Counting to 10

Did I have a crappy day or what today? Forgetting my work shoes, skidding all over the ice, having the busses cancelled on the way home because the main road near my house was closed off (making me panic thinking about why). I had three lots of guests (various friends of hubby dropping by). Dinner didn't taste quite right, and I had two mouthfuls before the third guest turned up in time for dinner, so I took the bottle of coke to drown my sorrows and left my share of the meal for him (I just did not want to go back in the kitchen and start again). I made the mistake of letting the kids near the playdough and then had to wrestle it off them at bedtime. I had a stream of my brother-in-laws customers (he fixes phones) ringing the doorbell every time I started to pray making me madder and madder (one asked me to ring him and ask him to come home now as his phone had to be fixed in an emergency - do I look like ANYONE'S secretary let alone my brother-in-laws?). It was Little Lady's birthday so she came from my mum's with bags of presents. In the process she managed to lose the expensive dress Long Suffering Sister kindly bought her from Monsoon (one of these) before she even got home. I felt like a louse when calling my mum to see if it was there.

Kooky Little Sis came over, but I was too demented/distracted to pay her any attention and she left me some cooking chocolate and plastecine and borrowed some of my scarves and brooches and trundled off home.

My beloved relations being what they are, another fight has broken out over...NOTHING and my mum is upset because her and my name was mentioned. The the first we came to hear about it was when a relative called to confirm if we had said such-and-such. I told mum to take no notice, but she doesn't like trouble (I always think of her good advice to say nothing and mind your own business - the truth always becomes apparent with time).

I have spent a good portion of this evening exercising my lungs and shouting at the kids ("Don't call him stupid", "don't bother her", "get off of her bed", "are you going to brush your teeth or not?", "muu-um she said a bad word", "ignore her", "ignore him" etc etc). I finally got them to drink their milk, brush their teeth and get into bed. The minute I got downstairs I heard a loud thud and screaming - I ran upstairs to find Gorgeous had gotten out of bed and climbed onto Little Lady's bunkbed which he then promptly fell off of. Thankfully he wasn't hurt (alhamdulillah my boys seem to have rocks for heads). During this time, my husband had to go drop off one of his friends so, I was left answering the door, herding the kids and answering phones alone which annoyed the heck out of me.

I finally made time to call my mum and sisters to thank them for their gifts for Little Lady and return my best friends calls to tell her we'll talk in the morning when I am feeling less psychotic.

So I am going to do a Pollyanna and find something good in it. I walked home without falling (although I skidded to my front door). I re-learned it is a very nice walk and plan to attempt it again tomorrow insh'Allah. I stopped to see the ducks and beautiful swans on the way home (although the park gate was shut which is why this picture is from so far away) and I was glad that the river wasn't totally frozen over.

My husband is now back and has done the dishes and is getting the kids back in bed (I can hear the scurrying around upstairs). I am feeling calmer after writing this and tomorrow is a new day. I still have the last part of this evening and will go and sit in bed and eat chocolate, talk to my better half, read the end of my book (Beloved by Toni Morrison) and do some journalling if I am in the mood.