I’ve been so sleepy today.  I keep thinking about my bio for here and cringing. I mean I’ve described myself as super-energetic, but to be honest I’m just so tired a lot of the time at the moment, it feels as if I have made a ridiculous assertion. This week alone, I’ve gone back to bed every single day after I’ve dropped the children off at school and have slept soundly for two to three hours each time. And then often enough I’m back in bed by 10.30pm and asleep within minutes.

So do I feel like a fraud? No, not really.

Because that was after getting five children’s uniform ready and assembled the night before  (more like leaving it on the AGA to dry)….. checking the younger children’s bags for homework or letters from the school, having fed those children, usually nutritiously (although confess to cheating by having discovered a superb Italian Restaurant on the route home from school that have agreed to prepare takeaway pizzas for me – yep food bloggers do that), helped them with their homework….. broached any emotional or frustration issues I suspect may be upsetting them or they may have poured out…… rooted in cupboards and drawers to find things they have only just remembered thy need urgently for say, a fancy dress opportunity for school tomorrow……. located the superglue or sewing machine to mend/fix/rigg whatever we found for the fancy dress etc thing for tomorrow….. mediated in an argument or two…….. check they’ve brushed their teeth and been to the toilet…. got some more supper because one or all of them have decided that they are still hungry and then have to repeat the brushing of the teeth and visiting the toilet thing all over again.

Hurried them all to bed (it’s tricky to hurry seventeen year olds because they go to bed later than you!) and then found myself in the kitchen faced by the remains of the dinner to be put away, piles of dishes and my Smart TV not connecting to the internet so I can’t watch the iplayer while my husband and eldest sons watch sport in the snug.

I’m not complaining. I knew what I had signed up to, or at least I had an idea. But when I am frustrated and discouraged because I am so tired, it’s good to remind myself of how much I have to do and have had to do over the years. And when I am experiencing my normal state of what I call my equilibrious turbo boost (which has been for forty-one of my forty-three years), I can be quite annoying energetically speaking; so it’s good for me to be tired and have to stop. Like all mothers, and people caring for others, it’s so important to view this time as a recharging of your batteries, so I won’t be discouraged if you’re not….

I’m off to bed, I’m up 6.00am. Night night. Xx