Argh stop the ride I wanna get off!

It's been one of those weeks, maybe one of those fortnights, in fact one of those months. We have had celebration hearings, Easter holidays, a baptism, year 8 exams and child 4 is dropping his afternoon nap and I think starting to have night terrors.

All the household jobs were getting on top of me, I've been back to work a month so have lost 2 days well 4 hours of potential child free time a week. I began to find myself in a bit of a melt down spiral, the house was untidy, the washing and ironing baskets were overflowing (plus I had the parish table cloths that I had borrowed for the baptism sitting in a huge pile waiting for their moment of clean and ironed glory) I was losing the organised mum effect so homework wasn't being monitored properly and the kids bedrooms were beginning to look like rubbish tips. Morning after morning I was waking up to stress, someone once said that if you spend just 3 minutes in every room each night before bed just tidying then mentally you would have a tidy uncluttered mind and a tidy uncluttered house. The final phrase in this article squashed that idea for me as apparently this system won't work if you have a couple of children. I HAVE 4 CHILDREN and currently an overgrown springer spaniel who loves swimming in a mud pool during his morning walk. AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!

On Tuesday I woke up thinking ok get a handle on this what can I sort today to make me feel better, just complete one job. Child 4 would probably have a nap as he was at nursery on Monday. First I texted my mum to ask if she had two hours this week to watch child 4 so that I could clear the ironing pile. Of course that meant Tuesdays job had to be clearing the washing pile. Mum took the little one on Wednesday afternoon for me. I cleared the 3 bags and 1 basket of ironing and child 1 played with child 4 after school pick up so that I could put it all away.  Then on Thursday I hoovered the floors and child 4 and I cleaned the glass doors and steam cleaned the hall and kitchen floors. The older three children have stepped up in loading  and unloading the dishwasher, put out the washing and child 1 even cooked dinner for tonight.

I now have a clean and tidy kitchen and bathroom, the windows in the conservatory are sparkly and a very empty ironing basket (thanks mum). Of course the washing basket is currently overflowing into the bath but hey I feel ok. Life it back on a more even keel. It's a bank holiday weekend so hopefully pottering in the garden can be a priority!! So is "encouraging" the children to tidy their bedrooms. I feel an internet free day coming on!!!