Pass the wine - week 8

1. Tag-teaming bugs. The kids. It's a skill. It was A's turn this week - some sort of laryngitis/croup special - another day at home playing nurse. Mr M donned the uniform on Tuesday with me hot footing it back from town to takeover so that he could hop onto calls. Then O's snot levels hit a new high, as did his temperature on Wednesday. The poor lamb has now broken out in a rash, so am looking forward to that situation tomorrow.

2. How do working parents manage with poorly bambinos? We're struggling and it's starting to make us question why I'm back at work trying to secure a job if this is how it's going to be in the short term.*

3. It's been odd having our chatterbox whispering all week - the house has been so quiet. She took to banging the table to get our attention. The great news is that her voice is starting to come back and she's no longer quite as scared of coughing as she once was.

4. I celebrated my last child-free Friday with a calming spa treatment at Foxhills, courtesy of Mr M. It was such a treat - an incredible body massage, followed by a facial - my face still feels joyously polished and my skin hasn't broken out. Although I didn't fully relax because I'd forgotten to look at the name of the locker I'd electronically locked my worldly goods into and that was ALL I could think about during the 90 minutes of calm. All was fine and I thankfully didn't have to ask for help. Note to self...PAY ATTENTION especially when having a bit of flap!

5. I picked up my new bookclub book, Mothering Sunday, from the local library. I've gone from having a reading drought last year (thanks O) to over committing (to myself) and 'joining' two bookclubs (@abookishbakerclub on IG) and a local Facebook-but-meet-in-real-life one. I now have a silly number of books on the go (Mothering Sunday, Becoming and French children don't throw food). Thank goodness Mothering Sunday appears to be pretty short. And with a large font.

6. This incredible weather saw us both outside tidying the garden whilst the little ones napped. It was a milestone for us and reminded me of two things - life is getting back to normal, and how comically abnormal we were in our twenties when we bought the flat with the ginormous garden and spent every weekend digging, clearing or raking. Sometimes fuelled by champagne. I miss it.

7. I made it to the gym for the second half of my induction. A session with a personal trainer, who was wonderful and listened. She didn't treat my "I can't guarantee I'll be at the gym once a week let alone once a month" line with the expected "YOU'LL ALWAYS BE A QUITTER WITH THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE" motivational speech, but instead has created me two fitness plans - one for home and one for the gym. Amazing. I'm doing this to get fit and strong, so that I can keep up with the little ones and fix an ongoing lower back issue. I get to use those trendy ropes on a boat thing. I am going to hurt tomorrow.

8. Wine, wine, whine, whine, wine.

*yes, I know - it really is that odd.