The days are getting longer
…or maybe it just feels that way.
It hasn’t been an easy week around here, and it didn’t improve today. It wasn’t anything specific today: just a continuation of the grumpies. I began to expect it when George informed me this morning that he’d been reading in the living-room since 4 a.m. When asked why he got up so early, his response was that he’d woken up and noticed that Freddy wasn’t in his bed - and that Freddy was reading in the living-room, so he did too. Ooh-kay. The 4 a.m. bit might have been a slight exaggeration, but I don’t think it was out by many hours 
By 10.30, all the boys (except for Toby, of course!) were planted in front of electronic games of one kind or another - computers, GameBoys etc - and were already starting to get on each other’s nerves. By 11, I’d made them all go outside - the weather was glorious and I’m a firm believer in making the most of it. They came in and ate lunch in the conservatory, but were still grumpy. Scratchy left shortly after that to go pick up the car (taking about 1.5 hours longer than expected, because he missed the train by four minutes - which meant a 40-minute wait for the next one, plus an extra 20-minute wait to connect to the next train, and then a longer drive back because traffic was building), and left me to deal with it all on my own, much to my delight. Not.
Eventually, after listening to fights over batteries, bionicles, jigsaw puzzles, sidewalk chalk and goodness-knows-what-else, and after watching them moan and sulk over being asked to pick up their shoes or their chalks or after some other horrendously onerous and desperately unfair request, I’d Completely Had It. And that is why my children went to bed at approximately 5.30 p.m. They were all tired and grumpy and needed to be there. I wasn’t tired, but I was getting grumpier by the minute, and I needed them to be there too.
I did take them some food later, and they had a picnic on the bedroom floor. Then they were sent to clean their teeth and told they could read for a while longer before going to sleep.
It’s now about 8.45 and I haven’t heard a peep from them in about an hour. Seems their day lasted quite long enough 
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Ugh, Deb … I’ve been reading but not had time to comment this week, does sound like a bit of a nightmare week … and also sounds as though an exceedingly early night was in order! Hope tomorrow is better.