My most favourite state to be in is slightly under pressure but managing I reckon. I quite like precariousness and a touch of uncertaintly and I definitely like busyness. For pretty much my entire pre-children career it was a constant state of being really, working initially as a waitress or in the kitchens of my parents restuarant where it was soo much more exciting when a coach load of people turned up for cream teas and we were dashing around trying to get it all done, to being on the refund desk at B&Q with customers queuing both sides, the phone ringing, constant tannoy calls and then moving into management where there was always something pressing happening. I’ve got slightly more protective of peaceful downtime nowadays but my day to day life could be considered fairly frantic at times and I love the feeling of looking at my diary on a Sunday night and knowing we’ve got a full week of ‘stuff’ ahead of us for the following week. So I have found the rather s l o w pace at the library a little testing at times, the day drags, I quicky get demotivated and slope off to try and skive a bit when there is nothing urgent to be getting on with and wish I was at home where I can set myself pressure targets such as getting all the laundry done, leaving getting the kids tea and tidying up the kitchen to just before Ady gets home so it is a mad dash rather than a leisurely exercise and giving myself constant ‘to do’ lists. I’m definitely a performs well under pressure kinda girl – most of the time anyway, before anyone pops up to cite instances when I haven’t 😉
So today was just excellent – in just four days we have signed up over 100 children for this years Summer Reading Game in our library and today far from the staff outnumbering the public three to one we were having people queuing! And I totally knew what I was doing – I joined new borrowers to the library, helped small children find the clues to solve the hunt the characters signs around the place, issued stickers and books, answered ringing phones and generally thrived off the buzzed up atmosphere of it being busy with a very slight edge of only just having it all under control – it was ace :). And then at the end when it all quietened down and I was trying to find a cd with the Big Fish Little Fish song on it to use for Davies’ party we had most of the library staff either singing the song, doing the movements or looking on wide eyed while the rest of us demonstrated it. I Nic’d up the library! 😆 Had no luck finding it, and a bit of googling reveals I’m not the only one searching so far from thinking it would be on a party dance mix album that I could order from work I’ve had to contact the bloke who wrote and recorded it about getting a copy 🙂 Did find some T shirts with it on though which I thought were rather cool (hey Em, when’s your birthday? 😉 ).
Came home to a rapturous greeting from Davies and Scarlett which was lovely – I do miss them lots when I work a whole day. I’d brought home loads of dvds as most of the ones I’d got on order had come in since last Friday so they got straight into a Doctor Who dvd while I cooked their tea. They had a bath which Davies got out of early so he went and fetched the two books he’d chosen for the reading game on Tuesday and we read one together with him reading a few of the words and one with me just reading it. He still really struggles with reading and it is genuine struggle rather than not wanting to put the effort in. He can do it but it is really, really laborious and doesn’t seem worthwhile or enjoyable at all. Some stuff he seems to read effortlessly like words on his x box games but it’s just not clicking for him yet when faced with a whole page of writing in a book. He tried though, seemed to enjoy the idea of him decoding a few words and then reading them when they were repeated through the book so that might be something we do again, but it served to cement my idea that he’s simply not ready, which having watched numbers be a similar mystery to him until fairly recently but have suddenly all clicked, I am happy to trust the process of it and remain hands off still. 🙂 The one thing he always has enthusiasm for is writing and sooner or later the two will merge I guess.
Scarlett got out the bath and brought me a couple of books to read for her and then they chose another one each, so we’ve done six books for them to choose two favourites each out of and maybe pop to the library tomorrow for their first stickers and seeds incentive. They went off to bed, Ady went off to buy cat food and I had a bath and cooked dinner. Tonight we’ve watched the first episode of Torchwood (another dvd) and I’ve spent lots of time on chicken forums :lol:.
awe you can relive some holiday songs at Riks website if you’re missing them! Here
Comment by Em — 20 July 2007 @ 8:37 pm