It's amazing - you don't realise how p*%$£d off you are until a while has gone by. I had no idea how fragile I had actually got. I think I must be beginning to feel a bit better.

I threw away a pair of jeans of Lexie's. They have gone in the Battledown bag. I must so go over there and take it to them. They actually need those clothes. If I stood on my roof, I could see the place.

Lexie has been struggling a bit with the changes she has had to face. School is hard work, rather than cosy play. Uniform is a big change. And going by taxi is probably the worst. She seems to have decided she quite likes her driver now. Hopefully, she'll be home soon. She's not brilliantly well. And now is apparently beset with 'impaired' hearing. I am lying down. (I'm not, but who would blame me?)

A yellow blanket today. That's all ready to go into school this time (not old school, but new school), for the 'babies' in the home corner. (Yes, they want it!)

I still feel a bit like I am recovering from something. Like a bug. Lexie is sometimes happy to go to school, and this morning, not. I find that very hard. She was always perfectly happy to go to Battledown, but Bettridge is different. Lessons, not so much play, uniform, more structure, taxi, packed lunch. I guess it's a massive adjustment for her. It is for me, so the poor little mite must be struggling. Hopefully, things will settle in time.

A Tinkerbell baseball cap. (It's gone in the bag for Battledown, it's all lovely and clean.)

My friend L came over this morning for green tea and a crafting session. We managed to paint our little tins with paint, which took so long to dry, she'll have to come back on Monday. Must've been my plan, lol.

I not only threw away the shirt I had Lexie in, but I ripped it up first. I did that to save the buttons (in my button box), and I have saved the big scraps. They are fine cotton lawn. The shirt was ripped across the pocket, and was undesirable, even in its French Connection-ness. No charity shop would have appreciated its fine pedigree, or the safety pin.

I have reached a bit of a crisis point. This weekend has been a bit of a hard one, for me. When the pain becomes physical, I suppose something must be done, but I don't know what. I am trying to be nice to myself. I suppose I just have to rise above everything, but, I swear, those big girls of mine and their incessant carping at each other are enough to drive the serenest of mothers to the medicine cabinet!

White baby blanket and two babygros I found while tidying up. All clean and fresh and in the charity bag.

It's been a long week for poor Lexie, and she's a bit tired. She worked very hard, and I think enjoys her school. She seems quite mellow about it all. She doesn't have any homework, anyway! Penny has gone to spend the day with her new Explorers troop. She is trying to persuade her Guide friends to join her (things have changed in the Guiding world. You can only be a Guide until you are 14. How mad is that!) No-one does Rangers round here, so she's joining up with the co-ed Explorers, which is fine. Lots of her school friends go, but she wanted her Guide friends to come too. I have tried to explain to her that they won't. I'm a bit negative at the moment, so I guess she's not being discouraged, and good for her, but I still don't think the Guides will come. Despite the fact that they get driven everywhere, it's probably too far (2 miles!).

I had a quick rummage in Lexie's cupboard. I didn't dare have a big rummage! Anyway, I found a T-shirt that amounted, once, to 'uniform' at Battledown, so it's now hanging on the washing line, ready to go in the big bag I have of 'spares' for them. Along with a few more choice items I picked out.

I have been a good girl today, and moved some boxes of fabric upstairs, to create more room down here to store our crafting essentials. It occurred to me that if I wanted some fabric, I could just pop upstairs and find what I need in a trice. It seemed more important to bring some order into this chaos (I looked at the horrific Flylady, where CHAOS means Can't have Anyone Over Syndrome. We have enough syndromes in this house, so I'm not buying into that!) And I ordered Lexie a new swimming costume online last night. It is an 'incontinence' costume, thus saving me a fortune in ill-fitting swim nappies (at the rate of 2 a week, it will have paid for itself by Christmas).

Yesterday, I had to buy a little plastic box for Lexie's lunchbag. Oh how I laughed! The sweet irony of it! But I did throw out another of her bibs. They are so useful, it makes me a bit twitchy when I put them in the bin. But, she must grow up - she'll be 6 in December.

We were laughing at her this morning as she was pulling down her summer dress, trying to make it longer! Next week, she will be in her 'smart' skirt, which comes past her knees, so she'll be fine. She looks so cute in her little dress, I shall be a bit sorry to put her in her 'winter' uniform. And she has a nice lunch today. I would love to be the proverbial fly - she has all her favourites - ham (that's pate), coleslaw, pink stuff (taramasalata) and olibs (olives). Of course, it isn't on a plate, it's in a little box, so I don't know how that will go down. We'll see.