-excited-sounding message on the answering machine which made us all laugh, and then when we phoned him back he and Freddy spent the best part of an hour gabbing away (two eleven-year-old boys! talking! on the phone! who knew it was possible!) I was expecting to talk to Tim when they finished talking, but suddenly Freddy said “Right, well I have to go for dinner now. Bye!” and hung up. The phone-call definitely helped him a bit though – he’s been very nervous, and it seemed to shift him a bit towards anticipation rather than apprehension

I was told in one shop that Saturday was the second-busiest Saturday of the year (after the Saturday before xmas) and that they’d had their second-busiest week of the year (after the week before xmas) – it was definitely not a good day to be shopping for essentials. Freddy and I did manage to buy everything he needs – I think! – and we also had lunch out together. In fact spending the whole day with him, just the two of us, made up for the crowds and the queues and the parking. We bought a huge hold-all and a schoolbag and school supplies – eeek! And jeans and trousers and shirts and sweaters and socks and underwear and trainers and “shoes with bright bottoms”, as the email from Tim’s family said – it took me a minute to figure out that an alternative translation would have read “shoes with light-coloured soles” – i.e. shoes that won’t leave marks on the floor in the school hall! I do like the idea of shoes with bright bottoms though – I’ll never look at plimsolls in quite the same way again

While we were having lunch Scratchy phoned and told me there were two very disappointed girls at our house – Jack’s friends E and A had arrived with bags in which they planned to take their freshly-made playdough home…

Freddy and I made it home before dinnertime (just as well, as we’d picked up the ingredients on our last stop!) – both of us wiped out. I can’t believe I used to go shopping all day most Saturdays, by choice. What was I thinking?!

Today has been one of those days when I’ve pottered about doing bits and pieces mostly. After a late start I made a meal-plan for the next few days, then went downstairs and started thinking about moving the plants out of the conservatory – I don’t want to leave them in there when it’s too cold overnight, and the weather is already starting to move in that direction. I didn’t get far though, because E and A arrived, and this time they even had notepads ready to write down the playdough recipe. I showed them how to make it (with help from Jack, Toby and Louie), wrote the recipe out for them, and left them all sitting around the kitchen table playing with the stuff while I worked with the plants in the conservatory. Trampolining competitions were had (the rules: make up a move, give it a name, everybody else scores it – one of Jack’s moves was called The Crying Banana) Lunch was had and small children were settled for naps, groceries were purchased and then the middle four children went off to the movies. And that’s where they are now, which is why I’ve got time to catch up on blogging