Sickbeds and Sunny Days

I love sunny days. We have been blessed in our part of the UK with some sunny but cool and sunny and warm days recently which for once coincided perfectly with my children's school holidays.

There are a lot of us living in our not-huge house. We have one main room, a kitchen, downstairs loo, three bedrooms, one bathroom (and a caravan on the driveway!)

The house seems to shrink to the size of a shoe box when it's raining and all the children are home. Thankfully,  especially since my husband is somewhat trapped in his chair due to his recent injury, the sunshine means they can utilise the Great Outdoors and run off some of their energy.

And outdoors fun can often be free which at the moment I am particularly thankful for.

I have been suffering with a trapped nerve in my shoulder/arm and am not keen to drive or in fact do anything which involves using my right arm  too much. Yesterday when the pain was particularly bad my older children took off with a picnic into nearby woodland and had a 1950's style tree-climbing, base-making, stick collecting type of day.

My two youngest were slightly disgruntled at not being allowed to go so I helped them pack their own picnic into a basket and they headed to the grass in front of our home and held their own al fresco lunch there.


Today's plan was to head to a friends for lunch and after consulting the forecast we decided to have a BBQ. Claire's boys and my older children love to man the grill which is a win win situation - they have fun and we get our lunch cooked for us! We plan to sunbathe and chat with another friend Jane while our combined total of 13 children hurtle about in her garden and the field behind her house.

Meanwhile my poor husband will be stuck in what I have nicknamed his "fat chair" with a cling-filmed sarnie. I did make him hobble outside for a while yesterday but I'm not sure he thought the discomfort was worth the Vitamin D intake.

Well that's enough typing for my poorly arm - I hope the weather is being kind wherever you are (Yes Mum - I know it's lovely in Cyprus!) and you are able to get out and enjoy it. Let's hope those forecasters are right when they say we are in for a long hot summer.