7 days of Bianca - Day 1

I have decided to try to do a daily blog for 7 days, starting from today. I have wanted to do this ever since my friend Sig did a similar thing (hers was 10 days - but that is a bit ambitious for me!!). I have been waiting for a week when things are 'quiet' or 'normal', but that doesn't seem to be happening so I'm just going to write about my crazy weeks, as they seem to be the norm.

My main reason for starting this blog today is that I have had such a productive day, I feel the need to record it for use in future arguments with Ben about who does the most.

My day was due to start at 7am. I had my alarm set for that time so I could get up and go to the gym. Ben had to leave at 8:30 for work so 7am is pretty much the latest I could get away with. I went to bed the night before at 12a.m and was worried about how I was going to cope with only 7 hours sleep. Unfortunately for me my other alarm, that can't be programmed, woke up for her morning feed at 5am!!! It takes half an hour to feed and settle her and by that stage I was fully awake. So I decided to go to the gym early and then come back and try to catch the 2 - 3 hours sleep I was owed.

So off to the gym I went. I was amazed at the number of people who are there at that ungodly hour. I was sure I would have the gym to myself. Apparently there are TONS of women who like to work out before their day starts. By the time my alarm went off at 7am (which it did because I had forgotten to switch it off) my session at they gym had finished and I was on my way home.

Thursdays are a day when my children do yoga in a park with other home schooled children so there is always a humongous race against time to get the school work done early, everyone dressed and in the car in time for yoga. Usually I end up arriving 10 minutes late and extremely disheveled after running out of time to dress myself properly or run a brush through my hair. Our food is always something I have grabbed out of the cupboard and the kids have to fight over the one drink bottle, which is all I can find in such limited time.

Having woken up at 5 however, I was presented with a couple of hours extra for my day. I must have released some endorphins or something at the gym because I rejected the idea of going back to bed and instead started to tackle my day early.

I had so much time on my hands that I managed to get the school work done, picnic made (INCLUDING chopped up fruit!!!), I had a shower AND washed my hair AND straightened it AND made it look nice. I found 3 drink bottles and had everything packed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. I was so overwhelmingly proud of myself. I couldn't wait to get to the park and casually unload my picnic and presentable looking children (actually, I forgot to brush Jazzy's hair so they were only semi-presentable) and hear the chorus of 'I don't know how you do it' from the other h/s mummies while smiling smugly.

So you can imagine how shocked and horrified I was to find out, whilst walking out to my car to leave, that yoga had been CANCELED!!!! A large number of children were sick, so there wasn't going to be very many there today and the weather looked dicey so they decided to call it off. I was floored.

I decided that I was not going to waste a morning of organisational genius so I decided to go out anyway and arranged with one of my friends, who has two boys that she home schools, to come over for a play date. So off we went. Tracy is the one friend who would probably be the least impressed with my organisational skills as she is one of the most organised and efficient people I know (on par with my Nicoles). But it was lovely to have a nice long chat with her while our children played.

After the picnic had been consumed we left Tracy's to go do a spot of shopping. Usually I try to avoid shopping with all 4 kiddies but I was feeling quite brave so I decided to go to Aldi and Coles. Shopping was fairly uneventful. It is such an effort to drag all 4 kids into the shops and then even more of an effort to load them and the groceries back into the car but I managed. There was no bribery involved although there were a lot of empty threats being made. "Rohan if you don't put that down I am going to ban you from watching Wiggles for the REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!", "Jazzy if you don't stop whinging I am going to put all of your My Little Pony toys in a box in front of our house labeled 'free to good home'".

When that long and arduous task was finally over and we were all loaded in to the car we headed off for an afternoon play date with another home schooling mummy. By this stage I was back to looking extremely disheveled and unorganised so we arrived at Sara's house in a flurry of messiness. You couldn't open a car door without groceries spilling out everywhere and the kids, who had spied the treats I had bought for doorknockers on Halloween, were begging for this and that. The three water bottles I had so carefully packed that morning were now AWOL and it took me 10 minutes of digging to locate Diddy's dooey (dooey is what we call a dummy).

I had a lovely afternoon talking with Sara while the kids played. In fact we had so much fun talking that I didn't realise that time had gotten away from me and before I knew it I was loading the kids back into the car and it was 7pm!!!! Usually my kids are almost ready for bed at that time and I still had a car full of groceries to unpack, kids to bath and dinner to cook.

Needless to say my kids went to bed with no bath after having had toast for dinner. I can honestly say, that last night (I think I may have started my blog off saying 'today', but I only got half of it written last night so it is now Friday) was the FIRST night in my whole 8 years of being a mother that I have ever fed my kids toast for dinner. I almost felt bad about it but I was too exhausted to give two hoots. I was so exhausted that I didn't even bother to hide the evidence (toast crumbs and a jam jar on the bench) so Ben wouldn't know. I ate a Lean Cuisine for dinner and that too was left stranded on the same lounge it had been consumed on.

I had planned to tackle a bit of Mt Washmore (thank you for the name Nicole) last night but I was barely able to make it up the stairs let alone traipsing from one room to the next putting away washing. I don't cope well with less than 8 hours of sleep so I am amazed that I made it to the time I did on 5 hours.

Ben arrived home at 9pm to a wife who was passed out and 4 sleeping children. Usually I am at the door to greet him and he has a delicious dinner waiting for him, but last night he came home to a jam jar and some bread on the bench and groceries strewn everywhere (I had tried to put some away).

So it is now Friday. I was up at 6 ready to go to the gym but Ben was still sleeping. I am now biding time before I can wake him to watch the baby so I can go to the gym. I have a fairly busy day planned. I have school work to do with the kids, then they have some of their home schooled friends coming over (I dare anyone to say home schooled children aren't socialised!!!), I have to tackle some of Mt Washmore, decorate a cake for a friends' baby's birthday, and pack for my trip to Sydney next week.

So far I am off to a flying start. It is almost 8a.m and all I have done is start off the school work (Kylah is now working fairly independently) and then plop down in front of the computer to read the news/facebook and write my blog.

Ooooh!!! I also need to sew some badges on to Rohan's sleeping bag today. Did anyone read my holiday blog about how I had been buying cloth badges for my mum to sew onto the kids sleeping bags??? Well turns out that was the WORST idea ever!!! My mum has arthritis in one of her fingers (or so she says) so I have to do it. It takes FOR EVER and I feel like I need to do it or I will never hear the end of it from Ben, who watched in horror as I spent on average $5 on cloth badges per child everywhere we went. Hundreds of dollars will be wasted if I don't stitch these bloody things on so I had better get on to that.

Also, I just remembered something funny Rohan said yesterday. He came to me and said that he needed to do a vomit, which was followed by 'hic'. It was his first time having the hiccups since he has been able to adequately describe what he thinks is going on. It reminded me of Kylah's first time describing the hiccups. She came racing into the kitchen screeching "mummy!!! I need some water!!! My mouth won't stop moving!!!!" She had an urgent and panicked look on her face. "What?!?" I asked her. Her response was "Hic"!!! Hilarious!!!

Hopefully 'Day 2' will be written tonight.

B xx