It's no secret that 'child-free time' disappears in the blink of an eye. There's so many 'need to do' things on my list that I rarely get to the 'want to do'. Not that I'm complaining; life's good. My youngest daughter started preschool last week, and the extra stimulation seems to be wearing her out. She even slept through the night a couple of times this week. For anyone who's been ready my blog for awhile, you'll know that a 10 hour stint by Little Lotti is a big deal; sleep is not on my agenda... sadly. She went to preschool for 2 days last week and loved it. Today, day 3, she changed her mind and told me "I wanna stay home with you and watch TV." That made me sound like a bad mum, but then I made things worse. I panicked and said (in front of her teacher); "Mummy has to work today so if you stay home I won't be there; you'll have to wait in the garden until Mimi comes home from school." The teacher looked from Lotti's sad face to me. All I could do was wink. It seemed to work and she said; "oh, that doesn't sound like much fun; come on, let's go paint something instead." Lotti, quite rightly, snubbed me and was off.
Never mind. Motherhood's a tricky gig, and you can't be great at it all the time!
So then... back to child free time. While I had a blessedly hot cuppa today, I read the paper. Now I love books, and of course Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' was a schoolyard favorite... strangely the local manufacturers of window coverings round here are also fans... but mixed up ones. If you loved the book as much as I did, then you'll know the censored picture in the clipping is wrong. Elizabeth Bennet marries Mr Darcy. Jane Austen wrote the story. Perhaps they were thinking of Jane Eyre... hmmm... "one wonders."
PS - Did I ever tell you about my dream to write a film script where Mr Darcy, Mr Rochester and Heathcliff all star in a jumbled-up period drama? Elizabeth, Jane and Cathy all star in the same movie, and the plot is both familiar and surprising tangled... I'll write it one day, but I think I'll need more than one-coffee-cup worth of time!! x
