Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Just to prove they do smile... We definitely have almost teenagers in the house and combine that with a 50+ year old man with OCD tendencies and I seem to spend half my life at the moment mediating between them all. It's still not too bad with Izzy, but Abi has her moments and wants to push against us and life life the way she wants to, not the way we think she should. Now lets e honest, at this stage we are talking about us thinking her clothes should live in the wardrobe, and her thinking they are fine on the floor / sideboard / washing basket. My view is rapidly becoming one of 'there are bigger battles we will have to fight,is this really one we want to fall out over?'. Glenn on the other hand is adamant that she needs to toe the line and do as she is told... now! Obviously it is my way to read various books and articles about it and then discuss the situation rationally. So far this is working well with Abi - we've had a number of chats about it this weekend

It's that time of year again, the Newbury Show, and this year I made a point of not planning on going with anyone else as that always results in dissatisfaction as we don't get to do the things we really wanted to do. The weather forecast was a tale of 2 halves this weekend, with glorious sunshine and summer temperatures on Saturday, followed by torrential rain and lightening for Sunday. Of course this meant that anybody contemplating the show made the decision to go on Saturday, us included. Given we knew the A34 would be a car park we took the back roads and despite the traffic being heavy it wasn't too bad - helped by the fact that we had already resigned ourselves to a queue. On getting there it was clear that the weather had brought out massive crowds and everywhere was packed, with the tents steaming and the poor animals looking like they'd had enough by lunchtime. We went into the pig tent and half the pigs had sensibly knocked their water buckets over to have

The end of yet another whirlwind weekend - I'm really not sure where they go to but one moment it's Friday afternoon and then the next it's Sunday evening. We had planned this weekend (unknown to Mum & Dad) to hot foot it down to Somerset on Friday evening in order to join the birthday boy for a 70th birthday dinner at a pub in Langport. Amanda had booked a room for us all with the expectation of us being there between 6 and 6:30... quite how I thought that was doable on a sunny Friday afternoon in September I don't know. Even the girls commented as I picked them up at gone 4pm from school that we didn't have a hope of making it. The pick up would have gone smoother had the kids appreciated the sense of urgency I was feeling. Abi managed to appear relatively quickly, even finding the time to get a drink from Gabbies on the way, but Izzy took ages. Having rung her 5 times I finally discovered she was waiting in the normal pick up spot rather than in the car p

Finally Izzy's big day has come and on Thursday they both started back at St Gabs after a 4 year break. The preparations included not only packing of bags, but undoing the red streaks in Abi's hair from her few days in Wales with Mia... enough said about not doing stupid things like dying your hair 3 days before you are going back to school! I'd love to have photo's of the both of them but it was never to be - I do not have the compliant type of child that willingly stands outside of the front door on first day back to school so I can plaster photos of them 'then and now' all over social media. Instead mine generally tell me politely to get lost while hiding behind a dog or under their duvets when the phone comes out for a photo! I did manage to get one of Izzy but under sufferance and with promises of it not being shared. The blog doesn't count does it? After a slightly nervous breakfast we dropped them off and they disappeared almost immediately to t

I seem to have written a lot about Abi's absence this summer, and I guess the realisation is dawning that I'm having to learn to let go of her as she is definitely growing up and needs us less, at least on the face of it.  Underneath all that bravado I appreciate she does still need me - when she manages to glace through the house for 5 minutes I might get a moment of connection with her, but they are few and far between and I find myself craving attention from her which is a bit pathetic really. The special moments are still there, where we curl up on her bed together and have a chat, or where she comes out of pre-teen mode for long enough to let me stroke her hair while she cuddles up to me, but they are fleeting and I have to grab them where I can. Given she has been home so little I also have to stop myself from feeling resentful that when she is with us I'm expected to drop all my plans to fit in with hers - it really is a confusing time for us all! It does help to t