I am exhausted. There is no doubt about it. All I want to do is lie down and sleep. You see, the kids are only just back at school having had two weeks off over the October break and during that two weeks I went a bit crazy and decided to decorate the boy’s room, empty and clear out the linen cupboard and get chickens.

The boy’s room was a nightmare to paint. I’d previously painted it yellow when the girl was born and the yellow took at least six coats of white paint to cover it up. Plus the boy wanted one of his walls a pale blue. Both of us worked on the room for about three days in total and it was a nightmare. It’s done now though… phew. I’ve also washed his carpet and I need to put his curtains up, three shelves and his DVD cabinet, but I’ll do that later today. He’s also got a new bed coming so that will have to be built.

I also cleaned out our linen cupboard. Both kids now have double beds so I decided it would be a great idea to clear out all the single bed sets and wash them to donate to charity. Five days later I am still doing washing – not because I have hundreds of bed sets, but because my darling children decided it would be a wheeze to add a tonne of their dirty washing on top of it. Sigh.

Okay, on to the chickens. I’ve always wanted to keep chickens so applied to the British Hen Welfare Trust to take on four ex-battery hens. We got them on Saturday and they are lovely, although building their coup took hours and hours. We picked them up from a lovely house in Denny of all places and took them home. They’ve given us seven eggs already – all gone cos we’re greedy in here – and I look forward to getting some more. Unfortunately, the girls weren’t in the best condition when we got them, one of them was positively plucked, but I expect their feathers to grow and they’ll look lovely.

The only thing I was worried about regards the hens was how the dogs would react, but they’ve been fine. Casper had a bit of a bark at them this morning, but Millie (whose mission in life is to chase birds) has been more bemused than aggressive towards them. Phew.

So, with all that’s been going on in my life over the last week, I haven’t been doing any writing, studying or reading. Now that the house is almost back together again, I will be resuming my normal activities… well, once the house is cleaned and sorted. Because of the boy’s room being done and the chickens coming, there is stuff where it shouldn’t be and it’s driving me nuts. This afternoon is all about cleaning. Sigh. I hate cleaning.

Right, on that note, I will say goodbye for now. Til next time.

Dawn xxx