Yesterday was mostly good

I don’t have photos. (I will take some!)

However, after a morning of normals while I did a few work related jobs and the girls occupied themselves sensibly, getting on with things from their lists.

Amelie and Josie then went back to a game they’ve been playing for a while; Amelie was “not well”, coughing and wheezing and would definitely have been at home if she’d been a school child (although she perked up a lot by gym time and is okay today!) so I decided that she could just do whatever. She and Josie have got back to playing nicely and so I’m encouraging that as they’ve had a summer of bickering and strain. Both of them seem to be doing an awful lot of processing about Freddie at the moment, lots of questions, lots of dreams, lots of wistful talking about how he’d have been if he was alive and well, or not well, and I think they need time and head space for that, so I’m not pressuring them. Josie is little anyway and Amelie reads and so on like anything, and will always do things if I ask her, so as long as she’s meaningfully active and busy, I’m fine with that.

(They are now shrieking at each other 🙄 )

Fran started to plan her Nano story and we all sat in the dining room together; I want to move our HE work into there over the winter to make more of the light from the garden and try to declutter the lounge a bit. Sitting at sofas is not ideal for anyone and the table feel more communal. So Fran wrote and we talked about literary devices like surnames that suit a character or give a flavour of the person and also about how all characters have good and bad points, even villains. Told her the Chalet School truism that matron spouts at Joey 😉

“There’s so much bad in the best of us,
And so my good in the worst of us,
That it ill behoves the rest of us,
To think the worst of any of us.”

Do love matron 😆

She planned away happily, occasionally coming up with characters that she’d thought of in books she’s read who fitted one rule or the other and it wa all very interesting (Malfoy and Potter being two good examples – Mal for bad and also sounds sinister and Potter has an upbeat, very English, rounded and wholesome sound).

Her book is going to be a ballet school story and she diverted into trying to draw dancers. Tried really hard too. Maddy also drew a very good dancer.

While Fran was writing Maddy, having drawn, made Fimo models that represented out two bunny combos – so a clover leaf made of paper with 5’s on it and a button made of biscuit 🙂

Then we put on Harry Potter 1 and listened for the rest of the day. I knitted and modelled another tree picture (still not happy, much to work on). And Fran eventually moved on to felting. Which meant everyone else did too and all 5 of us sat round the table for a while doing things. It really was a good day.

Last year we did a craft December, hemmed in by my pregnancy, lots of snow and the need to indulge in Xmas after years of it consuming me with work. I think we need to do the same this year, perhaps a little more challenging in the crafting – but mainly to enjoy being together. What I wouldn’t give to be pregnant again then though. Please, please, please.

Still. Lots that made me happy today.