Slummy

I have officially reached the ultimate in Slummy Mummyness.

I almost can not write the words in case I shall be known henceforth as dirty, but I have my excuses for this crime.  Let me paint the picture for you: I'd spent a week as a single parent whilst hubby worked in America; been struck by a demonic lurgy, and waged a war with the laundry bin in which the laundry bin was the mocking victor.

So here it is, my confession: It was Tuesday morning, half an hour to go before we had to leave for school and I discovered my youngest had no clean shirts.  So I retrieved one from the bowels of the aforementioned laundry basket, shook it briskly, let it 'air' on the aga and dressed my daughter in it.

Bad, I know.  But hey, what's a dirty collar amongst four year old classmates?  As for the teacher?  Well hopefully she was struck by sudden onset myopia that day!  Happily, I think I got away with it this time. I did rather nervously read the schools newsletter just in case there was mention of children wearing dirty shirts to school and the complete unacceptability of this.  Glancing nervously through squinty eyes at the first paragraph my heart started beating violently as I realised it was indeed a rant about uniform.  I read on with slightly sweaty palms to discover it was about children wearing non regulation hats to school.   Phew!  Saved!  And my daughter was most definitely wearing the correct hat.  Bonus!

But let's balance this out.  In my defence I  have made very strong and brave attempts to be a good mother again.  And in an endeavour to claw my way back up the Yummy Mummy ladder I am trying to earn some Earth Mother reward points. Rather like the Sainsburys ones!   (Two hundred points and you are totally allowed to send your children to school in dirty clothes/feed them MacDonalds meals/let them watch lots of television etc.etc.)

So I had a little search for some lovely new music for my little ones.  And in among the albums of Lazy Town, Zingzillas and Hannah Montana, I found a little gem.  It's an album by Caroline Herring called 'The Little House'.  Based on a charming book by Virginia Lee Burton it's the story of a simple house built in the countryside, watching the seasons passing by and eventually becoming consumed by a city growing around it.  (There's a happy ending though as the house is transported back into the countryside and can once again watch the moon and the stars!)

 So the album is  sweet and pure, simple instrumentation and not too hard for the children to sing along with.  It's gorgeous.  (Check out the above link to see Caroline and her very talented daughter perform a duet from the album)

So I swiftly downloaded the album and ordered the book and have enjoyed some lovely, peaceful times with my girls reading the story, and then listening to the songs and having a little sing and play of the guitar together.  Julie Andrews, eat your heart out.

Onwards and most definitely upwards!

Twice

This is an absolute achievement for me. I have been out socialising and partying TWICE in one month.  Twice!  Previous to this 'wildness' my last night out was approximately a year ago. This is what happens when you have young children you see.  By the end of the day, you do quite genuinely feel like you've been hit by a bus.  Twice.  The only things I can do are shuffle around like a fuzzy bag lady doing any essential tidying, emptying a wash load of gear from the ever full laundry basket and preparing school bags for the following day.  If I'm lucky I'll get an hour to shower, have a cuppa and collapse in front of really bad tv and if I'm super lucky I'll go to bed and read a lovely book for a while instead of falling asleep on the sofa and waking up with drool down one side of my mouth.

Lovely, I know.

But this is going to be a thing of the past if this month is anything to go by.  I had a wonderful evening out for my fortieth birthday - just me and the husband, dressed up and hitting the town.  Maybe it was more of a 'tickle' than a hit - we were home by 10.30 after all.  But it's a start!  It's a definite reawakening of a night life.

I also managed to attend a family party. For this occasion I wore the same dress - so that's also done well, getting worn twice in three weeks.  At this rate I shall be needing lots more party dresses!  Yesss.  This particular one is a gorgeous vintage inspired feminine floaty thing from a fabulous shop called Rosie Muggles.  I even managed to buy a pretty cardigan there.  Let's face it, gone are the days when I was willing to stand freezing in a party dress because cardigans and coats were too uncool. Post forty, it's all about being warm and dare I say it without sounding like a granny...comfortable.

Oh dear, and this started out so well.  I think the Party Animal Me needs a little more work...

Muse

I'm not entirely sure how or why, but the muse is upon me! Looks like my fortieth birthday brought with it some inspiration. Hurrah! Inspirational tinglings first occurred in a very unassuming but perfectly gorgeous book shop, the Bumper Bookshop in East Sussex. Being a mother of two I find this place irresistible. It is (obviously) a book shop but at the back there's a little tea room that's child friendly. There's toys and books for the children to play with. The tables are covered with oil cloths and they serve things like honey sandwiches. Not to mention the craft activities they host during holidays in their basement space. Fabulous!

Anyway, I digress but to cut a long story short (ish) I bought a beautiful book in there for my daughters and it inspired me to write a song based on the story. I've been meaning to do some childrens songs for a while as I struggle to find things that are musically lovely without being synthesised to within an inch of their lives. As an aside, for any other parents out there who share my frustration I did discover a rather lovely CD called Tumblebee by Laura Veirs. Wholeheartedly recommend it.

But to get back to the point, I managed to write three songs one after the other. Now this is big news as I haven't put pen to paper for three years - too knee deep in nappies, school runs, supermarket shopping and the general drudge of domesticity. Needless to say I am very very happy. Next step will be to get Catherine (Key Largo Trio) and all my lovely musical friends in on the act and get these songs recorded.

To continue the musical theme, I received some rather fabulous presents for my birthday; a Moeck pear wood descant recorder and a glockenspiel. Add that to the ocarina that I got for Christmas and I'm practically a one woman band. Albeit a slightly bizarre one.

And as a present to myself I also purchased a slightly 'mid-life crisis madness' type thing. An itsy bitsy pop video style silver sparkly dress. It's short, tight, backless and probably totally unsuitable for a forty year old. But hey, if Kylie can do it, so the heckers can I!

So far - forty is gooood x