The busy business of the holidays has meant that I've found it much harder to post than Iwas hoping. And now...sigh... the holidays are over for another year. Those six weeks are so precious, yet they slip by so quickly. And with my Beautiful Girl turning six during the last week of the holiday, the analogy is too clear to be ignored. She had a wonderful birthday - a picnic in the park with her friends, where she tucked her party dress into her pants to go fishing for minnows in the brook - then, on her birthday itself there was pancakes and presents, pony rides and Pizza-That-A-Man-Brings and the chocolatiest birthday cake known to Girl.
The time since has been one of change for all of us - the Beautiful Girl has a new teacher and a new classroom, the Lovely Husband has a new role at work and I am working full-time for the first time in - eek - six years! Already, the juggling act that I'm required to do as a working Mum has threatened to overwhelm me. It seems less of a juggle and more of a stagger, under the weight of everything I've got to do (have given up on the idea of a To Do list and now have a To Do book!). I think it'll be sheer bloody-mindedness that will get me through - I'm determined to do a good job as Mummy and as Teacher but also to live a life that is not just busy, but one which is full. So in the week and a half since term started, in between the Hoovering and the planning lessons, the sewing on of name tapes and marking books, the making of beds and the making of resources, I have carved out time for fun stuff too. I've been to my Book Group meeting (we read Carol Ann Duffy's book of poetry "The World's Wife" - wonderful, read it!), strolled round the farmer's market to buy sunflowers, crocheted a row and a half of the Heirloom Blanket, read a fantastic "literary thriller" ("The Bed I Made" by Lucie Whitehouse), been to a folk music concert at the Symphony Hall and baked lavender shortbread. The shortbread, by the way, is divine. I've used a recipe from "The Vicar's Wife Cookbook" and it is the best shortbread I've ever made - buttery yet crisp, lemony with just a fragrant whiff of lavender. And, as I tucked a foilwrapped piece into the Beautiful Girl's lunchbox this morning it made me think, maybe I can pull this off, after all. Watch this space..............
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of course you can pull it off. i have no doubts. you are already a wonderful mum and teacher - with the patience of a saint. that's not going to change. both mine went off this morning with someone else's name in their 2nd hand uniforms...and the shortbread...it was good, huh? i'm still hunting for the perfect recipe you know. jenx
ReplyDeleteYou deffo pull it off missus...
ReplyDeleteIt's a juggling act though, isn't it?
I love reading your blog Jo, you write so very beautifully xxx