Work life balance dilemma again

I know I have gone back to work when.....

• I am dashing about far more than usual
• I feel sick and stressed the night before that I have forgotten something
• I am behind in the washing
• The house starts to have more 'piles' everywhere
• My 'to do' list suddenly has 20 more items overnight
• The fridge is missing vital items of food (usually the midnight milk dash to Tesco)
• I am cooking my tea at 10.30 pm
• I forget a kids activity/or something they had to take to it
• My petrol bill goes up 50%
• My laundry changes from jeans and sweat shirts to work trousers, matching tops and a cardigan
• I start collecting childcare articles again
• You tube and google become my new best friends
• The hallway is cluttered with briefcases and students work to mark
• I don't loose my car keys, I loose my security badge!
• I have to make yet another packed lunch
• Emails, chats and non essentials get pushed to the weekend
• I sound more like a teenager (direct influence from being trapped with a bunch of them in a classroom all day)
• My make up gets the cob webs blown off it
• I am a lot more aware of how I look (and how fat I feel)
• I realise I do not own one pair of matching socks
• I get back late when the kids are already home (something I hate)

I have only gone back to work, one day a week and already I feel it is taking over my life.

Caleb has developed a bad case of conjunctivitis, and instead of just getting on with dealing with it, I am now worrying how much time I will have to take off to look after him. No daycare takes babies with this, and as I had only started work last week after an absence of over 10 months, I would personally rather have stuck hot coals in my eyes than ask for a day off. Simon did instead. Phew.

My week planning is now dominated not by the babies, or the shopping , or the charity or my other projects but rather by my work planning, marking etc.

My cooking  and shopping revolves around making sure everything is up straight for Friday when I work. Mair's uniform, and all the babies clothes and contraptions they need to go with them are laid out military precision the night before, and what can be packed in the car is, to eliminate forgetting anything in the madness of 10 people leaving the house at some unearthly hour in the morning.

6.30-7 am. Tempers are short, we only have one hairdryer, one set of straighteners and two bathrooms (both small). Everyone feels they have priority!

I get to work at 8.45am and feel I have already completed a days work! Just lugging the twins from the car to the childminder singlehandly with endless bags is exhausting in the semi darkness. The dumping another one or two kids off at breakfast club sees me break into an olympic sprint as their schools are 4 miles apart and the timescale is 15 mins.

My students must think I am incredibly unfit as I huff and puff along the corridor to greet them. The staff car park has been moved to the further esherons of the campus, the students cars now have priority outside the building. hmm. Not funny with three briefcases, a bundle of students work, a lunch box and handbag and a group of spotty, rude teenage boys behind you waiting for you to drop something and make their day! (oh yes I have done this in style-windy day-file breaks-500 sheets fly across the campus-I run after them-teen boys howl with laughter and remind me for the next million years what a prat I look)

9 am I sink into my chair and take my register, write todays plans on the board (headings in Welsh and English) and start the days teaching. They are a great group, God love them, we work solidly as we have a lot of ground to cover. Babies and Toddlers 1-3 years, children 3-5 years, school age children 5-11 years and finally teenagers, at least with this topic they have a good chance of answering all the exam questions with no revision. We have a good laugh, the conversation digresses several times and then for some obscure reason in health and safety planning, they sound the fire alarm, on Friday 13th!!!! who thought of that one? Is it a joke? We cannot take the chance. The last time it was for real, with several fire engines later appearing, us standing out in the cold and blizzard like snow conditions (me heavily pregnant) for what seemed like hours.

I work through breaks and lunch to catch up, they come in early to catch up as well. The afternoon goes fast. The seagulls on the roof tap dance away (I am sure they bring distant relatives on a Friday for my pleasure) and then to add to the din a drill starts. It is no wonder I have no voice by 3.05pm.

I remind them of homework and to have a good week, they say their cheerful hurried goodbyes as they scramble for the door and we part for another week.

4pm, online work done, paper work complete, lessons planned, notes made. Dash for the car and home. Too late to take Mair swimming, I feed the babies and play with them, before again shooting out the the dreaded Costa and his Bootcamp from hell. It works but I hate it. I really am the most lazy, un co ordinated person on God's earth when it comes to bootcamp, and having survived 45 mins from hell I am embarrassingly aware my pelvic floor is not what it once was!

Dash home, immediately put 5 year old to bed and read to her, then feed a baby and put them down, and help a child with homework, and then play a game before another goes to bed.

Doing well.Tea at 9.30pm, an improvement from previous nights. The bummer of a strict diet is often having to make separate food, not good with our sized family!

Chat to older kids, make a drink. Watch Madonna being interviewed, write this, put all the nappy wash in (hubby has hung the previous wash around the house before heading to bed to feed a baby) and go to sleep.

How long for?

God knows. Your guess is as good as mine.

People often ask how we do it? Here's a few thoughts:

• Sharing tasks
• Instinctively knowing what needs done next and not expecting the other half to do it
• Strong relationships
• Good kids that are happy to help from time to time
• Lists and schedules
• Chores
• Bedroom lists
• Activity lists
• Lists of what the kids need to remember for each activity
• Mobiles!
• Long hours
• Sense of humour
• Good routines
• Strict bedtimes
• Strict TV/Computer times
• Putting 'me' down on the list, way down
• Love for what we are doing!

I am sure there's more!

Well that's a brief insight into my day.

Totally sure there's no balance in there, but it's my life and I really wouldn't have it any other way!

Well.....maybe winning the lottery!