Behind The Scenes

We planned a family outing today. Miss 4 had a birthday party to attend by 10am 40kms away from our home. I've stressed before, I'm NOT a morning person, neither is Gooseman and really, I think our kids are following suit. The yelling family lived up to their name this morning rushing to get out of the door as we hunted high and low for master 10's missing shoe. He only has one pair and I seriously considered him going the whole day only wearing one as the party and the clock ticked closer to ten.

Sometime as I had a complete meltdown, all but threw the party girl into the car and threatened to leave the rest of the family behind, Gooseman found the offending shoe. In the bottom of the toybox. Doors were slammin, kids were crying, parents were huffing. Car went screeching out the driveway. Bye poor neighbours (I truly hoped they didn't think we were heading to church this particular sunday). We had 15 mins to get there.

I had got up on time this morning. My problem being I just go so sloooow. Gooseman slept in longer, got himself ready, showered and shaved for longer than it takes me to put on my full face of make up! Played around with his cell phone for ages (note this it is important later) and to give him some credit, changed miss 2.

I was furious that gooseman was fiddling with his phone. As we took off down our street he plugged it into the cigarette lighter hole and it became a GPS device. A women informed me we were to turn right at the next intersection. duh. really! "I know how to get there!! you didnt need to waste so much time being fancy with your phone!! that is going to be soooooo annoying the whole way!!" (we still hadn't even left our neighbourhood). The women's voice continued. Each time I loudly sighed. I turned the radio up louder to drown her out once we reached the motorway.

The whole car was eerily quiet during the ride except for this irritating women's voice that belonged on an aeroplane.
Back when we brought our car we named our GPS lady Ping. We thought it was great fun when she would randomly speak to us in Japanese because it was programmed in Japan and she let us know when we were heading into the ocean. Our family made a game of it and chorused "Thank you Ping" each time she made an announcement. We've since worked out how to turn her off.
The time reached 10am, by my calculations we still had a long way to go. Gooseman turned off unexpectedly (following European Ping's advice of course). I wouldn't have turned that way. The reason I had it in my head that it was going to be such a long journey is because I had mapped out a very long route in my head. I hadn't thought of going this particular way. In no time we were almost there. The journey that I had planned on being at least 45 mins had been shortened to just under half an hour. whoops.

I apologised to Gooseman. He accepted and we went on with what we had planned for our family day out. We dropped Miss 4 off at her party place and took the other 3 out for early morning (for us!) drinks at a cafe' by the beach. We explored the beach and climbed a big rock cave called "Cave Rock". Picked up Miss 4 from her party and went to visit a local Heritage park called Ferrymead.The day however was still stale from the stink that had been made earlier on. The kids didn't listen well, ran off in all directions and moaned when it was time to move on from something they'd had fun at. We all came home tired and Gooseman and I feeling miserable with head colds. It should have been a fun day. The weather was absolutely perfect. So warm people were swimming in the sea as if it were summer! There wasn't any wind or a cloud in the sky. We were in a beautiful place with glistening water that literally sparkled , surrounded by green hills, amazing homes and snow capped mountains to be seen in the distance. We rode a tram, visited an old school and an amazing little movie theatre that sold tickets for just $1.30. I had wanted so badly to enjoy this day. I looked through the photos and realised we had such grumpy faces. A real eye opener to take a chill pill when things don't always go to plan. There are always going to be hiccups. Especially with young kids. It's so easy to expect too much of them sometimes.

I read a post from Amy at Havenspace yesterday that I should have applied to my life this morning. It's about how women have the power of influence. And today I used mine the way I shouldn't have. Thankfully mercy is new in the morning.

Posted by widge at My Guide to surviving and enjoying Life's Mundane