Stormy weather

The rest of that week was not as exciting.  Our Daughter was unwell on the Wednesday, so her husband worked from home.  We collected Lydia earlier than normally so he could work uninterrupted,  I did the Sainsbury's run whilst she napped. Then husband collected Nathaniel from nursery. We let them use their new little chairs in the garden. Lydia still managed to topple hers over, but I don't think she understands the concept yet, of just sitting still.

Nathaniel on his new chair

W took them home to Daddy later than usual. Daughter was up, she had some sort of flu by the sound of it. However where she works was due to be involved in the local government strike the next day, so she needed a note from the Dr.
The next day was rather cloudy and dull, it wasn't exactly sitting in the garden weather, so the children stayed indoors for most of the time. At one point Nathaniel picked up a nursery rhyme book and was 'reading' to his sister as they shared a chair. It was quite sweet for a while till the pushing and shoving started, then Lydia managed to end up on the floor. Later Nat was playing happily with his trains, but Lydia would sneak up and run off with one of his engines, laughing as she did so. Things were getting pretty fraught, so we were glad when it was time to take them home. Daughter had managed to get a telephone consultation, so her husband had collected the needed sick note. That evening we were late eating and late going to bed.
The next morning we were up late and had a lazy morning, it had rained overnight. I was getting ready to attend the nursery sports day, but Daughter rand to say it had been cancelled. I don't know how well I have been sleeping, but I dozed off,and slept for 2 hours after lunch, then we went over to the garden centre, Husband needed  something, and I was tempted to buy to fill the gap where he had turned the soil over, the selection is much reduced, so it was 2 red and white dahlias and some red and white verbena, it wasn't the garden centre with the cafe, the road to that one isn't as straightforward, and we would have been tempted.
The Saturday was our church Anniversary. We didn't have a special speaker, just a simple worship service, then at teatime quite a few more people arrived. I think a few had just got back from holiday, others had heard about the after tea speakers. This time I made Eton mess, a huge bowl of it, which all went. After the washing up was done, we had an interesting time when Missionaries who belong to the church family told us of their work, and we had a question and answer session.
On the Sunday we had a minister from another church, whom we hadn't heard before and we had two very challenging sermons. In between we had roast beef and our usual  Sunday afternoon doze. The day started dull but then brightened up.
On the Monday we were back to the heatwave, I just about managed to stay in the garden long enough to hang out washing, and plant the stuff I had bought. I wore a hat for my walk that day. On The Tuesday we walked into town as we needed to stock up on stuff from the health food shop. Again it was very hot. We got the bus back up the hill.
I had to check what time to pick up Lydia on the Wednesday morning, as we had only just started the new routine before we went on holiday, and things hadn't been normal since we got back. I managed to fit in the Sainsbury's run. Lydia was napping when we arrived, so I took my laptop and the local paper. Husband collected Nat from nursery, and Lydia woke up, so we brought them home and gave her lunch. It was a hot day and we spent some time sitting in the garden. When we took them home Daughter was anxious to get dinner under way so we supervised them whilst she did so.

There's no one quite like Mummy

On the Thursday my neighbour had her Granddaughter there, so she had a small paddling pool out and asked if Lydia would like to join Grace. Nathaniel followed us but the neighbour didn't mind. He wouldn't paddle but the girls sat in the water and eventually began to interact with each other.
When we eventually returned to our garden, husband had taken advantage of the hiatus and enjoyed a doze. It was just as well, because we had a disturbed night, with a terrific thunderstorm between 2.25 and 3.10 am. We hadn't seen the like in years.
There was another storm early on the Friday morning, as we were packing and tidying. I broke off to post some birthday cards, then at 1.15 pm we set off for the South Coast. The traffic was not good, it was the day when the local schools began their summer holidays. It was awful, we crawled along past Heathrow. Then it was bad up to the M4 junction. We stopped for lunch at about  3 pm. We got to Mum In Law's at around 6 pm.
We went for a walk around the village to stretch our legs. I had taken a fish pie, but instead of my usual cheese sauce I had substituted a tomato one in view of her milk intolerance. We had left some choc ices there after her Birthday, so we all had one of those, Sometimes it seems she can't resist dairy. During that evening we had really bad thunderstorms again. Mum in Law was glad as her lawn was suffering from lack of rain.