NotSheep

A very up-and-down day indeed.

I woke at about 4.38 (approximately ;-)) and couldn’t get back to sleep. Eventually I sat up and read email while nursing Toby, then lay down and read more email while still nursing Toby, until I finally felt my eyes closing - just as everyone else was ready to get up.

On the bright side, I didn’t wake up with a headache today - the first time in a while. They’re cluster headaches - so-called because they occur in clusters. They’re similar to migraines, much less common, but no less debilitating. The pattern varies, but I tend to get one every day at the same time for a while, then they go away. I seem to get them shortly after having a baby - probably down to a combination of not sitting in a good position, getting slightly dehydrated, and not getting enough fresh air. But this lot started a few weeks ago, and I’m waking with one, and it’s lasting most of the day. If waking before 5 a.m. is what it’s going to take to get rid of them, I’ll do it. I’d really rather not though

Anyway, managed to get a shower to wake me up a bit (more than a bit, really, since there was no hot water). Barney yelled at Freddy over breakfast, so I, setting a good example, yelled at Barney We got the kitchen cleaned up a bit, gathered all the swimming stuff and got in the car.

I did a couple of errands, then we hung out in the playground at the leisure centre for a while until it was time for swimming for Barney, George and Freddy. They’re going every day this week. About five minutes before we were going to go in, the fire-alarm went off and we saw the manager running back to the centre from the playing-fields, followed by the evacuation of all the summer scheme kids, so that was a bit interesting. As we were heading into the building, a fire-engine pulled up - but by then the staff knew what had happened (one of the summer scheme kids had broken the glass on one of the fire alarms).

While the older three swam, Jack and Toby and I went to the cafeteria, so I could watch them. I made the mistake of giving Jack his pocket-money before we went in, and he muttered about buying a “Sonic toy” from one of the machines, and I said no, don’t put your money in the machines, so of course you can guess what he did. Two pound coins. I had my back to him, but I knew what he’d done as soon as I turned around and saw him standing in front of the machines, with his back to them and his arms wrapped backwards around them, as if I wasn’t going to notice these five-feet-high and two-feet-wide things as long as he kept them behind his back… I don’t know what he did, but he didn’t even get any toys out of them

When the lesson finished, we headed down to the changing rooms, and I stood outside the mens changing waiting for the boys. They all took ages - particularly Barney, and he might have been better off getting out fast, because the waiting gave me time to get a complaint about his behaviour from one of the other kids in the class. *Sigh*

Into the car, fed them muffins and apples for lunch while we drove to the grocery-store. (See? I do get some parenting stuff right. I mean, I might go shopping regularly when my stomach’s empty, but I know better than to do it when theirs are! LOL) That’s where we spotted the barbecue.

We were glad to get home, because although my car has air-conditioning, it hasn’t worked for years. It probably just needs filled up with whatever it is they fill air-conditioning units with, but we’ve never got round to doing it. I think I might have to look into it though…

I had done a load of laundry before I left, and hung it out to dry and started another load of laundry (nappies! again!) - which should have been finished by about 10.30. We got home between 2.30 and 3, and it was still going around and around… I pushed it forward to the rinse-cycle, and - oops! the garage floor got washed again. Now this time we know it’s not a blockage or a kink in a hose or something - and once I’d drained it and spun it, I was able to put it through a rinse-cycle without a problem (except for sore knees from sitting in front of it watching just in case LOL) - so where does that leave us?

Anyway, got them rinsed and hung out and got the groceries put away and the boys started to assemble the barbecue. That took up the rest of the afternoon, and then we put it to use and made dinner on it

I did a sergeant-major clean-up session after dinner - that’s me, giving orders and the boys running about trying to keep up. So the kitchen is now reasonably tidy, the living-room is spotless, and while George and Freddy’s room could use work (how do they do that? they just tidied it yesterday!), there’s nothing on the landing waiting to knock me down the stairs if I have to get up during the night.

Been thinking about Scratchy a lot - the funeral was today. I was going to send him a text-message, but I didn’t want to send it too early, in case I woke him, and I didn’t want to send it during the day, because I don’t know what time the funeral was taking place and was afraid he’d have his phone on and it would beep in the middle of it all. If there was any chance of me being awake at midnight, I might have sent him a text then and asked if he was at his grandfather’s house, and rung there if so - but given how early I was up this morning, there’s not much chance of me seeing 10 p.m., never mind anything later