There are some days when a walk and company are all that is needed.
There are days when the best company is none at all.
There are days when you decided to stay, have one more glass of wine with a friend. To walk, leaving the car to be collected the next day. You head through their garden, out the back gate and down the road to home.
So it’s Friday at last. I really did think it would never, ever get here this week. I have been absent from my blog most of the week for a few reasons, but mainly because this time last week I was just getting home to a full house. My BestPam was here with her own lovely children & GOB* and as I walked in the door wine was offered… and ahh…. well, fun ensued… *ahem*
I love having BestPam here. She is family. She just is. I believe that family is what you make it… and for me that means people that I am tied to by blood and those I am tied to by love. Yes L.O.V.E. love. I have written before about the family that was made… and on facebook my favourite quote is from Carrie in Sex and The City, because, really, truer words were never uttered…
The most important thing in life is your family. There are days you love them, and others you don’t. But, in the end, they’re the people you always come home to. Sometimes it’s the family you’re born into and sometimes it’s the one you make for yourself.I am lucky. My family is made up of the one I was born into and the one I made for myself. But really, I didn’t make it for myself, I made it with other people… some, like BestPam have been a part of it for a long time. What I love about having this family is that we can, without fear, be ourselves. Just as we are. Not always in our best, well planned outfit… with a good hair day and our best manners… but in PJ’s and trackies, and bed hair, and too much wine… we can laugh till we cry and have to race to the loo for fear of weak bladders, we can see each other for who we are, not what we wear, or what our hair looks like, or where we live.
So, thanks BestPam for another great time together. I miss you already.
*GOB = Grumpy Old Bugger (who, despite grumpiness we all love anyway and who, truth be known isn’t that grumpy really.)
So, it’s Friday. I do love Friday. Don’t you?
Today was a great day. The class were happy and engaged… there was talk of the Feiffel Tower (that’s Eiffel Tower to you) There was wondering about how to build said Feiffel tower with blocks as well as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
We had a wonderful incursion, where, among other things children learnt what to do if they see a used syringe. Yes. Really. Welcome to the 21st century people.
In case you are wondering what to do, you STOP! DON’T TOUCH IT! QUICK! GET A GROWN UP! There are even actions!
But what Friday really means is the weekend is almost here . Â That means I can deal with this -
Yes. That is my bath. A deep, claw foot bath. Yes. It is full of laundry. There was more, but I shoved it in the washing machine… on Tuesday… it’s still in there. Just one of those weeks. *
So, now you have been shocked… may I suggest a calming drink? It is, after all Friday. Cheers everyone!
Have a great weekend! xxx
*Yes, and now it seems it’s just one of those weekends… discovered nits this morning in the Blue Eyed Boys hair… so the washing pile was de-bunked from the bath… and added to with more towels, sheets, pillow slips…. and I think, in there somewhere my sanity. Â I wonder if it’s too early for a drink?
Recently on a Friday afternoon after lunch and a play and a story and a chat and a drink and a rest and putting on shoes, the class, The Lovely Assistant, any parents willing to hang around and help, and myself have headed outside the kinder confines to THE TENNIS COURTS. Yes, that’s how we like to say it, in loud, excited tones.
THE TENNIS COURTS are a magical place for the class. They are HUGE. The have NETS. They have (thankfully) a very high fence on all sides. We have started playing Fruit Salad on the courts.
Fruit Salad is a running game. Just the thing for a Friday afternoon. There are rules. There are apples, there are pears, there are bananas, there are oranges. I have tried other fruits… but other fruits can cause Friday afternoon tears. Mangoes are not always wanted. Strawberries are wanted by everyone, even the bananas. Kiwi fruit, well, apparently no one wants them.
The rules are simple. ÂWhen the fruit you have been named is called you RRRRRRRRRRRRRUN across the court from one yellow line to another yellow line – wait, that’s a white line Sweetie, here is the yellow line, keep running over here…. yes, that’s right, here is the yellow line… what’s that? You need a wee, OK in you go with The Lovely Assistant… oh, you need a wee as well? Ok go catch up, Oh, you don’t need a wee, your shoelace is undone, will I can fix that… but you will need to now come off that yellow line I was so keen for you to run to so I can tie the lace. Now, where was I… OK, APPLES! No one runs. BANANAS! Everyone runs, even the apples.
This is where the next stage of the game comes in. When I call FRUIT SALAD everyone is supposed to run, because, you know it’s a fruit salad. Sometimes everyone does run, almost.
When it’s fruit salad I am meant to try and catch fruit… then put them in the jam pot. Then I can also call out JAM POT and the jam pot runs screaming (I didn’t specify the screaming, it just seems to come with the jam pot.) So, now we have apples, pears, bananas and oranges running. We also have fruit salad running as well as the jam pot screaming like baby banshees running.
Are you following so far? Simple really, isn’t it. So, here we go… FRUIT SALAD… run… run… I’m going to catch you…. yes Darling, I know you are an orange… but when it’s fruit salad everyone runs, even the oranges… Um, Petal, aren’t you in the jam pot? You are? Well, wait until I say jam pot then you can run OK? Hmmmm, what’s that? You don’t want to be a pear, you want to be the goose? Well, perhaps when we play duck, duck, goose… Oh, Lovely-ness, if you run screaming into my legs and climb up them hug them it makes it very easy for me to catch you, so if you don’t want to be in the jam pot run away from me next time.
By now I am out of breath. I am hoarse from saying fruit salad, and Jam pot, and various other fruits. I am sweating from trying to catch all the little fruit salad pieces. Really, who knew four year olds could run with such gazelle like ability? There are, after a time, only a few pieces of fruit children left waiting to be put in the Jam Pot, where the rest of the class wait with The Lovely Assistant, who, being much fitter than me seems to be barley raising a sweat from all that running with the jam.
It’s at this point I declare game over, so we can start playing Duck, Duck Goose… have you ever tried to get 25 or so children in a circle, sitting down and then get one to chase another AROUND the circle?
Friday, I’m in love with you.
