Life feels so hectic most of the time, I feel like I’m constantly rushing around but not achieving much and I have to stop and remind myself that keeping three little girls alive and well plus supporting their older siblings is the most important thing and a huge achievement in itself.

Somehow it has been nearly three weeks since I posted in this series. I love these little diary posts (which I write mainly as I hope the kids will enjoy looking back on them) but I really feel like I maybe ought to change the title, since it is getting quite rare that I actually manage to post every week! Even when I do try and write a post my brain feels like mush and it can seem like hard work so its not really happening at the moment and blogging is definitely having to take a back seat for now. I have also realised as I’ve come to add photos to this post that I’m not taking many photos either, something I definitely need to make more effort with. But of course amongst the daily rush there are still lots of things to make me smile.

• Matty – he had two weeks off work so I have been able to spend a bit of quality time with him (though he went to Spain for six days so he could spend his birthday with Nathan, his twin). We had lunch out, went shopping together and he has joined me on the school run a couple of times much to Tinker’s delight! I realised I don’t often spend that much quality time with him these days, he is very undemanding, we usually have a chat about his day when he gets in from work and have dinner as a family together but other than that he does his own thing, which is as it should be I guess (he is 23 after all, can’t keep him tied to my apron strings forever, can I!) So it was nice to have some quality time together, and even the airport drop-off/pick-up journeys were nice, just to chat uninterrupted just the two of us while Totsy and Luna snoozed in the back of the car.

• Movie nights – I mentioned it in my last Week of Smiles post after our first movie night, but we seem to have started a bit of a weekend tradition over the past few weeks, so we now do a movie night once a week. It’s nothing exciting, just a movie chosen by the kids, we all get into our pjs early and snuggle together on the sofa with a tray of snacks, we turn the lights out and me and Mr T put our phones down. The kids really love it, especially Tinker even though she doesn’t really like movies that much (as she finds even the mildest film too scary!) It’s a really nice way to relax together and it’s nice that the girls look forward to it so much.

• Milly’s new job – Milly has had a Saturday job at Primark for the past year, but recently she hasn’t enjoyed it and wanted a change. She had an interview at WHSmith and impressed them so much they offered her a job there and then. Her first shift was on Sunday and she really loved it, I’m so happy for her. I think getting the job gave her a big confident boost too which is much needed as she suffers with self-esteem issues and for some reason thinks she is socially awkward, I just wish that she could see herself how everyone else sees her, as a clever, graceful, beautiful, funny, individual, polite girl.
• Walk to the park – it’s not very often these days that we have nothing planned for a weekend day but the Sunday before last we found ourselves with no plans at all. Rather than just going to the nearest park we walked to the big park in town, where the girls played and we drank coffee before hunting for conkers, all running around playing ‘Stuck in the Mud’ then we walked home along the river. Tinker is a real lazy legs when it comes to walking but we took her bike which she rode all the way there and all the way back (yes, that’s right, no-one ended up in a stand off about whether or not someone was going to carry it -‘I told you if you brought your bike no one was going to carry it, you have to ride it’ – which always ends with someone (Mr T) carrying it – but she actually rode it!) and she was really good. It was absolutely lovely, the weather was a beautiful, sunny autumn day, there were no tantrums (yep, a bloody miracle!) and it was a really relaxed day, the kind of rare parenting day when the kids were just really good and so we weren’t muttering ‘I don’t know why we bloody bother!’ and rolling our eyes (for a change!)

• Friday night out – we went out for a meal with Matty and Milly to belatedly celebrate his birthday as he was in Spain on the actual day. We headed to Nottingham as he wanted to go to Red’s True Barbecue. This wouldn’t exactly be my usual choice of menu as I quite often opt for a veggie option when I’m out but I played it safe with a burger (after Matty was genuinely horrified when I said I was going to just have a salad!) and I have to say it was a great burger! The frickles (fried pickles) and caulibombs (cheesy cauliflower bites) were pretty good too though I’m not sure I could have eaten Matty’s Donut Burger (yep, a burger between two sweet donuts instead of bread, as seen in the photo below, seriously, why?! – food hell!) We took Luna along, who was an angel and was happy to sit in her buggy looking around before just nodding off when she was ready, she really is no trouble at all! There weren’t many people (or in fact anyone else) pushing a pram through Nottingham City Centre at 11pm though, so I did feel a bit out of place!

• Seeing my niece and nephew – they are both members of an athletics club near their Lincolnshire home and they do cross-country for winter training. On Saturday their race was in Mark Eaton Park in Derby which isn’t far from us, so we were able to go and see them and cheer them on. We did the same last year too and it seems to be turning into another annual tradition! It sounds crazy but seeing them running for the finish line while I was shouting encouragement from the sidelines made me feel a bit over emotional (it was the wind making my eyes watery, honest!!) I thought I was a bit daft, but later Mr T said he felt exactly the same! It was great to see them (and my sister and brother-in-law of course!) and it was a beautiful day, there was plenty of time for Totsy to run around having fun and we all sat outside in the sunshine after the races and had coffee and cake. It was just a shame that Tinker wasn’t there as she was at her dad’s and she was very cross that she had missed her beloved cousins!

• A busy Sunday – last Sunday we visited friends in the morning, it was really good to catch up with them as busy lives means we don’t see them as often as we’d like. They have two girls similar ages to Tinker and Totsy and Tinker especially is always excited to see them. Every time we see them we say we should get together more often, then the weeks roll by and it’s the same story! In the afternoon we headed off to the Grand Designs show at the NEC in Birmingham, the tickets were a birthday present for me from Mr T, and although we don’t have a grand design planned at the moment it was nice to have a little mooch around and dream! As we had three little girls in tow we didn’t stay too long (and we wanted to squeeze in a quick visit to the Resorts World shops too!) but it was nice to do something different and for Tinker and Totsy the absolute highlight was the shuttle bus that took us from the car park to the main building (although while on the bus a lady infuriated us by saying ‘oh three girls?’ in a disappointed voice and then asked ‘will you keep going till you get a boy?’ – she quickly shut up when Mr T said ‘we have two boys already, we have seven altogether!’) From there we headed straight out for dinner to meet Jess for her birthday meal! I can’t quite believe I am the parent of a 26 year old daughter but apparently it’s true! We had a lovely carvery meal with her, her partner Raj and his son Cam and it was the perfect way to end a lovely, busy weekend!
• Nathan – his date for returning home from Spain when his contract finishes has been confirmed so I am counting down to 10th November, can’t wait to see him, I’ve missed him so much!

Keep smiling xx