Challenging…

I think that's the most politically correct word to use for today, especially when today followed the weekend we've just had.

This last weekend has been a particularly emotional and tiring one. We picked LMC up from nursery early on Friday and drove north to my Mum's house, before heading further north on Saturday to scatter my Dad's ashes on the North Yorkshire Moors. After weeks of cold windy weather we were lucky to see the Moors in their full sunlit glory and it really did feel like a very fitting final resting place for my Dad. He loved the Moors and many family memories are up there. In a way it seems wrong to say that Saturday was a nice day, but in a way it was. It was nice to go back to the Moors, to relive some old memories and to be there with my family. There was obviously great sadness at what we were there to do, but closure also.

So as not to subject the children to a whole weekend of sitting in the back of the car we all spent Saturday afternoon at the Ryedale Folk Museum in the picturesque village of Hutton Le Hole. Again this is somewhere that we had previously been to as a family, but my last visit was actually as part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Expedition. Plenty has changed there since then, but there were still some parts that we all remembered very clearly. It was a lovely afternoon and LMC in particular really enjoyed running around and exploring the various shops and house that they have on the site.

A weekend of travelling combined with Master C having a bit of a cold and LMC being in "one of those awkward phases" meant that neither child slept at all well on either night that we were away, and as a result neither did we. I really don't function well with little sleep and I don't think the kids do either, regardless of LMC constantly insisting that she wasn't tired when it came to bed time!

When we got home last night I was so looking forward to a lazy evening and a bit of planning for the week ahead before an early night. Fate had other ideas though. Just after 9pm I was walking through the kitchen and suddenly noticed that my feet were wet. Even in a sleep deprived state I was pretty damn sure that wasn't normal. Alas the washing machine had decided (post a filter being cleaned on it earlier in the evening) to deposit all the water that it was taking in to fill the drum on our kitchen floor instead. Being an old house the floor isn't exactly level, but I was somewhat staggered to find that in places it was nearly an inch deep!

By 11 o'clock last night all plans of an early night had completely vanished. Instead every towel we owned was soaking wet after helping to mop up the kitchen and both our tempers were pretty frayed. (As an aside I did find a new use for the tuff spot – an excellent dumping place for soaking wet towels) Luckily Mr C seems to have worked his magic and fixed the washing machine so I could today try to get back in control of my laundry mountain, but that's about all I have succeeded in doing today.

After yet another poor night's sleep – far too late to bed and then LMC waking us up at 2am as her duvet was on the wrong way round! – I was praying to the Earl Grey gods this morning to help get me through the day. The kids seemed to have other ideas though…

After a weekend of lots of family attention LMC was far from impressed at just having me and her brother for company today. As a result everything that I asked her to do today was met with a firm no. Even getting her dressed turned into a bit of a battle and all the wonderful new techniques that I've recently learnt on a parenting course (which I will tell you all about very soon!) seemed to have no effect. Combine that with a just crawling baby who suddenly wants to be touching and playing with everything he can and you have a bit of a recipe for disaster.

By the end of the day my nerves were in shreds and I was left feeling like I'd failed today's parenting challenges. I know this is all just a phase, but when you're stuck in the middle of it and trying to convince one child to eat their dinner, whilst also trying to convince their sibling not to hit them it can be difficult to see the bigger picture with any clarity. Tomorrow's another day though and one that I hope I'll be a bit more prepared for – emotionally and physically.

There has been one high point today though – news that Little Miss C's first job application has been successful – we've been accepted as Bigjigs Play Patrol Agents! I'm seriously chuffed about this. I've wanted to work with Bigjigs since I first came across the company a couple of years ago and I'm really excited about doing so. Seeing as the newly mobile Master C tried to take over his sister's Bigjigs train set this morning the timing couldn't be better.

Now off to recharge my parenting batteries with a glass of wine…