Skip to main content

House guest

So this evening it's us plus one. Amanda, Alex and the Boys stopped by for  a whistle-stop lunch on their way back from London and somehow Laurie and Abi managed to persuade me that he could stay and I would 'drop' him home tomorrow. You can tell I'm on holiday because in a moment of weakness I said yes. So tomorrow we have Kerrie and Ryan turning up first thing on their way to visit family, then Izzy is off to see Mia and I will take Abi to Angies and then on to Taunton to drop Laurie off before heading home. If all goes well a 5 hour round trip. Hmmm. I may have mug stamped across my forehead but they've had such a lovely day and evening together it's worth it.

It's definitely the job of a mother to be the weak spot where these things are concerned. I've spent much of the last couple of days asking Abi to use a different tone with me. It's bad enough that 'No' seems to be the first answer I get for everything, it's worse that it's not generally a 'no' but a 'Noooo!' I appreciate this isn't a bit hard to convey in writing but I'm sure any parent can understand what I'm saying! When I asked her yesterday why this, she said "But you are the only one who I can be like that to!"  I think this is good she feels this way... For now! There was a moment yesterday when I flipped slightly after a day of bickering kids, then Abi getting upset at bedtime - sobbing her heart out and saying "I hate being 10, it's so hard!".  I snapped at Glenn when he tried to be nice to me - I'd just had enough of everybody needing me. I stomped into the kitchen, counted to 10 and then went and apologised. I'm tired, it's the end of the year and we've all had this nasty cold which just doesn't want to end. At least they all, without exception, remember that a cuddle makes it all ok. Even Izzy, normal pretty easy going, was tired and rude all day Friday, but came round and gave me a cuddle at bedtime.

Izzy is not as immediately tactile as Abi (well, not since she moved out of her toddler days) - she loves to hold my hand but unlike Abi doesn't often cuddle up at every opportunity. She does love though in the morning or evening to stroke my face still, something she has done since she was a baby and I love that. She also still insists that I get her up in the morning if I'm home "GET ME UP MUMMY!!" so that she can have a few private moments before the days starts. I say day starts - obviously for Izzy during holiday time that's anywhere between 8 and 10.30am!

So apart from spending all of tomorrow in the car, the rest of the week is relatively free and I'm looking forward to some downtime. Christmas Day will be our normal family only, bookended with Christmas Eve neighbourly drinks (we are going to aim to feed people this time and not have them poured out the door at midnight!) and Nanny Di et al for Boxing Day. It will be nice in the meantime just to be on a go slow for a while.

Quick PS - Scooby still doing fine - those forever last legs still going strong!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...

Half term

Whatever happened to half term?? It seems to have disappeared in a flash, do doubt partly as I was working having had 3 days off the previous week for Kerrie and Ryan's wedding. The plan was to not have a plan - both girls have exam week coming up and so our major intent was for them to spend at least half an hour a day or so doing a bit of revision. This has sort of worked - we only had one day where I got an irate message from Glenn that Izzy knows 'absolutely nothing' about her maths... we'll see. With half term comes effort grades and if they genuinely know nothing, it's not for a lack of effort. Abi did really well, keeping up her average and getting a 6 (top grade) in French again. Izzy, who we always worry is apt to cruise if allowed, got the first 5.0 average grade we've seen from either of them and 3 6's in French, English and DT - well done Izzy! I tend to assume all the kids work hard but it seems not - according to Abi "all the boys always...