A day in the life of a parent

Today has been a perfect example of parenthood. There have been times when I have felt on top of the world, so blessed to be a parent, and so in awe of my beautiful children. And there have been times when I've wanted to run out the house screaming!

This morning, they all sat down to watch an hour and three quarters of Look and Read. They were totally gripped by the stories and took it all in. We then went shopping quickly, before Roarke left for work. At the supermarket, J was tasked with getting several items on his own, having to look at the price per 100g of things in order to find out which was the cheapest brand to buy. He was spot on with them all and I was really proud of him.

In the Council Tax payment office, I was asked by the cashier about my children being out of school, and we had a 15 minute chat about home education, ending with her sayiing "well done to you - you are very brave!" Why does everyone think that it is brave to have your children home with you all day? I consider it a blessing - I had children precisely because I wanted to have their company.

After lunch, I discovered that we have all picked up head lice from someone - yuk. I'm all out of tea tree oil, but I've heard about Neen Seed oil being even better than tea tree for dealing with head lice, so tomorrow I'm off to my local health shop.

In the afternoon we visited our friends in Strood, with the boys playing happily with B (almost 4) and H (18 months). It was great to be doing something "normal" as a family, catching up with friends, after the stresses of the past fortnight.

Dinner this evening was a great gf success! I took some mince, fried it off with fresh red peppers, then added half a jar of Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Sauce from Meridian Foods, and then finally half a can of baked beans. I then wrapped this mix into 10 Gluten Free Corn Tortillas from Discovery. I put them in an overproof dish and poured over a cheese sauce made with soy milk, Pure soy margarine, Doves Gluten Free Plain Flour and Scheese (dairy free cheese). I then baked this for 15 minutes on 200c. I served it with brown rice, peas and sweetcorn.

Yum! It was a huge hit with everyone - and when Roarke heard about our meal he was very jealous that he was at work and missing out!

Sadly, after dinner, misbehaving on the part of J and S led to a plate being smashed, from the 12 1/2 year old set that was a wedding present (and the only 8 place setting I had).

Like I say, a classic up and down parenthood sort of day.