A Day in My Life - Better Late Than Never!

I feel a bit fed up that I have no photos for you this month, but I haven't quite got round to connecting my camera to the laptop I'm using.

This Wednesday 14th January was a very normal sort of day, but I think that's what Jenny wants us to record; the average days of average women...what's the buzz-word?..."quotidian." So here's a quotidian glimpse into a January day.

My youngest and I wake up at 7:00 am. Her eczema is bad at the moment, so we're co-sleeping, this is so I can hold her hands whilst she sleeps in order to minimise the terrible scratching that accompanies the vicious itch. Needless to say, we're cutting out eggs and some dairy again. We pad downstairs, still in our pjs, and make tea and bacon sandwiches. I call my eldest at 7:30. She's getting to the stage where she needs more sleep in the mornings, it was only six months ago when she was getting up earlier that her sister. My big girl is in the final year of primary school, she's nearly eleven and she's growing up! Where does the time go? Does anybody know where I can retrieve that time and do those early years all over again?

After much chivvying and panicking ("where's my prefect badge?" "Coats on please!" ) we leave the house at 8:30 and get to school around twenty minutes later. I walk home with my chum and we discuss genetic predisposition to large thighs and cavities. She has five girls (four of whom are in their teens) and they are cursing their inheritance of large thighs, as do I!

I put the wheelie bin out, sort out the recycling, wash the breakfast dishes, clean the downstairs loo, cut my drooping hyacinths and pop them in a vase, vacuum the living room, get distracted by various blogs, make beds, give the bathrooms a lick and a prayer (doesn't that sound disgusting? But you know what I mean!) and then settle down to the true business of the day: doll making.

I listen to the radio and manage to make the head and body of the doll, as well as a little skirt for her when I realise I've been at this for hours, I'm hungry and I still need to prepare tonight's dinner. I make an omelet for myself and then cook a mild chilli. I scrub some spuds and pop them in the oven. But now it's close to three o' clock, I grab a banana for the little one and set off to pick her up from school.

We arrive home for about ten to four and she's still starving, so I dispense more snacks. The eldest arrives home ten minutes or so later (she walks home with her friends) and is also on the brink of collapse induced by lack of food. She has a slice of carrot cake leftover from Sunday and STILL UNEATEN ON WEDNESDAY! I capitalised that last phrase because having a cake last that long in our house is nothing less than miraculous, and is probably a sure sign that the DH is abroad, doing mysterious DH stuff. When he's at home no carrot cake is safe.

I just have time for a quick chat with the girls when my first pupil arrives at 4:15. My next two arrive at 5:00, and I see from the corner of my eye all manner of small and intricate toys being ferried from the playroom into the living room by the little one. Generally, when I teach, my DH acts as a kind of "toy bouncer"...not letting any toy in the living room he doesn't like the look of, refusing entry to toys if the living room is already full. So when I finish teaching at 6:00, we have a big tidy up (whoever invented "Littlest Pet Shop" needs shooting) and get dinner on the table for 6:20 or so. My girls have an argument about whose turn it is to say grace. I am amazed by this and tell them that only Rod and Todd Flanders would ever argue over such a thing. This makes them laugh and I feel secretly proud, both of their Christian zeal and my abilities as a stand up comedian.

After dinner we watch Extreme Dreams on the telly. We love Ben Fogle in our house, he's so nice, so patient, and seems to genuinely enjoy dragging poor, unsuspecting, rubes up frozen mountains. The children then beg me to let them watch Doctor Who on BBC3. I am unsure about them watching it before their bedtime, but cave in. I go and do the dishes, and can hear them in the living room..."if you're scared, just hide behind a cushion for a bit."

It seems that watching Dr Who so close to bedtime hasn't done the little one any harm, as she goes upstairs doing the Sontaran war chant, "Sont-ar-ah, Sont-ar-ah". She's asleep by 8 o' clock and I go into the big one's room and let her know she can read for half an hour before lights out. Sarah will be glad to know that she's reading Anne of Green Gables at the moment and enjoying it thoroughly.

The DH rings and tells me of a beautiful sea-food linguine he's just eaten at an Genoese restaurant and that he'll be glad to get home. I kiss my big girl goodnight and then settle down to find an episode of CSI to watch. There's some kind of cosmic rule that says there will always be an episode of CSI on any given channel on any given day. This is fine by me as I have a passion for CSI and all it's gory glory, particularly CSI Las Vegas. After scaring myself stupid for an hour I check that I've locked the back door and get to bed, it's about 10:30. I crawl into bed against my youngest girl and smell her damp curls. I sleep well.

A Day in My Life - Can I Be Batman?

Well, what a day! I woke up half comatose as usual (I'm like an extra from Shaun of the Dead in the mornings!), had a quick shower, dressed and made breakfast (we had toasted ham sandwiches). Got the girls all kitted out in their non-school uniform because it is Children in Need Day, and their school always makes a really good go of it. I was on face-painting duty with a couple of the other mums, and we were told that the kids could only really have stripes ( their non-uniform kit had to be stripy too) which was okay by me as I was slightly worried that my artistic skills may be pushed to the limit by ambitious four year olds! As it was my very first customer asked to be Batman, I replied "I'm only allowed to do stripes. Choose your colour!" My second customer wanted to be a butterfly, but I replied "I'm only allowed to do stripes. Choose your colour!". My third customer asked to be Ben 10, but I replied...well, you get the picture. Blimey we were at it for hours, but we had such a lot of fun, painting their still, little faces. None of them wriggled and considering they all had grand ambitions, but ended up with a face full of stripes, they were easily satisfied.

I snook off from all of the high- jinks at school about mid-day. I had a quick lunch and tutored for an hour (tute on Dulce Domum, tute on!). Did small and bitty spurts of housework and went to pick the the girls up from school. Oh, and my friend popped round, just to give me a recipe for and extremely healthy cake I tried at her house the other day. I'll post the recipe because it's brilliant and you wouldn't guess it was full of stuff that was good for you!

Anyhoo, I came home. Finished off the little bits of housework. Completed St Nicholas' horse, I'm really pleased with it but the little 'un is playing with it as I type , she's made a stable for it out of Lego, so I shan't take photos of St Nick and his noble steed until she's at school...I don't want to disturb her game. The DH and my eldest are at choir practice, so I thought I'd get my Day in My Life journal entry done. Gosh, I really don't have too much to say. To be honest with you I'm a bit knackered, so I'm going to have a really early night tonight and go to bed with a hot milk and Lord Peter Wimsey! But before I go here's my reply to a meme Angela from Tracing Rainbows set me. Angela lives about 15 miles away from me (I reckon). It's a small world.

Six Random Things About Me

1. I'll eat anything. Apart from Pot Noodles and bananas. You have to draw the line somewhere.
2. My dad was once nearly arrested by the Romanian secret police. Don't ask.
3. I was once rescued from a sinking boat by the RNLI. Lovely, lovely men, who wet their knickers laughing when I told them they couldn't lift me from the boat as I weighed 10 stone (I no longer weigh 10 stone, those days are sadly over.)
4. I was once propositioned by a famous comedian.
5. I have eczema in my ears. I drives me crazy.
6. I once left the loo in Reading Public Library with my skirt tucked into my knickers. I didn't realise until I sat down on the plastic chair in the library and my bum felt cold.

Angela, I bet you wished you hadn't asked! Anyway, consider yourself tagged if you fancy joining in.

Anon, goode readers! Anon!

Just Another Diamond Day

So here is A Day in my Life, to see what women from all over the world were doing on Sunday, 14th September, please visit my friend Little Jenny Wren.

We breakfasted on duck eggs, sourdough toast and tea and realised that there was a proper autumn mist developing outside. At ten o'clock we hot-footed it to church, for prayers and hymns and Eucharist. We also said goodbye to the choristers who are going to university in early October, it was a little bitter-sweet, we all feel sad to see them go, moreover we feel sad to see them grown up. The Collect was particularly beautiful, so I'll re-print it for you .

Almighty God
You have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Amen.

Again, I suppose as a reflection of the Collect, we sang a hymn which describes the affect of the Peace of God on our hearts, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. This is my favourite hymn, and I particularly like the words to the last two verses, I've printed them here for you.

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still small voice of calm!

"And let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace" A good prayer for we homemakers!

After church we went to the pub. Like Chaucer's Friar, we don't necessarily see our faith as a preclusion to the good things in life!lol! The DH has a particular passion for local beer and proper pubs, so we often have a pint and do the crossword at a pub, this time we had Sunday lunch, and very good it was too!

"He knew the taverns well in every town. And all the innkeepers and the barmaids too."

Afterwards, we priced up rabbit hutches and buck and doe rabbits for the girls. It seems that soon we shall be proud pet owners. But more on this anon!

At 4 o'clock (after the DH have finished mowing the lawns and manfully sweeping up the falling leaves) we had tea. If I ruled the world, I 'd make afternoon tea a compulsory daily event. We all need a proper break, a time to sit and reflect and guzzle the national panacea. A completely shop bought tea today, but I took a photo of the packaging, because it was so pretty!

The DH and the eldest rushed off to Evensong and the little one and I made Elderberry Jelly. To be honest, my kids love jam making so they can test for the set, licking the blobs of nearly set jam off each saucer. I only got three jars of elderberry off the trees this year, I'd left it so late to go foraging. But I think later on I'll make some hedgerow jelly to make up for it, perhaps with bullaces, soles and crab apples. I've never done this before, so it will be a fun experiment for the kids and I during half-term!

To finish, why not enjoy Occuli Omnium, my lot sang it as Introit for last night's Evensong. It's so very beautiful, and quite right for a Sunday evening.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my Sunday! To finish I pray that...

"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen."

A Day in My Life - Yogurt, Guilt and Gender!

Well, this is my third go at charting my day for Jenny's min-social history project and it's the first chronicled on which the window-cleaner did not come! I was expecting him all day...But I digress, here is my ordinary day.

3:30 am: Woke to the sound of the milkman. Except I'm not sure it is a milkman I am hearing. It is the sound of an electric engine going down my street and I hear it quite often, however, I NEVER see any milk bottles outside people's houses so I feel sure that the milk van sound is perhaps something else. I consider two things:
a. waking the DH up and discussing what the mysterious sound could possibly be. I wisely decide against this course of action on the grounds of marital felicity.
b. That I am being haunted by the ghost of "Ernie...who drove the fastest milk van in the west". The thought of a ghostly Bennie Hill driving up and down my street in a milk van, looking for lonely housewives to frolic with, is not a happy one but, despite these night terrors, I do eventually settle back to sleep. Until...
5:30 am: Woke to the sound of "mummy, it's morning time". So despite the black out blind the little one is up at the crack of dawn (quite literally). The DH goes to her bed and she snuggles down with me. I don't think she will go back to sleep until...
7:30 am (or so I think): I hear the DH shutting the front and getting in his car. I've overslept. The little one is still fast asleep in my arms. I hear the DH talking to someone...then step up the stairs. He tells me that my eldest girl's friends have just called for so they can walk to school. It is 8:05!!!...I have really overslept!
8:05 to 8:15am: I rush about getting the eldest ready for school. Her friends are waiting for her. I pack her bag and make her a slice of toast whilst she gets dressed. She is out of the door at 8:15 and this is nothing short of miraculous.
8:15 to 8:45 am: The little one and I sit down to a proper breakfast. I have poached eggs on toast and begin to feel guilty. I'm rather obsessed (yet another obsession!) with giving the family a proper breakfast since I read this article about skipping breakfast and bad health! I feel a little bad that my DH didn't get any breakfast and the eldest had a slice of toast on the run. Isn't it funny how generally laid back, go-with-the-flow kinda women, carry guilt around with us all the time? I have so much guilt I should buy myself a rucksack just to carry it around with me...perhaps I shall even fashion one out of that piece of Cath Kidston fabric I have in my knitting basket...if you're going to have to carry guilt around with you, you may as well do so in a snazzy, vintage manner!!!
8:45 to 11:am: This is what I do:
wash and dress
wash and dress little one
make beds
pick up towels, pants, books etc, etc on bedroom floors
put breakfast dishes into soak
walk little one to pre-school
buy milk and pesto at the supermarket
walk back from supermarket
sort out recycling
tidy up toys in the garden
look at general state of flowers and veg
wash up
make yogurt
put some washing on
ironing
vacuuming
talk to DH on telephone
pray for people as part of a prayer team I belong to....
make a cup of tea and sit down looking at my new books which have just been delivered by the nice, smiley postie.

11:00 to 11:30 am: I take my tea break and read a little of "The Woman's Book" by Florence B Jack and "Are Women Human?" by Dorothy L Sayers. The former is a book I've wanted for years, and I finally found a copy for under £50, so yes, book addict that I am, I couldn't resist buying it. It deserves a post all of its own, so I shan't go into too much detail about it now, but the latter is a book I thought I should read, not simply because I am a huge fan of Dorothy L Sayers, but because I want to see what one of the best Christian, female, thinkers of our time has to say on the issues of gender relations. Being Anglican, gender and sexuality are issues which I cannot help but have to think about, simply because of the growing schism within the communion. Again, it seems that online too, the issue of gender hierarchy within Christianity as a whole, is such a major topic of discussion and is also the cause of many an online debate. I wonder why this is so? No doubt the issues are complex and important and fueled by a particular kind of Christian idealism. After half an hours reading I get the idea that Sayers thinks we should treat members of the opposite sex as though they were human beings, without classifying them by type or group...that male and female are just classifying and subordinate nouns for describing human beings...I shall report back when I've read a little more.
11:30 am to 12:00pm: I dry up the breakfast things and prepare lunch for the little one and I. I then take a stroll to the little one's pre-school and walk her home. We have a general chat about her morning and she says she's starving.
12:00 to 3:15 pm: This is what we do:
eat lunch
wash up after lunch
put sheets in the washing machine
colour in
read Charlie and Lola books
go out in the garden and look for snails and buttercups (probably tells you a good deal about the state of my garden!!!)
make fruity muffins
drink more tea
knit the beginning of a girlie cricket jumper for the eldest
watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
take a stroll to big school to pick up the eldest...

3:15 to 7:15 am: After walking home from school the girls snack on muffins and play with their friends up in their rooms. I have another cup of tea and consider picking some veg from the garden in preparation for the evening meal. I wash up the baking things and afterwards pick my veg. Just a courgette, some broad beans and some spring onions... a small harvest but mine own! I get a call from the parent of a prospective pupil and I make dinner...veg pasta with pesto...oh, and fruit muffins with yogurt! After dinner the eldest one helps me wash up and I blog about my day. I'm waiting for my friend to give me a lift to the baptism prep we do for our church, so my day isn't over. The little one is with her dad watching the telly in the living room and life plods on as usual. Well I hope you enjoyed reading about my day, crikey, I hope I haven't sent you to sleep...don't dream about ghostly milk men whatever you do!

God Bless!

Another Day in My Life - Yes, Today is all About Cake!

Blimey, like Jenny the 14th crept up on me pretty sharpish and I was quite surprised that it was already that time of month. Yet again, Saturday is a tutoring day for me so after having a cup of tea in bed (thank you DH) washing, dressing, checking a few blogs and doing a general tidy up, there was just enough time for me to peg out the washing before my first pupil arrived for the morning at 10 o'clock. The DH and the eldest rushed out to go and sing at a wedding at 11:00, which left the little one and I all alone until my next pupil came a 12:00. The little one had dressed herself (only her trousers were on backwards this time) so I tidied her up: combed and tied back her hair, sorted out her trousers and washed her grubby hands. Then we made some fairy cakes for tomorrow's church open day. She decorated them happily with silver balls and various sparkles whilst I made our lunch, ready for the return of the rest of the family.
My next pupil arrived right on time and the little one played as I taught, but she was getting hungry, so she brought her lunch into the office and sat and ate and said, as she was looking over my shoulder at what I was marking "lots of crosses means 'bad', doesn't it mummy?" My poor pupil glanced over to me quite miserably, and I explained that often even grown-ups had difficulty with apostrophes! I then had an older pupil, went through a bit of poetry with him and by that time my big girl and the DH were back from the wedding. They ate their sandwiches whilst I made a lemon drizzle cake, again for the church open day and poor old DH asked if the cake was for us "no!" says I, "keep you mitts off the lemon drizzle!"Having so many off limits baked goods in the house is causing some consternation amongst the Domum family. The children have eaten quite a few of the chocolate rice crispy cakes, and their appetite for them made me, at one point, yell "those are God's rice crispy cakes!!!". So, although I'm not entirely sure my Creator enjoys a chocolaty treat, I think my children understand that if they snaffle too many of the cakes intended for the church fete their mother may have an embarrassing "mental episode"!!lol!!
Despite being a bit of a cake-harpie I have allowed unlimited access to the flapjacks I made...simply because I didn't think the greaseproof paper was going to come off them easily (yes, I'm all heart). However, the DH, after eating one or two...or three, informed me that the paper came off fine, but I can't deprive them any more so it'll be tea-time flapjacks all round tonight.
After much cake-baking and tutoring and singing and playing with dollies and dressing and undressing and licking of spoons and pegging out of washing, we headed off to the very many second-hand bookshops you find in my area. Oh my oh my did we enjoy ourselves! It was quite a dull and cold day, just right for a Saturday afternoon mooch. One bookshop, which we hadn't visited before, had such a fine collection of cookbooks I nearly fainted with pleasure and the children were more than happy, huddled up in the children's section for a good hour. The DH was pleased because he could buy back all of the Inspector Morse books he'd lent my mum over the years and the bookshop man was happy because he knew we were the kind of book-addicted customers who wouldn't be able to leave empty handed!

I bought Agnes Jekyll's Kitchen Essays (now re-printed by Persephone, I believe), a collection of poems by John Donne (thanks to Barbara Pym's novel Jane and Prudence, methinks Dulce Domum now digs the metaphysical poets), a poetry anthology (with some pretty illustrations) and An English Almanac by Miles Hadfield. I wonder what he says for June 14th? Oh, nothing what a shame...I shall inform him that on the 14th of every month is Jenny's "A Day in the Life" blogathon thingy. Anyway, I'll leave you with a bit of John Donne, it's very romantic stuff, he loved his wife an awful lot and wrote and wrote about her (he'd have made a good blogger)...quite saucy, but in a seventeenth century way, with lots of thees and thous, and therefore quite all right for respectable married ladies of a certain age to read! Anyway, I'm off to eat a fish and chip supper and watch Dr Who. You all have a good evening, whatever you're doing this 14th of June. Anon, fellow huswifes, anon!

TO HIS MISTRESS GOING TO BED by John Donne

COME, madam, come, all rest my powers defy ; Until I labour, I in labour lie. The foe ofttimes, having the foe in sight, Is tired with standing, though he never fight. Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glittering, But a far fairer world encompassing. Unpin that spangled breast-plate, which you wear, That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopp'd there. Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime Tells me from you that now it is bed-time. Off with that happy busk, which I envy, That still can be, and still can stand so nigh. Your gown going off such beauteous state reveals, As when from flowery meads th' hill's shadow steals. Off with your wiry coronet, and show The hairy diadems which on you do grow. Off with your hose and shoes ; then softly tread In this love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed. In such white robes heaven's angels used to be Revealed to men ; thou, angel, bring'st with thee A heaven-like Mahomet's paradise ; and though Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know By this these angels from an evil sprite ; Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright. Licence my roving hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below. O, my America, my Newfoundland, My kingdom, safest when with one man mann'd, My mine of precious stones, my empery ; How am I blest in thus discovering thee ! Oh, this is just an extract, but you can find the full version of the poem here.

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!