Which is just a line from the theme tune to The Littlest Hobo, which Julie and I were singing at the weekend in a nostalgic and slightly hysterical from too much elderflower cordial on a sunny afternoon type manner and has been stuck in my brain ever since.
I am definitely a ‘better under pressure’ person I reckon. I have a perpetual, rolling list of stuff I really should be doing at all times, which I will never actually complete and that’s fine. As one job gets ticked off the top of the list another seven add themselves to the bottom which of course means I will indeed die leaving some things undone. But as the list is ever evolving and there is stuff which becomes simply too late or irrelevant to complete and falls off undone (things like ‘marry Shakin Stevens’ for example) that may mean the list on my deathbed is as basic as ‘wake up tomorrow morning’ and be the only final thing I don’t quite manage.
So today I really needed to make some level of progress with the ongoing laundry cycle and I did – I moved all the laundry into the correct bedrooms and put all Tarly’s away. I did another load and hung it out. I also got the tent out and put the flysheet on the line, the bedrooms over the wall and the groundsheet out to dry out. Tomorrow I’ll peg the groundsheet out flat and hose the dried mud off it. As I was struggling to get motivated to do all this I had promised myself some baking as a reward. Not the eating of the baking you understand, the actual baking of the baking. I don’t quite know when it happened but I have become someone who actually really just loves baking. I love the satisfaction of pulling stuff out of the oven which is going to be delicious and I made all by myself which others will consume and compliment me on. It’s great :). Davies had the lego out and was making daleks and having played with some ponies for a while Scarlett joined in with him. They did do some token ‘helping’ with the baking but it really only extended to greasing the baking trays, checking that I would make some snickerdoodles and then coming to ensure I was letting them know as soon as things were baked and cooled enough to eat. They did help a bit with the shaping of the cheese scones too. I made some peanut butter and choc chip cookies as well as the snickerdoodles and cheese scones and then as I had half a bar of chocolate left and some bananas on the turn I made some banana and choc chip muffins too. All very delicious. 🙂
I had just finished and the children had just tidied up the lego when Ali and Freya arrived, just as I whipped the hoover out to get shot of all the crumbs of the baking the children had eaten and ritually scattered about the place, which is probably not the most hospitable way to greet guests and didn’t do wonders for me trying to convince Ali that I am serious about experimenting with anarchy :lol:. Davies showed Ali his Wallace and Gromit playhouses and then the children played xbox. It was slightly fraught with turn taking issues until we lured Scarlett away to do jigsaws with us instead leaving Freya and Davies to it. Davies very entertainingly managed to ‘read’ most of the words on a game he’s only played once before leading to me asking if he can actually read now without me knowing it. He didn’t answer which suggests to me he is sneakily ploughing through the collected works of Shakespeare up in his bedroom at night. Or maybe he just plays too much xbox? 😆
Scarlett bored of jigsaws before Ali and I did so she went off to play outside, which happily conincided with Lucy and The Rs arriving, so Lucy joined us in puzzle construction while the children reassembled themselves mostly outdoors. We had a field trip to look at the chickens – and erm the other wildlife we seem to have acquired – eww 😯 put in an appearance too. Aside from a few minor dynamics issues between the children who all have seperate relationships with each other but had never been a group of five before and took a little reasserting of positions a lovely afternoon was had by all. My establishing rules about shoes and areas of the garden which were out of bounds probably did even less for my claims to anarchy but I didn’t finish the last puzzle – I left the piece out before putting it all tidily away proving I can resist the temptation to do things properly 😆
Ady came home, Lucy and The Rs left, I dropped Ali and Freya home and came back to find children ready in the bath. I washed Scarlett’s hair which was becomming some sort of mini ecosystem with wildlilfe habitats and plantlife and brushed it afterwards. Ady got called away to my parents who have had a HD tv with various other home entertainment stuff delivered today and couldn’t get it to work, while I put the children to bed and made a quiche for dinner (I’d made the pastry earlier during Bakefest). Ady returned, a decision on the location for NicCamps 2007 winter camp has been made and from a rather sluggish start I feel I have achieved some stuff today aswell as enjoying spending time chatting with Ali and Lucy. A good one 🙂
Blimey, you’re busy. I’m sitting here all bleary eyed with my first cuppa of the day hoping some of that energy seeps out of the computer into my sluggish self.
Comment by Allie — 11 July 2007 @ 9:15 am
until tomorrow I’ll just keep movin’ on
Comment by simon — 11 July 2007 @ 10:50 am
Can’t believe I forgot to blog your attempts at being Anarcho-Nic!
Was a lovely afternoon and really restored me for all this hoo-ha of washing and work and stuff that I seem to have.
See you all on Saturday
Comment by Ali — 11 July 2007 @ 7:43 pm