back to broadband

ok, ok, so I said I was going back to my other home, and I did for the a whole 36 hours or something, but I came back to London this afternoon. But for a good reason, and in fact I'm totally shattered now. Bed is calling, but I'm just making the most of the boradband before I go again.

Right, let me explain. As I said, our friend G is back in hospital, and J, his wife,has been feeling poorly, so as of yesterday morning they came over to my parents house to stay for a while (they being J and her 4 lovely kids). Today J was visiting G because he was seeing a consultant, and because my mum works afternoons she couldn't look after the kids (J home schools, so it was all of them that needed to be looked after). So J took them to a friends for the morning, and I drove back down the M11 after work (I was only working till 1 today) and went and picked them up and brought them back to my parents house. And looked after them all afternoon, including helping A to make a birthday cake (she is 8 today), and sorting out a few arguments and tired children (C didn't have a nap this afternoon which she usually does, so she was getting a bit cranky and tearful by the end of it.).

This evening we had a lovely birthday tea, and I've just been helping J to put the kids to bed and tidy up the tea stuff. It may not sound like a lot, but 4 kids can be quite a handful. They're fantastic and all know me really well and listen to what I tell them to do, but still.... I'm quite glad that they're all just about past the nappy stage (well, C is 90% potty trained now), although have got quite a dab hand at doing it having spent lots of time with them, especially since the youngest two were born. I don't think a lot of people my age would have a clue about looking after small children, but I'm really thankful to J&G who've given me lots of experience practising on their kids :-)