From Elvis to Shakespeare

Quite a good day in a frustrating sort of way.

It started, as most mornings do, with both girls climbing into bed with me, after they'd already been downstairs and had breakfast and started watching a film and I was hoping for 15 mins peace and quiet to start my day, but no they came upstairs and disturbed me anyway. And Jade started talking about how she thought L from next door had told her a lie, and we discussed whether or not it was a lie, and I told her about how my best friend when I was 7 always told loads of lies. In fact, she had once told me that she had Elvis Presley in her room, and when I couldn't see him she told me he was lying on the floor on the far side of her bed. Hmmm. She's turned out to be a really nice, mature, sensible woman, (we're still occasionally in touch) but in those days she was a terror. Anyway Jade and I went on to talk about Elvis, and I told her who he was, and as my laptop was on the floor by the bed I opened it up and got some Elvis on Youtube. We enjoyed that so much we watched several more Elvis clips and with accompanying conversation she now has a thorough appreciation of the birth of rock 'n' roll. Scary to think that it's 'history'!!

Then once we got passed the 'getting dressed' battle, and I'd had breakfast, and set my Fair Shares gardener to work on the evil field bindweed and creeping buttercup, I sat Jade down to write her Thank You notes for her birthday presents. It's not too late to write thank you notes 4 weeks later is it? She started off happily enough, but after making several mistakes on the first card and scribbling them out and beginning to get frustrated and angry with herself, the tension rose rather. I had to do much deep-breathing and praying hard for patience to see it through, but eventually she has written 6 out of the 8 required so it's not bad going. Shannon joined us at the table and I found her some old party invitation cards that are unlikely to be needed so she enjoyed 'writing' on those and putting them in envelopes. While they were doing those I was mindful of trying to find a way for me to enjoy all this, so I decided to try a little drawing and did a fairly passable imitation of a horse which was interesting.

The next bit is when it all went rather pear-shaped, though it all becomes such a blur in my mind that I cannot write about it. This feeling comes regularly these days, when I'm trying to hang the washing out and Shannon wants to play a game and Jade is on the computer and something goes wrong and I go to put it right and then Shannon wants a drink and then the phone rings and then I try and sit down to menu plan for the week and then Jade wants me to watch her on the trampoline and then Shannon wants 'hungry' and I say no and she says "but I want to" like that's all the reason she should need and I say no again and she cries and whines and then I shout "No, you're not having any hungry, just go away!" and then everybody's hungry and wants a sandwich but then while I'm making them Jade hits Shannon and then I yell at Jade and make her sit on the stairs and go back and try and continue with the sandwiches and then I find Shannon is playing with one of Jade's toys and Jade has seen her and is yelling for me while trying to wrestle the toy off her sister and so I sort that out and then put the telly on to try and get some peace and quiet while I finish making lunch and then doing the menu plan and then doing the shopping list and by this time I am on the verge of tears and I've run out of energy and I feel like I just can't do this anymore......

So I leave them in front of the telly and go to bed for an hour. I want this to be 'quiet hour' from 1-2pm each day, with the girls quietly reading or listening to audio CDs, but I know this will need some training which will involve many interruptions to my quiet time until they get the message. And on days like this I'm just so desperate for my quiet hour the TV is the best way to get it to happen.

And then I got up and suggested we go for a walk, but by this time Shannon was n*ked and didn't want to get dressed again and it took ages to persuade her. But in the end we made it up to the woods and had a nice half-hour walk in the cool greenery, which was much appreciated. We got home and I was thinking, "I never got time to do the maths and bible stuff I wanted to do today" but by this time I had to prepare the dinner. Then I had to persuade Shannon into her clothes again because it was time for Jade to go to Rainbows. Shannon had to come too as her usual babysitter for that hour is away at HesFes. So we all went off to Rainbows where two police officers came for a chat with the girls about the emergency services and phoning 999 and the necessity of knowing your own full name and address, which Jade already does, not that she would ever tell it to anybody or phone 999 so it all seemed a bit academic really.

Then home to dinner and bed and to my surprise, while I was reading stories to Shannon, Jade found my Usborne Stories from Shakespeare and read the whole of Midsummer Night's Dream! We finished off with a further chapter from Michael Morpurgo's The Butterfly Lion as recommended by Chloe from the Manor Born. And so ends another day.