This week has been a tough one. For starters it was Little Z’s first week at full time nursery. It was the longest she and I have been apart in her entire life. I have been trying so hard to stay focussed and positive both for myself and Little Z, that when Sam drove off with them both in the car the emotions really hit. Just for a few minutes, But they hit and I had a little cry. Then …
Blog Posts
I started an update on our eco activities about a bazillion weeks ago and have never finished it. It became long, unwieldy and something not even I wanted to read; which let’s face it defeats the point of the post since these posts are mainly re-read by me! So I’m breaking it down a bit. When I first started writing the original post, I felt like we hadn’t made much progress but in reality we have embedded some good changes. …
So it is finally done, the last day of my maternity leave with Little Z. Technically it was a week-or-so ago, but in practical terms it was yesterday as from next week Little Z is at nursery with her big sis. I’m quite shocked that we’re already here – the time seems to have flown. I didn’t treat the day as special in any way; we did normal things to our normal schedule, albeit for the last time. From now …
So as I sit writing this Little H, you are at nursery having been four for a whole week. Four years old. Four year. Four. Seriously, four. How did that happen? I sound like every parent under the sun when I say it feels like yesterday that you arrived but as if you’ve always been here. I remember life before you, but I can’t remember how we filled it. I can’t recall what we did with all that time or …
“It’ll be fine.”, “It’ll all be fine.”, “It’s going to be fine.”. These words are on repeat in my head right now. They are on repeat because the time has finally arrived – the end of my maternity leave. Next week Little Z starts her nursery settles. Then the following week she starts nursery full-time 3 days a week with her sister. Meanwhile, I go (*deep breath*) back to work.
So unless you are Brazilian, Portuguese or reading the same book as me (which I’m loving, but I’ll come back to that) then you are probably thinking “What the heck is ‘saudade'”? Ask me two weeks ago and I wouldn’t have known either. But a couple of weeks ago I bought myself a copy of ‘The Atlas of Happiness’ by Helen Russell. She wrote a book called ‘The Year of Living Danishly’ a few years ago which I really enjoyed …
Next month Little Z starts her nursery settles. Then the week after those, she starts full time before, two weeks after that, I go back to work. I’ve done it before with Little H but yet I still find myself juggling a real mix of emotions. Juggling, or perhaps struggling with. I’m not quite sure to be honest. I never expected my return to be easy of course. Different child, different return to work. But I’d hoped I wouldn’t find …
It feels like ages since I’ve done a general update; I suppose because I was focussing on completing my end of year round up which included a general overview of December. In reality though it’s only been just over a month which is actually usual. Time seemed to take on a really different speed through the Christmas period with the whole thing seeming to fly by yet the days feeling long and timeless. For several years we’ve always wondered whether …
Sam and I were watching Mary Portas’ round-up of 2018 shopping habits the other night (What Britain Bought in 2018). One fact that she mentioned was that the average person spent £1000 a year on takeaways – about £83 per month. Some of the interviewees said they bought 2 – 3 every week. We were genuinely surprised that people buy-in food so often. Then the following morning the BBC had a headline article entitled “Children ‘exceed recommended sugar limit by …
Whenever I start writing my end of year summary, I always take a minute to read back over previous years. It is crazy to think that this time last year we were just building up to the arrival of our youngest family member. Fast forward 12 months and she is very much here, present and part of our family. I can obviously remember life before her but I can’t remember what it feels like. The last 12 months have been …
