Picnic

I am trying hard as I write to not grump, complain, grumble, whinge or rant, but I'm finding it really hard. I think I'm just tired, and maybe coming down with something. But, I will concentrate on the positives.

Today really has been lovely. It's just not been what I expected, or planned, but we have spent the day as a family which I think we really needed to do.

But.

I said I wouldn't complain.

So.

Steve went out for an early morning bike ride, as he has started to do on Saturdays. It takes him a couple of hours, and the theory is, he then has the rest of the day to spend with me and Ben rather than going out during the day. He come home and announced that it was such a glorious day that we should go out to Cissbury, simply because it was beautiful, and because it would be a shame to waste such glorious weather. And we did. By the time we'd finished breakfasting, sorting out bags, made sandwiches, been to the shop for salad for sandwiches, made hot chocolate, made drinks, re-packed bags, changed nappies, got dressed, etcetera ad infinitum, it was very late morning. We arrived at Cissbury and I was hungry again. We had a little walk around the ring, and sat down to have our picnic. Such beautiful sunshine, glorious views. We watched the sea, the planes, the birds, the helicopters, butterflies, beetles, ladybirds; Ben ate chocolate and crisps and totally ignored his sandwiches, ran around, had shoulder rides, swung between us, sang as he rode on daddy's shoulders; and when we got back to the car we had cups of hot chocolate which Ben declared were yummy.

He fell asleep on the way home, totally zonked, and has slept the rest of the afternoon. Which meant we totally missed out on the Family Fun Day that the church across the road put on this afternoon, which I was actually looking forward to going to, but to be honest the way I've felt today I'm actually a bit relieved that Ben decided that the second half of his nap was going to be on our bed, with me, firmly attached, and so I dozed and dozed and eventually woke up starving.

We've had naughty pizza for tea. Steve ordered it, after working some more on Ben's room. We did a bit of undercoating of picture rails - they actually look ok now, I was a bit hesitant about them when they went up, full of screw holes and joins, but they are looking good. Steve's been wiring in the sockets too, although they won't work until the rest of the upstairs sockets are wired in and the board downstairs is installed. It's a long hard slog, this house renovation lark. I hope it doesn't take this long to do any of the other rooms in the house. Ben's room has taken well over 6 months so far, and that doesn't include building and plastering the wall in the first place.

Lots of cooking to do tomorrow. I've realised another useful reason to do big batches of food - a friend of ours has had THE most awful morning sickness for the past 2 months and we were able to provide a meal for her family from the food we had in the freezer :) I like this batch cooking thing. It's quite useful :)