my son's view of me as a working mum....

Ix chatting yesterday: typing.

"daddy lives in xxx street"

"aunty lives in xxxxx"

"J and I live in oxford"

"mummy lives in work"

snow and the working parent....

lovely white stuff...

0810 Ix bus arrives, great!

0830 - girls carer texts: is on way tho delayed... great!

0832 - school texts - is closed and driver calls - is bringing him back...

0930 drains man arrives and gets gear on to unblock drain

0945 girls carer arrives - now she will have all 3.

1000 - stand over drains man as he descends into the depths....he reckons it is rubble in the interceptor, plus wet wipes flushed down loo haven't helped...

leave him (back up on dry land) jetting out the drains.

leave kids with carer.

11.00 arrive work
catch up emails etc...

back home 3.30 to allow carer to leave to get back thru the snow...

log back onto work email from home...

text from Ix school: will tell you at 0715 tomorrow what is happening...

girls' school - who knows for tomorrow!

and they say the big freeze will continue into next week.

oh well see what happens tomorrow. no point fretting...plan to get up tomorrow as tho for school and take it from there. luckily kids can spend some time plugged into TV (all)/computer (all)/nintendo (girls) /playing together (girls) so can "work" from home to a degree....

easing back to normal...

goodbye soon to this...



and begin the big tidy up.

but we have the Spanish custom of the "Reyes" (three kings) 6 January to come...wot, more presents?

work opened today, woke with bunged head and sore throat, so when carer called to say she was sick it was easier to stay in pyjamas and stay in...also on pretext of awaiting "Bogdan" to come and unblock the overflowing drain...tho it may be frozen. anyway, he eventually said he coming tomorrow instead.

but it cold out, we ventured out only to jump on the ice on the water-filled sandpit...

so, one child back to school tomorrow, the other two on Thursday.

New Year was spent staying over with friends - several children, we nearly missed the TV countdown



this preceeded by trip to see our friend M in a fab panto at Greenwich Theatre Mother Goose - keeping Ix in his seat and entertained throughout gave it full marks.

So, back to reality.

appointments at coeliac clinic (just a review) for L, and GOSH again for Ix :



not pretty - by all accounts we may leave with little more than steroid cream, but who knows what they might say...and should a bald 13 year old wear a wig?

(NHS online national appointments system, v. impressive, choice of hospitals and clinics, tho ultimately it came down to availability.... plus it came up with a very weird extra appointment that I dont know what is for - and it said "call to find out your time, you cannot cancel this appointment". think i will ignore...)

still here...

blogs in my head, no time - or rather exhaustion.

sent Ix off today with his dad and the friend who is supervising but exP looked very ill...he has been sending extreme text msgs, about "being all together again" which is just not reality...i hope the friend stays with and tells him to get help...

but at least today we girls can go shopping :)

contact with their dad been very mixed and mostly has resulted in tension all round due to changes in pick up times from his end, need to change to an alternate weekend schedule so we not dependent every weekend as at present.

finance - joint account heavily overdrawn due to exP's spending on refurbishing joint owned flat(s). now he says he has no money to eat... only option now is to sell both flats a.s.a.p and each take share of whatever equity...in meantime demands of £2000 per flat by December for sinking fund/refurbishment fund...

schools good but girls school closed for four days due to roof collapsing! sudden need for childcare aargh made arrangements with other parents and friend's friend's au pair's friend...

hopefully now back to normal. last week was school but no after school club - shows how much L needs that structured time to get homework done without distractions of little sister, TV and other goings on...

work busy, but achieved good media event and feel positive...

things that make life easier as a single working mum of three including autistic child

- robot hoover - leave it running in the morning and come back to look for where it has got tangled up in some wire - but full of dust, crumbs, and more!

- internet shopping, especially ocado.com (they claim tesco price match so it has to be good and the drivers are always friendly and on time)

- respite for Ix and good carers

- understanding employer, accepting life's crises and the need to rush off or arrive late....and that I will check emails from home, work late when needed etc in return

- friends both real life and internet - virtual support group friends have saved me on more than one occasion