Valentine's day...

I had thought (for a brief moment) that Martin losing his job might mean we could spend Valentine's day together for the first time in, I don't know, about 8 years. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. He is working weekends at Winteringham Fields, so he was there. I did attempt to get myself all dolled up for him and wait up, but that romantic notion flew out the window at about 12:15am. I changed into comfy pajamas and went to sleep, waking briefly to mutter something about loving him when he woke me up later.

So Martin and I very rarely give each other gifts on V-day. It was very romantic anyway, though. He made me cute little Lucky Stars, which are made of long strips of folded paper. These ones contained a whole bunch of different quotes about love. It was great, because he hid a whole bunch of these tiny little stars (about the size of a quarter) all over the house, so I kept finding them at random times. And I was so impressed by his effort that when he got home from work I had made him chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing. Totally home made and actually kind of delicious.

The real highlight of my weekend was Friday night though.

It started out with a splinter removal from Dylan's hand. Always traumatic for the kids when I get out a sterilized needle and a pair of tweezers. Or even just a pair of fingernail clippers, for that matter. But we got the splinter out, and I got the kids tucked up in bed. Then I spent a perfectly delightful half hour tidying up and an even nicer hour playing the piano and singing. But alas, my quiet night in was not meant to be.

Edith started playing up at about nine pm. She had been complaining that her bum really hurt all evening, but she actually woke up and was sitting on the toilet crying. We had a fun little conversation and it turns out that she hadn't pooped for three days. GREAT! Normal for some kids, but not normal for my kids. So I went next door and asked my neighbor to kid sit for twenty minutes while I walked down to Tesco to pick up supplies.

The lady behind me at the checkout bought four bottles of champagne. I bought a bottle of prune juice and some suppositories. I wonder who had a better Friday night...

So an hour later, I sent Edith back up to bed. That's how long it took me to convince her to let me, um, administer the medication. It was an hour that neither one of us will ever forget, either. And almost as delightful was the ongoing conversation about her bowel movements for the next two days.

Most of the time, I still feel like I am just pretending to be a mother. Like any moment the REAL parent will burst in and send me on my way. But parenting got REAL that night.

We've had a really nice week though. the kids have been on their half term break, and SO HAS MARTIN! We've had lazy mornings and a few fun activities. We even had the missionaries over to help us with the big job of digging out borders behind the burnt out house next door (their mission president likes them to spend time serving the members, and we like having young, fit guys come over and help us out). We're going to do some guerrilla gardening there since it is south facing and the perfect place to grow vegetables. I've been at work for two of those days, but we got some intense family time. And the kids are having a sleepover with their nanna tonight, so I am going to go out. Maybe. I might just veg out at home enjoying total control of the television whilst Martin is at work.

Funny how great a quiet night to myself is now that I don't have that 5 nights a week.

So all is good in the Gilbert household. Mostly healthy, all happy, and plodding along. Just hope we don't need any more of those suppositories!