Day in the life of INTHEMUD
High pitched barks wake me from my slumber, I glance at the clock , it 5.30am.
I wait to see if barking subsides, it doesn’t, so rather than have the whole household disturbed, I slide out of bed and trip over a dog bone on the carpet and I walk along the corridor to my daughter Bex’s room.
Beth, our big German Shepard /Leonburger, follows me.
I open Bex’s door, out rushes Molly, our Lhasso Apso puppy, she is so excited to see me, her whole body wags with her tail. Beth greets her and they rush around a bit.
I go back to bed but can’t sleep as they are playing chase in the passage way.
I snuggle in to Stan’s back and wait for the alarm to go off. He’s sleeping soundly, not at all disturbed by the caffuffle going on with the dogs around him!
6.10am the teasmade starts up , warming the water until it boils, then the gentle glugging noise as it boils and pours it self into the tea pot, a loud buzzer goes off to announce TEA IS MADE! I lean over and turn it off , turn on the radio to hear Joanne Good’s dulcet tones coming over the airwaves from BBC Radio London. Although we are in the heart of the Sussex countryside we can still pick up BBC London, which is a light hearted talk show in the morning, we’ve been enjoying this for many years, started back in the days when Danny Baker hosted the breakfast show. He now does the afternoon slot, which I never hear . Jo Good is an old actress who used to have a big role in the original Crossroads, very cynical about marriage and quite opinionated, which makes for a good show.
So I pour out the tea and we drink whilst listening, then lay back down till 7am, then have to think about getting up. I usually just pull on my old clothes for dog walking, trackie bottoms and a jumper. Peep out of the window……….
What’s weather like? Dark so can’t really tell, wait 10 mins and look again, it’s been raining, but there’s a slight frost now, so need to wrap up warm. I go down stairs followed closely by Beth and Molly, eager to go out. Thick coat, scarf, gloves, my faux fur hat, (Lucy hates it she is embarrassed when I collect her from school in it!) and welly boots. I wear old riding boots these days, so many problems with getting splits and tears in standard wellies, these riding boots I got from Ebay for 99p. Well worth it!
Before going out I take all my tablets, washed down with soluble Vitamin C & Zinc, I swear by it for warding of colds.
Into Utility, get the leads, the dogs are going frantic around my legs, leads on OFF WE GO ! Through the garden, through the edge of the wood over the stile and into the paddock next door. It is still empty, over 18 months now since the horses moved out, it’s been for sale but no one has taken it on. The foot path goes through it which is perfect for me as I try to control 2 dogs. Beth has to stay on her lead as there are sheep in the next section of fields, Molly just runs along behind!
If I’m lucky I may see the Barn owl, she flies low over the field searching for prey and then sits on a post, just watching and listening.
I love Barn Owls, something so beautiful about there whiteness and the silence as they fly in the dusky dawn. I stand and watch for a while, then on through the fields for about 20 minutes.
Back home. Stan has just gone off to his work. Wake Lucy. Feed dogs. Feed cat, get cat in doors away from dogs. Cat hates dogs. Cat was with us first. Cat’s nose out of joint. Cat chased puppy Beth and scratched her nose. Beth remembers. Beth chases cat. Molly would like to make friends with cat. Cat having none of it.
Feed rabbits, feed wild birds. I love watching the birds through the kitchen window, get so many different birds, will stand watching them for some time.
Must get on: Make Lucy’s lunch. Pack her school bag, make her breakfast.
Lucy comes downstairs moaning. Molly has weed on her floor. Molly still in very early stages of toilet training. Goes for walk comes in for toilet!
8.30am Take Lucy to school.
Come back to house and start work for the day.
I’m very fortunate these days to work for a Family Support Charity and I work from home. So I will start by turning on my mobile, listening to any messages, check emails.
Write up any contacts from yesterday not done. Then I will go out on my visits. I travel the length and breadth of West Sussex visiting parents, offering emotional and practical support. I may go to my head office in Brighton to supervise another worker. I aim to get back in time to collect Lucy from school .
Depending what shift Bex is on I may have to take her into work, sometimes she starts at 6.45am which is an early, sometimes 2.30pm whaich is a late and sometimes one in the middle. I
try to be available to take her and pick her up, but if I can’t she has plenty of male friends willing to take her.
3.45pm Back home, walk dogs again, continue admin for work. Lucy has snack and watches TV.
I usually finish work at 5.30pm, just in time for Neighbours, yes , I admit it I’m a long standing fan of Neighbours, ever since I was off on maternity leave with my eldest in 1987. Now the BBC are stopping it, and it’s going to channel 5. BBC loss, 5’s gain!
Neighbours over. Time to prepare dinner. Always a challenge, as Lucy very fussy, so end up doing something separate for her and never sure if Bex eating with us or not. So concentrate on what Stan and I will have.
7pm Stan comes home, I make him a cup of tea, we talk about our days. He goes out to his workshop to do some fiddling on his cars, we have 20 + cars in drive!
I eat my dinner without waiting for Stan, as he will be ages sometimes. Help Lucy with any homework.
When he comes in , he takes up residence in “his” chair in the sitting room. I heat up his dinner and take it to him. He eats. I do his puddings, he eats, I make his coffee and my tea. We sit and watch TV. Stan usually wants to watch Car or truck programmes, so I go up to our bedroom and watch my favourite programmes.
9pm Lucy goes to bed.
9.30pm Take dogs out for final wee.
More cups of tea .
10pm Bath and bed for me. Stan usually comes up about half hour later, so I get to read for a while, though recently been too tired
If Bex is at home usually a string of friends start to arrive around 8pm, cars come and go, they go out they come back. Music blearing from her room. Try to get them to be quiet when I’m ready for bed. Sometimes comings and goings carry on past midnight, I get cross and march in to Bex room and send friends home. I’m a light sleeper any noise wakes me, so I do get annoyed if they won’t be quiet.
And so to sleep and it starts again tomorrow…………………
Not very exciting really, but that’s my life!
High pitched barks wake me from my slumber, I glance at the clock , it 5.30am.
I wait to see if barking subsides, it doesn’t, so rather than have the whole household disturbed, I slide out of bed and trip over a dog bone on the carpet and I walk along the corridor to my daughter Bex’s room.
Beth, our big German Shepard /Leonburger, follows me.
I open Bex’s door, out rushes Molly, our Lhasso Apso puppy, she is so excited to see me, her whole body wags with her tail. Beth greets her and they rush around a bit.
I go back to bed but can’t sleep as they are playing chase in the passage way.
I snuggle in to Stan’s back and wait for the alarm to go off. He’s sleeping soundly, not at all disturbed by the caffuffle going on with the dogs around him!
6.10am the teasmade starts up , warming the water until it boils, then the gentle glugging noise as it boils and pours it self into the tea pot, a loud buzzer goes off to announce TEA IS MADE! I lean over and turn it off , turn on the radio to hear Joanne Good’s dulcet tones coming over the airwaves from BBC Radio London. Although we are in the heart of the Sussex countryside we can still pick up BBC London, which is a light hearted talk show in the morning, we’ve been enjoying this for many years, started back in the days when Danny Baker hosted the breakfast show. He now does the afternoon slot, which I never hear . Jo Good is an old actress who used to have a big role in the original Crossroads, very cynical about marriage and quite opinionated, which makes for a good show.
So I pour out the tea and we drink whilst listening, then lay back down till 7am, then have to think about getting up. I usually just pull on my old clothes for dog walking, trackie bottoms and a jumper. Peep out of the window……….
What’s weather like? Dark so can’t really tell, wait 10 mins and look again, it’s been raining, but there’s a slight frost now, so need to wrap up warm. I go down stairs followed closely by Beth and Molly, eager to go out. Thick coat, scarf, gloves, my faux fur hat, (Lucy hates it she is embarrassed when I collect her from school in it!) and welly boots. I wear old riding boots these days, so many problems with getting splits and tears in standard wellies, these riding boots I got from Ebay for 99p. Well worth it!
Before going out I take all my tablets, washed down with soluble Vitamin C & Zinc, I swear by it for warding of colds.
Into Utility, get the leads, the dogs are going frantic around my legs, leads on OFF WE GO ! Through the garden, through the edge of the wood over the stile and into the paddock next door. It is still empty, over 18 months now since the horses moved out, it’s been for sale but no one has taken it on. The foot path goes through it which is perfect for me as I try to control 2 dogs. Beth has to stay on her lead as there are sheep in the next section of fields, Molly just runs along behind!
If I’m lucky I may see the Barn owl, she flies low over the field searching for prey and then sits on a post, just watching and listening.
I love Barn Owls, something so beautiful about there whiteness and the silence as they fly in the dusky dawn. I stand and watch for a while, then on through the fields for about 20 minutes.
Back home. Stan has just gone off to his work. Wake Lucy. Feed dogs. Feed cat, get cat in doors away from dogs. Cat hates dogs. Cat was with us first. Cat’s nose out of joint. Cat chased puppy Beth and scratched her nose. Beth remembers. Beth chases cat. Molly would like to make friends with cat. Cat having none of it.
Feed rabbits, feed wild birds. I love watching the birds through the kitchen window, get so many different birds, will stand watching them for some time.
Must get on: Make Lucy’s lunch. Pack her school bag, make her breakfast.
Lucy comes downstairs moaning. Molly has weed on her floor. Molly still in very early stages of toilet training. Goes for walk comes in for toilet!
8.30am Take Lucy to school.
Come back to house and start work for the day.
I’m very fortunate these days to work for a Family Support Charity and I work from home. So I will start by turning on my mobile, listening to any messages, check emails.
Write up any contacts from yesterday not done. Then I will go out on my visits. I travel the length and breadth of West Sussex visiting parents, offering emotional and practical support. I may go to my head office in Brighton to supervise another worker. I aim to get back in time to collect Lucy from school .
Depending what shift Bex is on I may have to take her into work, sometimes she starts at 6.45am which is an early, sometimes 2.30pm whaich is a late and sometimes one in the middle. I
try to be available to take her and pick her up, but if I can’t she has plenty of male friends willing to take her.3.45pm Back home, walk dogs again, continue admin for work. Lucy has snack and watches TV.
I usually finish work at 5.30pm, just in time for Neighbours, yes , I admit it I’m a long standing fan of Neighbours, ever since I was off on maternity leave with my eldest in 1987. Now the BBC are stopping it, and it’s going to channel 5. BBC loss, 5’s gain!
Neighbours over. Time to prepare dinner. Always a challenge, as Lucy very fussy, so end up doing something separate for her and never sure if Bex eating with us or not. So concentrate on what Stan and I will have.
7pm Stan comes home, I make him a cup of tea, we talk about our days. He goes out to his workshop to do some fiddling on his cars, we have 20 + cars in drive!
I eat my dinner without waiting for Stan, as he will be ages sometimes. Help Lucy with any homework.
When he comes in , he takes up residence in “his” chair in the sitting room. I heat up his dinner and take it to him. He eats. I do his puddings, he eats, I make his coffee and my tea. We sit and watch TV. Stan usually wants to watch Car or truck programmes, so I go up to our bedroom and watch my favourite programmes.
9pm Lucy goes to bed.
9.30pm Take dogs out for final wee.
More cups of tea .
10pm Bath and bed for me. Stan usually comes up about half hour later, so I get to read for a while, though recently been too tired
If Bex is at home usually a string of friends start to arrive around 8pm, cars come and go, they go out they come back. Music blearing from her room. Try to get them to be quiet when I’m ready for bed. Sometimes comings and goings carry on past midnight, I get cross and march in to Bex room and send friends home. I’m a light sleeper any noise wakes me, so I do get annoyed if they won’t be quiet.
And so to sleep and it starts again tomorrow…………………
Not very exciting really, but that’s my life!
7 comments:
Enjoyed that, Muddie. Hope you're making a comfortable recovery from your surgery.
xx
Hi Muddie,
I have left my comments on the Forum to your Day in a Life, a wonderful written diary Muddie, and thank you sharing with us.
Thank you too for showing us all these lovely pictures, they are gorgeous. Beautiful picture of Bex, I am not surprised chaps are lining up. Love little Molly, the Lhaso, I still miss my Lhaso and they make great pets.
Love Camilla.xx
A full day! And you do such rewarding work, must be very gratifying at times. And your lovely children and animals :)
Another full day and yuo do a erally worthwhile job which must be rewarding for you. I like the tip about riding boots as my wellies don't seem to last, they split, even expensive ones. I take Vitamin C and Selenium ACE plus zinc (and other stuff) and also swear by those for cold/infection prevention.
Lovely photos.
Rest now, don't forget!
It sounds like a very busy life to me and not the least bit boring. I love the sound of your dogs, but I don't think I could live with them.
Phew! I was starting to think about getting my kids a dog, but I've already blogged about how not a morning person I am. They would only add to the problem. Well done!
Whew! I was exhausted by the time I head read to 8.30 on your post, how do you cope with it?! I know what you mean about noisy young adults and being woken easily. My older two think I am an old curmudgeon! They may be right...
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