January 16th 2016

 Honestly? There's just another morning waking up to spread out mess in the playroom.  I'm all for the children leaving their games 'in-play' so to speak, but if they haven't been touched for a couple of days and the stuff (often Lego) is preventing me from easily accessing the back door and/or laundry, then things can start to get tetchy.

Love the children. Love their extended and prolonged pretend play. But also love being able to move through the house easily.


Finally we had a day where there were two adults home and an inclination to pack up the Christmas tree. The tree and decorations live up in the attic, so I wasn't quite capable of the lifting a heavy box above my head as I would have liked to perform the clean up during the week. And there was some serious Leftovers watching to be done at night during the week, preventing it from being a priority.







Just when I thought that the face-touching was on the decline with Harriet, Ted decided to pick up the trait and run with it. Perhaps he was nostalgic for my ever-running-commentary on controlling Harriet's tics and decided to dive on in to ensure I kept the verbal background noise going. At any rate it's comforting to see that the behaviour management of parenting is still a required entity. God forbid I started to feel unwanted.






































Although the great thing about (slightly) older children is the opportunity for a sleep-in. After returning from last night's adventure around 1am, we were able to sleep in until nearly 10am while the children entertained and fed themselves. Oh the glorious happiness of a sleep in! I mean, sure they were supposed to go to swimming lessons at 8am, but they'll be fine. Shallow water for another summer and a fulfilling sleep agenda? Sounds like a sound compromise to me.

We did need to address the issue of a crumpled and sun-ravaged outdoor setting. So off to Bunnings we drove, looking for a short-term stopgap designed to fulfill our immediate summer needs. We found it and I was dropped off at USyd in order to meet up with a uni friend pre-semester.



























When I returned home there was much focus on food. Ordering it, at any rate. Seeing as I hadn't eaten since breakfast, it is safe to say I inhaled my container of noodles during a particularly dramatic Gilmore Girls marathon.





Ted, not one to love the GG in the way the rest of us do, had absconded with the iPod and was off in the backyard doing...something. Mystery prevailed until I managed to extricate myself and found him in the backyard.











What was he doing?  Well, he was cutting a rug, Ted-style. And thankfully I have video capabilities on my DSLR.