One of those days ...

Yesterday was one of those days. When I went to bed on Tuesday night I relished the thought of a full day at home, preparing for my Stampin' Up! launch, doing some scrapbooking and stamping, a leisurely, happy day ... but it was not to be! (don't read on if you're in a good mood, you won't be soon!)

I woke up late, and had to rush to get to my recorder class on time (not good for the teacher to be late LOL) Before my shower I stepped on the scales - yikes! Higher than my all-time high! (not counting full-term pregnancy but frighteningly close to that!) Luckily I would be doing some walking during the day because the car was in for a service.

Steve dropped us at school and we made it to recorder in the nick of time. During recorder I realised that a little new girl was really struggling, and in fact sitting there doing nothing. She has been in the beginner recorder group all year and was really not up to joining us in the Senior group this year. So I had to send her back to the beginners :-( I felt sad but she was ok with it. Then I had to walk home, with umbrella and recorders, a miserable uncomfortable walk, but thankfully not too long.

I got home and discovered that we had a computer virus which needed to be dealt with, which wasted about 30 minutes. Then I got a couple of scrapbook pages finished that I'd started the night before. (In hindsight that was the most productive and positive thing I did all day LOL) Then I went to work on my local Stampin' Up website only to have computer problems and have to redo everything I'd worked on in the last few weeks, which took hours.

Looking up at last from my computer I realised that it was past lunchtime and I needed to pick up the car in just an hour. My precious "free day" was rushing by! Gobbled down some lunch and did a few quick stamping things that needed to be done. Then I set out to pick up the car from the mechanic. It's a new mechanic so I wasn't sure how long it would take me to walk there. It's been raining here for the last week and a half, so I left fully prepared with my umbrella and oilcloth bag. Instead, the sun came out and for the next 45 minutes I could feel the back of my neck burning while the oilcloth bag stuck to my clammy skin. yech!

Finally arriving (nice and hot and sweaty by now) I picked up the car, by which time school was about to finish, so drove to school to get the girls. One of my daughters was not in a good mood. Just a little way down the street from the school she discovered a beetle which she had to have. I was reluctant to be late for their dance class so told her to leave the beetle, but no. This escalated into a 5-minute stand-off at the busy intersection (while the principal watched from her car - just great!) followed by a tantrum worthy of a 2yo. For the next 20 mins, in the street and at home, things were thrown, people were hurt and there was much crying, shouting and carrying on (not on my part, somehow I stayed calm on the outside). As we finally left for Irish Dancing a little late I noticed that the girls' wastepaper bin had been emptied all over our bedroom floor. grrr! Then more trouble at Irish Dancing over shoes ... then went to chemist for panadol for child in question who claimed to have a headache and a sore chest (PE incident involving a ball). After all that I had a shower while the girls were out, and felt a little better, although exhausted and sore from my long walk and traumatic afternoon!)

Things went a little more smoothly later, but I still had to put up with constant chatter, complaining and an inability for this child of mine to stay still for even a second! Just when I was about to start cooking dinner my other daughter was discovered trying to remove a biro stain from her school uniform. So I spent the next half an hour tring to remove biro stains from both her uniform and her yellow bath towel - not fun. Steve arrived home (and never was I so happy to see him!) and eventually dinner was on the table, but not before discovering that our phone and internet were down! After dinner he sat on hold waiting for the phone company and finally the girls went to bed, only to take turns getting up to complain for the next hour or so. By this stage I was coping only with huge amounts chocolate and marshmallows. No consolation from the internet, which still wasn't working .... but finally the girls went to sleep, we watched an episode of The Good Life (BBC) and had an early night, dragging my aching limbs off to bed.

(detail of one of my scrapbook pages from yesterday, using Stampin' Up! products)

This morning, things are looking much better. The sun is shining, there is a lovely autumnish breeze, the washing is hung, the floors are swept, the girls are happily off to school, and I have another free day to stamp and prepare ... and relax, before the next busy few days and nights.
Life is pretty good, after all!