A Day in My Life

This is my first attempt at Little Jenny Wren's "A Day in My Life" blogathon thingy, please go to her site to see links to other people's days.

Today was such a funny day to try to record. Lethargy, pre-schooler with temperature, cancelling my pupils, new jeans getting on my nerves....an itty- bitty day...

I got up as usual and made the very usual kind of breakfast...toast and tea and boiled eggs for those so inclined. It was then I noticed that it wasn't just me who was lethargic, my youngest looked wiped-out and was running a temperature. The DH left the house by 7:45 and I had organized and hurried along my eldest and she was out of the door by 8:30, so I sat with my youngest until 9:00, cuddling, watching cartoons...she wasn't letting me out of her sight. Soo, I cancelled pre-school and explained to the pupil I teach on a Wednesday that there was no chance of a lesson today. I snook away from the little one and printed off some work- sheets for my pupil to pick up, and tiptoed upstairs to wash, dress and make the beds.

When I came down the little one had perked up, so I quickly got through washing up the breakfast dishes and wiped down the surfaces, in preparation for a spot of ironing. It was around 9:30 and I promised myself that if I ironed for a whole hour I would give myself a coffee as a reward and a look on the internet for half an hour (I hate ironing). The DH rang to say hello and I told him his new book had arrived (a collection of Edwardian ghost stories by the author of the Mapp and Lucia books) and he said that we should buy our new tent this weekend (hurrah...Devon we shall go!) I then started to prepare my coffee (the little one by now was in the kitchen watching my every move) but there was only a spoonful left in the pack! Horrors! My caffitiere would not cope with such a small amount of coffee! Never the one to give up on my morning caffeine fix I put the spoonful into a jug, let it brew with some warm water and then sieved it into my cup through a tea strainer and the net result was...awful, I threw my terrible coffee in the sink! (Note to self, NEVER do this again!)
I fiddle-faddled around with my youngest ("mummy, can you draw a cat bouncing on a trampoline?") and looked on the internet (Ship of Fools, an hilarious Christian site...I wouldn't go there if you're on the conservative side though...) for half an hour and seeing as my little one was one the mend decided to walk to the shops to buy passata, crusty bread (this was not a baking day) and...more coffee. We took the long way back from the shops and the little one spent a happy few minutes picking an fair few buttercups which were growing on the common.

Now, I can never, ever, eat my lunch until I've finished my housework. I'm a girl who likes her food and I cannot properly enjoy my lunch with dirty floors looming threateningly in the background. So it was my plan rush around the house "getting stuff done" and then lunch at one o'clock. The little one had other ideas though...namely sitting in the garden making buttercup chains with mummy. This I did, happily...we went in and she ate her lunch whilst I wiped over the oven, wiped over the downstairs loo ( not with the same cloth I hasten to add), pegged out the washing (note to self, a good drying day means more bloody ironing!)...
I then prepared dinner (Spanish chicken, to be eaten with salad and crusty bread...the beans are British and frozen but the peppers are Dutch...shame-faced admission), mopped and dried my floors (with the help of the little one) and vacuumed my carpets. All done I microwaved a leftover piece of haddock mornay, sat down and ate! It was a very small piece of haddock mornay and I felt slightly hard done to (note to self, eat a bigger lunch tomorrow). The little one and I then went out into the garden, she to play with her dollies on the oil cloth I laid out, me to dead-head my Primulas, pull out the occasional weed and do what I do best...Olympic-style pottering...
However, the lure of a fresh pack of coffee and the dissatisfaction with my lunch brought me back indoors and I sat down in the play room to watch the little one play, drink a huge mug of the brown stuff and read a book. I've just finished Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers (spiffy!) so I settled down to read a John Betjeman essay. I enjoy reading Betjeman, he knows behind the facade of every day British respectability, there lies a thorough and unyielding eccentricity. Did you know there was a sequel poem to Myfanwy? It's jolly good and I shall pop it on the blog if I have time. I love Myfanwy, she reminds me of my eldest girl...Meanwhile, the little one abandoned her dollies to play a pizza game, I was her best customer, then she spotted the window cleaner...I fell into a panic about my eldest girl's bedroom (she's meant to make her bed herself but she never does) and ran upstairs before the window cleaner could see the mess. I made the bed, turned off her bedroom light (!!!), put her clothes in the wash-bin and put Fifth Term at Malory Towers back on her bookshelf, all whilst the window cleaner was busy NOT getting the bird poo of the utility room window! (Note to self, stop worrying about what the window cleaner thinks!)

It was then time to pick my messy Myfanwy up from school. The youngest and I tend to amble along and get to school just in time, today was no exception. Just as we arrived we saw her: shirt untucked, one sock at half mast, tie missing, hair in rats tails, bronzed and blue-eyed, talking animatedly with several boys (all a good head and shoulders shorter than she) about Dr. Who. Ring leader, tom-boy, chum to the weak... We ambled home (more talk of Dr. Who) and I gave the girls a snack of milk and shop bought muffins...I then had to teach...I taught my usual Wednesday two and also a desperate GCSE maths pupil, and it was tough balancing three at a time (however did I manage 34???) and at the end of the session I had a pain behind my eyes. We ate the Spanish chicken with the DH and had a rousing game of after-dinner Hungry, Hungry Hippos. The DH washed-up, I put the children to bed and now I am here, writing up my day...

It was an odd thing to do, I very rarely write up "ordinary" on my blog. I wait for thoughts and activities to come to me and I blog them if I think they may interest others. However, when I read blogs I tend to read for an insight into other people's lives and I suppose this was a little insight into my very ordinary, suburban existence. I hope I didn't send you to sleep!