On Day 31 I felt high-as-a-kite-happy for most of the day. It was a Saturday and the decorator finished hanging wallpaper and egg shelling skirting boards just before lunch. Some of our best friends were coming for dinner to test drive our new dining table and I’d found a new low carb fish recipe to try out. Having cleared away the clutter and the kids (actually one in the same thing) I snapped a few shots of the kitchen that I fantasised might one day appear in Enfield Interiors (should any such magazine ever be published). The opportunity to show case (ok, ok…show off) the end result of four months of dust, crap and tears made Day 31 a very happy day indeed.
When Christmas shopping last year, my main objective was to avoid buying any more over-priced plastic toys that would soon be relegated to the back of a wardrobe. Then, after listening to a TED talk about how experiences make us happier than material objects, and in a fit of inspired smugness, we bought Seb an hour’s drive in a go kart. So on Day 32 it was his turn to take the wheel and he loved every minute. Yay!
Day 33 was the start of half term so I took the kids to our now traditional school holiday hangout, the RAF Museum in Hendon. I can drive there (and avoid using public transport with four kids), it’s free to get in, the cafe sells great cakes and plane spotting makes us giggle…clearly.
On Day 34 Leo wrote a postcard to my parents, all by himself. This was the first postcard Leo had ever written. In fact, this was the first time I’d noticed that Leo could actually write (detachment parent that I am 😣). His first term in Reception had served him well and I felt delighted by his progress as well as aghast at having failed to recognise it sooner!
My happy moment on Day 35 was captured selfie-style as I sipped a latte in Stevenage station. I was on my way to a work conference, on my own. No pushchair to manoeuvre through the crowds, no heavy bag of snacks and nappies to lug around and no children to pacify or plead with. Just me, my iPod, Ok! magazine and a grin from ear to ear.
Day 36 – phew! My bargain purple velour chair from eBay (just £70….I tell everyone) matches my new lounge feature wallpaper perfectly. And what’s more, I’d found co-ordinating cushion covers online to complete the look. I should apologise for this one but it did make me happy.
Another work conference on Day 37 left me feeling inspired to train to become a lactation consultant. I’ve always loved ‘doing a course’, from photography to patchwork, first aid to defensive driving (actually, I was legally obliged to take the defensive driving course but I enjoyed it nonetheless). Training with the IBCLC would be a natural progression for me career wise so it’s something I’d seriously consider. I think my true happy moment that day was the realisation that I had options.
Having four kids is a juggling act that often leaves me with the feeling that you can’t please all the people all of the time. To address this, Dave and I often adopt a tag-team parenting approach where we split up and do things with the children individually (or in smaller groups). Day 38 gave me an opportunity to spend two full hours chasing around a softplay centre with my mad-capped middle ones. Reece and Leo loved the fact that I wasn’t bound to the ground to look after a baby and could instead wade through ball ponds and climb the rope walls with them. My knees didn’t thank me but when my boys did, it made the whole ordeal worthwhile.
Day 39 – for me, finishing a book is a feat in itself these days (even if it is a novella…shhhhhh!) but finishing a great book that I can’t stop thinking/talking/telling people about feels fab.
My caption for Day 40‘s photo was “When Niamh draws on paper…#100happydays When Niamh draws on herself…#notsomuch” Niamh rarely draws on paper and much prefers using a table cloth, kitchen cupboard or in this case, her forehead as a canvas. So this happy moment was really an excuse to share my amusement at Niamh’s self portrait.
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