new life, dirty sheets and old pizza crusts

• By Alison
• 2 April, 2010
• 4 Comments

The title of this post has nothing to do with anything really. I just had a sudden visual of what might be lurking under the pile of toys and dirty sheets that need clearing up/washing in the back room. Really, it CAN’T be old pizza crusts. I don’t even let them eat in there. Well, I do sometimes – but not pizza. Oh God, could there really be old pizza crusts in the laundry pile?

So it’s now the Easter holiday. Two weeks off school for recuperating and relaxing. That’s the kids – but not the adults. I’ll be needing that return to school for MY relaxing and recuperating! School holidays always end up more stressful than they should be.

The biggest thing staring me in the face is the fact that spring cleaning has never been more needed than right now.

Right RIGHT now – as in, why the hell are you typing this, when the back room has been overtaken by a washing pile so big that it’s probably got an independent postcode.

Yesterday was the first day of the holiday, and we had two extra children in the house. My daughters’ best friends are a matching pair of sisters. The younger two became good friends because the older two were, and then when the younger ones started school we asked that they be in the same class. They are now like their very own small club.

As these two girls are also french, they’ll be spending their holiday with their grandparents in france, and thus we won’t see them until school goes back, so I organised a sleepover straight after school on Wednesday to give them a chance to play together outside school.

They had a grand time getting ready for bed, comparing pajamas and brushing their teeth. 

And guess what I did while they were doing that? I kicked the bed leg so hard (by accident of course!) that I quite possibly broke my toe.

So that was me, lying on our bed, shouting directions to the girls, playing “words with friends” on my phone. Passive mothering somewhat?

Thursday dawned bright and early. The girls got up bright and early. I crawled out of bed dull and late. My foot was throbbing from my toe to mid calf, and looked like a small cocktail sausage. I taped the toes together and jammed them into a protective shoe.

What do you do with 4 girls on the first day of holiday? If you’re me, and you’re a bit silly – you suggest making “puffles” – the fuzzy pet from “Club Penguin”. At least that meant that I could sit down while I zipped up some bodies and eyes. The girls then drew in eyeballs and mouths, then stuffed them and glued on the hair. The results are not bad for something thrown together so quickly!

After the make-a-monster party I seem to have gone all crafty!

But they all had a good time together, which is the main thing. They left at 4pm on Thursday and are probably in France by now.

Which leaves me with a still throbbing and swollen toe, and and even bigger mess to tidy up than before, with an even larger pile of laundry.

So I’d better get up off this sofa and start having my “holiday” and get that washing done! I just really hope there are NO old pizza crusts under there.