Day 18 in the Big Abbott House…
Today was Monday, well technically it still is since it is only 1945. Not exactly a newsflash is it? I hear cries of well Monday usually follows Sunday and mostly we detest Mondays since they indicate the beginning of another long working week and an end to the weekend. Unless of course you work on a shift pattern over 7 days in which case that Monday feeling is irrelevant. Anyhoo.
Yes today was Monday…only today was also marking the day that Yve officially goes back to work week, and the dawning of the no more days where both Yve and I can do a tagteam effort with the kids, come tomorrow Yve will head off to work and I will have to fend for myself for the day, so you see why this Monday was different from most other Mondays.
The same routine was in place this morning, I get the kids up and get them fed and dressed, teeth and hair brushed ready for the day, not necessarily in that order. Today Yve got up although she doesn’t work on Mondays we had worked out that she would take the wee man to Little Fishes, (Parent and Toddler group) giving me some NKT (No Kids Time). I did have a couple of calls to make, especially an important one to our case worker, but they weren’t free till after 11 I had already agreed that I couldn’t phone before 11 since they were in a meeting.
So my NKT consisted of…
– Quick Episode of Malcolm in the Middle
– Shower
– Put on load of washing, having 1st sorted all 3 baskets.
– Tested the pump for the inflatables/Pool so that I don’t pass out next time they want it blown up. Check it works well, both inflating and deflating, ssswwwweeeeetttt.
– Took Honey for a walk.
– Took Bike to shop to be repaired.
– Went to Nursery to respond personally to phone message re wee man getting a place for a few sessions.
– Posted Dad’s Birthday card, and Rental DVD and RSVP to Brother Wedding.
– Into Doctors to return registration forms, more forms given to be filled out. Made appointment for girly girl.
– Home another load of washing on previous load hung out.
– Yve arrived home NKT over for another day. 🙁
Funny how you have this list in your head of all the things you can do, things that you should do and things you have to do and then there is the list of things that wouldn’t it be nice if… Not really sure which list I was working off, if indeed there was a list at all. Is that what it is like? He says asking all the other parents out there who have been doing this for years and have more T-Shirts than I have had Hot Dinners on the subject. Comments welcome.
I needed to do the bike since it would be nigh on impossible to move the bike with one of the kids in the car so that was a no brainer, and since girly girl is asking more and more to be out on her bike, I need it sorted. Over the years I have ridden my Saracen Vex and it gets used and pounded and then sits in the shed for a number of months or more like years and then we get it out and use it again and then after a while it sits in the shed, and so on and so on, so you can see the pattern. It is an old bike and the guy in the shop is quoting me a princely £40 possibly £65 if I need a new back wheel. I love that bike and am loathed to scrap it when it works perfectly well.
Anyone in the area up for a NKT cycle?
The other chores well they were off the should do list(s), especially the washing and hanging out, that’s an important chore/task that needs to be kept on top of, as does the doctors and paperwork, don’t know what you are like but I have become of late somewhat scatty admin wise. Since becoming a Pastor I have lost much of my ability to be a good and efficient administrator. If it comes over my desk I need to deal with it straight away or else I will forget about it. I used to be able to file and retrieve and process from anywhere, any aspect, not now, and that was before the kids arrived so can’t blame them.
Tomorrow will be interesting and indeed the coming days, it’s alright in a sense since girly girl goes to school and it’s just wee man and I, so that shouldn’t be too difficult…right!?!?!?
We do have plans to go to a new group starting for under 5’s, can’t remember if this was the “only Dad’s/Grandad’s” I saw advertised or another general free for all type of group. I do know this a Sure Start project so that much is positive. After that we’ll do lunch, walk Honey at some point, pick up girly girl, entertain for a couple of hours dinner and then Yve home again. So that will be tomorrow after that I have not a clue…
What I do have a clue about is everything and I mean everything takes twice or 3 times longer to do than it did. Getting shoes on, getting dressed even, having breakfast, getting brushed and ready to be out the door, getting in the car, getting out the car at the other end or worse walking to somewhere, can’t be keeping up with my 6’2″ lanky strides, I lose them by the time I reach the pavement to walk across the road. So in some ways that helps because there are only so many hours in the day and with all the faffing about and hissy fits and generally going at a child’s pace in terms of physical steps, you can’t actually plan to do all that you can do in NKT, it simply doesn’t work.
Realising that is no bad thing and going with it is the path of least resistance thing to do, and anyhoo have you smelled the roses recently, they are really nice at this time of year!!
4 thoughts on “Day 18 in the Big Abbott House…”
My goodness you achieved a lot in that time…well done! I am very impressed. Don’t think I got anywhere near as many things off my lists today. There are ALWAYS lists…and it is always hard to make a dent in them. Ongoing struggle of parenthood!
You are making a brilliant start!
And you are right…everything takes MUCH longer…and there is not always a lot of time left between the ‘washing, cleaning, dressing, feeding, laundering, reading, talking, entertaining, feeding again…etc’. I think my biggest lesson at the moment is realising that life is not the time between those things…life IS those things. Working on rewiring my brains and expectations of myself…
Thanks Kath, the list in my head is huge and some of it involves DIY an drilling and to some degree I think I should have done that within my NKT since I don’t feel it is fair to do so when they in bed.
Ah well it is all a learning curve and they only moved in little over 2 weeks ago.
Loving reading what you guys are up to now with the little lovelies! i tell u what tho, u are learning very quickly and sounds like you are doing amazingly well. Very soon, all those things to do ( i have 4!!!) get done quicker and easier and the time to enjoy gets longer!One thing i ve found helps is machines on time programmers! then u dont forget to put them on `just before you go to bed` etc cos u put them on just after tea! anyway have fun!!!
Hi Diane, so lovely to hear from you and that you are reading the blog too, so nice.
Figured out the timer for heater in Conservatory since we eat breakfast etc in there as the dining table, so heater even in the summer takes the edge off the morning chill. Also did the slow cooker with chicken while at Church so ready for when web got home for Sunday lunch.
We have all come a long way in our learning yet still a lot further to travel.
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