Today was another busy Saturday. Daddy went to work and got out of helping me to take down the Christmas tree. The children were very excited and wanted to do it as quickly as possible.  After leaving them alone for a few minutes, when I returned they were sat laughing with the tree on its side. I was not amused and went to get myself a drink and then found the tree like this.

I am not sure why they plugged the lights in before lifting the tree on to the settee, or why they had put it this position but the stress started here.

Taking the tree down with my children was as much fun as putting it up, not fun at all.  Why does such an easy task have to be so such a mission?  We now have more baubles and decorations smashed.  I am glad that we are now dechristmassed.  That’s not a word but I like it.  Though I have just noticed a card on the bookcase.

So after taking down the decorations, I had planned on cuddling up and watching a film. My daughter wanted to watch the animated version of the BFG. They both love the other version.  My 7 year old refused to watch it insisting that he just wanted to watch Paw Patrol.  I put on the film as I was curious to watch it and my daughter was happy to see it.

We started to watch the film, both children were still playing, not helped by my son’s reluctance to sit down quietly.  This ended with me watching the film alone and the kids upstairs playing with the train set. As it finished they returned carrying train track saying they needed a larger area to play. Consequently, we have a train track downstairs tonight.

I have learnt over the last few days that I now need to be adding Alt tags to my photos and working on my SEO.  I am now slowly getting my head around Yoast SEO.  However, it is now taking me hours to go back through about 100 posts to add meta descriptions, SLUGs, keyphrases and alt tags.  If you are a new blogger like me, have a look at Yoast as the sooner you work on SEO or Search Engine Optimisation the better. I feel I am wasting hours going back over my blog.  I am just hoping that the hard work pays off.

A day that could have been relaxing and nice quality time was stressful and full of me telling the kids off.  From refusing to watch the film to bringing down the train set, to demanding toast and drink and me trying to sort out my blog.  The jumping on the furniture and the frequent changes of clothes.

I might have made the last two days harder for myself by banning the iPod and Ipad, but I wanted some quality time with them. At least the train set is getting played with. All the toys get forgotten when they are playing Minecraft and Roblox.

So tomorrow is the last day before going back to school.  The uniforms are all ironed but I need to clean both their shoes and check their reading books. It could be a busy day, as well as trying to update the SEO on more posts. Both of them seem to be happy about going back to school on Monday.  They both like their teachers but are not always happy with things the other children do and say.

Our 7 year old has just come downstairs crying about how he has had a bad dream. Daddy took him back upstairs and calmed him down.

Anyway, I am now going to go, we are watching ‘Man of Steel’.  I am now going to get some rest ready for a busy day tomorrow and the stress and hard work of being mum.

For more, see, Saturday like mourning and the elves, https://justmuddlingthroughlife.co.uk/2018/12/22/two-elves-still-watching-children/