Good morning... lovely washing day here... garden supply man has also just delivered 2 cubic meters of garden mulch for our garden so that's got to be dealt with too... DH coming home from work early to help spread it.

Rory: forgot to say: well done getting a Peg high-chair... saved yourself about $60... can it recline? If so Flynn might be able to start using it soon. They are getting to an age where they prefer to be able to look around. I'm thrilled that my new Emmaljunga has a new function with it's bassinette: you can raise half the base of it so that the baby can sit supported. Niall is turning into a real sticky beak, not happy unless he is privy to all the goings-on around here!

KL: Hope you don't have too much of a hang-over... nothing worse than looking after a baby when you're not feeling %100.

IK: ...and speaking of feeling poorly, hope you guys wake up feeling a little better. And yes, I went outside and had a wiff: could smell the fires too. Hope that rain dealt with them. the clouds looked so ominous but there wasn't much too it sadly (here in Eagelmont anyhow).

On my way to hang the first of about 4 loads...

ETA: grrrr trying to tidy up the yard for the party on the weekend but the kids keep undoing my work Why am I bothering? I was tidying up out the front and the kids were at the back dragging everything out of the garden shed into the garage to "play cubbies".... sounds cute, not. Now they are fighting... oh well at least that doesn't happen too often... would drive me nuts the sound of yelling, crashing, banging, slamming doors then the inevitable crying from Wade trying to get me involved. Guess there will be more of that (fighting) when Niall is older between him and Wade... we've largely managed to escape it so far with the age gap between Verity and Wade. The trick is to not get involved until you really have to... if they realise it gets your attention immediately they won't hesitate to do it more often. I guess Verity is at the end of her tether after 3 weeks with him.

Anyhow what I would really love is to actually be productive and DO something without the kids generating twice as much work for me in some other part of the place. The equation goes like this: I spend half an hour focused on a task somewhere... while they make a mess or break something somewhere else requiring the expenditure of one hour to fix or clean it.... that's how it goes. I can usually deal with it but the pressure of having the place tidy for this party is making it more frustrating. So as per usual I end up not attempting to do anything instead of directly supervising them... during which of COURSE they are angelic... they end up sitting quietly playing peacefully together... meaning i think to myself: "Ok they are settled now... i'll just go and do this job".... naturally 10 minutes later they have either created a huge mess doing something inappropriate or immediately start fighting or raid the 'fridge. So that's why I am here... typing where I can see them.... wishing I could simply do some housework.