Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I don’t think I needed it today as I had already called yesterday that today was going to be busy! Reflecting on the weekend I also think I picked a stonker for a three dayer. When, pre-lockdown, did we ever have such good weather on weekends? Unheard of!
With M’s birthday fast approaching, I’ve only just realised that I have another 4 day week coming up. Living the life of riley during #RemoteWorking. A bit of positivity and no room for Monday blues tomorrow so let’s smash another week!
Top 5 for today coming up:
1. Early motivation. To my utter surprise, my wife bounded out of bed with a spring in her step having clearly dreamed about living in a completely clean and tidy house. And so my chores began. The fellas out there will know that when your better half is in this frame of mind you’d better have a damn good excuse to make yourself scarce, or you roll up your sleeves and pitch in. If you can bear to do the latter you will earn a lot of brownie points. We now have a very tidy house for the first time in a long time and a very happy lady of the house. 🏡
2. The picnic. I have been harping on for a while about taking the kids for a long walk in the full understanding we would need to bribe them, probably with the promise of food. Therefore after my chores were done I set about making a picnic and then we got ready to set out on an adventure. Now leaving the house with two kids is challenging at the best of times but with them both insisting on taking rucksacks full of toys and their mother constantly wanting to double check we had the essentials; picnic blanket, sun cream, hats, water bottles etc etc it took a while. Off we went in the blistering midday sun with my patches of sunburn from yesterday already crying out for shade. It actually went really well considering their little legs. Apart from when M face planted the path. Oh, and when E slipped and scraped the back of her legs. And when we walked an extra mile looking for a flat spot to have the picnic which had to be away from the stinging nettles and in the shade and be set back enough from the path to allow others to get past. You’ll be pleased to hear the Paw Patrol cheese I bought yesterday went down a storm! 🧺
3. Daddy’s homemade wedges. I’m trying to do the good parenting thing and feed the kids healthy things and not just a rotation of items from the beige freezer drawer. So tonight I rustled up some homemade potato wedges which actually turned out quite well. I kept a close eye on E when she started to eat them and asked her outright what she thought. She put one thumb up and the other thumb down.
“What does that mean E?”
“Well the thumb up is because they are nice and crispy on the outside. And the thumb down is because on the inside they are too soft and fluffy!”
“Too soft on the inside?!? That is the perfect potato wedge!”
“No Daddy. I like chips, not these. Chips are fat and not dry. Just make them next time.”
I clearly looked crestfallen at the point as she continued.
“Don’t be sad Daddy. I still love you even if you can’t make nice chips. It’s just better if you cook the usual ones tomorrow and then everything will be better. Let’s pinkie promise.”
“What are we pinkie promising?”
“That you can try cooking me other things but you must promise never ever to cook me these chips again.”
By now I was looking around for any kind of support and just prayed that M was enjoying his. And it was at exactly that point he spat out his potato wedges and started clawing at his mouth as if I’d poisoned him. I give up! 🍟
4. Silence is golden. We have worked out that the few moments of peace we get each day often turn out to be the most dangerous. Children should be seen but not heard. Not my two! If I can hear them then I know exactly where they are and have a pretty good idea of what mischief they are up to. If I can’t hear them that usually means they are up to no good, usually in cahoots with the other. Stealing toothbrush heads or drawing on the walls or similar. You can therefore imagine our surprise when today we went looking for M after a period of uncharacteristic silence, only to find him sitting very nicely putting together one of his many jigsaws. Is this the start of a new period of good behaviour where he just plays nicely like we see all the other children doing on social media? I hope so but won’t count my chickens! 🤫
5. Florence. Today saw the return of Florence the butterfly, who you may recall featured earlier on in my diary. When out for our walk today a butterfly dive bombed E and when Steph asked if she was okay, she replied “yes of course, it’s only Florence.” She had white and orange wings, which I must confess appear to have changed since her last appearance. E then launched into a full blown explanation to Steph about how another butterfly nearby was called James Michael who was Florence’s brother. She then said she knew what all the butterflies were called and she really wanted to catch one. Perhaps chasing them and clapping her hands together was not the wisest idea unless she wanted to squish a member of the family! 🦋
LawyerLow Diaries 