This morning, at eight o'clock, just as all seemed calm, I discovered that IJ's school uniform was nowhere to be found, and all hell broke loose.
Clearly, my golden rule of always getting everything prepared the night before had gone out of the window. Absolutely nothing had been organised.
In a state of panic I asked IJ where on earth her school uniform was, and in a state of panic IJ asked me where on earth her school uniform was. And we both dashed about the place trying to locate a grey cardigan, a grey pinafore, anything at all grey we could find!
And then eventually I managed to locate it - in the bottom of the laundry basket where it had been sitting since home-time on Friday.
It wasn't a great start to the week.
So I'm afraid to say that, although I did find a clean white shirt and a pair of tights, the rest of the uniform IJ wore to school today was unwashed.
Shame on me.
Usually I would have been embarrassed and conscious of the fact that IJ was not going to school looking presentable at the beginning of the week, but then the situation deteriorated further and a more pressing issue arose when IJ shouted,
"Mummy, have you seen my school shoes?"
So at half part eight this morning, IJ's black school shoes were nowhere to be found, and once again all hell broke loose.
After ten frantic minutes of searching they had still not turned up. That was when I realised, with horror, that we had left them at my parents' house yesterday.
So IJ ended up going to school in unwashed uniform and pink shoes - the pink shoes I had told her she could never ever wear to school.
Not quite these, but pink nevertheless:
And she was thrilled to bits!
