Mum's Day

I had to write this one, because Tuesday is the one day of the week when I don't 'work'. Yeah, right.

6:30am I woke up. One good thing about a breastfeeding co-sleeping baby - I was forced to sleep in! Yes, forced against my will, and I have to say, it's wasn't so bad. The usual complaint is that toddlers make you get up too early, so I can't really complain, can I? Nice cuddle.

7-8am cleaning. I have a lot of energy first thing in the morning, which is wasted if I sit down and eat or have a cup of tea, and disappears entirely if I go anywhere near the computer. So I usually clean up, clean the kitchen, and do laundry at least until the girls go to school at 7:50

7:50am put the Wiggles on for Erica so she's not too upset at the girls leaving, and make a cup of tea.

8am to around 8:30, drink tea and check email. All through the morning I was doing loads of laundry, with finished large items into one basket and small items into another.

8:30 - 9:30 Checked an essay, corrected it and returned it (in between making a few moves on scrabble) while Erica played near me.

9:30 - breakfast. I had run out of cereal so I had a weetbix with rhubarb. Erica had a little bit of weetbix then some rice at the same time.

9:30 - 10:30 Cleared out the shed (it's well-organized at the moment so that only took five minutes) and some of the genkan, took the banqueting table out to the shed and brought the kotatsu (heated table) in.

10:30 got Erica dressed finally and got her into the car, took her to Kanji's work so he could watch her while I was at the dentist

11-12 Dentist

12 Picked up Erica, went to the Post Office to transfer some money, then went to the supermarket to pick up the inter-dental brushes the dentist recommended, and a few things for dinner. Found some oxtail, so oxtail soup is on the menu some time next week! Plus milk and yogurt, and many things on special - bacon, pork, chicken, ham, pumpkin soup, pizzas and pizza toast for snacks.

1pm came home for lunch, a roll and a salad from Youme town. Ate lunch with Erica, who was full from snacking at her Daddy's shop. Took her up to bed.

1:30pm - 4pm multitasking! I had several things I wanted to do, all of them 'priorities' so I began by giving each task 15 minutes, so I would at least feel I had made a start, then deciding from there what to finish first. I had to 1. cook the soup for dinner 2. rearrange the living room 3. study how to use In Design 4. Hang the small laundry (the big laundry was going to the laundromat later in the day. I ended up at 4 o'clock having achieved everything, though I was still hanging socks when Amy came home.

4:30 pm Once Amy was home we all went out in the car. I dropped the laundry off and put it in the dryer, then we went to Keio Academy, where I had to pick up some resources and folders. We were there for about half an hour, then stopped by home to drop off Amy to tidy up the study for her piano teacher, then the laudromat. I folded everything there, as I know if I just take it home in a heap it'll stay like that for days and everything will end up badly creased!

6:10pm Home to Amy and the piano teacher, lesson in full swing. I caught up on some emails during the lesson, and wrote two monthly reports for my September classes. Okay, and a few scrabble moves too!

7pm, piano lesson all finished, Lena's decision to quit communicated to the teacher, teacher's pay for September handed to her, promises made to go together to karaoke sometime.

We had dinner - the soup, plus bread and cheese. Everyone filled up their tummies, then had their medicine. I gave Erica hers - she has to sit in front of the nebulizer for about 15 minutes, which is hard on her, but she does really well. I have to keep opening her mouth and holding it open, sometimes it can get very frustrating. It's actually easier if she cries, because then she's taking deep breaths and getting the medicine in, but she is, ironically, too good!

Amy had a shower first, followed by Lena and Erica, with me coming in last. I left my necklace on, and it dripped black down my chest so I got out again pretty quick!

8:30pm we were all dressed, toileted, fed, dosed and watered and went up to bed. We read a small amount of a book about the ocean, then I read my novel with a book light while everyone went to sleep.