there’s a million things i should be doing, and there’s stuff here i want to get down on a page, but i don’t have time and i’m not sure i can work them into current briefs, so i’m thinking this is quicker.
frank hasn’t been working for most of this year, and that makes life tough.
he started a new job today, but the nature of his trade is that once a job is done, he’s done himself out of a job, so we never really know how long they will last.
apparently the economy is coming out of crisis mode, regardless of whether he’s working or not, and we got our second mortgage rate rise letter today. which i guess adds to stress levels.
normally, and this is normally whether he’s working or not – and i guess it’s a hangover from pre-school days where i had them all day so he would take over a bit in the evening - after dinner he takes the dog and kids for a walk so that i might be able to watch or at least hear neighbours while i do the dishes (shut up, it’s my thing!) and then later he does bedtime stories. tonight i guess he’s probably overstimulated from the new job and alex was being obstreperous and the walk was cut short. Even bedtime stories have become a bit of a power struggle, or something, between him and alex.
and i’m thinking it’s normal, but most days i feel like the back up plan. daddy might take them to school, he might not. obviously if he doesn’t, i will. he might run a bath, he might take them for a walk, he might intervene in their squabble. he might read both their choices of bedtime stories, or he might just read phoebe’s leaving alex frustrated and angry at bedtime. if he doesn’t, then i will. he might, but if not, there’s always me.
what if one day, i didn’t?
anyway, i think alex had had a tough day at school and needed an early night and the walk that wasn’t, turned into a high drama from which daddy simply removed himself by taking himself off to bed to read. leaving alex to take his frustration out on me. and i’m afraid my patience, particularly for things i can’t control, is remarkably limited.
alex had also lost his homework book which is due in tomorrow and we found it this morning so i warned him he would have to do the lot - which he normally has a week to do – tonight. so when the walk was cut short really it was a good thing because he still had two out of the four homework tasks to finish.
so eventually he accepted that it was now too late for me to take him and the dog for a walk, and we read through the rest of his homework tasks. they’re normally a mix of work and fun and one of the outstanding ones was ‘sit under a tree and look at the sky. see how many shapes you can make from the clouds’.
awesome.
i grabbed a blanket without him knowing what we were doing and ran across the road to the paddock. i spread the blanket out and before anyone could sit down, phoebe squealed. F’ING (excuse my french but you know, wondering WHEN we can catch a break) WHITE TAILED SPIDER crawling across the blanket.
not one shoe between six feet, so we had to just flick the damn thing off (unapologetically uncompromising in wanting them ALL squashed unrecognisably) we ran back across the road and sat in the driveway instead. phoebe flitted around us in her fey, slightly dodgy will fall over any minute way, as i held alex tight and we inspected the sky in the dying light. we found dinosaurs, aeroplanes, unicorns, weiner puppies, et (there’s always et somewhere) and bowser from supermario.
fifteen minutes was all it took to get both a homework task done and us all back on an even and happy keel. just a quick timeout from the ordinary. i wish i would remember that more often. it doesn’t always take a huge commitment of either time or energy to create a special moment.
and as we walked back inside with our heads full of creatures to report on alex’s homework list, alex said ‘that was fun. can we do that again?’ and little miss awesome wise beyond her years phoebe said ‘that was bonding’.
that was. (and not a camera in sight.. ;)) so what the hell, here’s one from a week or so ago.
