Matty has been away in Wodonga since Tuesday afternoon (he's been doing 12+ hour days, starting at 4am!!!!), so I expected this week to be tricky. I also had a big work week on the horizon. To (hopefully) make the load a bit easier this week, I decided to work my behind off last week - I even worked through the long weekend (the only long weekend Matt has a year, how nasty am I), and clocked up my first full-time week in a year. This involved quite a few 5.30am starts and midnight finishes. I had hoped that this would mean I could simply focus on home and Jessica from Wednesday - Friday. (By way of explanation for this lunacy, one of my work colleagues has a massive deadline falling due today, and the amount of work required is far too much for one person to complete in a week and a half, so I was asked to help.)
Well, the workload was bigger than I expected, and the work took a lot longer than I anticipated. As a result I had to work every day this week, too, although this only meant 5 or 6 hours a day (but again, late at night and early in the morning!) Jessica was also, understandably, a bit unsettled by her Daddy's absence, and is teething again, so the nights have been rather punishing. Still, thanks to the Magical Bean (coffee) and a further lowering of my housekeeping standards, I have been ok.
Yesterday was d-day as far as work went, and although it was a magnificent sunny day outside, I spent the whole day inside working! Poor Jessica spent a bit of time playing by herself (which I usually try to avoid, preferring to work while she sleeps). The afternoon was very very frantic, as I tried to finish my portion of the work. I gave Jessica her snack in her highchair (diced two fruits, cheese and rice cakes) while I typed away. Well, dopey me didn't put the main bowl of two fruits far enough away from Miss Curious, so I then had two fruits and juice all over the carpet! My inner monologue had a few choice words on hand to describe my IQ while I cleaned up.
At 6 o'clock I emailed the last of the layouts to my colleague and put the dinner on. Dinner was rather messy and fun, so a shower was in order. The plan was then to do some grocery shopping, but another silly young magpie delayed us a bit by falling down the chimney (the second in a few months!) He hadn't fallen all the way down so was perched just above the main fireplace, and still inside the chimney. I tried to grab him without success for about 15 minutes and then decided (as we were out of milk and I now really needed some ice cream) that the grocery shopping was still a good idea. Got home at 8.45 with a veeeeery tired girl (I'm sure some of the people at Safeway thought I was a nasty Mum for dragging a poor little girl to the Supermarket at 8pm), settled her in for the night, had a quick chat to Matty (who had done another 12+ hour day), and set about catching and releasing the silly Maggie. He was not happy - in fact he squawked a few times and tried to bite - but eventually I got him with a bedsheet and released him outside. After spending a few minutes wiping the soot off my face and out of my ears, I then put the shopping away. I then sat down in front of the tv with some therapy (see attached)! Yes, I ate all four of them!!!!! And I can answer your inevitable question ("Why pay for four tiny cups when for another $1.50 you could have two litres of Cadbury Light Turkish Delight Ice Cream??) - because if I had bought two litres, the eventual outcome would have been the same - there, again, would be no ice cream in the house!
I must say that these past 3 days have increased my appreciation for people who permanently do this on their own. I could barely last 3 days (!!!), and I at least had the comfort of Matty on the phone, and the realisation that he would be back soon. To look after little ones and manage even a part time job on your own must be a superhuman task.
Today feels like Christmas - no work, just a bit of housework and playing with Jessica and Jersey. Fantastic. Tomorrow we are all going to Dad & Ros's house for the afternoon/evening, to celebrate Kate's birthday. Double Fantastic!!!
Let's finish today with a picture of Jessica in her carseat, which was turned around to the Toddler position on Sunday (as she is now 8kg). Doesn't she look like a big girl?
Ok, one more. Here's one of my two girls playing together. They really are becoming great mates!
