Just a typical day

Lily asleep in her dirndl

Today we all got up late despite a new alarm clock and this led directly to an argument about getting ready and a decision on my part to take no involvement whatsoever in the getting ready dramas but to leave it all to them (I helped Grace and Lily) with the consequence that we didn't leave for school until 9.08am. At work I spent a lot of the day investigating the carcinogenic properties and other health risks associated with fibreglass insulation as well as the dire potential health effects of formaldehyde and the very unfortunate consequences of failing to adequately repair post-partum tears. I told a bloke that I couldn't take on his case. I looked a a very big pile of documents but didn't read them all. I heated up the leftover chicken tandoori which had not been a hit with my kids, despite how delicious they thought it smelt whilst in the oven, and ate at my desk whilst catching up on a few blogs I like to read. I spoke with a good friend who told me that my daughters who had given me such grief that very morning were entirely delightful on their trip to Sydney, and discovered a colleagues newborn baby had just had surgery. I chatted with another colleague, 35 weeks pregnant with her first, and felt old-in-a-good-way, and remembered how it felt to be leaving work for the first time to have a baby, and how unknown the experience was. Craig emailed me to say he had to go to Sydney suddenly for an urgent hearing tomorrow, was that ok? We spoke about the kids bickering and whether there was any solution. My friend emailed me to ask whether Ruby is interested in Net Set Go. Perhaps the answer to the bickering? Another friend emailed me to see whether we could catch up for dinner and the first date that was suitable was 1 September. I bemoaned the fact that the only chocolates left in the fundraiser chocolate box were pineapple freddo frogs, and then someone organised a fresh box which included honey nougat logs. I had two. I rang Kim to say sorry I would be a bit late and rode home through the light rain and sang 'Wild Mountain Thyme' but I could only remember the chorus and a few odd lines. I got home and Nina told me a very long story about how she had finally found Mousey Brown in a suitcase after several weeks of him being missing. Ruby tried on a pair of my jeans to wear tomorrow for dress up as your favourite storybook character. She is going as Harriet the Spy. With a turn up of the cuffs and a belt she can fit my jeans now. Nina got into her Laura Ingalls from 'Little House in the Big Woods' costume which led to Lily wanting to put on a dirndl that Grandpa and Alex brought back from Austria. She is sleeping in it now after refusing to take it off. I read Grace a chapter of 'The Folk of the Faraway Tree' and Beth got accidentally stuck in a fairy ring in the Land of Enchantments. Grace is Beth (Grace and Lily always pick the character in each book that they 'are' which often leads to fights) but we've read it before so she knows Beth gets out. The big girls didn't get a chapter of Spiderweb for Two because of the bickering so finally it was lights out and I had a shower and am about to make a cup of tea and do a bit of quilting. Just a typical day. Pretty good day actually.