St George's Fun Day.

Yup, he's become a bit of an icecream monster, now he knows what the icecream van is for.  (sigh)
Anyway, the Fun Day - brilliant.  A lovely completely free day organised by the local churches, which also included free (soft or tea/coffee) drinks and bbq.  Rye had a marvelous time.  He didn't play on the bouncy castle, which suprised me - seemed intimidated by it.  He did however, have a lovely time playing with the equipment at the school where the funday was held.

Roaring like a lion, inside the wooden wendy house.

Yup, another lolly - mind he lost most of it trying to join the bigger boys playing football.
I spent most of the day nattering to fellow childminder, we met when she took on Rye for me when I first moved down here - and before I gave up my office job. 

A lovely ending to a lovely week.  I hadn't quite realised just how much I needed a break from work.  There's being barely a cross word spoken all week - we've had fun, we've played, had lots of cooperation, and I feel, re-established a strong connection.   Additionally, I feel much more grounded and looking forward to seeing my mindee tomorrow. 

And the coming week promises to be full of activities and fun too.

I am also quite keen to see how using "Playful Parenting" with my mindee pans out.  It's been a wonderful success with Rye, he's been giggling loads, barely a whinge in hearing and when I've asked him to help with various bits he's done so happily.   

I even used it at the park with some older kids - a couple of boys, who are always polite and friendly with me, were picking on a young girl, calling her names - boardering on being racist.  Interestingly, the boy being the worst, has brown skin himself - sort of meditarian colouring, so I'm guessing he's had his far share of taunts.  Toward the end, they were all sat around the park while I pushed Rye on the swings, chatting to me & asking questions about Home Ed, their schools, what schools they hope to go to at secondary level etc.  Nice to see, as the young lass was starting to look quite upset.

Zoooooooooooooom, week gone.

By 'eck!  This week has flown by.

Beginning of the week, Rye made various tunnels out of various materials... and my mindee had great fun kncoking it all down, to Rye's dismay. 

Wednesday Sarah and the twins visited, poor 'ole J has come out in chicken pox and is a tad sorry for himself, bless.  The kids had fun, though and my lounge looked like a whirlwind had occured, by the time everyone left for their respective homes.  I love it though, no matter how bad it looks, the shelves and baskets mean it takes 5-10 minutes top, to tidy up...and all those toys on the floor symbolises, fun, exploration and imagination.. along with the odd tumble as the floor progressively gets covered and wee people, slip and slither over various toys and books.  Ahhh, good for the balance, eh :-)
Thursday was toddler group, both kids enjoyed that a lot; afterwards I took them swimming too - 'cept the baths were closed, I was rather miffed.
Friday play in the garden, later on we wandered down to Sarah's with another friend and spent a pleasant evening chatting away.  Rye so enjoyed seeing everyone he insisted we went back to Aunty J's for a bit, which was lovely, then home, crochet and bed.
Then today, I ws crocheting, listening to the local radio, while the kids played and it was announced that the morning show was coming from Folkestone Town Centre because there's a multi-cultural festival on.  So, spur of the moment, we donned shoes, I found the ring sling and we wandered into town.
We watched the Japanese Dancing:

We listened, briefly, to a local celebrity -she was really good, sings show songs etc.. unfortunately Rye was not keen on the level of the noise, so we wandered off after a few minutes.

We watched people write their names in Japanese:

And Rye had a go, with some help - bless him, he was very unsure about all the people.  (Photo taken at home)

We decided to eat lunch in town, I popped to a local bakery and bought sausage rolls, and then from a market stall I bought a couple of caramel iced doughnuts to share, some drinks and we found a quieter area of the town centre and sat and ate, ran around and the kids fed the seagull.

A pleasant week, garden play, going out, planning activities etc, all these things definitely help me to be more present with the children, much calmer and, more imaginative, too, in how I deal with situations.... when we are stuck indoors the noise and squabbling drives me potty and I end up feel very irritable and consequently my parenting becomes more controlling, less respectful and a lot less imaginative.. not to mention shouty mama tends to appear, too, and poor Rye ends up being banished upstairs... not before we've both had a good shouting session at each other.  So yup, those days when the weather really does not encourage one to venture out, I have learned a planned activity helps enormously to keep the atmosphere calm and loving.
Hehe, and waterproofs are a gods send!

Poxy Blessings.

Today has been filled with laughter and joy... oh and a bit of baking.  Mmmm perfect.
The children played on the bean bag, laughing and giggling as they fell on it, then rolled off; and generally got into big heaps.

We had fun playing with the jigsaws, and YAH! Rye seems to have passed the "I can't do it," and sulking stage and really had a good go at the jigsaws; most of which he can do now, so time to start looking for more complex ones I guess.  My charge had a decent go too; although she was more interested in holding the cat piece and shouting "CAT!"  lmao.

Thursday's are half days for my charge, so at 1pm, her mum picked her up.  I flumped onto the sofa with a cuppa and the laptop for half hour... and much to my amusement this was my various views as I looked up occasionally;

 I had wondered how long it would take him to figure something like that out lol.

He asked to play with the v'tec reader thingy; it's been sat on top of other book case for months, and today I was feeling magnamious, so I got it down for him.  The shorts disappeared in a frantic dash for the loo.  Rye is going through a somewhat frustrating phase of waiting too long to go to the loo, and thus wetting himself.  Most of the frustration is his because he is getting modest in his old age, and wants trousers on - 'cept he's going through 4 or 5 pairs a day and I simply cannot keep on top of the washing when I can't put clothes outside to dry.  Today has been a mostly dry day though, as I've sent him upstairs as soon as I've seen the slightest hint of a jig or willy holding.

And the poxy blessings?  Well, that's because normally on a Thursday I would be at HE Group with the kids, owing to the spotty lurgy we stayed home, so after C was picked up an afternoon home.  Well, the kitchen called me and as Rye had taken himself upstairs with his cars and the v-tec reader thingy, and after I checked just what he was up to; (cuddled in my bed watching Bob the Builder Dvd and playing with his cars), I delightfully stepped into my kitchen.

Quick tidy up; and then baking; well that was the plan; but then I decided to use up the last of the veggies because my Riverford Veg Box arrives tomorrow.  The plan initially was to make vegetable root soup; it morphed into red lentil curry with brown basmalti rice. YUM.  There is bread dough rising, I'll pop that in the fridge though and bake off in the morning - hmmm fresh bread.

And I was going to bake the lemony shortbread again; but just below that recipe was another for lemony bars.  It is basically a shortbread/buscuity base that is baked off; and then a lemony "custard" poured on top, which sort of seeps into the base, while a little stays on top.  Delicious; tastes a bit like a cross between lemon cheesecake and shortbread.  Very, very rich and tasty :-)

And then after tea; the rain began to pound against the window, the lightening flashed and a huge crack of thunder overhead.  Rye raced to the window to watch the storm :-)  It was a beauty, although over in flash ;-)

Proactive Mummy.

So, I have no idea when I will once again feel warmth, tl'u and I are starting to get use to been cold all the time - I expect my father would have said it's character building. Wimpishness has dogged me though, I've been feeling a tad sorry for myself and mighty miffed that the plumber hasn't at least popped round to do a temporary fix until a new boiler can be fitted. He just keeps wining that there's no point. The POINT is so I have some hot water so tl'u and I can have a bath!

The house is a tip; there is a mountain of laundry, dishwashing and cleaning and washing of floors and I admit, I've used the lack of heating and hot water as an excuse to let the place go to the pits. No more, Proactive Mummy to the rescue; the washing machine is cold fill anyway, and ok drying stuff will be a bit difficult, but it is a beautiful sunshiny morning, so the clothes horses can go out side and then I'll just have to finish the clothes off in the dryer later.

The dishwasher is poorly too, sigh. So, rather than waiting for the boiler to be fixed before doing any dishes I will just get my bum in gear and boil the kettle. I am very gutted about the dishwasher, I'd forgotton how wonderful they are..and I know its just me and tl'u, nontheless I go through a lot of dishes and pans because I cook and bake alot... I am very tempted to save up and buy a new one.

Thankfully, tl'u doesn't seem fussed by the lack of heating - he is bundled up in a vest, sweater, cardy and then another fleecy thick cardy, thick joggers and socks. I would prefer if he wore his slippers but he keeps kicking them off. I may attempt some booties with ties - shouldn't take long to crochet.