I was so looking forward to half term. Normally this February holiday is a calm week with lots of lovely lie-ins and film days snuggled with the children in front of the fire.
But so far this week I have been running round like the proverbial headless chicken and longing for the relative calm of the school run!
I am normally a bit "smug mother-ish" about life with my 7 children being much calmer than you;d imagine. I am fairly organised - although if I lost my iPhone I think I would actually end up gibbering in a corner as my whole life is run from it.
I manage their social lives with said phone in hand and where there's a clash rope in friends and family to make sure that everyone gets to where they need to be when they need to be there.
But something's gone wrong. There's a disturbance in the Force, a rippling in the ether and all of a sudden my life seems to be chaotic.
Take today for instance. My beloved Pug car decided that enough was enough. She's a cabriolet and doesn't like winter apparently. So she folded her invisible arms, stamped her invisible feet and said "Enough!" and refused to start. She's now residing at the local garage while the mechanic gleefully warms his hands on a bonfire made out of my cash. Or at least that's that it feels like.
So it's half term - I need a car. Luckily we are a 2-car family. Or a two rust-bucket family actually but at least theres 8 wheels in total and they get us about in shabby splendour. So I got up with the lark, sent a quick few emails to a client who needed an urgent 90-character piece of copy for her Facebook ad (harder than it sounds) and still in my PJs and with only a third of a cup of coffee in me took my hubby to work so I could keep the car.
Back to slurp the remaining cold coffee, lit a fire in our arctic living room, screeched for a bit about breakfast and clothes to the children milling about clutching DS consoles taking advantage of the fact that I'd nipped out so normal rules about eating breakfast before gaming apparently no longer applied.
Just sorted a row about Poker between my 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son. Yes really. She's worried he'll give away her hand to her older brother - the perils of a large family!!! Teenies who know how to play poker because they have much older siblings who play!
Got to have a quick shower afterranting writing here then pick up eldest son and DS#4's friend who are joining me on my radio show this morning. Two hours of coaxing words out of shy children ahead whilst supervising eldest on the desk then zooming back to be Mum again and sort lunch.
Bit of blogging admin then Grumpy has an opticians appointment. He says he doesn't need it. He says he's done it already at school. Yes. That's why we are going again to the opticians because Grumpy failed his school eye test. He claims he can see everything perfectly apart from the clouds which are, in his words, a bit fuzzy. OK. I sense trouble ahead when he realises that despite his declaration that he doesn't need another eye test he's getting one anyway. So bribe or threat? Or good old fashioned dragging of protesting child? Can't wait!
Ooh look it's nearly teatime. Take delivery of DD#1 and her friend coming for sleepover. So with kids, extra kids and associated girlfriend/boyfriend or two that'll be 11 for chicken/mushroom risotto ( make mushroom for veggies then add chicken for the rest).
Then theres the church meeting, except I got the time wrong of the evening radio show I agreed to attend to supervise my eldest who is a presenter in training. So DH will have to give my apologies (sorry!) and he will go one way while I head off back to the studio until 11pm. Luckily there's a supermarket near it so I plan to use my long day as an excuse to eat strawberry laces and drink Orangina - my current obsession- while we are on air. And if you are my diabetic nurse reading this - it's all sugar free honest!
And tomorrow it all starts again......Happy Half-term folks!
PS: writing this ate into shower time so sorry to the folks who are in a small hot studio with me today -lets hope my deodorant fulfils it's promise of working extra hard when it needs to!
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| I really must get a more up to date pic of all my brood! |
I am normally a bit "smug mother-ish" about life with my 7 children being much calmer than you;d imagine. I am fairly organised - although if I lost my iPhone I think I would actually end up gibbering in a corner as my whole life is run from it.
I manage their social lives with said phone in hand and where there's a clash rope in friends and family to make sure that everyone gets to where they need to be when they need to be there.
But something's gone wrong. There's a disturbance in the Force, a rippling in the ether and all of a sudden my life seems to be chaotic.
Take today for instance. My beloved Pug car decided that enough was enough. She's a cabriolet and doesn't like winter apparently. So she folded her invisible arms, stamped her invisible feet and said "Enough!" and refused to start. She's now residing at the local garage while the mechanic gleefully warms his hands on a bonfire made out of my cash. Or at least that's that it feels like.
So it's half term - I need a car. Luckily we are a 2-car family. Or a two rust-bucket family actually but at least theres 8 wheels in total and they get us about in shabby splendour. So I got up with the lark, sent a quick few emails to a client who needed an urgent 90-character piece of copy for her Facebook ad (harder than it sounds) and still in my PJs and with only a third of a cup of coffee in me took my hubby to work so I could keep the car.
Back to slurp the remaining cold coffee, lit a fire in our arctic living room, screeched for a bit about breakfast and clothes to the children milling about clutching DS consoles taking advantage of the fact that I'd nipped out so normal rules about eating breakfast before gaming apparently no longer applied.
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| Lots of buttons - luckily I'm used to doing 3 things at once |
Got to have a quick shower after
Bit of blogging admin then Grumpy has an opticians appointment. He says he doesn't need it. He says he's done it already at school. Yes. That's why we are going again to the opticians because Grumpy failed his school eye test. He claims he can see everything perfectly apart from the clouds which are, in his words, a bit fuzzy. OK. I sense trouble ahead when he realises that despite his declaration that he doesn't need another eye test he's getting one anyway. So bribe or threat? Or good old fashioned dragging of protesting child? Can't wait!
 |
| DS#1 his first solo show tonight! (with me supervising) |
Then theres the church meeting, except I got the time wrong of the evening radio show I agreed to attend to supervise my eldest who is a presenter in training. So DH will have to give my apologies (sorry!) and he will go one way while I head off back to the studio until 11pm. Luckily there's a supermarket near it so I plan to use my long day as an excuse to eat strawberry laces and drink Orangina - my current obsession- while we are on air. And if you are my diabetic nurse reading this - it's all sugar free honest!
And tomorrow it all starts again......Happy Half-term folks!
PS: writing this ate into shower time so sorry to the folks who are in a small hot studio with me today -lets hope my deodorant fulfils it's promise of working extra hard when it needs to!
