Yippee! Only one more day until the three-week Easter break. Even though I am probably going to have to schedule my work hours during the evening, it is only two hours a day and so quite feasible to fit it in during the evening. And in the second week Peter and I will be on leave, so there won't be any work that week, and we have our beach trip to look forward to. And coming up is the FOUR day weekend!

Must book the cat place.

I am feeling totally knackered. This hasn't been a particularly busy term (no plays or concerts or shows or dancing exams) but the normal day-to-day rush of the school term is relentless.

We've also been busy with things like weddings, book club evenings, games evening, and meals with friends. Some really good games you should try, bought by Peter around Christmas, are Carcassonne and Ticket To Ride: Europe.

This last weekend I abandoned the family for nearly 24 hours and went on an overnight hen's party at a beach house, mostly with people from my book club. Despite being somewhat torn apart by guilt at deserting them, I really enjoyed it and I think it did me good to have a break. It was really good of Peter to encourage me to go.

I was a bit stunned to realised that one of the women invited was someone rather high up at our biggest client, and the last time we interacted it was over a rather tiresome work issue. It was actually a couple of hours before I realised it was she. Just goes to show how important it is to treat with civility those who work for you and with you. You never know when you might meet them in a totally different setting. I managed not to drink too much, though given the fact that I was pumping and dumping, and Stephen was on expressed milk at home for 24 hours, this was possibly a bit of a waste. We had an awesome game of Cranium during the weekend and another woman I did not know and I were in a team together and we totally kicked butt. We were seriously in synch. Twins separated at birth or something.

Robbie is away at the moment, returning home tomorrow from a two-night school excursion. It has felt very quiet without her. Lauren and Danny have found it particularly strange without her. They've never been apart this long in their lives before - even on their Maritzburg trips away from us they've always had her with them.

Life with four kids is undeniably hectic, whether it's an evening of homework and supper, or an afternoon shopping trip. As soon as there are only three children present for some reason, it instantly feels eerily quiet and empty (and, admittedly, a fair bit simpler and easier). But many people with just two children find the thought of three overwhelming! I wonder if people who have eight kids find it super easy when only seven of them are around.

This evening we went to a parents' evening at Lauren's school. On the whole, I really like this school, though I was a bit dismayed, on popping in to the computer lab for Lauren to show us her work there, to see the extent to which the teacher 'dumbs everything down' to 'child' level. So instead of an Enter key, a mouse, and a menu, to which Lauren is accustomed at home, at school she learns about a Boot key (as in, boot-shaped), a mouse-tail, and a ladder. (And, apparently, Thou Shalt Not Double Click.)

Slightly hard for Peter and me to stomach.