Today was absolutely freezing. K and I were mostly sensible and stayed indoors, although I did go out to check on the bunnies and let the chooks out. I found two eggs in the hen house, one, rather disgustingly, buried half in a pile of droppings. I washed that one off and gave it to the dog – given how susceptible eggs are to picking up smells, I didn’t want to risk wondering why a cake I had made with it smelled like poop! We spent the morning pottering and tidying up the dining room and playroom for Mum’s visit this afternoon. The playroom is now ridiculously bare, except for the pile of beanbags on the floor from where B, K and I spent the evening playing with Duplo and Tummy Ache!. But I’m getting ahead of myself there…
For my first Mum’s Afternoon Off having a mango frappe at my favourite cafe while writing a shopping list and musing about frugality (rather unfrugally, I had to buy a notebook to do my musing in because my children keep stealing and losing the ones I buy for my handbag, grrr). Then I went to the markets and bought various fruit and veg, including a big box of marked/bruised apples and pears marked down to $5 a box. I’ve found quite a few which are worth eating, and made a batch of applesauce in the crockpot with the rest. K was very happy to find all the pears in particular, and has already eaten one and a half.
We had complicated car arrangements today since E had a job thingy in Belconnen at 5:30, so he took the car into work and when I went out I borrowed Mum’s car. He came home at 5:15, then I dropped him off at Dee’s before heading out to pick up B from riding, then back to Dee’s to pick up E, and then finally home! Over an hour in the car, for most of which K was asleep. I had gotten dinner underway before I left so I only had about half of it to do when we got home again, otherwise we’d have been eating at midnight… Kangaroo bolognaise, to be turned into lasagne tomorrow. I even remembered to take the applesauce out of the crockpot this evening, pureed it, and put it in the fridge, so it won’t have to be thrown out like the last time I made it!
K, as ever, loves “helping” me cook. While she’s stopped chopping the mushrooms, she likes taking the stems out for me, and putting the chopped pieces in a bowl. While I was chopping up apples she was supervising, and handing me new apples when I needed them. She absolutely loves her little stepladder – a wonderful Aussie Junk find for $5. When she wasn’t “helping”, she was happily parked on top of the ladder playing with the play dough. B joined in, and got down the toy potter’s wheel we bought a while back, and showed K how to use it. There were a few squabbles, but mostly they were playing together well. B retreated to her room for a while, then came out and said, “I should come out and say this more often instead of just sitting down in front of my computer, but – I’m bored”. Awesome self-awareness there, munchkin! So she joined in with K and I in making a Duplo house, then helped us tidy the Duplo away so we could play Tummy Ache!. Lovely Bear that she is…
Tomorrow’s HENCAST thing is a Knitting Day, which B is quite keen on, but will probably turn int me chasing K around for an hour or so, so I can’t say I view it with any huge enthusiasm. I really can’t wait until she’s old enough to get involved and be less of a chore in these situations… although of course when she is, Rosy will be just about old enough to take over her role as PITA! B has also expressed an interest in doing the acid rain experiment kit which I bought a while ago (speaking of which, I might go out now and put out a pot to collect rainwater, since we need some of that for the experiment). I also printed out the free story and activities which arrived from Newsademic, billed as the international newspaper for young readers. We’ll see if she’s interested in a newspaper pitched more at her reading and knowledge level.
PS. Of course, when I went outside to put out a pot to catch some rain, I discovered that it’s actually stopped raining for the first time in two days. Typical!