A woman's work is never done

As it turns out, I'm actually far too exhausted to write anything about our treetop escapades at Bewilderwood today, so I may have to leave that for another occasion (along with Labour Day Part 2 which I'm hoping no one will pick me up on). But trust me please, they will materialise at some point. This is, of course, a perfect example of what it's like to be a Mother. Leave everything other than children's stuff to the evening and then you're far too exhausted to do it anyway. So what I'm going to do today is leave you with another great example of what it's like to be a Mother, in the form of an e-mail that I received a couple of weeks ago.

Mum and Dad were watching TV when Mum said, 'I'm tired, and it's getting late. I think I'll go to bed'.

She went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for the next day's lunches, rinsed out the popcorn bowls, took meat out of the freezer for dinner the following evening, checked the cereal box levels, filled the sugar container and put spoons and bowls on the table. She then put some wet clothes in the dryer, put a load of clothes into the washer, ironed a shirt and secured a loose button. She picked up the game pieces left on the table, put the phone back on the charger and put the telephone book into the drawer. She watered the plants, emptied a rubbish bin and hung up a towel to dry. She yawned and stretched and headed for the bedroom. She stopped by the desk and wrote a note to the teacher, counted out some cash for a school trip, and pulled a text book out from hiding under the chair. She signed a birthday card for a friend, addressed and stamped the envelope and wrote a quick note for the doctor. She put both near her purse.

Mum then washed her face with 3 in 1 cleanser, put on her Night solution & age fighting moisturiser, brushed and flossed her teeth and filed her nails.

Dad called out, 'I thought you were going to bed.' I'm on my way,' she said.

She put some water into the dog's dish and put the cat outside, then made sure the doors were locked. She looked in on each of the kids and turned out their bedside lamps and TV's, hung up a shirt, threw some dirty socks into the basket, and had a brief conversation with the one up still doing homework. In her own room, she set the alarm; laid out clothing for the next day, straightened up the shoe rack. She added three things to her 6 most important things to do list. She said her prayers, and visualised the accomplishment of her goals.

About that time, Dad turned off the TV and announced to no one in particular. 'I'm going to bed.' And he did...without another thought.

Now if my husband reads this he'll think I'm unfair because he actually does do half the stuff in the list above and I thank him for it. But I wanted to share it with you anyway because it made me laugh.

An now I'm off to bed to try to recover from an exhausting day. As usual!

Randoms and a little bit of romance

I'm going to avoid mentioning what date it is today because JP left yesterday for two weeks in India and I get to spend Valentine's Day (whoops mentioned it) alone. Again. Earlier in the week JP asked me what we had done for Valentine's Day last year. 'Er nothing', I had said. 'You were in Burkina Faso'. And the year before I can't remember. Edie wasn't even three months old so I probably didn't realise what the date was at the time. I'm not annoyed. Well, not hugely. So instead of mentioning hearts and flowers and all sorts of things like that, I'm going to finish off my labour story because, if you haven't gathered by now, Renée was actually born on Saturday 14th.

Now this is where I just have to stop and take back everything I've said in the last paragraph. I've just opened the door to the largest bunch of red roses I've ever seen. And before I had even opened the envelope to see who it was from I phoned my husband to thank him. Luckily it was him who had sent them or that could have been embarrassing!! So he's saved for another year. And that's all it takes. You see I'm not demanding.

Anyway, I have a very busy day ahead of me. I have to leave in er...well I should have left two minutes ago to pick up Renée from her French lesson, then she has a five year old birthday party to go to which we have yet to wrap the present or write the card for (and believe me, writing the card takes time) and then I'm even considering taking the train to London to see a friend who's just over for the weekend from New York. Too many things and as always too little time. But as a consequence I may have to leave Labour Day Part 2 until tomorrow. Apologies if you're chomping at the bit for it.