Frozen peas

are hugely popular in our house. Not for eating. Oh no. For icing.

Frozen peas make an amazing ice pack. And in this house ice packs are necessary. Most days. If a head collides with something and the tears flow, interspersed in the cries and tear-filled renditions of what actually happened is quite often "I want peas". Actually to any outsider that may seem strange. Small child hurts himself and requests vegetables. Interesting....

Tonight I made gnocchi. Twice. I inadvertently froze a packet of gnocchi, and I don't think it was quite thawed by the time I put it into the boiling water, and so I thought I would leave it an extra couple of minutes. Bad idea. Unless you enjoy potato sludge, but I know of very few people, actually none, who do, or would for that matter. I didn't even give it to my dog it was that bad.

So take two, mini gnocchi. Worked just fine. Here's an idea; let's use a pasta sauce we've never tried before.

Really. Seriously.

Idiot.

So then I couldn't be bothered anymore and made some Mi Goreng noodles, which, for those of you who don't know, are the most amazing 2 minute noodles in the world. Unless you bought the brand I used tonight, which again, I had never tried. What. The hell. Is wrong with me? Seriously.

Anyone familiar with 2 minute type noodles knows they are cooked by immersing them in boiling water for several minutes. Two if you believe the name. I don't. And I cook more than one packet at a time. So I make mine in my fabulous Tupperware stack cooker (hideously expensive but fabulously useful and thus one is able to see everything through the side of it, albeit tinged red by the colour of the cooker itself) and cook them for around 6 minutes. 3 packs. Perfecto. Actually, that works out to two minutes a packet. What do you know......

So I took the noodles out of the microwave and placed them on the bench. Master 3 asked "What's that?"

"Noodles."

"Noodles??? Is that noodles??? Why has it turned into soup?"

Nawww. One of those moments.

So let's just say that overall dinner was not a huge success. It was made slightly worse by Miss 4 deciding to spin her bowl around. Twice.

The first time I only heard as I was facing the other way.

The second time I was facing her, and thus able to see the enormous twirl that sent the bowl, complete with Mi Goreng noodles, plummeting off the table and crashing to the floor, spewing forth a bazillion tiny fragment of Mi Goreng noodles that I had loving chopped into small pieces so the kids could eat them with a spoon.

Yep. Genius idea that one.

I think it is fairly safe to say that I wasn't terrifically happy at that point. It is also safe to say that Miss 4 knew she was in big trouble. Not just for spilling the noodles, but for not listening, and for playing with her food, and for basically carrying on like, well, a 4 year old. Who is being naughty. Which she is. And she was.

Life can be challenging.

And then it was get ready for bed o'clock and reading o'clock. Miss 5 has improved quite remarkably with her reading, to the point that her books are now just a tad challenging for Miss 4, who up until recently has been completing Miss 5's reading after she does it. I know. Insane. So we now have Miss 5's reading, Miss 4's reading, Master 3 "reads" (i.e. flicks through the book making up a story according to the pictures, which I think is absolutely fabulous as it inspires creativity, and makes me laugh so much when I hear what goes on in his mind - "Man is at the window and there's a girl. What are you doing man? What are you doing? Why are you here girl? Aaaaaah there's a car.") And today was library day too so we had an extra, long book. So then we all sat and I read it to them. Well, for the first bit we did. Then Master 3 decided to jump on his sofa. And Miss 4 thought that looked like fun. So it was just me and Miss 5. Until Master 3 rolled on Miss 4 and she squawked and then there was a rescue mission and. Yes. I digress. We finished the book.

I was tired at the end of today. I really was. Work was hugely busy and truly fabulous. I am so very lucky to love my job. But I'm tired. Plus I have "mowing hugely long grass and body is completely unfit" mowing hangover going on. And the failures of dinner. And the noise. Oh the noise. The noise.

Master 3 finally dropped off to sleep at around 8.30pm. That is late. For him. For any of them. And since that time all I have managed to do is eat some corn chips and sit down and write this.

Tonight, as I was sitting on the sofa listening to Master 3 repeat "no" seven or eight thousand times in varying pitches and volumes, heartily amused by the sound of his own voice, I said to myself that this is a damn hard caper. And some days it really is. Granted, it isn't all bad on days like that, but, well, it's hard is all.

And there then are other days when you get the hugs and smiles and your kids remind you of everything good in life. And things do go well. And behaviour is fabulous. And laughs abound. And fun and joy and wonderment occurs.

Some days are just a bit more trying than others.

But I made it through. And nobody got hurt. Bonus. The peas have been in the freezer for 27 hours straight now. That must be some kind of record.....