There are households where dinner is never burnt, housework is always under control, the residents never disagree and the homework is done with a minimum of fuss ahead of it’s due date.

This is not one of those households.

As we skate in “just in time” with all our responsibilities, argue amongst ourselves over the best approach to an assortment of issues and madly paddle against a rising tide of challenges you’ve just got to laugh.

Last week was just another week of chaos for the Shambles family.

In my real world job I’m trying to organise an event for local students, last week numbers were low at 150 RSVP’s and my co-organisers were concerned.

On Tuesday Mr Shambles was informed the company he works for is closing their Port Macquarie office. In two weeks he will be officially unemployed. I am not concerned. I am not concerned. I AM NOT CONCERNED. One of the disadvantages of living in a regional area is the limited number of work opportunities but we are hopeful he will get a job quickly (like before the next electricity bill is due would be good) according to one employment agency he is very “marketable” so let them “market” away!

On Wednesday Princess Child develops a sore throat and needs two days off school.  I administer TLC over the phone from work during the many calls she makes to inform me she is SICK AND HOME ALONE.

On Friday  Mr Shambles is offered some casual work at the award rate (not ideal but it might pay that electricity bill). Hippie Child headed off to the local disco (I know that’s not the right terminology but I’m stuck in an 80’s time warp so sue me). Having  learnt nothing from our last attempt at eating out  I decide we can celebrate the job offer by going out for pizza. We ran out of petrol. Mr Shambles enjoys a 40 minute walk to and from the service station while I wonder if you can be arrested for failing to collect your child from the local club when her disco finishes.

At the moment we are a one-car family (it’s a long story but it involves a car that is well beyond it’s use-by date, brakes that probably need work and an intense debate over whether it is worthwhile to even register the thing again) Saturday morning our trip to the shops was interrupted by our only car breaking down. It was at this point that I remembered I may have sorta forgotten to pay the road service fee (hell my car wasn’t on the road so I wasn’t likely to need it was I). My phone was out of battery. Mr Shambles phone was out of credit. We walked to the road service agency paid the bill and left Mr Shambles, a very unhappy chappy, looking for a phone box while we went shopping. Hippie Child comments it might be wise to NOT blog about this until he calmed down (I’ve given him four days surely that’s enough time to move on).

Sunday Princess Child and I have a loud discussion (we are not calling it an argument) over her lightning project which is due on Monday. We get it finished – with a beautiful heading glued down – only to discover we forgot to stick in the  “H”. We rip the heading off and redo it.

Monday my real world event has 760 students registered now we are trying to figure out how to feed them all. If my co-organisers just read the blog they would realise giving me a challenge is a dangerous thing – I’m an all or nothing girl.

Today I get an email telling me a piece I submitted for a guest post at Saturday Morning Ogre Mum yes the one I cried over will be published tomorrow. Excitement plus.

So there it is a week of ups and downs – just the normal shambolic living.