A Saturday

It's been a while since I did one of these posts, just documenting a normal Saturday in our house but with a camera in my hand, taking a photo every hour, give or take.

8.00 am

The day starts slowly and quietly because Bella and Angus slept over at my sister's house the night before, as John and I went out with some friends. I take a cup of tea back to bed and read my current book for a while, which I highly recommend by the way.

While I am downstairs making tea, someone hops up into my side of the bed.

9.00 am

With no children to pester for our usual pancakes, breakfast is a quiet affair of coffee, grapefruit and scrambled eggs. All that is missing is the weekend papers.

10.00 am
I always do a lot of washing on a Saturday. I put a load on most days, but on Saturday I do three or four, making sure all the school uniform is clean for the following week. Sunday usually involves a lot of ironing.

11.00 am and 12.00 pm
We pick up the children and go on to do some shopping and errands, the usual amount for a Saturday as there is little time to do this kind of non-urgent shopping after work on weekdays. Angus has just joined Cubs so we go to buy the required jumper, pop into Waitrose for some bits for dinner and a few Creme Eggs which somehow fall in the basket, top up Bella's mobile phone in the phone shop and stop off in Boots for the kind of lip balm and body lotion I like which Lidl doesn't sell. The car is parked opposite Hobbycraft so I call in and pick up some cream cotton yarn for dishcloths and some grey acrylic  DK to finish a blanket I have been making. While I am in there, John and the kids go into the pet shop next door and buy Ziggy a bone. Finally, I call into Next to pick out a sweatshirt for my nieces's upcoming eleventh birthday. Bella helps me choose the grey rainbow one while John and Angus moan that we've been in the shop for at least an hour. (It was in fact under ten minutes.)

1.00 pm 
Angus just moved up a level in his weekly swimming lessons. It has been a long time coming and so his treat was lunch out at a place of his choice and so naturally, since he is a nine year old boy, he chose Burger King. 

2.00 pm
Home, and the next hour flashes by in a mixture of domestic pottering and life admin. I put the shopping away, tidy up a bit, water the plants.

After pegging out the next load of washing, I wander around the garden a little, noticing how much colour has popped up over the last week. 

I move a pot full of hyacinths from the back garden to the front step, so I can see it more often. I sort through post, pay bills and go through the pile of receipts that has accumulated in my purse. In a fit of organisational planning that is most unlike me, I wrap my neice's gift, write her card and put both to one side ready for her birthday, then feel inordinately pleased with myself for not leaving both until the last minute as I usually do.

3.00 pm
John takes the dog out for a walk, Angus is playing out on his bike with some school friends who live on our road and Bella is doing homework in her room. I bake cookies, one batch of chocolate chip and one of oatmeal and raisin. 

4.00 pm and 5.00 pm
I have a cup of tea, Radio 4 is on and I am sitting at the kitchen table. I decide to get out the sewing machine and do something I've been meaning to do for months, make a proper fabric liner for our log basket to stop the bits of wood going all over the floor. I bought too much, and I sew two quick cushion covers with the leftover fabric.

6.00 pm
It's time to start thinking about dinner. John is going out with some colleagues so it's just the three of us. I make pizza, a Saturday night staple: Hawaiian for the kids, tuna, red onion and sweetcorn for me.

7.00 pm
Another hour that gets lost to tidying and jobs. I clean up the kitchen, fold the washing, tidy up (again), quickly vacuum, start hustling the kids towards bed.

8.00 pm, 9.00 pm, 10.00 pm
With John out, I have full control of the television and so I watch Midsummer Murders while making thirty woolen tassels to finish my blanket. Neither the programme nor the craft require any concentration from me which is perfect.

Ziggy keeps me company, only semi-relaxed tonight as he has one ear open for John's return and his ears prick up at the sound of every car door.

I get up to make a cup of tea and come back to find I've lost my seat. I stay up later than I should, engrossed in finishing my blanket and enjoying the solitude.

And that is one normal, mundane Saturday in our house. Not especially busy actually, that was a quiet one, and all the nicer for it.