Rambles of My Day in Days of My Destiny

When the days are as warm as they have been, you need to make the most of the time you have between before and after hours (the hours that are too hot to do anything). Today I was woken early by little L, who was outside, chasing the dog and calling his name out frustratedly (unsure of the proper word here) because he was running away from her (lol). I soon put some potatoes on to cook, put away the dishes I washed last night, and served my girls breakfast. Because I was still half asleep, I wasn't talking much - and then M told me she thought I'd lost my voice, lol. I don't normally get dinner underway so soon in the day, but I try to make an effort when L is on afternoon shift, so that even if he is at work, he at least has something yummy for dinner, that I made for him with love. My idea was to make a gourmet potato salad. It got hot real quick. I went outside, let the chickens out (I LOVE how they follow me for a good 15-20 metres before realising I'm actually NOT a chicken, hahahahaha! And then they spread out and begin to do their own thing, lol.) and put the sprinkler on. We've decided that seeing as we - thankfully - have bore water, we are going to put it to good use and water the yard all day. It's amazing, but in two days, the patch I've been sprinkling has already greened up. It never ceases to amaze me just how little water it takes to nourish the earth - and how little water it takes to steal its colour away again.

After about an hour, I was eager to see my man, who did not get home until 1am after work last night. I lay down quietly beside him, but he woke up quickly as he had been stirring in the hot weather anyway. It was 8am. We lay together, talking sleepily and smiling at each other. I love his eyes and his beautiful smile. I love how much he loves and appreciates me and everything I do, even when I'm not even thinking about what I'm doing. We fell asleep together. We sweated in our sleep but slept anyway - until M had a sudden fit of rage. We could hear her growling-screaming and throwing things around. Another day in the life of. She doesn't always do that, but there's always some negativity served as a side with the start of the day, coming from her. We got up and told her that was a 3 straight away and she needed to go to her room for 6 minutes (as per her age). The first few times I did this, she lay quietly and half-stunned in her room. As time has gone on, she has screamed out in anger while in her room, or shouted at me angrily that she's ready to come out. The thing is, it doesn't work that way. I simply put her in her room and say nothing and show no anger, and then when the 6 minutes are up, I simply walk over to her room and kindly tell her that the 6 minutes are up. So that's exactly what I did. I am unsure where to draw the line, because part of me understands that she needs to vent her anger in SOME way, and while hearing her shout and carry on in her room is annoying, I know that she is hurting nobody while releasing her feelings. Yet on the other hand, some of the things she ends up tantruming about are just plain outrageous and I also think that she needs to start learning to control her anger. (Especially when the things she's hating the world about are simple, eg situations where, instead of throwing whatever it is she's having trouble with, she could ask for help... something we've been repeating since she was a toddler.) So today I told her that I understand she is angry, however, we don't have to put up with the carrying on and on and on in her room. I told her she can punch the pillow angrily if she badly needs to vent, but not shout the way she does and that every time I hear her shout, I will add another minute. It worked. The other thing I've learned to do is to simply LET IT GO once she comes out of her room. As the book explains, she's old enough by now to know what is expected of her and where the boundaries are. She knows when she is pushing them, she knows when she's doing something wrong, there is no need to lecture her about it and go on and on and on about it on my end once the consequence has been put in place. I have found that when she comes out of her room and I simply carry on with the day, she is soon back to her normal, calm self. And if not, well we start counting again and back to her room it is, if we get to the 3. (That doesn't happen often) Of course there's a balance with everything, because some things just DO still need to be explained. But most of the situations that arise are easily dealt with, using this 123 system.

The girls had made a huge disgusting mess in the lounge room yesterday afternoon, and they'd promised they'd tidy it up first thing in the morning (only because it got too late last night by the time I consciously noticed it all). When I reminded them of their promise, they didn't want to tidy up. I am so glad L was here, because it was getting too hot for me to have bothered with standing my ground. But he did and they tidied up. In the meantime, I got to my own mission, which was to de-clutter and reorganize the storage room. It took forever and parts of that were frustrating because, while it was my own little job, I had to wait on L to sort out some of his stuff before I could continue. But we got there in the end. He's got some turntables that he's had since before I met him but he hasn't used them for years. In recent years, he's had the idea to get rid of them and I have encouraged him not to, because they really have been a huge part of his life, for starters, and also, what a cool thing to have in your home! I know that he would dedicate time to it if he set his mind to doing so. He did for a while there, and then one of the needles broke - then the turntables ended up in the storage room, and have done nothing but take up space ever since, and because of these things and all the records, we've ended up throwing things in the storage room wherever they would fit. I was finally ready to see these things go, except that now L has a newfound resolve to keep them, lol. We worked around that and anyway now I have a nice, organized, TIDY storage room, with storage space to spare!!!!! Trust a woman!!!!!! ;) Lol.

L had a look at our air con unit to see if he could fix it but he couldn't. I'm so glad he's an electrician because it meant he could call the air con guys and tell them what he's looked at and bla bla bla, general lingo that only they would know, lol. So someone will be calling back to come and have a look at it. I hope it can be fixed, despite knowing full well that I am surviving just fine without one (so far). Soon it was lunchtime, so we did lunch, then had another rest (the heat is exhausting!). L set an alarm, which he normally does, and I'm glad for that too because I actually was DREAMING! Lol, as if I ever sleep like THAT during the day!!! After that it was time for L to go to work (sad face) and time for us to leave for swimming, too. M had been saying she was scared all day, but I secretly think she keeps saying that because she THINKS it's going to be horrible, but ends up having fun every time. I knew that after our time away and spending all that time in the water, that she'd be just fine. And she was!!!!!!! It was the best lesson to date, for both of them, but especially for M! She was having SO much fun, and I could see that her instructor was enjoying the instructing all the more for it! Once we left, M said to me, "I'm not scared of the instructor anymore. I'm going to write myself a note to tell myself not to be scared of her." LMAO so cute!

From there we went to buy M new school shoes and a birthday present for Tom, who is turning 4 on Friday. Then it was time to do the groceries. I really thought it'd be an easy task since the girls were in such good spirits, but .... no. The supermarket really is a place where M feels the need to be naughty, regardless of what's going on. She never used to be like this, she used to be an ANGEL to shop with. It started somewhere in the last couple of years. Little L does really well with it - unless M is with us. From what I've heard other mothers say, it's just the norm. The bigger kid plays up big time because it's not something they do often once they start school, and the smaller kid follows suit because hey, it's fun. Ahhh dear. They were in the trolley together at first, until M started heaving her body in any direction to make the trolley move and bang the shelves. After that, her and little L kept trying to jump onto the trolley while I was walking. Then they were grabbing all sorts of packages of food, and asking if I could buy this or buy that. Then when I would say no, I'd get growls from M. Then they kept pushing each other and headbutting each other and chasing each other and hurting each other in the process. I had enough and counted them and when we got to 3, I made them sit on the floor of one of the aisles. They both sat and giggled and took off their thongs and threw them as far under the shelving as they could. I walked on. I thought, "If they've lost a thong or two, then TOO BAD, they will just have to go home without shoes on." Thankfully they got both their thongs back, lol. My sister called while we were in there and I was somewhat disappointed that the phonecall didn't go as well as I thought it would. But... patience. Our time will come! (I picture myself behaving in this exact same way to them when they're teenagers and on the phone - although by then it'll be some sort of technology that is beyond msn and so on, lol. Or maybe it WILL be the old home telephone again. Who knows. Anyhow... imagine, lol. How bad, haha.)

After that we went along to "Summerfest" which is a community event put on by a group of churches. There were all sorts of activities and treasure hunts and races and things that we missed out on due to our own goings on, but nevermind. We got there in time for dinner and then there was time for the jumping castle and face painting. The girls had great fun, especially as some of their little friends were there. M's best friend was there. They hadn't seen each other since the end of school, and the little best friend told M that she'd forgotten what M looked like. LOL. Childhood this early on is just so sweet, isn't it.