Silence Descends On Sunday

The morning began at 7am when the younger children arrived in the bedroom doorway, wobbling around, half awake in their pyjamas. “Can we go downstairs?” On a school day, this request is always met with “get dressed for school first”. Today they just got a “yes”. I finally scraped myself out of bed at 8am, and after throwing on the same pair of cargo shorts I’ve been wearing for the last few days, headed off into the back garden in the rain. Last night while shutting the chickens in, we were a chicken down. This resulted in me repeatedly going out with the torch at 11pm, 12am, and finally 1am to see if there was any sign of the stupid animal. This morning, in the rain, there was still no trace. I’ll be heading back into the garden in a minute to see if she has showed herself yet. We’re starting to wonder about selling the rest of the chickens and having done with it. While it’s been good for the children to learn about where food comes from, and “have their own chicken”, the reality has been as follows; Dad lets the chickens out on a morning Dad feeds the chickens Dad checks for eggs Dad (or Mum) cleans them out Dad searches for missing chickens Dad shuts the chickens in on a night Dad picks up dead chickens (thankfully rare) It’s all a bit one-sided, isn’t it, and it’s not fair on anybody that feeds the animals when we’re on holiday. The cats are fine “ you just fill their bowls up, and they’re good to go “ but I don’t want to land anybody with looking after our idiotic chickens any more. It’s beyond a joke. In other news, W has taken the kids to see her parents today. This pretty much frees me up to have a proper rest. It’s been pretty manic at work for the last few weeks, and I’m burned out. My absence from the various social networks has probably been the only outward sign. Hopefully today I’ll be able to catch up with reading friend’s blogs, writing emails, and maybe even watching TV! (such an exciting life). If you’ll excuse me, I have a cup of coffee to go make myself in our very quiet house