New school year

 

Blink and you'll miss it - there goes another week and the start of another school year.  A very happy Abi and Izzy got dressed on Thursday morning to go back to school with that lovely combination of anticipation and excitement that I can still recall 25 years later.  Also happy to see the return to school is Glenn who has had the task of amusing them over the past 2 weeks while the house has been a no-go zone - not easy.

 

Abi now goes into 'proper' Junior School.  This means she's now expected to be more responsible and think about her own organisation.  I don't think this will be a huge problem given she is mini-Glenn, particularly with the threat of penalty cards if she doesn't come up to expected standards, but we'll see,  It's not easy being organised at the moment when the contents of our kitchen, the hub of the house, are spread across every room it seems! Izzy is looking forward to Year 2 and all of what Abi experienced last year. One of Izzy's report comments was that she might think about not telling the whole class what is about to happen having seen it last year with Abi.  She has a fantastic memory for this sort of stuff and I suspect her teacher felt she was a bit too clued up on what happens next.  Hopefully this will stand her in good stead next year as I'm not sure she is as diligent as Abi in ensuring she has everything she needs in advance.

 

Izzy continues to be our ray of sunshine. I sat outside the bathroom the other evening listening to her play in the bath, singing away to herself, making up stories and a whole conversation between her 2 teachers at school. Just lovely to listen to. They are chalk and cheese in this respect. Abi is at her best when occupied with a structured, practical task to complete. Competition motivates her if she believes she can succeed. Izzy on the other hand is best when given space to do her own thing, the more creative the better, Completing the task isn't necessarily important. Enjoying it and engaging with others along the way is. Abi is physically stronger but Izzy is fearless. Abi thinks deeply about making a commitment, but then commits wholeheartedly. Izzy throws herself into things without thinking, relying on charm and intuition to get through, but is just as likely to get distracted and move onto the next opportunity before really nailing something.  They will definitely approach life in different ways.

 

The girls are now doing a riding lesson on a Saturday which they are loving.  This is causing an unhealthy amount of discussion along the lines of "what horse will you have when we can get one / are grown up / have beaten Mummy & Daddy into submission..." I keep saying the answer is no but I don't think they believe me!  This is coupled with Abi's continued desire to own a farm with Ben.  In true Abi style she has worked out that she will need to earn some money first in order to be able to buy what they need.  Yesterday we took Scooby for his morning walk and she told me all about the mansion Ben is going to own - 7 bedrooms, one of which will be a nursery for her children and his (they plan to have separate families who will eventually inherit the farm).  When I asked where the money is coming from for the mansion, Abi was a bit vague and said it might need to be "just a big house initially".  That's ok then! The farm livestock will supplemented by Laurie's racehorse business (he is to be a successful jockey) and Izzy is to be a vet, when she's not on 'maid' duty.  I did point out that Izzy might not make the best maid given her tendency towards being the last one out of bed. Don't worry says Abi, we are going to get a big bell to ring when it's time for her to get up!  As I said, I'm not worried that abi can't think through getting herself organised!

 

While Abi and Izzy dream of farms and horses, we dream of a dust free, builder free house where the sink, cooker and fridge are all in their right places and working as designed.  Our kitchen is nearing completion but by no means yet functional and it feels like we have had builders in the house for ever,   The contents of our kitchen cupboards are still distributed across the study, playroom and garage and everything takes longer than it should because of this.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel though.  The worksurfaces will be templated at the end of the week and the floor goes down 2 weeks today so it's almost there...  Glenn is still subscribing to his chosen charity (CALM: Campaign against living miserably) but has at least reinstalled his sense of humour chip.  We only have to reboot it every other day now!

 

I keep reminding myself of what we will have at the end of this short period of upheaval and how lucky we are to have been able to do it all in one go.  Regardless of how hard the last year was with redundancy and job searches and so on it's been wonderful to have the time and money to plan and implement my ideas.  Now I just can't wait to experience it properly!