A day in the life

I last did one of these six months ago, so I thought what the hey. This was Tuesday at my house.

2am I wake up with an asthma attack. It takes 4 puffs of Ventolin and over an hour for me to return to sleep.

7:10am I wake up to the sound of three girls musing about what they'll have for breakfast. I'm still a bit zonked from my nighttime asthma awakening, so I send hubs out to deal and roll over to doze for a bit longer.

7:35am I get up, shower quickly and start making the school lunches. All kids are eating, and hubs is on his computer remotely fixing a work problem.

8:10am Lunches are made, kids are finishing eating, and hubs is still on his computer working. I jolly the kids along to finish their eating and get dressed, and set some washing going in the machine.

8:20am 9 year old cannot find her school jumper. This is a tragedy of epic proportions (for her) and a daily irritation (for me). She flails around shouting, calling names and accusing every other member of the family of stealing her clothing. How I do love pre-adolescence!

8:30am Ignoring tantrumming Miss 9, I help the other kids with their hair and 4yo with dressing. Miss 8 and Miss 4 then sit down to play with their Star Wars toys.

8:45am I locate Miss 9's school jumper in the dirty washing basket. WHERE SHE PUT IT HERSELF LAST NIGHT.

8:50am We head to school. 9yo and I bicker all the way. It's as much me as her at this point - my  reservoir of patience has been drained dry by the carry-on at home and a bad night's sleep. Miss 8 wisely stays right out of it.

9am Home from school drop off. Miss 4 and I decide to play games for a while. 3 rounds of Shopping List game and a few hands of Uno later, plus a nice cup of tea and the hanging of the washing, and my feathers are unruffling.

10am 4yo wants to paint, so we paint. It's nice, chatty time together. I also answer two work emails while sitting with her, and tweet the link to my interview with Nina D'Aleo on The Shake.

10:45am A post-painting bath for Miss 4! Dishes, sweeping and another email response for me.

11:15am Miss 4 sits down to watch TV. I log on to my computer and do 45 minutes writing work on a project.

12 noon TV off, Miss 4 and I have lunch while reading stories.

1pm I drop Miss 4 to kinder then continue on to the shops, where I buy Miss 8's last birthday present, do the groceries, and have a physio appointment.

3:15pm School pick up. Miss 9 is in a better frame of mind, which is good. She, Miss 8 and I go home and mix up the two vanilla cakes that are going to be Miss 8's birthday cakes for her party at the weekend. We get them in the oven.

4:15pm Kinder pick up. Miss 4 is happy to see her sisters (and me, probably :-) but bursts into tears when I look confused  as she enthuses about the mother & child night at kinder ... tonight. Which I have completely forgotten about. Oh noes.

4:20pm One hasty and apologetic phone call to hubs later, I'm able to reassure Miss 4 that we will indeed be able to come to kinder tonight. Order is restored in her universe.

4:30pm Home. Kids are all playing quite nicely so I do a quick 30 minutes work then prepare dinner. It's sausages, vegetable rice and corn on the cob.

5:30pm The kids and I have dinner. Everyone eats reasonably well. This is by no means always the case, so I enjoy it while I can.

5:55pm Hubs comes home. Miss 4 and I immediately leave for kinder. He will take Miss 9 and Miss 8 with him to guitar lessons (they'll leave 6:30pm for a 7pm lesson).

6pm Miss 4 and I arrive at the mother & child night at kinder. We have a great time - she paints my nails, we play with playdoh, make pictures and bracelets and she shows me all her favourite things.

7:30pm We get home, shower and pyjamify.

7:45pm Hubs, Miss 9 and Miss 8 home. I start Miss 4's bedtime routine, which is a cup of milk in bed while having stories, then having an adult sit in the chair in her room until she is sleeping.

8:20pm Lights out for Miss 4 and she snuggles down to sleep while I sit quietly in her chair. Fortunately she now doesn't mind me having my Kobo on in the room, so I read a detective novel while I wait.

8:40pm Miss 4 is asleep and I leave the room. The big kids are just brushing teeth in preparation for their bedtime. I see them to their room and get them settled. Hubs is on his computer, browsing and doing work stuff. He makes me a cup of tea :-)

8:50pm I want to work but it's too cold in the main house, so I grab my Asus tablet and head to bed. My bedroom is much cosier :-)  My goal is 2 solid hours and finishing off stage 1 of a document I'm working on.

9pm Miss 8 wants to chat, so I stop working and talk with her for a while. She heads back to her bed at 9:30.

10:30pm My work target hasn't quite been met, although I did make progress, but I'm literally nodding off over the tablet, so I shut it down and snuggle into my pillow, and was asleep within minutes..

And that was our day!