Introductions

The inmates consist of Hemmie, a five and a half year old girl big on independence and pink who shall hereby be referred to as Inmate 1 and Malachi, a two and three quarters year old boy big on getting by on his good looks and charm and also chaos and destruction, he will hereby be referred to as Inmate 2. I am the 32 (and three quarters!) year old Mother of these two reprobates who is big on hiding behind large pieces of furniture and getting as much sleep as possible.

We are coming to the end of the penultimate week before the Christmas horrordays *cough* sorry, holidays begin and as the sacred commandments of schools dictates we are knee deep in school commitments that require parents to actually do things outside school hours like present Inmate 1 to take part in the Christmas production evening shows, carol concerts and man a table at the Christmas craft fair on Saturday because honestly I can't think of a better way to spend Saturday afternoon then dealing with a packed hall of over exited Inmates all needing *help* with their miniature Christmas stockings and paying the 50p for the activity with all those pennies from their money box, coming up 2p short and deciding that even though you say it is fine they must take their pennies, go find their parents and then return with an even bigger pile of pennies that they must count out, all on their own, again. Oh how I love Christmas preparation!

The school commitments are of course only half the picture as I have Inmate 2 also using his elbows for his fair share of driving Mummy round the bend (Inmates favourite Christmas tradition don't you know!), I do take some comfort that at least this is my last year when I won't also have pre-school commitments to add to the list but if he was already at pre-school at least I could set off all the nativity craziness and fund raisers with the fact he would be palmed off for three mornings a week and in that time I might just be able to form a coherent thought of my own, ah well, he starts pre-school in January!

The dog, the poor old dog hasn't been out for a descent work for over 2 weeks, I just can't seem to fit it into the day, we always seem to need to be somewhere a dog is not allowed to be at intervals too short to get very far at all, it is a good job she is getting older and needs far less exercise then she used to although there are times I feel Inmate 1 is writing her off a little too soon with comments such as 'Dog will die first won't she Mummy' and 'When Dog dies we can get a cat'. So with the vague idea that if Dog doesn't get a descent walk in soon I may just have the RSPCA at my door asking some questions so I am off to pour Inmate 2 and myself into some warm clothes and head out into this countryside that I am surrounded by but never seem to get the chance to enjoy!