Today was a good day!!
07.30 – We made it to choir on time – again!!
08.00 – Drop younger child in his classroom after doing his reading in the car.
08.15 – After chatting to his teacher (nothing to do with school just socializing) I head to my class parent AGM.
08.30 – Why do I go to all the meetings? Free coffee of course. I volunteer quite a lot at school because I can & it’s important to me that the boys see that I am willing to give up valuable crafting/shopping/social time for the benefit of others. It keeps me busy & my mind active, & of course there is a social side of it. Their school is very much a community & I can honestly say it has that feel about it. I don’t mind giving up time to keep be a part of that.
09.30 – Home to my girl who is grumpy that there has been no walk in the park this morning.
09.50 – The technician from our home security company arrives to fix the mess the first guy left 2 months ago. This guy is a senior techy & listens to me complaining about the first guy. He wants to let the owner of the company because the way the first guy behaved was highly unacceptable & needs to be taken further… oh dear!
10.30 – After changing beds & doing laundry I decide that it’s high time my personal inbox has a spring clean.
12.30 – The technician is having a nightmare fixing the problem but my inbox is gleaming with space. I have sent oodles of mail replying & cancelling & questioning & arranging…
13.00 – The tech is finally done! I have moved on to making teacher thank you cards…
13.45 – Off to the torture chamber…
14.00 – There is a new receptionist at physio who doesn’t know me – doesn’t she understand I practically pay her wages?
14.30 – I refused needles again because I’m bordering on phobia status but he just as mean to me as always.
14.45 – Quickly pop into the pharmacy on the way to school to pick up my Humira, my hair is admired by several – even the owner!
15.05 – School pickup. Remember younger son raided the recycling & took it to school for a project. Well you can imagine how thrilled I was when he proudly marched out of the classroom having made a TV out of it all – now I’ll never get rid of it!
15.40 – Elder child’s turn for hockey so I throw an omelette together for him while having ANOTHER discussion with younger child about the importance of eating his lunch at school. It is calling for drastic measures to prove a point – All Nerf guns have been confiscated until further notice.
08.00 – After guitar practice, spellings, making lunches, reading, baths, & feeding elder child again all is calm in world again… time to build Lego!
Oh I do love sunny Saturday mornings. You wake up at some ridiculous hour (when hubby disappears in head to toe lycra for a ride), the sun streaming in through the curtains, & you discover it’s only 6am! I can turn over & snooze for another couple of hours.
08.30 – Just me & the kids for breakfast. Elder child has a hockey game so we fed Boris (the imaginary tapeworm for anyone new reading) waffles, berries & maple syrup.
09.15 – I was just about to shower when a rather sweaty hubby returned. We quickly discussed a plan of action for the day & I left him to feed his own tapeworm.
11.00 – We decided that I’m not going to watch the hockey game. Today he was playing in goal & it was all the way over on the north shore. I had a mountain of laundry to do (& tomorrow is Mother’s day so there will be a strike), the dog needed a walk, & my body was craving a stretch out.
12.30 – I get a text from hubby, younger child took all his gear just in case they were short of a player & they were. I knew he would be absolutely made up by this even though he’d be playing with & against some kids 3-4 years older than him.
14.30 – By the time they all returned I’d done 3 loads of laundry, a pilates routine, walked the dog, watered the garden, made chocolate strawberries for dessert, hung the hammocks up outside & chilled out in the garden for half an hour reading my book! Younger child had thoroughly enjoyed playing a proper game & apparently did really well. Elder child let in 3 goals & declared he was a useless goalie & it was also boring!
15.30 – Hubby took him out on his road bike so he could let off some steam. Meanwhile, younger child had me (now Wonder Woman) up in their playhouse hammering nails into the wood so they could hang all their (plastic) Black & Decker tools up & make it into a workshop.
16.15 – I now need a glass of something pink & a lie down. The bikers return & of course are starving (yes I know this is hard to believe but true), so I fire up the barbi & open a bottle of rosé.
17.00 – Yells of distress from the garden, the hammock elder child was sat in has dumped him on the concrete. I know he’s a drama queen but I genuinely think he’s hurt himself this time. Tylenol & Advil for his dessert then.
17.15 – Everyone is full of ribs & chocolate strawberries, & we are basking on our sunny patio – I love, love, LOVE this weather!
18.00 – I help elder child finish his Mother’s day card – odd I know but I don’t trust him to use all my stuff on his own, & at least this way I get to have some say what I get.
20.00 – Tired boys are in bed, the dog is patrolling the fence & warning off falling leaves, hubby is reading in a hammock (interestingly not the one he just re-hung after the earlier drama), & we each have a glass of something pink.
CHEERS!!
07.45 – The radio gently woke me after a much better night’s sleep propped up on several pillows. For the first time in almost a week I felt rested.
08.00 – It’s quite nice occasionally to get up on a Monday morning & wonder down stairs in my pj’s to let the dog out & make tea. My throat is still sore, so I knocked that on the head with some Tylenol. The boys join me for a more civilized breakfast than we normally have on a school day – not that I’m advocating they have more pro-d days, but you know, occasionally.
09.00 – Serious bad hair situation now that it needs cutting & colouring, it really wasn’t worth wasting time on so it was definitely a hat day.
09.30 – My lovely cleaner is pottering around as my friend drops her daughter off (one of younger child’s school friends), so she can go to work for the morning.
09.45 – It’s off to the park to walk the dog, where the kids play hide & seek & the dog gives away their hiding places every time – but they just don’t seem to get it.
11.15 – Back at base, my friend is done at work & is on her way. We enjoy a cuppa & a catch up, then she offers to take my boys to her house so I can go & buy my plants in Costco – win win all round!!
14.30 – After dropping of my annuals off I leg down to my friends house to pick up the boys.
15.30 – When we arrive home & I notice my neighbor is in & knowing that she is off down to California early on Wednesday morning there was something I needed to see her about. Of course the kids come to, & the dog & I end up having a cuppa with her because she hasn’t drawn breath yet. At some point after that hubby arrives home & sees the kids in the her garden, they say we are all over there – he joins us to for a cuppa too – it’s all very sociable.
17.00 – Just when I’m thinking we need to head back for dinner elder child comes into my neighbours house holding his head, blood all down his face! The gash is above his eyebrow & isn’t deep enough for stitches, but does need steri-strips – great!!! We ask younger child what happened…
Apparently his elder brother asked him to put a plastic bucket on his head, so he did & then there was blood everywhere. He thought he was in big trouble because it was his fault – but technically it wasn’t – & this is now the 2nd scar that elder child will have on his face courtesy of younger child.
18.00 – Meanwhile back at dinner, better late than never.
19.00 – MY BFF arrives, we are crafting & all is right in the world again…
03.00 – Urgently required Tylenol. I don’t ever remember having a sore throat this bad.
06.15 – Really? That time already!
06.50 – Hubby leaves with elder child to drop him at running club for 7am (The only way I would ever run at that godforsaken hour is if a bear were chasing me, & we all know how that would end!)
08.00 – I drop younger child at school then on to the park with the dog. I feel a bit washed out but I think a walk will do me good.
09.05 – Back at the car I’m knackered & my knee is hurting.
09.45 – I have 1 hour before I leave for Pilates. So, laundry, switch my industrial winter sweater collection with tank tops & shorts, get dinner out of the freezer (& tomorrow’s too, how efficient is that?), organize 3 guitars for our lessons in the afternoon, & have a drink & snack while flicking through FaceBook – OMG! I discover the great purple one is gone!! What the chuff is going on this year? That’s one hell of a super group that’s being put together up there in the clouds.
11.00 – I love Pilates. Even though my knee is still not right, my instructor always finds a way around it without irritating it more. At some point during my class my phone whistles 3 times in a row while my legs are strung up like something out of a Fifty Shades scene. I am sure its just hubby, but my instructor was worried that it was important because it doesn’t normally go off that much. She hands me my bag… I dig out the phone… the only text that I see is the last one he sent… ‘Blimey. Now symbol is dead too #howmanymore’. My instructor asks is everything all right (We had just been talking about the sad loss of Prince), I reply with the words of hubby’s text. We actually both laughed, he clearly thought it was vital that I know this.
14.00 – In less than 2 hours I have done two more loads of laundry, sewn 2 buttons on a shirt, repaired a pair of school pants, cut out a BBQ & stuck down it’s fire pit, then stamped & embossed the word ‘RETIREMENT’ for our principal’s card.
14.30 – Today I started learning bar chords & will now need to practice for 4 hours a day everyday so I can string at least 2 of them together by next week.
15.10 – The usual mad dash along the road to school to pick up the boys & then back to the music shop for their lessons.
15.30 – I chill out in the little sitting room for half an hour & catch up on my Twitter feed, pin some cards to make, & play two rounds of patience almost beating my personal best.
16.30 – The boys are quick to do their homework so they can go outside & shoot some baskets. I fire up the BBQ for the first time this year & cook some rather delicious chicken that I promptly leave because both my throat & appetite refuses to let me enjoy it.
18.00 – I am very fortunate that even after a days work my husband will muck in & help with clearing up after dinner & sorting the kids out for bed – especially as I am not feeling that great by this point.
19.30 – There will be no wine tonight!
08.00 – Another beautiful July day ahead of us – in the middle of April – LOVE IT! I even wore shorts to walk the dog.
09.15 – The upstairs of the house is like a sauna & there are melted cats all over the beds.
10.15 – Beds changed, a load of laundry in & time for a last attempt at rescuing the polo shirt that STILL has ‘washable’ paint on it from school. Rubber gloves up to my armpits & and industrial apron so I can scrub it with Clorox.
10.30 – Nothing is happening, the paint is still very visible so I pour some into a spray bottle & soak it. While stood at the sink I see that my neighbor is in so I leave the shirt to soak again & pop next door to deliver a wedding card I have made for her daughter. The dog comes too because she is good friends with their dog (their dog is male & probably the reason why my dog lifts her leg to pee!).
10.45 – I am still there receiving a blow-by-blow account of the work required in their basement post flood. She offers me coffee but I decline suddenly remembering the shirt that has probably now got a large hole bleached into it.
10.55 – I finally rescue the shirt only to find that the paint has still not budged. I place in the machine anyway with a bunch of other school shirts that are (supposed to be) white. Place more Clorox in the dispenser & set it on a super power wash that takes over 2 hours.
11.15 – I set to & clean all the BBQ grills. This should become an Olympic sport; I did a month’s worth of workouts by scrubbing those things.
13.00 – Guitar practice because it means sitting down & my knee is sore, & I knew if I sat in a normal seat I would fall asleep.
13.45 – The washer is finished & the moment of truth… They should make nail varnish out of that paint because nothing will destroy it! I declare the shirt a lost cause only to worn in an emergency. All the other shirts are pristine of course so at least it worked on something. I then put the washer through a clean cycle because I hate bleach & it’s always been very unkind to me or anything of mine it comes into contact with.
13.55 – It is baking on the patio & all our furniture is still buried under a tarp with a large roof box on top (hubby forgot that he’d put it there when we renovated & now doesn’t know where it is going to go – so it’s still sat there!). I managed to rescue a lounger to grab a short burst of vitamin D before school pickup & the madness of field hockey.
14.30 – I wake up suddenly when the dog barks at my neighbour who is coming over to offload some of her junk onto my kids! Looking at the time I suddenly remember I was supposed to leave early to pick up a new mouth guard (the store is in completely the opposite direction to school). After hauling the dog in & I was out the door within 5 minutes – still wearing BBQ scrubbing shorts etc. but no time to change – I successfully make it to the store & back to school just as the kids come out.
16.30 – We are getting ready to leave the house to go back to school after homework, dinner, changing into hockey gear & a Nerf gun fight, when teacher mum’s son discovers he doesn’t have his runners. I text her as we leave because he will have some at school he can use. We get in the car & my younger child doesn’t have his water bottle. So, back into the house, grab the water bottle – we are now 10 minutes late in leaving.
17.45 – What can be less than a 10 minute ride is taking twice as long because there are other people on the road getting in my way!
17.55 – We screech into the parking lot under school to ‘We will rock you’ where they are waiting for us. The boys get out & the other two get in, teacher mum’s daughter is beside herself to finally have a ride in a convertible & thinks it’s really cool to wave to her mum by just sticking her arm up in the air!
19.15 – By the time the hockey players arrive home, we have had dinner, sorted out the laundry & started making Mother’s day card’s – it is so nice to have girl in my craft room, they listen to instructions & are excited about matching cardstock & ink.
20.30 – I have given into the great god of wine & accepted a glass – but just the one ok.
08.30 – YAY! A sleep in!
10.00 – Hubby & elder child have disappeared off on their shiny bikes wearing smart new lycra. Younger child & I are going to build BB8, R2D2 & C3PO – a book he bought with his pocket money at the school book fair. He had done quite a lot himself but they are just made of strong cardstock with flaps & slots to hold them in place – quite tricky for a 7 year old to do. We set up in my craft room & begin.
11.00 – We have built BB8 & put a joint of beef in the oven to roast.
12.00 – We have almost completed R2, attended to the beef & prepared the potatoes.
12.40 – R2 is finished, the potatoes are roasting & the beef is almost done.
13.00 – Hungry smelly bikers return after 33kms & elder child didn’t fall off once. They also saw some friends from school & caught the tail end of the emergency services clearing up after a hit & run. Slightly more eventful than our morning in the craft room!
13.30 – We are sitting down to a proper Sunday lunch for the first time ever – I think (we normally have this at about 5pm). Elder child declares war on the chef because she forgot to buy Yorkshire puddings!
14.30 – I abandon hubby with all the dishes to head to the hospital to have a CT scan of both my knees this time.
15.00 – I arrive bang on time. No need to get changed because my cropped pants will roll up – even better. However, in the process of doing this in front of the radiographer (a guy, of course it was a guy) I discover that I must have dropped chocolate into my lap when eating my dessert. I large blob of melted chocolate was sitting between my legs in an embarrassing spot! I scoop a bit off & lick my finger announcing that it’s definitely chocolate. He did not find this amusing. The scan takes all of 2 minutes & I’m on my way home.
16.15 – We all sit down to play Cluedo, a game the boys only just learnt yesterday at our friend’s house. Considering they are not quite tuned into listening what is being said beyond their own turn, they didn’t do too badly. There was also gin involved.
17.30 – I make 2 Spiderman cards for a birthday party younger child is attending next weekend, while the boys get bathed & pj’s on early so daddy can finish reading the Narnia book to them.
19.00 – I organise everyone’s life for school, work & the morning boot camp routine.
19.30 – I thought getting ready for bed early meant that they should be in bed by now, but hubby is still reading.
19.45 – I gently remind him of the time, & he promises he’s nearly finished. They are going to be disgusting tomorrow mark my words.
20.00 – Finally! So much for their early night before school, after having two late nights over the weekend.
20.15 – All is calm & right in the world again. It must be time for wine?
06.30 – As predicted the little guy is quite sick, so now that’s two down.
07.20 – Off to school because elder child has choir. I take the dog with me so she can have a good run in the park.
08.45 – I return to the sanatorium to find the 2 of them lying at each end of the sofa sharing a blanket. I play nurse, although the cat seems to have it all under control (she thinks that lying very close to your head when your sick will help in some way).
09.20 – I do some laundry, some pilates, & finish the wedding card I’m making, in between playing nurse. I answer a call from the hospital reminding me that I have an appointment tomorrow for a joint injection in my knee – not sure why they thought I would forget about this as they only booked it yesterday! Twenty minutes later I get another call from the hospital wanting to arrange an appointment for my joint injection – I swear it was the same woman – she was very put out when I informed her that I have one for tomorrow. She then put me on hold while she checked this, presumably in case I was completely imagining this & the phone call she had made to me earlier. Yes, I was right, she was happy I was telling the truth!
12.00 – I get ready to go back to school & receive an email from the head honcho informing me that she had taken delivery of large donation from a parent who supplies toy stores & she had sorted everything into categories. I am then desperate to get to school asap, beside myself that she will have completely &#%$ed up my system!
12.35 – I arrive at school to find her organizing some prize baskets for a separate stall & she informs me that she didn’t add the donated prizes to my system because she didn’t want to &#%$ it up – PHEW! All is right in the world again.
13.00 – I am knee deep in stuffies when the mum who looked after my table yesterday arrives to help me sort. We get to work counting the prizes & stuffies, then box them up & label them.
Various people are in & out chatting because the room we are using is where the photocopier is – it was all very sociable.
15.10 – The other mum has to leave & I pop up to the lower school to hand over a drink & snack to older child because he’s involved in an iPad workshop until 4.30pm. I happen upon him the minute I walked into the lobby, he apparently was about to call me & declare imminent death by starvation because he had eaten all his food & would be going straight to field hockey after school – honestly, total drama queen!
15.30 – Off to the dollar store again for some supplies we have run out of – rubber bands, clear gift bags etc. I am wilting so I duck into a coffee shop & order a gigantic latte to go.
16.00 – Back at school I’m on a mission. I am determined that when I leave at 4.30pm I will be done, finished, complete! Then… I find a note from the head honcho – she’s rearranged some of the balloon prizes by taking some more out of my general prize boxes – NOOOOOOOO!!!!
16.30 – Mission accomplished. I pick up elder child to find that snacks were provided at the workshop so had been no need for the amateur dramatics – he still ate my snack too of course.
16.50 – Home to change into hockey gear & back out to drop him off.
17.35 – Back at the sanatorium it is clear that the little guy will have to be off school tomorrow. Hubby is already off so he can take me to the hospital, but we can’t take a sick child with us & I really don’t think it’s fair for him to see them sticking needles in mum’s knee. I see that my neighbor is in (they are like surrogate grandparents to our boys), so I pop over to ask if there is anyway they could help out. The answer is yes – great!
18.40 – I have to go back out to pick up from hockey.
19.30 – I am in my pj’s, under my blanket fort eating chocolate & colouring!
07.30 – YAY! I slept better & even had a little sleep in.
09.30 – Elder child’s first ‘real’ field hockey game out in deepest darkest Surrey. I’m off duty because I already had a cardmaking class booked before the game schedule was published. Hubby has a long drive I kindly let him take Mercury, my Mini convertible, it is a beautiful day & she also has sat nav. I’m only driving a few blocks down the street.
10.00 – The class is about using pēbēo fantasy prisme & moon paints – which I discover are AWESOME! We do our paint effects first & then while they are drying on a hot plate of all things, we build are cards. I always lower the average age by about 20-30 years at these classes, & the other ladies drive me crazy because they don’t listen. Honestly, you would some of them had never made a card in their life.
11.30 – I get a text from hubby at half time – our son scored his first goal, which ended up being the only goal his side scored – they lost 6-1 but did well for a first game.
12.15 – I finish early but my painting still needs to bake a bit longer & I need to get away from the fools who have just stuck their cardstock together upside down, so I go shop -well what is the point in learning a new technique if you don’t buy the toys to do it yourself?
12.45 – Home to cook a lunch that will feed three hungrey boys.
14.30 – we decide to go to MEC (a ‘candy’ store for everything & anything outdoorsy). Elder child needs new cycling shorts before he strains something trying to get into the current ones, & younger child needs new rock boots. An hour & a half later we exit the store having bought new cycling tops aswell as shorts, a top for younger child aswell as his boots, & a hat, a pair of Birks & a 2 spikey balls for me! (Poor hubby only managed 3 bags of electrolyte mix)
16.45 – Arrive home to animals sprawled all over the kitchen wasting away.
Now – I need to do a quick change & tidy up before the nanny arrives at 6pm for dinner with friends – in my new sandals!
I shoehorned myself out of bed this morning, having not slept well, partly because hubby was in work until 3am, & partly because of yesterday’s torture. So, the day didn’t get off to a good start, even after a hot shower to help ease the aches & pains, & Thursday’s are always busy. For the first time ever my body was not keen on having an hour of pilates, but my fantastic instructor managed to motivate both my mind & body so I at least got something positive out of it – & I did. Then it’s my guitar lesson, I have practiced & practiced the chords to Photograph, but I couldn’t get the palming muting rhythm right. However, my teacher had something else on the agenda…
After only 10 minutes into the lesson he had me playing the introduction to the song, which can also be played along side the palm muted chords. I was so excited that I could now just pick up my guitar & play something you might actually recognize. THEN we sorted out the rhythm. I think it’s time for a change of artist or band & a new song – as much as I love you Ed, sorry!
I’ve now had 3 doses of my super dooper painkillers with very little pain relief, I have now resorted to wine, & I can confirm that at some point in the evening there will be chocolate consumed. All things considered I’ve had a productive & positive day when I thought it was going to be brutal. I’ve made two Valentines cards (sadly I make a matching pair & give hubby one so that I get a decent card from him!), & made 3 cakes. I find that when I have things to distract me, & those things go according to plan, ‘it’ is just grumbling in the background, unable to beat & bring me down. Not today anyway.
Then of course it’s Friday tomorrow, the weekend always makes things feel better!
louiselindley 