Skip to main content

What makes you happy

Izzy & Ben from last weekend's Battle Proms -
they made it into the paper!
Finally I've made it to the end of the week and I now have 2 weeks off - yippee! The last week managed to be both rammed with work while also dragging along, knowing that I was going to be out of the office in short order. I am finding it a bit difficult given it's the summer holidays so all routine has disappeared, and even my yoga classes are not as regularly scheduled as normal so I'm having to accept whatever is available rather than my normal classes which I've become so addicted to. Add to this the ever present question of what will happen with my job (should I or shouldn't I or more importantly, will they or won't they), and I'm basically all over the place.

Regardless of how I'm feeling, it's quite clear what makes the girls happy. Abi is absolutely loving her time working at Angie's, with the only downside the transition of coming home and having to slot back into real life every Friday.
Proof that something makes her happy
even if we don't!
This generally means tears at some point, and questions of why no-one is as nice to her at home as they are at Angie's??? I have pointed out that we are nice to her and if she was as quick to pick up her towels / clothes / mess at home as she clearly is at work, then it would all be a bit more peaceful. We managed to do quite well this Friday - she came home, had a bath, snuggled up with the dogs, was in a good mood. It all disintegrated when Glenn said he was putting tea on, she said she wasn't hungry yet, he said he wasn't cooking twice, she said in that case she didn't want to eat at all, so he said fine, have it your way, you won't then. Cue Abi sobbing into her pillow a bit later on (hungry) saying "no-one loves me here so I might as well go back to Angie's where at least people are kind to me". Deep breath, lots of cajoling and I finally got her to accept a cheese sandwich and got a smile out of her. Where do I start (with both of them) that we could have easily avoided all of that with a bit of explanation and rational thinking?!?

Izzy went off to Amber's on Saturday and I took Abi into town where she (shock horror in Izzy's eyes) decided to do her school stationery shop there and then. This to Izzy is a complete travesty. She has been online for weeks planning her shop so to just go and do it without any thought or anticipation is unthinkable! It also meant that Abi had her stuff before Izzy so of course our planned trip on Tuesday had to be immediately brought forward - nothing was more important than getting to WHSmiths NOW! Luckily they still had some stuff left so we managed to get her what she wanted today - phew!

So I'm now looking forward to a glorious 2 weeks off. I have a few bits and pieces planned, including seeing friends and family (oh, and the small matter of quite a major interview), the kids might grace me with the presence, although clearly only briefly if the remainder of the holiday is an example of what's to come. I plan to potter in the garden, run, spend time relaxing and generally recharge. I can't wait!

The spoils of a well planned back to school shop!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...

Half term

Whatever happened to half term?? It seems to have disappeared in a flash, do doubt partly as I was working having had 3 days off the previous week for Kerrie and Ryan's wedding. The plan was to not have a plan - both girls have exam week coming up and so our major intent was for them to spend at least half an hour a day or so doing a bit of revision. This has sort of worked - we only had one day where I got an irate message from Glenn that Izzy knows 'absolutely nothing' about her maths... we'll see. With half term comes effort grades and if they genuinely know nothing, it's not for a lack of effort. Abi did really well, keeping up her average and getting a 6 (top grade) in French again. Izzy, who we always worry is apt to cruise if allowed, got the first 5.0 average grade we've seen from either of them and 3 6's in French, English and DT - well done Izzy! I tend to assume all the kids work hard but it seems not - according to Abi "all the boys always...