give me a minute......!!

Give me a minute....

Why is it that kids can never give you a minute? So there I am, trying to go for a wee (I apologise if that’s too much information for some of you!) when they all appear at the door, one by one, Millie is actually carrying a bottle of squash and a jug into the bathroom, asking for me to make some juice, Georgia is crying and saying that I have to go upstairs and look for her pony now, Abbie wants me to wash her cup out for her, and Hannah wants me to push her on the swing. Give me a minute guys....can’t you see, I’m on the loo!!! They have no concept; they just expect it to be done – NOW! While I am a master at multi-tasking, and often find myself doing numerous tasks at any one time, there are limits!!

It's funny, but whenever Rob comes home and asks me “What have you done today?” I always immediately get defensive and feel a bit guilty; thinking that saying, “actually, just looking after your four children” isn’t enough. Although, I know he doesn’t mean anything by it, he’s just interested in my day and what we’ve all been up to. I just immediately feel the need to justify my day, and I find myself listing things, such as, “Well, I’ve done four loads of washing, dried it and put it away, I’ve made lunch, I’ve made tea (twice, once for the kids and then for us) I’ve done the clearing up, I’ve stacked the dishwasher, I’ve scrubbed Cheerios off the floor, I’ve tidied toys away, I’ve put clean sheets on everyone’s bed, I’ve changed nappies, taken Hannah for a wee, done the shopping in town.........” (You may notice that ironing never features in my list of jobs, I don’t do ironing, we prefer to go for the ‘straight out of the tumble dryer’ look!! – I can recommend it, it saves hours of time!) I can’t help it, I think because I don’t go out to work (well paid work!) that I feel that I need to make sure he knows that I do more than just drinking coffee and watching daytime T.V. (I don’t actually watch daytime T.V. – but have been known to do a bit of daytime ‘blogging’, well, a girl’s entitled to a coffee break, surely?!!)

And why is it that I get such a feeling of immense satisfaction when I manage to get the house clean and tidy (well, to a reasonable state, I think the days of really clean and tidy are long gone!) All I’ve done is manage to mop the kitchen floor, stack and empty the dishwasher a couple of times, vacuum the floors and the stairs and clean both the toilets and sinks, tidy all the girl’s bedrooms and keep the girls occupied for the day, yet I feel like it’s a major achievement! Maybe that’s what my job satisfaction boils down to these days – managing to keep the toilet clean? The trouble is, it never lasts long! As soon as they’d had their tea tonight I was down on my knees on a baked bean wiping mission! Is this what it’s come to? The highlight of my week is managing to get and keep the house in a reasonable state for half a day? Today I have come to the realisation that keeping the house clean and tidy is a never ending task, it is impossible to complete and I need to stop beating myself up about not achieving it! I need to try to accept that I just have to do as much as I can, and learn to live with it! It’s not easy, but there are definitely more important things in life to worry about, other than whether I've managed to vacuum the bedrooms today......

Dusting off those credit cards.......!! (can I remember the drill??!!)

Well, I found myself in a very unusual situation yesterday – I was in a shopping centre, ON MY OWN!! Now that doesn’t happen very often these days. (Admittedly, I was only there so I could drive Rob home after he’d had a few beers in the corporate box at the football (one off work thing) – but I’m not complaining at getting the chance for a few solitary hours of retail therapy!!) It’s funny, because it actually felt really weird to begin with. It was strange to be in this big, bustling shopping centre with no-one else to think about apart from myself. Have I really been out of the loop for so long, that I can’t remember how to function in the real world? I almost felt a bit self-conscious to begin with (how weird is that?) I wasn’t quite sure what I should do first! I guess it’s just been so long since I’ve had the chance to wander around the shops without thoughts of where the kids are, constantly doing the quick head count (have we still got everyone?), pushing a buggy and worrying about what they’re up to & what they might be fiddling with, that maybe I’d forgotten how to do it! Obviously it didn’t take me long to get back into it! A couple of shopping bags later and I found myself getting well at truly back into my stride! There was a time when I could spend a good few hours happily browsing the retail world, back in the day when we were enjoying the DINKY lifestyle (Dual Income No Kids) Whereas nowadays, the reality of a shopping trip for me is, dashing down to a retail park, (with as few kids as possible) parking outside and legging it round, grabbing a couple of bits and pieces, before the kids (who aren’t at school or playgroup) get too bored and mischievous, then making the mad dash back for the playgroup or school pick up, and anxiously hoping that you don’t get held up in traffic on the way back.

Highlights & Lowlights of the week!

Highlights

Hannah and Georgia washing each other’s hair in the bath tonight and taking it in turns to wash each other’s backs with a flannel – soooo cute!

The look on Millie’s face and how incredibly proud of herself she was when she walked independently round from her classroom to meet me in the waiting area at school. I made the big mistake of sending Abbie round to meet her on the first day (as Abbie was out first) and I was subsequently met by a very disgruntled Millie, very crossly telling me “I KNEW where to go Mummy, I DIDN’T NEED Abbie to come round!”

Abbie and Millie walking off into school in their little uniforms, with their school bags and lunchboxes, holding hands and chatting on their way round!!

Abbie and Millie practising the school harvest songs together in their bedroom, in the dark (when they were meant to be asleep!)

Having a bit more time to spend with Hannah and Georgia and being able to play games with them without interruption!

Hannah all wrapped up in a towel, after her bath, falling asleep on Abbie and Millie’s bedroom floor while the other all played around her!

Lowlights!!

Total child ‘melt down’ during the very tricky after school/ teatime/ bedtime slot! It feels like at least three of them were lying on the floor, kicking, screaming and crying at any one time! Over-tired!! Aaarrrggghhhh!

Tired, whingy, crying kids!!

Hannah pulling a strip of wallpaper off the wall in our bedroom! (she is also the one who decorated the car with a stone a few months ago – the little monkey!) Then she looks up at you with her big brown eyes and her cute little face and says “Rorry Mummy!”

Being back to the morning chaotic routine, which involves, breakfast, reading books, spellings, packed lunches made, shoes on, jumpers found, bags packed, teeth cleaned, letters/ forms to return remembered and everyone out of the door on time!

Ladders, superstition and things going wrong!

Well I didn’t think that I was a particularly superstitious person, but as I walked under a ladder last week, it did cross my mind that I hoped I wasn’t bringing any bad luck upon myself! So let’s see.....what has happened since then? Well first of all I lost my wooden ring that Rob got for me when we were down in London the other weekend, I’m a bit gutted because I really liked it, and whilst I can still hope that it is going to turn up, I think in reality the likelihood of that happening is fading fast.... Next, we used the fold out gazebo at the weekend when we were camping, but we didn’t peg it down (I know that hindsight is a wonderful thing – but we kept needing to move it round as the sun changed position, I know that’s no excuse and we should have put the effort in to peg it each time) Anyway, it was fine on the Saturday, but on the Sunday the wind had picked up and it was quite strong and gusty. A gust of wind caught the gazebo and now one of the legs is bent and it is not able to fold down anymore. We were quite gutted about that too, as we haven’t even had it long and have only used it a handful of times. Rob is on a mission to try to fix it in some way, so hopefully it will be used again! When we arrived home from camping, we realised that we had managed to lose the key to the internal garage door. No amount of hunting managed to turn anything up, we even when so far as to unroll the tent to check some of the pockets in it (so having thought we’d packed it up for the final time this season, we found ourselves, well Rob and all four of the girls, crawling inside a half unfolded tent, feeling in various pockets, but unfortunately to no avail). So Rob makes the decision that he is going to have to break into the garage and fit another lock, this firstly involves two phone calls to two different people for advice on the best way to go about it, he then stands poised, with a tool in his hand, ready to do some serious damage to the garage door, when he finds that the tool he has is too small (no jokes here, thanks!!) While he decides what the next course of action is, he checks through our other keys and finds the SPARE for the garage door!! The door is saved at the eleventh hour! Under minor issues, I couldn’t find one of Hannah’s crocs for the camping weekend and we had to go without it, Rob stood on the broom handle and bent it, and I turned the TV off at the wall at the weekend, forgetting that I had programmed to record the X-factor! (Thank goodness for the watch again function on V+) Whilst I don’t feel that I’ve become hugely superstitious, I think that maybe I’ll avoid walking under ladders for a while!!

school run overdose and mischief!!

Well it’s been a bit of a funny week, with Millie starting school. To begin with she was only in for half days and even now that she’s in for two full days at the end of the week, she still starts later in the morning and finishes 15 minutes earlier in the afternoon than the rest of the school. So I’ve had a total ‘school run’ overdose this week! I feel that all I have done is walk everyone over to school for 8.50 when Abbie goes round, then wait around until 9.15 for Millie to go round, then head back home or to town for shopping. Then head back up to school at lunchtime to pick Millie up and take everyone home for lunch, then head back up to school to pick Abbie up at the end of the day! I am quite looking forward to Monday, when they will both be in at the same time for a full day! Millie has been getting steadily harder work on the trips to and from school as she has been getting steadily more tired! I began the week taking the buggy, with the board on in case Hannah and Georgia needed to go in, but in the end gave up as it was Millie spending more time in it than the little ones (usually managing to upset Hannah and Georgia and cause some sort of argument in the process) Why is it that kids always have to make things more complicated than they actually need to be? On one occasion Millie decided that she needed to go over to school in her roller skates (really?) which was quite an interesting trip. It involved a lot of wobbling, squealing, slow progress, her sitting in the buggy when she couldn’t ‘skate’ across the grass! and her trying to climb up, in skates, between the trees when getting from back to the path from the field (umm nothing like making the school run trickier than it needs to be!) On Wednesday Millie had the day off, but we still had to do the three trips to and from school as I had to go over in the middle of the day for a meeting to find out how Millie is settling in! Fortunately, she is settling well, and so far seems to be enjoying it...long may that continue. Abbie has decided that she doesn’t want to be in Year 2, as it involves too much work and not enough choosing!! So added to the numerous trips to school this week, we have also had to comfort an upset Abbie, who no longer wants to go to school, and I’ve had to hand her over, crying, to the teacher on the corner and that’s never fun! I think she will be happier when she can walk round in the morning with Millie...... (fingers crossed)

So now I’m left with just Hannah and Georgia during the day (I say ‘just’, but obviously it’s still half of the full amount!) I am actually looking forward to having a bit of time for them, I do sometimes feel they’ve missed out on a bit of attention and time with me. We’ve done the shopping (they were both brilliant all the way round Tesco) and been to the library. We’ve shared a load of books and I feel that they are enjoying a bit of time when they are not being bossed about by the older ones! Although, I do now have to watch what mischief they are getting up to. Usually Abbie or Millie will come to tell me if they’re getting into any bother, but the other day there was no-one here to grass them up when they climbed on the desk in the spare room, took all the batteries from the battery box and all the CD’s off the shelf and ‘arranged them’ in a pretty pattern on the floor, I think the ‘arranging’ might have involved some throwing if the crashes and giggling I could hear as I ran up the stairs was anything to go by!!

Really? You need the toilet AGAIN??

Trips to the loos, now there’s a whole adventure in itself! When you’re out and about a trip to the toilets with four little ones is certainly a mission. And why is it that kids always seem to want to make it as hard work and complicated for you as possible? When we were away camping at the weekend a friend actually commented to me that I do get to know the toilets quite intimately anywhere we go, and that is a very true observation. It would help if they would all learn to go at the same time! But no, you just get back from taking one and another one decides that they want to go! I seem to spend my life trekking to and from various toilet facilities!!

In one instance, we had all been out for the day, and, on arriving back at the campsite Rob drove the car to the toilet block (our tent was a fair walk from the toilets – a walk that I was becoming increasingly familiar with!) so that everyone who needed to go could go! Abbie and her friend (who was travelling in our car) leapt out and dashed into the loos. Millie (who, when we had got back into the car from our day out had said that she needed a wee) was now adamant that she didn’t need to go. We tried our gentle powers of persuasion, but no amount of “Go on Mil, you said you needed to go, we’re right outside the toilets...” would convince her to budge out of the car. As she is now getting worked up and cross shouting “I DON’T NEED THE TOILET!” at the top of her voice, we decide to leave it, and we all head back over to the tent in the car (as I too, am getting steadily crosser, saying “You had better not want to go the minute we get back to the tent!”). Of course it is inevitable that two minutes after arriving back at the tent, Millie needs to go to the toilet and doesn’t want to go on her own! (I bet you saw that one coming, I certainly did!!) Fortunately for her Rob had more patience with her than me (in this instance!) and he duly made the trek back to the toilets! I’m ashamed to say that on this occasion, all I could do was hiss “We’ve just BEEN there! You SAID that you DIDN’T need to go!” at her through my teeth!!

Then there was the trip to the toilets in Stratford. Rob had gone back to the car to load the buggy and I had taken the four girls to the toilet (anyone else thinking ‘short straw’?) We get into the toilets, with tiny cubicles that you can hardly breathe in, and I just about manage to squeeze in with Hannah and get her on the toilet, Abbie is loitering in the cubicle doorway, she doesn’t want to go on in one on her own, she wants to go on this one after Hannah. I then realise that Millie and Georgia are no longer in the toilets, worried that they might try to head through the car park to find Rob, and they don’t even know where the car is parked I make the decision to leave Hannah sat on the toilet, shout “Stay there!” at Abbie and run out of the toilets in search of the missing two, sure enough I spot them ambling in the wrong direction, fortunately back along the path we came on and not across the car park. I run after them, acutely aware that I have left Hannah perched in a public toilet waiting for me to wipe her bottom. I retrieve the missing two, and under much protest they agree to come back with me (just while I rescue Hannah girls, please, then I’ll take you to the car!) And I get a number of bemused looks from the other toilet users as I burst back into the toilets, dragging two protesting children (Millie keeps saying, “but we will look for cars, Mummy!”) and return to my other children, one of whom is sat on the toilet with the door wide open shouting “wipe my bottom, Mummy!” Even the most straight forward things in life like going to the toilet can be made into a whole complicated task when you add a few kids into the equation.........