On my own today

My partner left the house at four this morning to go away to the highlands for his college course.

Today has gone surprisingly well and while I had a wobbly bit at the end I feel remarkbly stressfree for having dealt with everything on my own today.

In fact I think I kept control of my temper better than when my partner is here. I think that is because he is also short tempered.

The morning went as well as it normally does and so did the afternoon but the testing time really was when I got home from school in the afternoon with my eldest son. I did get frustrated at them on the way home as they did not listen to me so I will have to try something out for that.

Once I got home I managed to get them to behave while I was getting the dinner ready (and praise them for doing so) though I had to get them to learn to play with the Pepper pig tent properly. It was a challenge getting something for dinner though. I got some vegetables but I did not have anything to go with it. I thought I would use up the last of the frozen vegetables that we had in the freezer, but as soon as I put them in the pan I knew that it was straight in the bucket with them. The vegetarian sausage rolls had got stuck to the packaging (and they did not taste that good when I ate them, after of course scraping the paper off first) thankfully a packet of chicken nuggets came to the unhealthy rescue along with a tin of sweetcorn and some mushrooms. I went overboard with the potatoes but thankfully I will add them to tomorrow lot.So tonights dinner for ther younglings was potatoes, sweetcorn with mushrooms, chicken nuggets covered in gravy. Mine was the same except for veggie sausage rolls instead of the chicken nuggets.

When it came down to getting ready for bed I managed to get them to sit down quietly and watch Sponge Bob while I tidied their room and the living room. I then told them that their bath time was a time when they were to wind down for bed and to be quiet. The were for the first time in  very, very long time quiet for bath time. They also did not spill any water out of the bath. I think that the no shouting thing is working better than the shouting ever did.

It did go wrong when I told them just to sit quietly while I got them ready. I should have known that this was too much to ask for asn my eldest was starting to get noisy again. I ended up shouting and getting mad at them. I said sorry and thankfully it was not too long before I had got them herded into bed. I will try again tomorrow night but with a different tactic. I will allow them some talking and some giggling but it is hard for them to understand that that time of the night is the quiet time.

I thought I was going to get some trouble from my eldest settling but after an initial wobble he settled off.

Overall I do feel proud of myself for how well I have managed. Tonight after this I will prepare a shopping list for tomorrow morning. It is worth sacrificing a little time in the morning to go shopping for what I need for their dinner tomorrow. When making dinner tonight I decided that tomorrows dinner will be Shepard's pie. I can thankfully now get veggie mince. If I stick in a few vegetables with the mince then that should at least make it healthier (ooh arn't I the master cook in the making)

Going to the shop with all three is too challenging. I know that the only way to get the good in the shop is to take them out, but I only want to do this once they listen to me and do as I ask straight away.

Well all this is all depending on if the veggie sausage rolls do not make me sick in the meantime.