It's been a fairly busy day, remarkable in the number of little things completed, and the fact that much of it was done with 3 kids in tow, and while I was still exhausted at the end of the day, I wasn't any worse than usual.

After a leisurely start the the day, I dragged kids to the local park-n-ride, caught bus into town. Went to kouks, bought many ingredients for fruit cake. Spent much more than usual at such a shopping expedition, didn't get everything I 'should' but stopped at the point where I knew that the pram would be comfortably full. Still managed a couple of things falling off mishaps, but nothing disastrous - no broken glass or plastic bags. Also managed to take swanCon receipt books to White Dwarf (who are in the process of moving!) and Tactics. Had lunch with black_samvara. Met up with an old friend/acquaintance. Caught bus back to local park & ride, collected car, went to shop to stave off disaster (potential for which was discovered this morning after breakfast, when there was No More Soy Milk in the cupboard). Home, did much of the unpacking of groceries, couple of kids came to visit, I managed to get fruit cake started (the chopping and the boiling bits), made dukkah AND muesli, so those looming potential disasters are also staved off (is that a proper arrangement of that verb?). Also managed a nice cornbread:

3 cups flours/meals, including approx 1 cup dusting polenta, some rye flour and some atta flour.
enough water to mix to a sticky paste
chopped fresh chives (coarsely chopped)

put corningward type dish in oven, with generous amount of oil in, warm. Add batter, cook for a bit. Swish around so that some of oil covers top of bread, pour off excess oil. Cook until looks done (doesn't move when tipped sideways). Probably about 1/2 an hour. Serve hot. mmmm....

As for gardening today: didn't manage to plant anything (although I had myself convinced that I was going to plant 2 things, given that I don't think I did anything yesterday). Instead, pruned the limb off the neighbours jarrah tree that is coming through the fence and is goingto be too large in a few years (would damage the fence), so that I can plant something in the spot that it hit when cut (which is why it has to be done now). Also pruned the neighbours shrub that descends on our rubbish bins. Also cleared the front drive! (with help from artisanat, who kindly moved the (ow, heavy) jarrah limb). Had great plans to do more, played piano instead. However, have learnt much of a page of a tune I didn't know (mind you, I searched through the book until I found a page I was willing to try and learn, so bit on the cheaty side there.

but in all that, the most remarkable thing about the day is that most of the time I kept my temper completely, and only a couple of times got a bit gruff (once with youngest child who wanted to post a letter, but didn't want to actually get out of the pram to do it, and once with middle child who did something small and silly, and once with eldest child who was trying to hold too many things while waiting at the checkout, despite having a perfectly good trolley to put some of it in, and dropped half of what he was carrying). this is remarkable, because bus trips are not something that we are collectively good at, and they tend to trigger the worst in at least one of us....