NotSheep

You might have sussed, from the brevity of the last-post-but-one, and the almost total lack of posts otherwise since Tuesday, that this has not been the best week ever.

It was Wednesday that started it, really. I don’t know why, but nothing seemed right on Wednesday. I was tired, kids were grumpy and everyone was getting on everyone else’s nerves. In the end, I went off in a sulk and hid in my bedroom, leaving them to it. I phoned Scratchy and ordered asked him to take Thursday off. At that point I was thinking maybe he could take the older four out for the day on Thursday, and I could stay at home and have a mental health day, but by the time he got home things were just getting worse; George and Barney went to bed instead of Cubs and Scouts, and I spent the evening working out the practicalities of sending them all to school.

In the end, on Thursday we went shopping. We didn’t buy a great deal - and we didn’t buy shoes for school, though it was close! Freddy actually said he wanted to go to school, but when asked why, his only reason was “So I don’t have to clean up after lunch.” Erm… uhuh… They did get to go to archery on Thursday, though I think that was mainly because Scratchy reckoned there should be some space between them and me.

Friday was a lost day - I seem to have managed to catch Melrose Disease without actually going to Melrose, though thankfully it was only the D bit and not the V bit. By evening, I was fairly dehydrated and not actually able to do much about it. I did smile when i heard Jack sitting on the toilet and singing though: “Scaramouche, scaramouche, do the fandango…”

Fortunately I felt much better by yesterday morning. The boys had their swimming lesson, and while George was at trampoline class, the rest of us headed into the city to visit a proper aquarium shop (i.e. not one in the back of a pet shop). It was fab, and I might have brought home some more fish if it hadn’t been for Barney noticing white spots on ours before we left - so I brought home treatment for whitespot and a couple of bits of wood for the aquarium. I did a fair-sized water change, put the wood in, added back water, dosed the aquarium with the whitespot treatment, and crossed my fingers. The plan now is more whitespot treatment every two days until that’s cleared up, and then I’ll order my plants, get some rock and a new background, drop the water down to 50%, do some interior decorating and put in a few clown loaches (which should also take care of the minor snail problem we’ve noticed).

We also tidied up the garage yesterday, and I stuck a few bits on Freecycle - I’ve had several responses for each of them, so I’ve replied to the first one for each item and will let the rest know it’s gone once I hear back.

Barney wanted to make pancakes this morning, so he started to do that with Scratchy’s help. A friend phoned and I took the phone to the living-room to talk with her (it was impossible to hear over the noise in the kitchen and dining-room). A few minutes later I heard a - well, you could call it a screech but that would be under-estimating both the volume and ferocity - from Scratchy. I did a quick “I’ll phone you back” and headed for the kitchen where I found Jack had poured a five-litre bottle of water across the kitchen floor. Aren’t three-year-olds great?

Scratchy was not responding well to this turn of events so I pretty much ordered him out of the way and took over with the clean-up. To be honest, it wasn’t so bad - the floor is ceramic tiles, so it’s not as if it’s damaged by water in those quantities, and a couple of towels soaked up most of the water. It needed mopped anyway, so he did me a favour Tomorrow I’ll leave a bottle or two in the conservatory - the floor in there really needs a good wash

After all that excitement (and George pointing out to Scratchy that he’d just done exactly what he tells George there’s no need for, when George is doing it…) I got back on the phone to the friend, chatted for ages, and then we decided her family was coming over here So they all came over for a visit - ostensibly lunch, but by the time they got here and we sorted out food, it was really dinner Anyway, we all enjoyed their visit (well, maybe excepting Mollycat, who really wasn’t keen on being held down by the tail…) - I hope they had a good time too.

Aaaaannnd… tomorrow’s Monday. Wish me luck