Yanno, the stuff I remember doing over the last two weeks.

Last Monday was Jo and Kai’s leaving playdate, which turned out to be just us (we crossed paths with Ny and B on our way back down the hill, heh). It was cold and rainy so apart from a bit of a wander through the back of the property during a break in the drizzle, the kids mostly played inside – surprisingly amicably, all things considered!

Last Tuesday, we had a field trip to Riverbend Alpacas to watch the animals being sheared, after Dylan dropped into their roadside stall for vegies a while back, got talking to the owners about fibrecraft and homeschooling, and was invited to bring the kids to the shearing. I spent most of my time running around after H (as usual) but K and the others got to watch. We also received some unfortunate news about Dylan’s dad, who had had an accident (which turned out to be much less serious than first thought, luckily!) and was in hospital. We fed the kids then drove up to Hobart, where I dropped Dylan off at the hospital and took the four kids to the train park. We were slightly apprehensive that C would be devastated at her mum getting out of the car without her(!!!), but there wasn’t a peep out of her and she played happily with the other kids for an hour or so before everyone started getting a little tired and ratty.

Wednesday Dylan went into town as usual, and we flumped and had a quiet day at home, which was most appreciated! Thursday was a somewhat noisier day at home since Dylan and her lot were here too, but we got a lot of laundry accomplished, heh. Friday was Spice Mix Day at Meg’s, although I piked out at the last moment and stayed home. Then Saturday was Jo and Brett’s farewell party (although I got to leave the kids with Bat and go by myself so it doesn’t really count for the purposes of this blog). On Sat I went out by myself, but Mr Bat also tried taking the four smalls out by himself to the lolly shop and the tip and Dylan got to have a shower and do some knitting in peace! Sunday we experimented with this further so that Dylan could go up the road to help a new friend cob their strawbale house, so he took the kids down to the hardware store, then came back for me and we headed off to the park at Shipwrights Point. I actually abandoned him and went off and had coffee at the cafe, then walked up the road, so it was about an hour with him supervising all four by himself, and apparently it went without a hitch.

I’ve also done a fair bit of gardening: on Sunday I sheet-mulched the smallest bed in the front yard, and dug the soil level down below the small patch where it’s starting to rot the weatherboards on the corner. I left a lip of cardboard sticking up all the way around to keep the organic mulch off the concrete foundations, and I’m going to fold that down and put about ten centimetres of pebble mulch on top at some point. K helped me spread the mulch out, which Dylan and I mowed the lawn to provide. Then on (public holiday )Monday morning I went out and marked out proposed beds with hoses and tent pegs and string, before the Snowflakes came over for a BBQ lunch and playdate. They had a lovely time with my kids (Dylan was in town at her parents’ and the Wooden Boat Festival), with much playing in the water barrel behind Mr Bat’s studio. It was a stinker of a day (for Tas), so I figure that was a pretty sensible way to play, heh. A highlight for Mama and Papa Snow was seeing G (who has Aspergers) and K building a fairy house co-operatively out of mud on the back path. After they’d gone home and the sun had gone down a bit, Mr Bat and I edged the circular path in the front garden together, which was Not Fun, and promises to be quite a lot more Not Fun given how much edging is still to be done… Mr Bat also spent time over the weekend teaching K to program in LOGO, but I will leave that up to him to elaborate on.

Tuesday was a determinedly lazy day on the part of me and Dylan, which meant that the kids ran amok (looks like we didn’t learn any lessons from our successful table day after all). But K asked Dylan to teach her to knit, so there was some actual learning going on amidst the fighting and yelling. She’s done a few rows and is extremely proud of herself.

And now…we’re going to be heading off for a park day at Dru Point shortly, so I should get my arse into gear!