The day started off well.  I was feeling productive by 7:30am as I sat down and trimmed my toenails.  There was in fact a general air of productivity to the day as Nana and Daba were already in the garden running by this time.  Daba ran for 1 hr 20 mins which is impressive but there is a lady in PE who completed an entire triathlon at home on Sunday.  The children joined in on the running and this kept them busy while the rest of us had coffee and rusks on the patio and Jethro crawled around eating crayons or something.

By mid morning, the children were back inside looking for something to do and I was facing the fact that I had totally lost momentum on the children’s activity programme.  They started asking me to make them bespoke paper crafts.  Hope asked for a unicorn head band with ears and rainbow hair.  I made two of those and then I had to refuse any further request because I just didn’t feel like any more cutting and sticking.  Other than that, the morning’s activities with the children also consisted of the chicken dance.

Fred decided to make a lamb stew for supper.  He got it into the oven to slow cook early on in the day.  A stew was a good idea as the weather took a turn for the worse as the day went on.  When Jethro went down for his nap, I stayed upstairs while Fred went downstairs with the three older children.

When Nana and Daba emerged from their nap, it was time for the story writing challenge.  The children were all still downstairs.  I suggested that it might be easier to tell each other our stories without the children around.  Although we all agreed, Daba went out in the rain to call them.  It’s a process to get everybody seated and sitting still.  We then have to explain that no, there are no pictures.

Raphi had selected the theme – The Colourful Line.  I moved up in the ranks as Caleb declared my story to be the second best.  However, this was only because Nana was disqualified for writing a story about a colourful lion as she had misheard the theme.

The afternoon was rainy.  The dads went downstairs to drink beer and discuss the enneagram.  The children and moms migrated downstairs too and when the fort-building and enneagram discussions started becoming heated, everybody decided that it was time to go upstairs and eat the stew.

The stew was delicious.