• Waking up on the sofa downstairs. I gave up my bed to my parents who arrived on Friday evening.
• Wishing Carl wasn’t working away.
• Feeling a little hungover.
• Grabbing a quick breakfast and jumping in the shower.
• Taking delivery of a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a dear friend.
• Hitching a ride in my mum’s car and ferrying Izzy to an all day drama rehearsal.
• Braving Ikea on a Saturday.
• Buying picture frames and storage boxes.
• Daydreaming about our attic office. It’s definitely next on the DIY ‘to do’ list.
• Picking Jesse up from the play area and ordering hot dogs for lunch.
• Following the sat nav to a nearby garden centre.
• Browsing plants and shrubs and soaking up my all my Bonus Dad’s advice. I am notoriously black thumbed, but also determined to turn our outside space into something wonderful.
• Making my first pilgrimage to Homesense. Wow. Just wow.
• Buying some beautiful glazed garden pots.
• Popping home briefly.
• Collecting Izzy and heading home again for tea and cake.
• Letting the kids stay up late.
• Nibbling crisps and sipping red wine.
• Cooking and eating Summer Lasagne.
• Coaxing the children into bed.
• Wandering to the corner shop in the rain with my mum to pick up another bottle of wine.
• Remembering that I am never more drunk than when I drink with my parents!
• Chatting with my mum late into the night.
• Waking up with a significant hangover.
• Nursing a mug of tea and willing the children to keep the noise down.
• Making a stack of pancakes, some plain, some with blueberries, served with crispy bacon and lashings of maple syrup.
• Waving our guests off at the door.
• Deciding we could all do with a PJ day.
• Napping on the sofa while the children played.
• Eating leftovers for lunch.
• Watching cartoons and reading stories.
• Sitting outside in the sun whenever it peeped out from behind a cloud.
• Cooking a lazy Sunday dinner. Pie, mash, asparagus and sweet baby leeks.
• Putting the children to bed.
• Tidying the kitchen, doing laundry and generally feeling exhausted.
• Writing a quick blog post before collapsing on the sofa to watch Gossip Girl.
• Somehow finding the energy to put myself to bed.
• Being vaguely aware of Jesse climbing into bed with me sometime around 6am.
• Eventually making my way downstairs.
• Snuggling on the sofa and waiting for Izzy to wake up.
• Fixing toast and cereal for breakfast.
• Killing time until Carl got home.
• Catching up.
• Rustling up a quick lunch.
• Hanging the children’s new prints from Bimbily.
• Sending Carl out for biscuits.
• Drinking tea on the sofa.
• Snoozing.
• Trying not to laugh too much as Izzy threw a huge strop, complete with angry handwritten notes, slamming doors and a great deal of foot stomping.
• Sitting with the children as they ate dinner.
• Wrestling them into the bath.
• Listening as Carl read bedtime stories.
• Ordering Chinese food.
• Craving a large glass of wine.
• Looking forward to an evening on the sofa with my husband.

Love Audrey xxx