(no subject)
Jun. 15th, 2006 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheWell, first I put on the laundry and tidied the two downstairs rooms and the kitchen and the bathroom and had breakfast and washed and dressed myself and Linnea and filled the dishwasher and ran it and emptied it and read my online bits and did my hair and read Linnea some books and changed the CDs in the CD changer and danced with Linnea (mainly to Dolly Parton) and assembled the wherewithal to give guests tea if they showed up and took a few phonecalls. Then it was ten o'clock.
Then a mother and toddler showed up and a mother and babe in arms and we drank tea and ate biscuits and played with the toddlers and played in the garden with the paddling pool and the swing and the sandpit and the little house and I hung the laundry and found sunhats and made clear my boundaries about where naked-bottomed toddlers are allowed to play and where they're not.
Then the mother and babe left to get another toddler (and boy did she look like she hadn't slept yet this week) and the other mother and toddler played and I made pasta and salad and things for lunch and we four had lunch and I cleaned up afterwards and tidied the two downstairs rooms again and filled the dishwasher again and managed to arrange for them to be leaving just as the Homestart people arrived at two o'clock.
So I made them tea as well and made polite conversation as best I could while incredibly tired and they were charmed by Linnea and the person who's coming to visit us regularly is lovely and I like her and she seemed to quite like us and she says -
She says -
She says that she's happy to come and play with Linnea while I go off and have a rest.
Not today, obviously, because everyone was getting to know each other, but oh. My. God. Every week, for an hour, I get real honest to goodness time off. Not time during which essential housework won't be done, not time during which things will build up, time that's just... there.
Then she left and I parked Linnea in front of the TV and sat and read online stuff and stared into space and put off going to the loo until the last minute because I was too tired. Rob cooked the mackerel for dinner because he came home to find me still a zombie.
Then a mother and toddler showed up and a mother and babe in arms and we drank tea and ate biscuits and played with the toddlers and played in the garden with the paddling pool and the swing and the sandpit and the little house and I hung the laundry and found sunhats and made clear my boundaries about where naked-bottomed toddlers are allowed to play and where they're not.
Then the mother and babe left to get another toddler (and boy did she look like she hadn't slept yet this week) and the other mother and toddler played and I made pasta and salad and things for lunch and we four had lunch and I cleaned up afterwards and tidied the two downstairs rooms again and filled the dishwasher again and managed to arrange for them to be leaving just as the Homestart people arrived at two o'clock.
So I made them tea as well and made polite conversation as best I could while incredibly tired and they were charmed by Linnea and the person who's coming to visit us regularly is lovely and I like her and she seemed to quite like us and she says -
She says -
She says that she's happy to come and play with Linnea while I go off and have a rest.
Not today, obviously, because everyone was getting to know each other, but oh. My. God. Every week, for an hour, I get real honest to goodness time off. Not time during which essential housework won't be done, not time during which things will build up, time that's just... there.
Then she left and I parked Linnea in front of the TV and sat and read online stuff and stared into space and put off going to the loo until the last minute because I was too tired. Rob cooked the mackerel for dinner because he came home to find me still a zombie.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 06:49 pm (UTC)But hooray and hurrah for Homestart and a lovely volunteer. And especially hooray for time off to rest, regularly and properly!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 08:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 08:51 pm (UTC)I am so looking forward to my hour Off. She even says she might take Linnea to the park, which would be truly off-duty for me.