Homeward Stretch

By The Red Tent, July 20, 2016

In a new Delaney record, we have managed to kill three out of four goldfish in the space of 24 hours and now have a mini goldfish burial site at the front of our garden. Ella found the first two floating at the top of the pond as she rushed out first thing in the morning to check on them and as a result, Joel and I are saving up now for all her future therapy bills. Death has been big around here lately. We are failing at parenting.

Future goldfish buyers: Water temperature is of the utmost importance when transferring your new fish into their new home. Here’s a fun little tip that would have come in handy two days ago: Place the bag of water with the goldfish into the new body of water you are transferring them to and let it sit there for a good few hours while the water temperature inside matches the water temperature outside.

How are people supposed to know these things? How?

Life is hard, you guys.

Currently making me happy:

Jamie Oliver’s brisket chilli, the sound of the washing machine on, freshly mopped floors, a very-near kid bedtime and a date with Orange is the New Black, and a few happy pictures of life lately.

Making our pond was great until previously mentioned slaughter occurred.

More things keeping me happy:

The daily egg collection ritual that everyone knows is Billy’s thing. The painted fingernails? Well, they’re Ella’s thing.

We introduced a Chore Chart this week.

It’s been a huge success and it’s stopped my relentless nagging for them to do stuff.

Current chores:

Morning Ella — Feed the cat, water plants, brush hair, make bed.

Morning Billy — Get dressed, water plants, wipe table after breakfast.

Night Ella — Wipe table after dinner, put dirty clothes in laundry basket, put toys and books away.

Night Billy — Set the table for dinner, feed the cat, put dirty clothes in laundry basket, put toys and books away.

Really, you can add anything you have a daily battle with (Ella HATES having her hair brushed and putting clothes on Billy in the morning is like squeezing water from a rock). We’ll swap the chores out with other ones once we reach other daily battles with particular activities, but for now, the reward of stamping their little box is enough incentive for them to co-operate. Oh small children, how uncomplicated they are.