Weekly Round Up

It’s always good to take stock.  It keeps things in perspective; helps you weigh up the good against the bad and hopefully realise that you don’t have it so bad after all.  As weeks go it was an uneventful few but it’s always good when one of them starts with a bank holiday. The May bank holiday to be exact.  It was also Mister Husbands Happily Birthday so to celebrate he gave himself the day off.  As it turned out, his day off turned into a half day which meant he left the office at 3pm.  But at least he got out for a few birthday drinks that night.  And whilst he was out supping, a Vomity Virus poked its manky, distressing, vile head around the Screecher Creature’s bedroom door, liked the look of the sweetly sleeping Screecher Creature No. 2, and promptly kissed him on the forehead. When I was woken at 4am with a funny sensation in my stomach, I immediately thought of my sister in law.  She was one day past her estimated due date with her second child so I sent her a text as soon as it was a decent hour, asking was I having a sympathetic labour.  I wasn’t.   Turns out it was more of a tummy bug on my part.  Oh well.    As house guests go it was a pretty awful one and we all got smooched by it.  However, it was considerate enough to give me approximately 36 hours in between victims.  All the better to get the laundry done.  And then on the fifth night it targeted the remaining three sitting ducks and after a hell of a lot of laundry, we are finally done and dusted.  Screecher Creature No. 4, however, was still contagious having a suspected, but mild dose of Rubella, following his vaccinations a few weeks ago.  This meant I could not attend my beloved Group Therapy on Tuesday.  But no matter.  I had Thursday to look forward to where a much anticipated coffee morning had been organised with some school friends thanks to a totally innocuous Facebook comment made about a cheesecake.  It snowballed from there and a truly lovely morning was spent sitting around a kitchen table, imbibing minty aero cheesecake and coffee whilst our kids made friends.  Plus a bit of a mess it has to be said.  I could get used to coffee mornings.  I now have great plans to upgrade to luncheons.  People (Darling Husbands!) may mock the ladies who lunch but I for one think they are very important for those of us who are not in the vicinity of water coolers in an office environment anymore thus cannot avail of the social outlet they provide. Similarly, there were lovely daily chats with the ladies at the school gate.  Even if they only last for all of five minutes, these are very important as some days they are the only occasions I get to talk to other people.  But moving on.  The tin whistle made a re-appearance in the house thanks to the Gael Scoil's policy of being involved in all things Irish. Thankfully though there wasn’t one for everyone in the audience.   But the one that did come home in the mala scoile was loud enough. It was allowed out for approximately five minutes, in other words, enough time to prevent my ears from bleeding, and then it was put back in again.  Right down at the bottom.  Underneath all the bunched up bits of paper and pencil shavings.  The other usual stuff happened over the fortnight too.  I put on the running gear and managed a short run one evening.  The first one in a week as, unfortunately, due to a bokkity ankle, running has taken a bit of a back seat of late.  I should admit that I used the atrocious weather as a pathetic excuse on a couple of occasions.  But then Friday Night 80’s on the radio prompted me into trying the longer route and I knocked ninety seconds off my time.  Back on track!  All going really well and making it through the week very nicely indeed until the fallout from the Vomity Virus came back to haunt me.  Two of the lovely ladies I shared coffee and cake with on Thursday, fell foul of the virus.  Feeling guilty?  Me?  Maybe just a bit.  I tried to reassure them that the worst case scenario would see them ill for 24 hours but if they were really lucky, it would only last for 3.  I was really working the silver lining angle and reminded them that I lost 2 pounds thanks to the same bug, but they weren’t buying it.  Sorry, ladies!  Back to the home front now where there was a brief altercation with a Screecher Creature and a hurl.  As there was no blood, I let him get on with it.  But minutes later and through no fault of his own, a shove between the shoulder blades caused him to make open mouthed contact with the back of the couch.  This resulted in him clamping down on his tongue.  This time there was blood and roaring to beat the band.  For a scary moment there was a definite refusal of ice-cream.  Quickly, before my ears fell off with the sound of him, I told him he could have first choice from the box.  Magic words.  Nothing like a bit of one-upmanship to save the day.  And the ears! And in the midst of all the mentioned happenings, I got the news I had been waiting for; my sister in law gave birth to her gorgeous little girl.  The Screecher Creatures now have a second girl cousin to help soften their edges.  Welcome to the world baby Fia!