Monday, Monday

Monday:

As usual I didn't want to get out of bed this morning and as it was school holidays I had hopes of a sleep-in; but alas. Aiden came in for a cuddle, which was nice although actually I would have rather continued sleeping; but also to hassle me about my iPhone, which wasn't so nice. He loves to play a little game called Tiny Monsters and I am fine for him to do so with my supervision, but I like playing it too and in the past I have found that he has spent my carefully horded in-game money or started an 18 hour hibernation on a monster I needed or similar disaster. So he is allowed to play it only when I am up (during, of course, his carefully regulated "screen time" for the day). The kids are allowed to turn on the TV and/or computers at 7.30am on weekends and holidays, we don't encourage them to get up before then. And not at all on school days, of course, until late afternoon.

Anyway, so Aiden spent the next hour asking me when I was going to get up while I tried to snuggle down and ignore the little voice. He wasn't interested in TV or computer games or his Nintendo DS; only my iPhone! Eventually I dragged myself up, but carefully without any hint of "giving in" to nagging.

We did both the grocery shopping and some clothes shopping. I got myself three new sports bras to replace my old saggy-elastic ones, some kids clothes, and new school shoes for Aiden. He'd only had the others for six months but he'd been complaining they pinch his toes. I had him fitted for new ones, which he seemed happy with. I commented that they looked a bit smaller than the sneakers he was wearing, but the assistant said they were just a more compact shoe. Got them home, and they are exactly the same as his previous school shoes! Same brand and size. So I'm going to take them back, unworn. Either Aiden was wrong about them being too small or the salesman was wrong about them fitting him. Either way, he doesn't need a pair identical to his other ones.

We rushed home for a late lunch. I made lazy nachos, which was a bad choice under the circumstances, ie just before exercise. Lazy nachos is corn chips with salsa and melted cheese. Delicious, but stodgy and with little nutritional value. I chivvied the kids into a change of clothes and off to the gym. Actually, I was unable to convince Jasmine to change out of her heavy tracksuit pants, but at least I got her into a T-shirt. I knew she would be too hot, but clothes and shoes have always been a bit of an issue. Her choices have little regard for suitability or temperature, and everything has to be too small and too tight. She was much worse at 4; at 8 I can often talk her into a better choice. Well, sometimes.

To continue my ramble, I left the kids with the Gecko leader and got onto the treadmill. Belly full of cheese and corn chips. No energy. Sluggish. Tired calves. Sore feet. Even walking was an effort. I made a brief attempt at riding a bike then went back to the treadmill, eventually clocking up a measley 40 mins. I went and watched the end of the kids' class. They finished with some tug-of war competitions. After pitching the children against each other in teams, the instructor put them all on one end of the rope and took the other. With one arm, and very little effort, he dragged them over the line (after giving them a chance to try, of course). Very unusually for me, I jumped up and grabbed the end of the kids end of the rope and tried, with their help, to give him a bit of competition. I think he had to flex a muscle or two, but basically it wasn't that much harder for him. Unfair. Still, it's about the only thing I felt good about during that visit to the gym -- I took on something non-compulsory and just gave it a go. Normally I would just sit there on my behind and watch other people. Nice work.