*four little girls*

I have four little girls to entertain today; my dear friend Rachel has driven down to Surrey for her father's funeral, and I am looking after her daughters, who are the same age as Freya and Anja. Unfortunately, the weather here is absolutely poo, so I don't think we will be venturing out today. I had thought about taking them to the cinema, but it is such a performance if one of them (i.e. Anja) needs to go to the toilet mid-film that I don't think I have the resolve today!! So we will find entertainment in the house - currently, all four of them are watching 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', and they are all very quiet, so I am assuming they're all enjoying it.

Remember the ironing mountain that was finally cleared last week? Well, some hillocks have already appeared, so I am going to flatten those this morning, before they turn into anything more sinister!!! I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that my children have too many clothes, and as soon as they are back at school I will be thinning out their wardrobes and taking any decent items to the charity shop - the rest can go for recycling. Freya is growing like a weed at the moment, in any case, and most of her trousers are at half-mast. That's the problem when she grows so quickly - her cast-offs get shoved in Anja's wardrobe where they stay until she has grown into them. Since she is a little dot, that sometimes takes over a year, plus she has Freya's friend's cast-offs as well. Time to be ruthless, and dump a load of stuff, I think.

*later that same day*

Well, I survived the day, just about with my sanity intact. The weather caused us to be housebound for most of the day, although a gap in the clouds this afternoon allowed us to walk to the village shop for an ice-cream, which was a welcome change of scenery, and provided a useful, if somewhat brief, diversion.

Whilst the girls were amusing themselves I made a lasagne for dinner - I knew that Rachel would enjoy a proper meal upon her return, and so I rustled up one of her faves - she is vegetarian, so the usual mince filling was substituted with a mixture of aubergine, mushrooms, red and orange peppers, courgette and tomatoes. It was delish - am I allowed to say that??!! Anyway, not a great photo, but here it is:


And now, to bed...