A Day in the Life of the Lomax Family

Now with thanks to Enidd for the idea of "Day in the life of", this is a normalish day. That is normalish on the days that I am not hampered by a leg brace......................

I do have to say however that you will probably fall asleep half way through reading this.............

And it's not funny............

But then, I wasn't funny enough to be one of Mike's funny bloggies for Comic Relief. Boo hoo. So I won't do funny. I'll just write what is. And this is what is. Well for today anyway. Maybe by tomorrow I'll forget the indignity of not being funny and try to be funny again.........

So, here it is, a very unfunny, long and slightly dull description of what the Lomaxes do with their ridiculously busy day..............

6 a.m. The alarm goes off.

I ignore it. Hubby snoozes it.

We go back to sleep.

6.10 a.m. Ditto.

6.20 a.m. Can't ignore it any longer. Hubby goes to wake up older three.

Next forty minutes are usually spent negotiating bus fares, school trips, sandwiches (hubby does those. Call's them Derek specials. DS's), lost bits of uniform, notes to the teachers for whatever might be needed in way of notes, arguments about whether or not all three should go to school today, as it might be snowing, one might have been sick in the night, they have had an exhausting weekend.............

During this time there are at least three more alarm calls to eldest three children.......

7.10 a.m. Horrible parents discharge eldest three children onto the bus, ignoring any reasons (usually from ESOS - eldest son only son) as to why they should not attend today. There is usually a pantomime which ensues at this point, as one or other child goes out and tries to hold the bus, conveniently placed outside the door, while lots of screams and "hold on a minutes" are put forth by the other two, as last things are gathered and last two children are pushed out of the door for the bus.

7.13 a.m., assuming that no-one has missed it, hubby and I breathe big sigh of relief.

7.13 a.m. on other days..............Lots of shouting. Hubby gets into car with errant children who have missed the bus, often in dressing gown and without shoes and drives to the next but one bus stop taking a slightly more direct route than the bus. These are not good days and cause much angst.............

7.15 a.m. We have some breakfast and a cup of tea. Daughter number four - child number 5, aged 6 - is usually awake by now and comes to find us and have some breakfast. I may have a bath and get dressed at this point, or if things are going slowly I leave it until the other two have gone to school.

8.a.m. Wake up Daughter number three - child number 4 aged 8, if not already awake. Has breakfast.

Spend next half an hour making more sandwiches, writing notes, getting bits of uniform, checking extras for the day, writing reading folder notes, doing hair, finding shoes, getting coats on and making sure that no-one leaves the house with smelly breath..............

8.45 ish.................to 8.52 on bad days..........

Dispatch youngest two to lollipop lady, further up the road, to cross road to school, which is across the road. Strict instructions to come back if no lollipop lady present.

Hubby leaves for work at different times each day, depending on his schedules, so if he hasn't left by now, he does.

If I haven't had a bath by this point. I do! I love my bath. It's my daily dose of sanity. It's often invaded by children when present, but occasionally I do manage to sneak one on my own, and when I do, I love that..............

9 a.m Make a cup of tea. Check post. This usually takes a very long time. We seem to have a ridiculous amount of paper work to manage, between personal matters, all the children, my work and prospective work, and everything else. So I start working through the mountain of paperwork and phonecalls. Spend a great deal of time sorting out banking queries and problems, as unfortunately most people don't seem to respond to The Tin Pot Banking system.
10. a.m. Make a cup of tea. On days when I think about it, this is actually a good time to walk the dog - but it rarely happens, because I get easily distracted. If I do manage it though at this point, it makes for a better day!

Sometimes see friends first thing. That's good thing to do too.

Do a bit of housework, tidy up, maybe put a washload on (although Hubby is good at doing most of the washing), put the dishwasher on, empty the dishwasher and other stuff.
Have a cup of tea.

11 a.m. (Maybe earlier if can)Make some more tea and check blog for comments and if I have a post to write, do that.

but on Fridays: I go to do my radio show............

12.30 p.m. Other days..... Prise myself away from the blog and try to do some work. Currently trying to get more voice over stuff. Often have radio show bits to do. Need to talk to theatre school parents. Check emails etc etc................ The time just goes.......

1.30 p.m. Get some lunch and a cup of tea and when I can, watch Neighbours at this point.

2 p.m. Do some more work. Go up to the village maybe for some bits and pieces. Maybe walk the dog. Have a cup of tea.

3.20 p.m. Collect younger two from school.

Make a cup of tea.

Snacks, homework, drop off/ collect from after school clubs (much of these are in school, but 8 year old has gym twice in the evenings each week and on Saturday a.m. which is a ten mile hike away).

5 p.m. Oldest three return.(Although often not eldest daughter who has many after school dance lessons) Have cup of tea with at least one of them. Start to make dinner.

6.30 ish Hubby returns - variable time.

6.45 ish. We eat......

Evenings:

Monday:
7p.m. Monday ESOS goes to Air Cadets.(Newent, 7 miles away)
9.p.m. Eldest Daughter needs collecting from Gloucester.
9.30 p.m. ESOS needs collecting from Cadets.
Hubby plays chess.
Youngest two somehow get bathed read to, do their school reading and get put to bed during this mayhem.

Tuesday:
5.30 p.m. Aged 8 goes to gym. (Coleford 10 miles away)
8 p.m. ED needs collecting from Gloucester.
8.30 p.m. Aged 8 needs collecting from Coleford (wrong direction)
I sometimes rehearse on Tuesdays.
(Youngest two somehow get bathed read to, do their school reading and get put to bed during the mayhem.........)

Wednesday:
Night off!! (Although last week, we had a parents evening in Gloucester and ED was at a dance show with one of her dance groups in Coleford. (Wrong direction again))
I might rehearse.
(Youngest two somehow get bathed read to, do their school reading and get put to bed during the mayhem.........)

Thursday.
7.p.m. ESOS to air cadets
8 ish collect ED from Gloucester.
9.30 p.m. collect ESOS from Newent.
(Youngest two somehow get bathed read to, do their school reading and get put to bed during the mayhem.........)

Friday.

5.30 p.m. Aged 8 to Gym
8.30 p.m. Collect from Gym
(Youngest two somehow get bathed read to, do their school reading and get put to bed during the mayhem.........)

10 p.m ish much of clearing up and stuff usually done, little ones in bed, some of bigger ones just about in bed...........

On evenings when I am not rehearsing or acting, I Have usually fallen asleep by this time, so drag myself up to bed, often leaving hubby and ed up. ED doing her homework which she has no time for at any other time. Hubby always puts the breadmaker on before coming up, and tries to have some time off by playing chess, and if he really wants some relaxation I let him read my blog too.

It's quite busy really. Fortunately we have weekends to recover.........

WHEN......

On Saturday's...........

I go to my theatre school.

ED goes to dancing in the morning.
Daughter number two (child number 3)goes to dancing in the morning.
Daughter number four aged 6 (child number 5), goes to dancing in the morning.
Daughter number three, aged 8 (child number 4) goes to gym.
ESOS might go on a Cadet activity which keeps him out of mischief.

In the afternoon, hubby brings all available children to the theatre school.............

Saturday Evening and Sunday..........

We collapse amongst piles of dirty washing and whatever else is on offer, and have a great Sunday roast, cooked by Hubby - his day for cooking.

Assuming that is that no-one has a dance exam (yesterday). Needs collecting from a weekend away with Cadets (yesterday), needs to go to a friends house, be collected from a friend's house, have a friend to sleepover (often and many and without much notice it seems), play in a chess match (hubby) or act in a play (me.............)

Fortunately, to ease any stress, we can always have a cup of tea.