A cross between fabulous and foreboding

The first day of the school holidays. It isn't actually technically school holidays yet but as G finishes his nursery school week on Thursdays, it is for us.

It started beautifully with a lie in. A lie in! I woke up at 7.20. Feeling lovely and rested and cosy and snoozy. I got up a few minutes later (because a plumber was coming sometime this morning...) and found E and G both mostly awake but pretty chilled. We played upstairs for nearly an hour before pottering down (them still in PJs, me not cos of the whole plumber thing) and having a very slapdash but happy breakfast. We pottered and played and there was a bit of TV. The plumber came and went. We were still very much winning for the day.

We set up the pop up tent in the garden and played jungle explorers. Fundamentally still winning but the edge was wearing thin. I was hot. They were hot. They wanted to be In My Face, On My Knee, All The Time. And G was getting less and less pleasant to be around. I snapped. Then I got it together and we had a nice twenty minutes. Then I snapped. Then I got it together and we had a nice twenty minutes. And so it went on all day. We had some glorious times (jungle explorers featuring heavily as well as nice story times and even finger painting). We had some really grim times. E doesn't do what she is told. Ever. A lot of the time this is ok as fundamentally she is well behaved and doesn't need to be told "no" too often but when she is naughty, nothing makes her stop other than physically removing her from the situation. G does do what he is told on the naughty/dangerous front, but not on the "required for life" front like pulling up his trousers after going to the loo without being asked fifteen times to do it. And so it wears me down.

At last we made it to bedtime. I was determined to end the day on a good note so went up to do bath time instead of sending A. It was going ok until it was time for G to get into his pyjamas at which point the following conversation occurred:

Me: G, can you please put your jammies on while I make your bed.
G: I want to make my bed.
Me: ok, you put your jammies on while I do the sheet, you can help with the pillow and duvet.
G: no, I want to do the sheet (throwing jammies on the floor and flailing dramatically on the bed)
Me: put you PJs on now.
G: (picks up E's hair clip which was on his bed)
Me: (snapping a little) give me that
G: (throws it at me, catching the side of my face)

And so to the naughty step for the last few minutes before bedtime. But it feels like one of those moments that might have saved our summer. I had a few minutes to cool off while getting his sheet on, then we had a lengthy chat about what the problem was and he got to say his piece too (mainly that he thought he was helping by throwing the hair clip at me...) and we finished as friends. Here is hoping it stays that way!

What do you want to know?

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I shall attempt to catch you up on all the different areas you may or may not want to know about...

First up, theme month. Central American and Caribbean month was a total success. We took every possible opportunity to celebrate the cuisine of some fascinating nations. It just happens that "every possible opportunity" in June equates to one possible opportunity...
Now we are in July and revelling in the delights of Eating Outdoors Month. So far, so simple. We have had one day where no meal was consumed outdoors (G was too poorly to cope) but several days when more than one meal was eaten outdoors. We agreed in advance that the challenge would be to eat outdoors when we didn't want to or in places that didn't scream alfresco dining... But here we are, half way through and it has been a piece of cake, a walk in the park...a very well timed heat wave indeed! We did have one picnic while on holiday when it threatened to drizzle and we were on constant guard against aggressive geese so that might earn us points. (Oh and the references to points? A and my lovely cousin-in-law came up with a system whereby I get points for each success in a theme and can then cash them in...I went off the idea after, under suggested tariffs it would take until a few years into retirement to earn a trip to Australia...I would like to visit my brother again before he turns seventy...)

Next up, everything else. I think the main reason for my silence has been the less than perfect health I have experienced during the last few weeks of May and first few weeks of June particularly. Nothing AWFUL but a few old pals rearing their ugly heads and leaving me in a spin wondering which one is the chicken and which is the egg... Do I have more IBS symptoms and need to control my diet more because I am anxious? Am I anxious because the endometriosis symptoms are flaring up? Are the endometriosis symptoms causing or following the IBS symptoms? And so on, and so forth. I saw the GP this morning and have no further answers to these questions, nor have I gained a GP that I really warmed to and feel understands where I am coming from (which would have just been a nice bonus). The anxiety is currently...fine. Totally liveable with. The IBS is currently...fine. Mostly liveable with. The endometriosis is currently...weird. Largely liveable with, occasionally totally flooring. Don't know what the next step is on any of these. Physical side seems to be a big game of wait and see for a few months more. Mental side is fundamentally up to me to push for counselling or CBT or whatever.

I think that is enough for one post, don't you?