Painting

Today was the first weekday in a while that Steve had to be up and out in the morning. He was working in the church office, and out for meetings. Sounded like a productive morning anyway!

Meanwhile the boys and I had a very "normal" morning - eg not getting dressed, taking it easy, getting LOADS of stuff done sorting laundry and cupboards and drawers. The sort of stuff that gets done a whole lot faster when you're not paying a great deal of attention to it.

After lunch for some reason we decided to ALL go to the shops, originally it was intended that just Steve go with the boys so I could get something done but I got my jobs done and Ben insisted I come too. We got MDF primer from the hardware store (who don't actually sell MDF primer, just one-coat MDF paint, and some kind of paints-anything paint which we ended up getting) and then the boys and I sat in the supermarket cafe while Steve did the shopping. Today was not one of those days where I have two sweet beautiful darling boys with me in the cafe. No, neither of them was particularly interested in sitting or eating or drinking. They wanted to play. So in the end I let them both get down and Ben pretended to be a baby in the cafe, crawling around with Charley. I figure you just need to roll with it sometimes rather than stress yourself out forcing them to stay in their seats...

We had to get home though because Barbara from Steve's old work was popping round with one of his books that he'd hoped he'd left in the library there. Ben took to her immediately and said he wanted her to come round again, lots! She was ace, treated him as a complete equal, heard him, noticed him, paid as much attention to him in a beautifully normal way as she did Steve or me. And he instantly loved her for it!

While Steve and Barbara talked, I was cooking - preparing a tomato pasta sauce, and making beefburgers. It smelled soooo good. And of course there was nothing for dinner after that, so we ended up with beans on toast...

Once the boys were in bed I started playing with the new enamel paints we'd got from the hardware store earlier. The cups and bowls I experimented on look beautiful :) Need to perfect my technique (and maybe invest in some finer paintbrushes) but I already think they are going to look stunning!

As usual Charley's waking was my cue to go to bed, and a couple of hours later I woke up wondering why the hall lights were still on and Steve wasn't in bed, discovering it was gone 1.30am.... Oh I give up!!