early morning...

Well here I am in the very wee hours of Friday morning. Can't sleep...again! This is not entirely unusual for me and can be attributed to any number of things. This morning it is work related and that really annoys the crap out of me to say the very least. Too many hours are wasted on work as it is without adding the early morning hours as well - anyway I thought that perhaps a cathartic "blechh" on the good old blog might see me right. I would ask you all for advice but am still processing a few things, so maybe later...

The Chief Clansman is sleeping quietly next to me, wearing the sleep mask that normally adorns my face to protect him from the glare of the computer - yep, am typing this in bed...way too cold to sit up in the lounge room at this hour of the night/morning - the heater does not click on until 5.40!! Anyway, he doesn't really need the mask as after years in the navy (that was in another lifetime) he has the amazing capacity to sleep in any conditions - but he is humouring me...bless!

Number one son has just switched off the TV after watching some Olympic style basketball, so the house is,once again, blissfully quiet, other than the annoying tapping of the computer keys...oh hang on, that's me!!! Ahh well (see previous post)

Sooo, what to tell you all I wonder. I have been very busy lately, not just with work but around the house as well. I have been painting - and once I finish scraping the paint off the windows, hang some blinds back up and hang some curtains I will have officially finished my second room. I do feel a bit pleased with myself. Mind you it does come at a cost - the rest of the house has been completely neglected for the past four weeks and as per previous post it is still largely not fit for human habitation - but I am getting there and can now see some light at the end of the tunnel...thank goodness.

My piggy queen is coming to visit this weekend which I am so looking forward to. The Piggy Queen, Lynnoi, MrsShortz and myself, have been lucky enough over the last couple of years to get away on our own for a "Girls Weekend" - this has so far seen us driving to Brisvegas where we saw "The Boy From OZ" and became Hugh Jackman's 'Armidale friends' (I will tell you more about that another time) and last year we had a weekend in Melbourne where we shopped, drank, ate and laughed and laughed. This year though we all seem to have way too much on to commit to going away anywhere so the Piggy Queen is coming to us and we get to have our weekend close to home this year - before she and her family wing their way to Africa at the end of September (lucky ducks). It will, unfortunately, be a very quick weekend and will actually be not so much a weekend as a dinner and maybe a movie - but I am totally grateful for whatever time with them I can get.

Hmmmm what else can I tell you. The children are all well. The Number One son (previously referred to as the recalcitrant one) finally got a job yesterday. He has been employed by Subway!! To say that he has finally got a job is not entirely fair I guess though as he does have his basketball refereeing that he has been doing for awhile but is only three (sometimes four) sessions a week. But use of the word finally is justified I think when you consider that he signed himself out of school at the beginning of term and has been hanging around the house ever since - completely, I might add, ruining my two days a week leave from work, that were meant to be my first childfree days in almost 17 years!!!! So I have made it very clear he is to seek shifts (double if necessary) on Thursdays and Fridays so that I can get back to enjoying some "home alone" time!!! Anyway, we can only hope that this is the start of great things for him.

First born daughter is still doing well at holding down her three jobs and keeping her grades up at school at the same time. She has recently chucked in piano though which has lightened her load a little I guess. She was supremely frustrated with piano lessons as they were just not challenging enough for her - she is one clever cookie that one, has a great ear, great voice, great composition skills and will, no doubt, go far.

The rest of them are all doing well at their things with the "little" boys coming to the end of their soccer and hockey seasons and the "little" girls coming to the end of netball. They are an interesting mix to say the least - all very clever in their own way - and all very different, which is of course as it should be...six children is an awful lot really, when you think about it...and I say that seriously I am not trying to be funny - but they are all so different and all need different things from you that when you stop and think about it, it is no wonder that most of the time the Chief Clansman and I feel stretched to the limit. Which is, I guess, why we don't stop and think about it too much - for one thing, who the hell has the time to think!!!

Ahh well...