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Harmonious house

So after last weekend being mainly about Abi, this one was all about Izzy. Glenn dropped Abi off at Angie's for the weekend for her birthday hunt day and so we had the peace of a one child family until lunchtime today - so much more harmonious than 2 children in the house! What this actually means is that Izzy has control of the dog bed in the study instead of Abi for once. Given we have created all manner of special places to sit and relax in our house, the fact that they fight (all 4 of them in fact) over who gets 'top dog' priority on these 2 bloody cushions is beyond me! Even Bertie and Freya growl and bicker sometimes if one of them is sprawled across the cushions and the other doesn't fit - its ridiculous!

Friday was a day off for me and it was the perfect day - I dropped the kids off to school after the normal routine of school breakfast and then chatted to Mum for an uninterrupted hour (no such luck normally on the weekend with 2 kids wanting to intervene), followed by a quick (but far enough given my current standard of cycling) 20 mile bike ride and then into town with Glenn for lunch. We both wanted to try the new Japanese that's opened and now we can say that we have, we wont need to go again. It wasn't dreadful but the food was just so-so and the service was pretty rubbish. Back to the Red House for us I suspect! From here I went and walked the dogs in lovely sunshine before picking the kids up from school and saying goodbye to Abi. As she headed off she gave me a big hug and looked so happy.

Izzy and I settled down happily for the evening - me to do some glass work and her to do some colouring. Kerrie had tasked me to do her 'something with hedgehogs' in glass... no pressure then. I decided the easiest thing would be some coaster so I worked a relatively simple a design out and set to work. I'm definitely still at the stage where its very hot and miss so I was super chuffed when I opened the kiln on Saturday morning to find they had worked out just as I had planned - doesn't happen that often!

Saturday was the normal riding but first Izzy had asked if we could go to Tesco to get some bits and pieces. She and Abi had been after some nappies for their babies and so Izzy was tasked with sorting it out while Abi was away - still in charge from afar! We had a happy half hour picking up what she wanted (and what I needed) before we went to the stables. Izzy has gone up a group and so I was pleased to see her in a much more challenging lesson, that is until one of the ponies got a bit wound up and started to gallop round the ring in ever faster circles  getting more and more out of control. The girl riding did an amazing job and kept her cool, unlike us poor Mums watching with our hearts in our mouths... it was made worse by the fact that the same girl is only getting back into lessons after a very bad fall where she ended up being air lifted from the stables to the hospital. Thank goodness her Mum is quite level headed otherwise there would have been screams from the sidelines I think. Luckily it all calmed down and I was pleased when they were off and we were heading home.

In the evening we had a call from Abi and for once she wanted to chat. In the end she spent about an hour on the phone to us, mainly because unlike a normal week there was no one else of her age there I guess, but it was lovely to talk to her like that. She decided she'd prefer to come home in the morning rather than the afternoon as originally planned - I think she knew how tired she was after 5 hours out hunting.

Today has been all about tidying the garden this morning and then the school Christmas fair. Abi came home around midday, knackered as we suspected she would be and headed straight for the shower and her dressing gown.  Izzy and I tried to persuade her to come to the fair but she was having none of it so we went off only for her to phone later in tears saying she had wanted to come after all - cant win! She didn't miss much - a combination of lovely but expensive stalls with the normal tat stalls designed to raise as much money as possible from stuff other people don't want. If the numbers were anything to go by then they should have raised a good few pounds.

Work tomorrow but day off on Tuesday for Abi's birthday. Given I'm missing my normal Monday for a proposal we are doing and there is an evening meeting at work on Tuesday which I was excusing myself for to be at home it seemed easier to just have the day off. I am thoroughly enjoying the 4 day week - its keeping me sane!



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