busy-ness
Another good day! We're doing well at the moment.
Actually, it started pretty badly. Willow woke up every 40 minutes on Friday night, so I was Cross Madeline for the first hour or so. Plus my sister, who I've only spoken to once on the phone in the last 8 months, wasn't able to speak to me this morning -- even though we'd arranged for me to phone her today (after the previous Saturday's attempt had failed because she was too hungover to answer the phone) (I wish I was making this up). Anyway, I made the most of the sudden little extra bit of time I felt I had by having a shower and washing my hair. These days I only manage that particular task once a week at the most -- it just takes too long. I ought to get it cut, which would help reduce the washing time, but can't justify the expense at the moment.
Matt volunteered to wash up the kitchen catastrophe that I'd left undone on Friday night. I've been trying to stay on top of the washing-up as he's had a bad flare-up of eczema on his hand. But he found a pair of Marigolds and insisted. So I took the girls to the library to return River's extremely overdue books. She picked out 4 more, and I chose a couple for myself. The new librarian is lovely (and living with my childhood nemesis, but that's another story) -- we had a lovely chat about the growing Young Adult market and how best to cater to them.
Then we stopped briefly at home to drop off the books and pick up 3 large carrier bags of unwanted clothes -- a mixture of mum's old work clothes that didn't suit me, some of my old clothes that I've decided I'll never ever wear again, and baby clothes that Willow doesn't need. While we were at the charity shop River asked me to buy her something. I'm aware that I tend to say "no" to River rather a lot. Every now and then I have to remind myself that there's nothing wrong with saying "yes". A longwinded way of saying that I bought her a new dress -- big enough that she should be able to wear it for the next 18 months -- for £1.
Matt's brother was round at our house by the time we got home, and he and Matt offered to take the girls out for a walk. River could play at the playground, and Willow could have a nap in the sling. I put a second load of laundry on (I love cloth nappies but it'll be a wonderfuul day when we no longer have to wash them!) and dashed off to the allotment. After a day of rain, everything was looking wonderful. I harvest 1.5 lbs of raspberries, half a pound of strawberries, 2 yellow courgettes, a big bag of Swiss chard, 2 large beetroot, and 2 little heads of lettuce. It felt so good to be gathering home-grown food. And only the tomatoes in the greenhouse tent needed any watering. There are flowers on the tomato and pepper plants. I'm full of impatience for the fruit!
We had a quick and scrambled-up kind of dinner -- leftover pasties, the sticky chicken drumsticks, brownies. Then I got River to sleep and grabbed my chance to make a custard base for ice-cream and assemble the filling and topping for a berry crumble (home-grown black- and redcurrants and raspberries).
At 4pm, once River was awake, I took the girls round to mum's house -- so Matt could have a bit more uninterrupted time in the attic. Willow fell asleep just as we got there so I sat in the car and flicked through one of mum's cookbooks until she woke up. Mum had taken it upon herself to sell our old unused pram (a fancy "travel system" that a friend had passed onto me when River was born, so it was 8 years old and had been used by 4 babies by the time we'd finished with it) via the local classifieds and she had £50 to give me! We picked strawberries and looked at the goldfish in the big pond. River and Willow ate a LOT of the strawberries. Mum and River played football on the lawn. A happy time altogether.
We got back home just in time for tea. Matt had made cheeseburgers and potato wedges, to which we added some cucumber (courtesy of mum's veg patch). Berry crumble for pudding. I set the ice-cream churning in the machine -- a lovely half litre of vanilla ice-cream for puddings later in the week. Willow had a bit of a meltdown during tea -- we think her teeth were hurting. Matt took both girls up for a bath, while I washed up, and straightened up the living-room. Willow fell asleep on my lap by 9pm. River kept Matt chatting until 9.45pm.
Another long day, but I was pleased by the all the things we managed to cram into it.
Actually, it started pretty badly. Willow woke up every 40 minutes on Friday night, so I was Cross Madeline for the first hour or so. Plus my sister, who I've only spoken to once on the phone in the last 8 months, wasn't able to speak to me this morning -- even though we'd arranged for me to phone her today (after the previous Saturday's attempt had failed because she was too hungover to answer the phone) (I wish I was making this up). Anyway, I made the most of the sudden little extra bit of time I felt I had by having a shower and washing my hair. These days I only manage that particular task once a week at the most -- it just takes too long. I ought to get it cut, which would help reduce the washing time, but can't justify the expense at the moment.
Matt volunteered to wash up the kitchen catastrophe that I'd left undone on Friday night. I've been trying to stay on top of the washing-up as he's had a bad flare-up of eczema on his hand. But he found a pair of Marigolds and insisted. So I took the girls to the library to return River's extremely overdue books. She picked out 4 more, and I chose a couple for myself. The new librarian is lovely (and living with my childhood nemesis, but that's another story) -- we had a lovely chat about the growing Young Adult market and how best to cater to them.
Then we stopped briefly at home to drop off the books and pick up 3 large carrier bags of unwanted clothes -- a mixture of mum's old work clothes that didn't suit me, some of my old clothes that I've decided I'll never ever wear again, and baby clothes that Willow doesn't need. While we were at the charity shop River asked me to buy her something. I'm aware that I tend to say "no" to River rather a lot. Every now and then I have to remind myself that there's nothing wrong with saying "yes". A longwinded way of saying that I bought her a new dress -- big enough that she should be able to wear it for the next 18 months -- for £1.
Matt's brother was round at our house by the time we got home, and he and Matt offered to take the girls out for a walk. River could play at the playground, and Willow could have a nap in the sling. I put a second load of laundry on (I love cloth nappies but it'll be a wonderfuul day when we no longer have to wash them!) and dashed off to the allotment. After a day of rain, everything was looking wonderful. I harvest 1.5 lbs of raspberries, half a pound of strawberries, 2 yellow courgettes, a big bag of Swiss chard, 2 large beetroot, and 2 little heads of lettuce. It felt so good to be gathering home-grown food. And only the tomatoes in the greenhouse tent needed any watering. There are flowers on the tomato and pepper plants. I'm full of impatience for the fruit!
We had a quick and scrambled-up kind of dinner -- leftover pasties, the sticky chicken drumsticks, brownies. Then I got River to sleep and grabbed my chance to make a custard base for ice-cream and assemble the filling and topping for a berry crumble (home-grown black- and redcurrants and raspberries).
At 4pm, once River was awake, I took the girls round to mum's house -- so Matt could have a bit more uninterrupted time in the attic. Willow fell asleep just as we got there so I sat in the car and flicked through one of mum's cookbooks until she woke up. Mum had taken it upon herself to sell our old unused pram (a fancy "travel system" that a friend had passed onto me when River was born, so it was 8 years old and had been used by 4 babies by the time we'd finished with it) via the local classifieds and she had £50 to give me! We picked strawberries and looked at the goldfish in the big pond. River and Willow ate a LOT of the strawberries. Mum and River played football on the lawn. A happy time altogether.
We got back home just in time for tea. Matt had made cheeseburgers and potato wedges, to which we added some cucumber (courtesy of mum's veg patch). Berry crumble for pudding. I set the ice-cream churning in the machine -- a lovely half litre of vanilla ice-cream for puddings later in the week. Willow had a bit of a meltdown during tea -- we think her teeth were hurting. Matt took both girls up for a bath, while I washed up, and straightened up the living-room. Willow fell asleep on my lap by 9pm. River kept Matt chatting until 9.45pm.
Another long day, but I was pleased by the all the things we managed to cram into it.