I have decided that the world must be against me-

work persons are digging up the road outside my house- whenever they start there big manly tools( or the ones they think make them look manly)it power surges and causes all the downsairs electricity to switch off- which is all very well- but I've only just had my cable tv reconnected and missed 2 days of phone etc and it was during shock horror but House!- so while it is off I decide that seeing as my mum is coming to see me and the kids tomorrow, that I could be getting on with some housework- could being the operative word- downstairs electrics gone- so can't use hoover- oh wouldn't have been able to anyway- remembered that the band went over a week ago and haven't had the time or the inkling to actually take the hoover apart and replace it so have been using dustpan and brush- which you may be thinking is very lazy- and you would be right- because It is a carefully constructed plan, to get out of housework- if I use the dustpan and brush - my 3 year old thinks it's a game and begs me to let her have ago- which after a lot of begging (yeah right) I agree to Carragh 'helping' mummy.

I spent 3 hours picking up the kids toys- - all the tiny bits of lego and barbie furniture scatttered all over the house- I thought I would start as I meant to go on and make sure, before I put the toys away in the box, all the peices were present and correct. I have finally just sat down- as every time I tried to throw away any broken or incomplete toys - they were emptying the whole of the rubbish bag all over the place and the toys being picked up and put in the only clean bit of floor there now was and leaving them there- only to kick them about the place when they were playing kill the sister.

Several times I felt like giving up- I cleaned the house from top to bottom - what felt like 5 times today- as fast as I was finishing one room- the little hurricanes were demolishing it.

The only thing that made me tough it out- is the fact my wonderful Mother is coming over tomorrow- and she will only moan and give me the lecture about - you have to keep on top of the chores- blah blah- blah-the kids could get bird flu, e-coli, botchilism from that teletubbie being left on the floor for that long- so what I do is run around like a woman possessed the day before she comes - and then sit smug when she arrives- and pretend that it has been kept that clean since her last visit.

And just when I think I got away with it - my wonderful daughter announces that she thught it was hysterically funny when mummy was running around like a lunatic- with a duster in left hand- air freshner in right- (and obligatory broom up my arse)- trying to make the house look nice and pretty for Nana- Oh how I laugh!!!!