Thursday again started in the same way. Waking both kids this morning neither wanted to leave their beds. I helped them both to get dressed and made them some toast.  Getting out of the house is a methodical process and I always lay in bed as long as I can, so it makes getting out of the house very tight. This morning my 7 year old delayed us at the last moment before leaving at 7.40am. Luckily the traffic was not to bad and we got to school on time. We even managed to revise my son’s spellings. I am very proud that he did manage to spell all of them, not sure how well he did in his test though.

As I was unloading the car, the kids were playing in a nearby puddle. What is the fascination with jumping over puddles? They were laughing doing it. I kept calling them to stop and they carried on jumping and paddling. I then called at them to just come as we were late. My 5 year old started running and she then tripped, she fell to the floor with a bump and then started to cry, I picked her up and comforted her. She then held my hand as we walked into school, still crying.

The school administrator helped me to clean her wounds and also gave her comfort, whilst my little boy went into the hall for his breakfast.  Soon after I left my little girl eating her cheerios and drove home as a friend took me to our meeting this morning.

I ate too much at the bring and share lunch after our meeting. Too much sweet food and drank too much cranberry and raspberry juice, I felt quite ill afterwards. However, it was nice to meet up with people. Lunch was over too quickly and we were soon heading home. Once home I started working, trying to catch up with the time that I had missed from being in a meeting all morning. Hence finishing work late, I was relieved that I could reheat food left over from last night. The children had fish fingers and chips, not healthy but all they would eat. They can both be very fussy.

My son had rugby after school again. He came home covered in mud, his legs were caked in it. Daddy had to give him a bath which was soon muddy too. I once again have his muddy plimsolls and clothes to wash. I’m wondering whether I should rinse his T-shirt and shorts before putting them in the machine.

After dinner, the children refused to go straight to bed. My daughter was watching a Youtube video on the iPod and she would not go to bed until it was finished. I took my son up,  changed his clothes and cleaned his teeth. I then went back down to get her. She was still refusing to move, I took the iPod off her and passed it to daddy. She started to protest and scream. I’m really not sure what she was watching but it was not a child’s video it was a lady talking about something.  I’m sure though the lady was not actually teaching her anything.

My children love Youtube, they watch all sorts of things. One of their favourites is Ryan’s toy review. My 7 year old has told me we must make a Youtube video. Hey if 7 year old Ryan can do it, why can’t we?  I think Ryan though maybe leads the toy review market, I think my son needs to find another niche that is not toys.

Once I managed to get my daughter upstairs she then would not let me help her to get changed. She told me that I had cold hands so did not want me, I think she was holding a grudge for stopping her video. We then had another fall out because she wanted a drink. I told her she could have a small one. This was not good enough, she wanted a full bottle next to her in bed. I did not want her to wet her sheets. Daddy gave in though and gave her a drink, so I am now expecting to have to change her bed when I go upstairs. The kids both know that if they moan hard enough then daddy will give in to what they want. They know that if mummy says no, I usually mean it.

Once they were both in bed and I had read their bedtime story, they soon went to sleep. Leaving us to have a peaceful evening. Tomorrow is a school training day and daddy has been unwell so not at work this week, I’m hoping we can all lay in. All week I have woken them, I’m hoping that if tomorrow they wake us it is after 7.30am, we should be so lucky.

Anyway, I am now going to go and try and get an early night. Try and build some energy ready for the stress of tomorrow and my job of being mum.

see also, Thursday Banksy, https://justmuddlingthroughlife.co.uk/2018/12/13/thursday-banksy-bedroom-wall/

Wednesday again today, after the normal stress of getting out the house, we finally arrived at school a little late. Today was a non-uniform day due to it being the school Christmas Fayre next Friday.   We needed to donate something and all we had was bottles of squash. I had picked up 3 bottles as we walked out of the house. Strapping the kids into the car I realised that one of the bottles had its label missing. In the time it had taken to get out of the house and put them in the car one of them had ruined the bottle. Neither child owned up to being the culprit and there was no time to go back for another.

Unloading the car outside the school,  my 7 year old grabbed his PE bag and ran off. Ignoring my shouting and calling, he was dancing along the pavement. My daughter took her book bag and put her coat on.  I was left with my 7 year olds book bag, lunch box, coat, forest school clothes and daughter’s drink bottle. Trying to get both kids into school with one steaming on ahead and the other bringing up the rear. Sometimes I feel all I do is shout. Screaming at them both to just get to school for breakfast. Why can’t they just cooperate? Carry their own bags and understand that the sooner I leave them at school, the sooner I get to work.  Maybe because they are children and young children don’t understand, why would they?

I left them both at school and drove to work. A busy morning followed by a busy afternoon. When the children got home from school they were hungry as they always are.  I’m sure the school do feed my daughter. I’m not sure if she is really hungry or if it is just habit. My 7 year old will still leave his crusts and for some reason, he always brings home his empty yogurt pot. His lunchbox is always covered in yogurt. They both always act like they haven’t eaten anything.  So that was me than making them both toast.

Trying to get my 7 year old to finish his homework was like talking to a wall.  Any excuse to not do it. Daddy listened to him read and I heard my daughter. We then went through her spellings. I’m hoping that we get to school on time tomorrow to go through my son’s again. Spelling test is tomorrow as the school have a staff training day on Friday.  Trying to get a child to learn spellings when there are more interesting things to do is not easy.  My son seems to be doing alright with his, but my daughter is not finding spelling as easy. She does try but we need to do a lot more learning and practice together.

The children both left their dinners again tonight. It was sweet and sour chicken,  I thought it was really nice. They ate some of the pasta and not much else. My daughter ate more them her brother. He ate a few mouthfuls, then said he was not hungry but wanted yogurt.  I told him no because he had not eaten his dinner. He then promptly helped himself to it. I was still eating. How do you get an independent minded child to do as they are told? He wanted yogurt, he was having yogurt. I could have grabbed it off him but eating it will not harm him and he had eaten very little dinner. How do you get the balance right? A constant power struggle, between discipline and not sweating the small stuff or picking my battles.

On Sunday I let my son have an echo dot in his room. Tonight I got angry with him not doing as he is told and asking Alexa for music when I have already told him to stop. I made the threat that if he carried on I would take the echo away. Well, he carried on and then he got angry. I had to carry out the threat and the dot is now in our bedroom. He shouted, he cried and he scared his sister, daddy shouted at me and I shouted at daddy. However, my point was made. I’ve told him he can have it back Friday night if he behaves. He says he needs the music to go to sleep, he’s only had it Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so I’m sure he will be fine without it for two nights.

He did calm down eventually and I then read to him. I then kissed him goodnight, all is good.  My daughter meanwhile was with daddy and once put to bed she went straight to sleep.

So another work day tomorrow, I have a meeting in the morning and a bring and share Christmas lunch. I’m looking forward to lunch and relaxing for a little while before a busy afternoon.

I am now going to get some rest before tomorrow starts again bringing with it the morning stress again of being mum.

See also, Wednesday insanity, https://justmuddlingthroughlife.co.uk/2018/12/12/wednesday-insanity-balance-keeping/

Tuesday again and another day off. Alexa woke me again and I woke the children. Both were still asleep at 6.30am, a morning miracle as my 7 year old is usually awake earlier. I got them dressed and sorted out food.  All too soon we were out the door and driving to school.

The kids were as awkward as they often are when I was parking.  Though this morning my son did wait till I had stopped before he got out of his seat and climbed into the passenger seat. As we were early he read me some of his reading book. Frustratingly he will read well but he will not discuss the book with me. This does not help with the test on Accelerated reader that he has to complete to test his understanding however, he does usually pass it. My 5 year old was to busy playing in the back of the car to want to read.

The school Christmas tree was decorated yesterday and today it stood proudly sparkling in the hall. The children thought it was lovely and meant the conversation on why mummy does not want the Christmas tree up yet started again. I am trying to put it off as long as possible. We were a little late into the hall today due to reading in the car. This then meant that all the chairs were taken, there were so many children having breakfast this morning. I asked if we could have a chair so he could sit on the end. The teaching assistant bought him a chair. He now happily sat down to enjoy his breakfast.

I left the children and came home via the cash point machine as needed money to pay the school for Santa this year. Tomorrow is a non-uniform day as the school are collecting goods for the Christmas fayre tombola.   I’m pleased that it is not a teddy tombola, like it was in the summer.  I can not part with our loved teddy bears so we bought two orphaned bears in a charity shop and then donated them.  I’m glad that I didn’t have to race to town today for bears.

My plans for the day were thrown out as I got distracted by my blog. I managed to do a load of washing and sent some emails. Reading did not happen but I did find the school jumper and I vacuumed downstairs. The vacuum cleaner today was full of fluff, the disadvantage of having a flokati rug in the bedroom. https://justmuddlingthroughlife.co.uk/2018/10/24/washing-the-flokati-rug/

I had to sit for a while with the cleaner hung over the bin, scraping out dirt and fluff.

I am a fan of Jackie Chan. A few weeks ago I pre-ordered his new book from Amazon. Today it arrived, it has now joined my pile of books that I want to read. I know that I need to read my fiction books to help with writing my novel. However, Jackie’s new book I am sure is interesting.

So today I made the decision to change my blog hosting and be self-hosted so you might notice some changes.  My web address will soon be changing but I will still be just muddling through life, I’m always muddling. It’s a brave decision on my part as it means that I need to keep blogging, there’s no giving up now. However, I am enjoying writing it.

When I collected the kids tonight, I had plans for homework and reading. This did not quite go according to plan as daddy let our son have the iPod, after the demands of wanting toast as they were hungry as usual.  I was distracted by blogging, hosting and sorting out the washing. My daughter was busy with cardboard, sticky tape and scissors. So it was after a bath and dinner that we then heard the kids read. I listened to our son whilst our little girl read to daddy. A joint effort tonight and they both read well.

Putting them to bed they didn’t go straight to sleep. There was some messing around, however, they did not reappear downstairs, so still not as bad as previous nights. The children can be so good and make us so very proud,  but they can also make us feel so stressed that it feels that smoke is coming out of our ears, like in an animated cartoon. Do other parents feel like this sometimes? They can be really good but also so difficult.

Anyway, they are both asleep now and I am now going to get some rest. Try and build up my energy for work tomorrow and the daily morning stress of being mum.