storbarnsförälder

Tomorrow I get to go to a study day on the other side of town. I'm looking forward to it. I have to leave the house before 08:30 though, which is a bit early for a Saturday morning!

We had another tutorial in my house this week. I'm beginning to understand why venues charge so much for hire. I'd be heating the place anyway, but as an example, this week's two-hour session (which extended to three hours) used up half a pot of liquid soap and half a roll of toilet paper, as well as the children's drinks and snacks and the negligible cost of boiling the kettle for the adults' drinks. I asked the tutor to bring more coffee next time as I'd just resent it if I was buying coffee in specially on top of the rest.

However, we have only four more sessions to go and since they are funding my training I can afford to give a little loo roll and soap! I'll be qualified to volunteer on the phoneline when this course is over, which is great, because it's much easier on my own children than going to the groups, and it involves a lot less housework (at least once the training sessions are done). Though to be fair it's ages since I was the only one cleaning up after the groups; going on strike helped a lot there.

I'm not at all sure I'll ever be able to volunteer on the maternity wards. But that's ok.

₁₀₉We had takeaway pizza instead of a nervous breakdown, and later ₁₁₀I painted lovely faffints. ₁₁₁Rob baked cakes, muffins and flapjacks.

₁₁₂We went to BfN and I worked for the whole time. ₁₁₃Then I baked a cake for Mary and ₁₁₄she came to visit. ₁₁₅I cooked lunch for myself and the girls. ₁₁₆After dinner I had a hot bath, and when it was cooler ₁₁₇Emer joined me for a play.

₁₁₈The BfN class came to my house and ₁₁₉everyone brought treats. ₁₂₀The children were marvellous.

₁₂₁We went to the Farmer's Market and in spite of being late we were in time for the girls to have sausages and ₁₂₂we got plenty of veg of kinds which will last in storage for a couple of weeks. ₁₂₃We bought Linnea a clock for her bedroom wall. At home, ₁₂₄we settled almost all of the details of our Great Expedition at Easter. ₁₂₅We had visitors who brought a funky wooden balancing toy with bricks and a swinging platform and things. ₁₂₆I had a phonecall with a friend.

₁₂₇We went to Meeting and the kids had a great time. People were apparently pleased to see us. ₁₂₈We got a ton of laundry done. ₁₂₉We chose some more things to get rid of in The Great Decluttering Project (ongoing since approx 2003). ₁₃₀We got to bed comparatively early.

The day is long, and the night is full of moans, and when you think you've had enough, hold on. the let themselves go, because everybody cries, and everybody stinks, sometimes. Sometimes everything is pong, now it's time to sing along...

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Anyway, between the nappies and the dressing and the wiping and the cleaning, I've washed my hands raw. I've tidied the spare room enough that I can get a few buggies in there, cleared the front hallway, put the rug down in the front room again (it really needs a wash but Rob spot-rinsed it so I'm not washing it again, it's now both damp and dirty and I'll just cover it up with a blankie for babies) and cooked breakfast and put away all Rob's baking from yesterday - banana muffins and flapjacks. I made a madeira cake yesterday too so there's enough to go around.

I have yet to sweep the bathroom, rear hall and kitchen floors, clear the kitchen and dining room, pop out to Lidl and buy fair-trade bananas and maybe some other fruit or veg depending on what's local, cook lunch, sotart dinner (Rob took meat out to defrost), and set up for the arrival of my BfN class.

In my free time, I will drink my second coffee. Rob now makes me two - TWO - thermal mugs of coffee of a morning. Life is good.

And smelly.

So my owie arm made me sleep funny, which meant my already painful neck and shoulders are now made of bloody rocks. When I woke this morning I couldn't turn my head; I tried to get Rob to give me a neck rub but he can't tell which parts are muscle, skin, or bone, so that was no good; I tried doing warm-up neck-rolls and stuff and that helped a bit. All day I've been trying to do stretches without hurting myself, and keeping the muscles warm, but man it hurts. I did take ibuprofen before I got out of bed, or rather, as soon as I got out of bed the first time, and that made it possible to sit up and drink coffee, and so on.

BfN went well. This girls were marvellous, the session wasn't too overcrowded, and there was plenty of help. Some women returned slings they had borrowed, and I hardly had to do any cleaning, and I got to talk to the health visitor about some stuff that's been bothering me, and she TOTALLY understood. A well-trained pet health visitor is as useful as a well-trained pet librarian.

My HomeStart volunteer is ill today so we're just at home, vegging out and doing dishes and crayons and stuff. Telly, too. Rob did his basic minimum housework last night (we each have a basic minimum tasklist for every day) and the house is, as a result, far easier to live in than it has been lately. My own basic minimum this morning took far, far less time than usual, in fact. And tomorrow I have no commitments before about noon.

Saturday and Sunday are all booked up; Monday is housework and nursery and doctor horror and lying in bed recovering from that and editing stuff I volunteered to do; Tuesday is BfN stuff and tidying the BfN/Baby Clinic cupboard at the library, and then a co-op meeting in the evening; Wednesday is toddler group and nursery and a child's birthday; Thursday is BfN again; Friday is currently unscheduled, long may that continue; Saturday is two parties; Sunday is unscheduled; Monday is nursery day; Tuesday we fly to Sweden. Augh. Perhaps three sets of volunteering on top of full-time care for two children is a trifle excessive. I shall have to cut back, as soon as there are enough other volunteers to step in... the BfN thing looks hopeful, there are some local people qualifying soon.

Now on to sorting out the rota for that, in fact.