Down day, snow day

It snowed in the night₁₇₉, and when Rob left this morning he woke me to say that both children were sound, sound asleep. I adjusted my position (which had been in don't-wake-Emer crampy style) and had a half-hour of quality snooze before Emer woke me up again, but this time, not with coughing or crying or scratching, but with a big grin and a demand that I drink my coffee.

So I had a mug of coffee in bed₁₈₀ and she found a folded sheet of paper which she said was a plane, and we threw it around₁₈₁, and then she found Little House in the Big Woods in a basket of books and she immediately said "Yéya book!" and took it to Linnea.

Emer had been able to see the roofs of houses from the bedroom window by standing on my bed. "Look! Sow a all de how-heh!" So she told Linnea it was snowing, but Linnea was more interested in reading her book (she still officially can't read, and stopped as soon as she spotted me). Then I followed Emer in to the girls' bedroom and we crowded around the window to look out at the back garden - and I saw mould growing black on the rubber seal. Ew. Vinegar has cleaned it up nicely₁₈₂.

While Linnea and Emer had a little wash I hung the big red rug over the three-cornered clothesline in the garden, and that was how I found the rain. So we won't be making snow angels today. Since Emer was coughing all night (woke slightly more than hourly) and Linnea is coughing a little, that's ok. We have no visitors scheduled, so we can have a pyjama day. None of us is dressed yet.

Rob walked to work, bringing two spare inner tubes for the trike with him; hopefully he can put them on today and cycle home.

And Linnea and I are going to draw up a timetable for tomorrow. I need a website with lots of pictures of clock faces. She can't tell digital time yet - it doesn't register with her as a clock.

Children's Stories in Rhyme, for a Good Cause

Sir Parsley and the Dragon

Friends of mine bought a listed building as their family home about a year ago. They got all the usual surveys and checks done, and were granted a mortgage, and all that good stuff. And now, after Livi's younger daughter's son was born and Livi was signed off as unable to work through illness or incapacity, their house is crumbling. The bricks in the chimney have crumbled to dust, literally not figuratively, due to vibrations in the road outside. Their insurance doesn't cover this damage, which increases daily. The whole roof needs to be replaced, the supporting wall needs serious work, and the chimney stack needs to be removed or replaced, I'm not sure which.

Meanwhile, they are living in friends' and relations' spare rooms, sleeping on floors and dressing from boxes or suitcases - three adults, a teenager (who is still trying to attend college), and her baby.

Adam (Livi's husband, the girls' stepfather, the baby's step-grandfather) published a book for kids aged about 6-10 years a while ago. If you buy a copy, it will contribute about a pound towards the thirty thousand pounds they need to rebuild their home.

Obviously, they can't just sell it and start again - totally unfeasible.