The theme for The Boy and Me's ShowOff ShowCase this week is The First One - your first ever blog post. Mine was a little bit long winded but gives you a good idea of why I started it. It made me giggle to myself reading it back.
It was written on Thursday 27 January and was titled:
Day One And Not Really Sure What I'm Doing!
Hi, my name is Karen and this is the first time I have ever written a blog. I am a busy Mum of two gorgeous girls, Poppy and Rosie and have a wonderful Husband called Shane. The reason I have decided to do this is because my life seems to be a series of drams. I meet a friend of mine once a week for coffee and each week I have another instalment to share with her and giggle over. It was her who suggested I do this so here I am.
Today we had several episodes. It was one of those days where everything seemed to be going wrong. It took ages to get the girls ready and out of the door for a music group I take them too. We live at the top of a very steep hill and my driving skills have a lot to be desired. For the first time ever, I swing out of my drive and realize a car is waiting to drive up the hill. Ok you say no problem. Well as I mentioned before my driving skills aren't great. So I just reverse back into my drive but trying to dodge the boulder and pillar I end up going in at a funny angle. In the end I give up and the kind gentleman reverses back and lets me go. Great. First problem over! Next I stall on the ferry over to Dartmouth., This is a regular occurrence and Poppy sits there saying "whoopsie mummy stalled again". Next I look for somewhere to park and notice the ticket inspector on the prowl. Parking is limited in Dartmouth, most of it is 1 hour parking so I decide I am not going to risk anything and will just go to the pay and display. Excellent, car parked and we all get out and off we go to the group for a bit of singing and stomping, great fun!
We have a lovely time, then stay for a quick hot chocolate with some of the girls before heading off. On the way back to the car we quickly popped into the shop for some bread where the next incident happened. I am at the till paying when I notice my daughter (who I must point out has never done this before) had peeled the wrapper off a creme egg she had picked up off the shelf. What? I obviously took it off her, told her never to do it again and paid for it....55p for a creme egg, what a rip off! Anyway I couldn't give it to her after telling her off so there was nothing else for it, I had to eat it myself!
We then rushed back to the car park. It was now 11.36 and I had one minute before my ticket ran out but as I approached the car I noticed one of those awful yellow and black tickets stuck to the windscreen. I looked at my watch and then around for the traffic warden. Quickly we rushed over to her to see if we could make her take it back. I wasn't even late, she must have been eager! I was pushing a pushchair with a baby in it and my toddler was on the buggy board crying because she wanted to get in the car and go home. I must have looked a bit of a sight. The traffic warden was one of those stereotypical butch ones who took no nonsense. She proceeded to tell me my ticket wasn't valid as my tax had run out....what? My Husband is so good and keeps on top of all of that. How did that happen? So off we went, her looking at me in a way that made me feel very small and like a bad person!!
This is just one example of what it is like in a day in the life of me. Some might say I am a bit dizzy. friends often say I should have been blonde, but its incidents like this that made my friend suggest I write a blog.
I like to think of myself as normal. I am thirty five years old but feel twenty eight. I have been together with Shane since we were just seventeen years old and have been married for the past eight years. As I said before, we have two little girls. Poppy who is two and a half going on twenty two and a half and Rosie who is just seven months. They are both gorgeous happy little girls and of course very well behaved clever little things.
I am not currently working and to be honest staying at home is harder than work ever was! I used to work with offenders on release from prison with drug and alcohol problems who wanted to change their ways. This was the most rewarding but frustrating job ever and sometimes I can't believe the things I used to do or the positions I found myself in. Basically I set up services where I worked with charity's and local councils to help provide accommodation and support to help these people change. I loved my job and had several success stories but stopped working when I moved to Canada for two years. Next came the children and I haven't wanted to rush back. I would love to go back at some point but think I would like to do some more training, maybe as a Counselor. I just don't know how to fit in though.
How do other Mum's do it? I am at home all day and still there are not enough hours in the day? I would just love to be one of those Mummy's who look gorgeous and in control, never stressed out or tired, whose children are always perfectly behaved and whose house is always immaculate. I would have time to prepare gorgeous home cooked meals everyday where the family sit around together sharing details of their days. Is there really such a thing? I use touche eclat to cover up the dark circles under my eyes and I have an ironing pile which is over flowing. I don't think I am a bad Mummy, I am fairly organised, clean and tidy. My children are in a good routine, eat and sleep well, I don't stay in my pj's all day but I don't think people look at me and wish they could be me. I think Its safe to say I am not quite a yummy Mummy yet!
