Today we have had friends for lunch, friends for tea and family just arrived for dinner, and us without so much as a matching set of crockery let alone a dining room!
This morning the kids played with Bob the Builder toys and watched Green Eggs and Ham while I sat around in my nightie reading the blogring for an hour or so, but that was the calm before the storm!
Ros and I had arranged to do ‘something’ today so when I got an email from her at 9.30am ish to say it was raining her end of Sussex and looking out of the window it was doing the same my end and were we up to lunch guests, I happily fired off directions, a time for a couple of hours later to arrive and thought I’d better get dressed. Got myself and the kids dressed and whizzed up to Boots to get stuff for my Mother’s birthday arriving home shortly after the arranged time to suddenly realise that ROS WAS COMING TO MY HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME ANY SECOND NOW!!! Ros, queen of clean, second only to Joyce in terms of her distain for dirt and there was me with grubby skirting boards 🙂
I always make a bit of an effort the first time someone new comes to the house anyway and while it is more on the ‘comfy family home’ side of clutterless I do at least try to have it clean if not tidy. But for Ros I had always imagined the first time she came to visit would be after at least two weeks preparation for the event including redecoration of the entire downstairs, professional deep clean of the carpets, new or at the very least clean on soft covers to the sofas (maybe even with some of those doily type arm rests!), a bleached sink, shake and vac’d flooring throughout and the scent of lemon and pine wafting through each room! I was attempting to sweep the lounge carpet with a dustpan and brush to get up the kids’ Frosties from breakfast when the phone rang to say she was having a blonde moment and was lost (my house from Ros’ is straight over every roundabout, straight through every traffic light and one simple turn left followed by another one shortly afterwards and your’e here! 🙂 ) which bought me enough time to get the hoover out instead 😉 Managed the house being scented with coffee and bread instead and moved the potty into the bathroom 😉 Already fretting about Joyce’s trip and as the house opposite us is up for sale and empty I am considering asking to view it, getting a copy of the key from the estate agents, moving a select amount of our least tatty stuff into it and hosting their visit there instead 😉 so Joyce if you peep in the bedrooms and find we don’t have any furniture you will know why!
Allowed the five kids the run of the house, they all went off in opposite directions while we tested the thong for fit and comfort rating, I showed Pea how to scoubidou, Davies and Buzz played some bizzare game involving crawling in and out of my built in wardrobes, Tarly got naked and at about 2pm we remembered we really should feed them 🙂 Ros went off to the shop for bread and cakes while the kids all did a boot camp style tidy up operation, we ate, talked some more and bid them a teary farewell. Lovely to have you Ros and as ever lovely to spend time with someone with equally dodgy spending habits 😉
Then a fifteen minute interval of pushing the hoover round again before my friend Mel arrived with Liam and Lily 🙂
Again, kids scattered around the house, me sat on sofa chatting and even better Ady arrived home early and cooked tea for all the kids and brought me and Mel more tea and coffee so we could carry on with the chatting. 🙂
They left and met my mum and dad coming up the garden path so while Ady was hoovering for the final time today I bathed the kids (Scarlett had rubbed most of a tub of vaseline into her hair – nice – think that might take a few washes before all traces are gone 🙁 ), one fell asleep straight away and the other is my excuse for sitting upstairs instead of being hostessy and cooking dinner while I sit with laptop on his bedroom floor. About to go and drink wine and start cooking and tonight’s viewing is planned to be the video of Fathers Day and Kessingland.
Tomorrow is Home Ed group and the theme is Egypt so tomorrow morning will be spent preparing pyramid making craft and buying some Tesco value loo rolls to make each other into Mummies with. I also plan to print off some hyroglyphs off a good site I found so the children can all write their names in them.
See that’s the trouble with this home ed lark, you just struggle to give your kids all that mixing and mingling and friendships that they would get at school 😉
Erm, Kessingland video ….??!!! Sounds scary – hope it’s only your family on it!
Comment by Joanna — 05 July 2005 @ 8:48 pm
Love the pictures of the thong, had me rofl!
Comment by Sarah — 05 July 2005 @ 10:34 pm
I’m not that bad;-) And in fact my own house is very slovenly atm. And I never kiss and tell.
Comment by Joyce — 05 July 2005 @ 10:58 pm
I am so not that bad Nic as well you know!
Comment by Roslyn — 06 July 2005 @ 8:54 am
I know, but think of your audience Ros, you must not disappoint! You have a stereotype to live up to 😉
Actually I should put in a disclaimer here on Ros’ behalf, she really is not that bad at all, infact she looked more than comfortable here and not once did I see her lick her finger and wipe it along a hard surface to check for dust!
Comment by Nic — 06 July 2005 @ 9:33 am
just read that again and realised you could well be saying you are not that bad in relation to me saying you have equally dodgy spending habits as me – in which case a disclaimer for Ros there too who is definitely further along a 12 step rehabilitation programme in sorting out personal spending than I am!
Comment by Nic — 06 July 2005 @ 9:36 am
But could easily fall off! You didn’t see my inspection of the bathroom then….
Comment by Roslyn — 06 July 2005 @ 2:11 pm