3 days in one

I had reluctantly arranged with Sarah to have a Group meeting today, though gained a bit more enthusiasm by Wednesday morning and sent out a few texts and phoned Guy. I had a brainwave during the night to get the clay out and some pinecones and gather a few beech nuts for making gnomes as a suitably autumnal activity. This went down very well with the four families of kids that were there. Sarah also brought some potatoes for printing, which you can see in the background behind the woodland creatures.


The afternoon, went generally well, I suppose, though I did get really wound up, first with the fact that all our little chairs were nowhere to be seen, put away by the playgroup, until Dave came and got them out. Then there was the rug, recently out of my living room, which I found outside in the rain smelling musty and covered in slug trails. When I find out who did this they will know about it...
Then there was the parent who refused to stop her child from disrupting the focussed activities that the younger children were doing. I had started doing a bit of music as some of the children had picked up some of the percussion instruments. This boy actually almost joined in for about two minutes and then started runnning about and trying to get the others to do the same. Sarah's boys and Freddie were not drawn, and were sweetly playing away, but we could hardly hear each other for the noise of the running about and shouting. I asked her, and the children, three or four times to be quiet for a few minutes so we could carry on, but she just said something like, "O it's inevitable, they're just settling in which each other". But I don't think it's ok at all to let children be so disrespectful and disrupt what other people are doing. This woman had been talking my head off as well, trying to get me to go climbing/skating, etc, etc, and was keen to come every week, "because it's important for them to have regular contact with a group of kids". Well, I wish she would just go to Woodcraft Folk instead, cos she does my head in. This is one of the people who started coming a year ago and I stopped because I couldn't handle it. They just wanted to take over. I don't see why I should put up with it, but I suppose, as she was invited to the picnic she thought that it was ok for her to come to the group, too. basically, of course, I want it to be open to everybody, but when people start imposing their way of doing things it's just not fair. I mean I am quite happy to spend as much time as possible with Guy and Sarah: thay are my friends, and also wouldn't dream of walking all over me. That's what it feels like when she just takes no notice of what I'm saying- like it's not my place to dictate what happens; I'm just not being listened to at all, and quite frankly I can't stand being in that room for two hours with children running about. The can do that outside. Some of the younger ones got hurt, too, when it turned into a fee-for-all, which is probably enough to put them off altogther.
Anyway, I'm ranting, not very clearly, at the moment, so I'll move on.

So straight after we went to see the house, that I am buying, to inspect the outdoor play equipment: trampoline, climbing frame, various swings, treehouse, wendy house, swing seat, etc, etc, and arrange a price. So that was good, though also quite draining trying to picture all my stuff fitting into that house.

After the kids went to daddy's I went to let off steam at the open mic session, where I actually sang, and was very nervous, but maybe I'll get used to it. (No, that's not me, it's Joe Rybicki)
I've actually succombed to the illness the children have all had and have been lying around in bed a lot today, but manged to make some soup. Got no food left now, so I'll have to go out tomorrow, but I'm not going bloody skating, even if I told Guy I was: I'm too tired.