A pile of postcards

Happy mail ready to go :) 

How fabulous to have a use for all those cards I have been hoarding because I like the pictures. 

What a lovely idea Sian :) 

Month in numbers January 2015

I like January, it makes me think of our fabulous honeymoon in New Zealand and I like the "back to school without being new" feel of the spring term.  

1 simple resolution for 2015 - live today.  Focus on what is important for us and will make us happy this year.  There have been so many reasons in the last few years to lose sight of what we are really about.  It is time to recapture the enjoyment of 'just now' and I want to get back to developing my language skills for me and not just for work.  

7/1 - this awful event was so moving and it was fascinating to watch how the debates have unfolded in France and here in the UK.  It is both terribly sad and impressive to see how democracy and freedom of speech are important to ordinary people in France.  It may not be a real Voltaire quote mais 'je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites mais je batterai pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire'.  France is only over the channel so we sometimes forget that despite the entente cordiale it is a different  society to the UK and the revolution continues to have a profound affect on intellectual and political life.

Et alors, I have read 2 books in French this month. I haven't read in French on my kindle before and it is great because you can load the dictionary and then check new words as you go along, I have got so much more out of my reading and read more quickly.  The first was my friend Baptiste's account of the Boxing Day Tsunami, a truly moving and at the same time inspirational story.  Although they have been my friends for years his writing made me realise just how amazing Kristel and Baptiste are in focusing on the important things and living life to the full, they inspired my ideas for this year.  Really looking forward to seeing them this year too.

Continuing a theme, season 5 of spiral started on BBC 4, I love this mix of detective drama (also loving Broadchurch and Silent Witness!) and French slang.  Big shock ending to last weeks episode!  It is annoying though that there is so much good tv on this month and I still have to do planning and marking so end up with programmes stacked up on the sky box,  I do get great Saturday nights in though catching up! 

Nativity 3 dude where's my donkey?!  An end of holiday treat with popcorn and bags of sweets from our huge pile of Xmas treats smuggled in because you aren't allowed your own food!  A lovely way to end our family holiday especially when we had watched the other two films at home on our duvet days and in Friday night film club in December.  

4 weeks of a 6 week half term done already!  This term is going really quickly and we are almost half way through the year which is good for some things and scary for exam classes!  I even managed to get half a dozen opters out of my sets which is quite an achievement but also a big job for next year.

7 days without the washing machine felt like 7 months!  Any household with small children will feel the pain of not having a washing machine but one with Hirschsprung's Disease feels it more than most.  Although things are going well at the moment we still get through mountains of clothes and bedding and the weekend after the engineer had been was a washing frenzy!

A cuddle from a gorgeous 4 months old girl, and a visit from an old friend (in the sense of friends for a long time). It was so amazing to catch up and realise what we still had in common and why were friends in the first place.  I am so lucky to have such brilliant people in my life even if I don't see them as often as if would like.

I must find time to post between month in numbers!  It was Julie's idea at notesonpaper.blogspot.uk check it out along with her cool collaging and musings on topics various!

Month in numbers December 2014

3 years since we stayed up until midnight at new year!  Fabulous party with local friends and we made it to midnight, even better no one woke up until 8.11, that is unheard of in our house!  How lovely to spend time with our friends and see our children playing with new and old friends.  

My first nativity :) a feature of having William is that he is often poorly at Christmas time and I have missed all sorts of important things.  But this year I left my year 10 class watching Romauld and Juliette (brilliant film!) and went to see w being a shepherd, he had been refusing to join in but succumbed to peer pressure and dressed up, then he ended up at the front singing his shepherd song with real gusto, I was very proud :) This was a great follow up to M singing all I want for. Christmas in the carol concert at the start of the week.  

184 people counted on the clicker on the door of the Ag for Hometown Hifi's Xmas gig.  It was on black eye Friday apparently!  The last day of term and everyone was ready to party,  Charlotte and I did the door and mostly remembered to click the counter when we took the money!  The night was brilliant, the band rocked and I saw some lovely faces from the old days at the Ag :) we even stayed for the after party and went home at 2.30! Rock and roll!

Lots of prosecco and lots of laughing when my lovely friends came to stay for dinner and crackers with fab photo booth props.  

5.25am. "Mummy do you think he has been yet?"  Whilst the hour was too early it is lovey how excited the children were for christmas this year.  They enjoyed the build up and made a fabulous list of great Christmas treats at the end of the school holidays.  We had a relaxing and fun Christmas Day, church is on Christmas Eve and W was so sweet rushing back from the crib to tell me 'facts' about baby Jesus! This also means we can get up and potter on Christmas morning.  Some more Christmas stats - 9 kilos of Turkey eaten by 6 people and 0 hours of Christmas telly on the day. Perfect :) 

My month in numbers is the idea of Julie Kirk check out her writing at http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk

Month in numbers November 2014

It's been a while since I recorded my numbers :) why is that?  

Because I have 1 new job :) 0.64 part time but actually lots of hours planning, marking and supervising detentions!  It is a brilliant job but teaching has a way of taking over your time and I do miss my gap year. Maybe I will have another one sometime soon. So this month ...

I have been enjoying walking to school (some days!) and watching the trees change and winter come in. 

36 beautiful and amazingly creative calligrammes made by my year 8 class. That is as many pupils in one class than were in the whole of year 8 in my last school!  We have been studying Apollinaire's calligrammes, fabulous surrealist poems in the shape of the object they describe, I wondered if it would be too difficult but as always my students totally over deliver!  They write beautiful words and illustrated them perfectly.  Very proud.

2 children at school and enjoying their learning this year. This month we have been mostly reading and learning our tables.  

Thousands of poppies at the Tower of London, a truly inspiring sight and I was really impressed that the children took it in and talked so intelligently about Remembrance Day.  I was very proud when w got his british  legion wristband and said he was going to look at it and think about the soldiers who died.  

 

I said no but ....

W wanted a Nutella sandwich after lunch, I said "no you've just eaten".  It all went quiet ...

Then he appeared ...

So I went to check out the kitchen...

It is hard to believe my tiny baby can make his own snacks and starts school next week.

As do I! This is the last week of the gap year, do I need to rename my blog now? Very excited / nervous about going back to work, I am sure by next Thursday night it will feel like I haven't been away.  Although I am teaching German on Friday for the first time in four years eek!  

My month in numbers July 2014

1 house finished!!!  We moved back on Saturday 13th and never would have managed it without Claire and G who worked like troopers to get our rooms clean and beds built so we could all sleep in our new bedrooms.  Thank you :)  The new space is amazing and we love it, the kitchen is so airy and light and a brilliant place to hang out, our new bedroom is just so calm and tranquil with a gorgeous view of the treetops from the new windows! The children love their new room, when they first came in William lay down and said 'I love this carpet'!  3 weeks of James' time and the main parts of the house are decorated beautifully including feature walls with fab wallpaper and quirky picture rails. I love it!!

50 square feet of storage unit still to come back into the house however!  It feels so spacious without all our stuff but we will soon need coat hooks and work stuff.  

The end of my gap year, so I will have to find a way to rename my blog! I had my induction day at my new school and am excited and nervous in equal measures about starting back at work.  I know I will like it once I get started but it is a bit scary especially teaching all new text books.

I finally made it to sports day for the first time in 3 years!  It was great to see Madeleine taking part and hold the ribbon with William because he didn't want to join in :)  The end of term was very calm  and we enjoyed the last few days walking to school again if we couldn't listen to Frozen on our scooters :) 

19 families at the hirschsprungs family day out in Southampton.  It was amazing to see so many children having fun with their siblings, it was impossible to pick out the HD children which is just how it should be. We also met lots of other parents and shared stories and experiences which is invaluable as we go along on our HD journey.  

31st was my birthday!!  Ah well as my now traditional photo of the children I got the most amazing books from Paul.  Our friend is an antiquarian book seller and found him the most beautiful boxed set of the complete works of the Brontë sisters complete with beautiful pictures and a useful ribbon to mark your page (that was the bit Madeleine noticed!).  Best presents ever :) 

My month in numbers April / May 2014

6 weeks with a very poorly little boy meaning I didn't count my stats last month.  8 nights in the children's ward in Southampton, one stoma closed, 3 different hospitals visited for subsequent sickness, endless beds changed and loads of laundry, it is very hard to find time to do anything else apart from looking after w and reading trashy novels.  Lots of books read in April not so many in May!  One very comedy moment when we took w to a&e in Nuneaton and they thought I had brought him because he had chicken pox, once we had established I wasn't that stupid we got a private room to protect the other patients, very nice!  One dose of Botox in mid May and we have our boy back!  It is incredible how well this treatment works and we are on the list for more later in the year.  I feel very blessed to have a team of people working for w that are so dedicated and prepared to keep trying things for him.  It is much easier to leave him in the operating theatre (this month was his 11th op) when I leave him with people who know him and are the best, he has had the same anaesthetist for 10 of his 11 operations and she is brilliant with him and knows him really well and just how to make him comfortable and me reassured.  Don't you dare mess with my NHS Nigel Farage!

One job gained!  The gap year will finish in September when I start working at our local school, it was a lovely interview with a really nice class to teach and a very friendly and encouraging panel interview where I struggled to find things to say apart from I agree with you!  I will have to teach more German than I have for a long time but it is a great school and I will also do French and be back working with the people who trained me a decade ago.  It feels like a nice way to get back into state school teaching after my lovely girls school.  Let's see how I like teaching round the corner and being spotted in the co-op! 

25 years and a lovely silver wedding afternoon tea for my parents,  the vintage china we borrowed from my friend was gorgeous and we managed to repack it without breaking any!  The music was great and Paul was brilliant as always.  Laurie made a lovely speech and it was all very romantic and pretty.  Just don't tell my West Country friends I threw away two bowls of clotted cream at the end of the afternoon!    We all had fun and I was very proud of the children being so good and polite while older people said how big they were!  W ate about 10 scones so I think his appetite is back!

56 bottles of wine drunk on our amazing half term holiday in Whitstable!  It was so lovely after such an awful six weeks to have a well boy and properly enjoy a week away with our friends.  So many highlights, prosecco in the sun, #breadbinheadchampers, amazing fish platter in Whitstable, ice cream in the rain! mini golf and Chris hitting the ball onto the promenade, w crying when he had to be silent in Canterbury cathedral because he doesn't like to whisper!  M and her new best friend which made their mummies VERY happy.  Just a really lovely week in the country with people we love.  

At least 100 times that we have heard "let it go" including the preschool assembly and a word perfect rendition on our new stage!  M is convinced that we should leave the new kitchen like this so it can be a theatre,  Paul wants a festival I am sticking with the steps and breakfast bar I have ordered!  

The house is coming on quickly and there are now 6 new rooms that actually look like rooms, it is getting exciting now that we can think about carpets and furniture and the fun stuff. There is only so much interest I can show in plasterboard and damp courses.  

My month in numbers is a monthly memory keeping idea from the brilliant Julie Kirk, check it out on her blog http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk