The Lurgy | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? June 5-11, 2023
(Not to be in any way confused with the clergy.)
I have a feeling this summer is going to be a truly testing time, based on the fact that we’re barely a fortnight into the summer holidays and I have been struck down with some kind of gastrointestinal bug and in a state of abject misery for most of the week.
First the stye from hell, now this! What more could the universe possibly have in store for me?! (I know, I’ll be sorry I asked…)
The true LOL moment in all of this came yesterday, when I uttered these fateful words to Brandin: “I was sick most of this week so I barely spent anything.” If you didn’t laugh…
Monday
Atlas is meant to be with his childminder this morning, but we are having a difficult time at the moment, sleep-wise, and he was up, I’d say, half of the night (meaning so was I…) so when he sleeps in until 9.30am, I let him.
I text Robin to ask if we could do Tuesday and Wednesday this week instead of Monday and Wednesday, and she replies to say that yes, we can, and also asks if we could switch to those days for the summer months. With school being off, she has a few more kids to look after and I think she tries to keep the smaller babsers to the same day, so that she can do more activities on days she only has older kids.
That’s obviously fine by me, so Atlas and I get a late start and I make us some toast for breakfast, with strawberries and cheese for him, and coffee for me. He’s so hit and miss with mealtimes – sometimes it feels like he eats a really big meal and other times he picks at things and barely eats anything.
I frequently think that, if he ate more, he might sleep better, but on evenings he stuffs his head at dinner time (pizza or pasta evenings, usually), I see no difference with his sleep which is… frustrating.
Anyway, we then chill out for the morning, spending a little bit of time in the garden and then playing with Duplo, reading – mostly slamming books shut on my fingers, a favourite new game – and then he watches some Sesame Street before he goes down for a nap at around 1pm.
When he wakes up, I change him and grab him some snacks and we get into the car to go pick up the boys from their mum’s.
I decided I’d bring them to McDonald’s over that side of town to spend some time in the play area before we head home for dinner, so we get some ice-creams and spend an hour or so climbing and sliding and generally running around. ($14.39)
Atlas makes me incredibly nervous, climbing up what are, honestly, rather steep steps and then attempting to slide down the toddler slide, over and over, and then when he tires of that game he starts trying to run out of the restaurant. Luckily, the other children decide this is a great game so I sit down and drink a Diet Coke while they all play sheepdog with one very determined little sheep.
We get home at pretty much the exact same time as Brandin, and he does burgers on the barbecue for dinner, after which I listen to a podcast, put up some laundry and head to bed early enough.
Daily total: $14.39
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