End of August musings

So....here, in our little Midlands town, the schools have returned. We break up for Summer early (the factory fortnight tradition lingers, even without the factories) and return before the Summer has properly had a chance to come to an end.

My walk to town takes me past a primary school which has, of course , been sleepily silent for weeks. As of yesterday, it has been once again teeming with small bodies and their care givers. Today , I encountered two such small bodies, sobbing as if their lives were in peril. The first was dressed in the uniform of the school, little stick legs peering out from the end of shorts which were very long, shoes as yet unscuffed, enormous rucksack on his back and with a parent, trying desperately to persuade said child that school is not an option. He was leaking from every visible orifice, face the colour of a ripe tomato, clearly not keen to enter the hallowed gates of learning.

Approximately 20 paces further on, I encountered another small child. This child was not in uniform. She was sitting on the pavement with a carer , trying desperately to persuade her to move, in close attendance. I heard , as I walked past, that THIS child was desperate to enter the very gates that the aforementioned child was loudly rejecting.  It seemed, from the snippet which I heard in passing, that an older sibling was at the school and the younger one clearly felt that she should be too.

Oh, how I felt for both parents. ...and all the others, leaving the school gates, some white and anxious, probably first termers, and others skipping off to the nearest coffee shop, glee in their very footsteps.

I wanted to scoop up the white faced ones and tell them that it gets easier...kind of. Mostly.

I wanted to tell all of them to enjoy their littles, that one day their fridges will be so devoid of stuff that they can tidy it (guess what I did on my day off yesterday)...so to savour the time that they have with their littles as well as the time without. I am clearly turning into an old wife (as in old wives tales) (who knew????). There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently with ours..(.sorry, Offspring, for all the times I was preoccupied or inattentive.)..Thankfully they have turned into rather marvellous grownups , despite that.

Work at the Bookface has been full on, with Christmas stock arriving..yes you read that right, CHRISTMAS STOCK. I had an instruction from on high to get the advent calendars out before Monday...of course, everyone needs to get their advent calendars in September.....so that happened today. The argument from the powers that be is that by starting now, we will be less overwhelmed as the months slide toward Christmas...it just means that we can’t move behind the scenes for about 4 months...I put a notice up saying, ‘Ho!Ho!Ho!’...😁🎅🤶and am awaiting the response from both staff and customers.

So, on that festive note, I shall away as the Boy has returned from the MMDC.

Merry August musings

The End

Hot and bothered

so..it’s been one of the hottest bank holiday weekends ...apparently.

It has certainly been very hot.

What does a Boy like to do best on a baking hot day?? Cuddle his mummy very closely...obviously. He has been so hot and so bothered but unable to link the heat with the cuddle with the botheredness. He just knows he feels uncomfortable and needs to cuddle his care givers, exceptionally closely and without end, to ease that feeling of discomfort within himself.

I understand all that. I really do.

But as a mere human being, I have found it a very difficult weekend to be honest. As the day drew on, I needed to have a moment’s space, without a Boy entangled about my person. M encouraged me to go out for a walk....Which I did. So, thanks for that, M.

That was yesterday. Isn't it amazing the difference 24 hours can make??

Yesterday I felt that I was drowning.

I felt lost and uncontrollably low.

Yesterday was not a day I did well.

Today, nothing new, nothing different, same heat, same cuddling Boy but today I am coping. Phew.

Three day weekend..means three different garden centres. Today's visit was to one of our faves..they have just opened a farm shop where you can take your own container and buy all sorts of dry goods....exciting stuff!!! They have a great selection of locally grown veg too, locally made bread and locally reared meat. ...plus pies, cheeses etc etc

We have local meat cooking as we speak...mmmm

Now we are home, entangled in a hot heap, watching Ice Age. 😅

Incidentally, as we drove through the rolling countryside towards the garden centre today, we noticed that some of the trees are beginning, ever so slightly, to change colour. Autumn is a-coming. Sorry, all you Summerphiles....

AHA...The Boy has fallen asleep. I wonder if I can extract myself from his vice like grip....I shall try.

The End

Wednesday whiff

So....it is Wednesday, that traditionally dull day which is neither the beginning nor the end of a week (confession...I quite like Wednesdays..the word is very pleasing in itself as it rolls about the mouth in a most satisfactory way, I find)...it is Wednesday and what more could a mother ask than to be stuck in a bathroom with their Boy as he watches his favourite programme (long spin since you ask)(and ,yes, our washing machine lives in the bathroom)(it is a downstairs bathroom). Long spin on repeat,no less. Oh joy.

It is for the endless long spin watches and Boy obsession for said machine ..oh and the constant washing...that we rent our washing machine...we get through very many. Very, very many

So..we have been in here For Some Time....I have cleaned the bathroom, sparkled the taps, straightened the towels(ok so I didn't do that last one) within an inch of its life.BTW I have been using vinegar to clean for years..so ,move over, Mrs Hinch...now I am sitting, waiting for the latest spin to have spun so we can embark on the next stage of the day...The Pavement Wait.

Our lovely bus chum is on holiday(how very dare she have a life????)(we miss you,L)so we have had a variety of people to help with the Boy in the mornings. He is not impressed...all powers of persuasion will need to be employed which may not be easy today as I feel my brain has been numbed by the constant gurgle and whirr of the washing machine and also maybe pickled by the vinegar fumes (I don't normally have to sit in the room after I have vinegared it...🤢)

But
It
Is
Time

Pavement , here we come, wafting our vinegar whiff as we go...😁😁

Wish me luck.
The End

PS. Yesterday ,at the Bookface, a lady came in for a present for her autistic son. After a lengthy conversation, it transpired that she needed a chat more than a present. I remember that need...just to talk to someone. Hope I fulfilled that for her.

PPS It was the wrong driver today too...we had to have several attempts to get on the bus....but managed in the end.

 Phew

more of the same....

So....how has life been???

In a fit of decluttering(yes, really) we took about 9 bags of stuff to the charity shop over the weekend. Oh yes, we did. Some might say that you would never know it, to look at our house, still stuffed to the gunnels but WE know that stuff has gone...and that’s the main thing, right??

While unearthing gubbins from far distant corners and long unopened cupboards, I found some toys which Jboy had enjoyed as a little fellow. He was delighted to see them and spent many a minute instructing us to play with them while he watched. He wouldn’t actually play himself but liked to see us having fun....I tried to sneak some out of the house but he very determinedly brought them back into the house. However, they will be going, when he isn't looking!!!

M is on the count down to the end of work as he knows it...he is both excited and anxious in equal parts at the moment. He spent last week on an enforced week off so that he could use up holiday leave..he had a lovely time in the garden , chopping and pruning and other gardeny pursuits. After this, he was enthusing about all that he might do in the garden, come Autumn.  (I also have a list of jobs in the house that he can do......mwahahahaha)

At the weekend, one without the Boy, we went to our lovely friends’ house and sat about ,eating and drinking, like an ordinary couple might. It is always a novelty, not having to be 100% vigilant, not having to chase after the Boy or sit ,wrangling whilst trying to conduct a grown up conversation. They fed and watered us rather magnificently...we even had cheese galore!!!...before meandering home. Thank you, lovely chums.

We are guinea pig sitting. The Boy likes almost nothing better than sitting beside the cage, watching the little piggy chap as he snuffles and munches his way through his weight in carrots, cucumber and other healthy piggly delights. The piggly even enjoyed M’s company last week as M sawed wood in the garage where the piggly is currently residing. Apparently they had some long chats. A bit of bonding went on, I believe.

I met a former neighbour in town this morning who was asking about the Boy. I told her about the putative plans for his future. She said all the right things,was positive and encouraging and I KNOW it is the Right thing in the long term for the Boy but it still makes me feel a bit sick at the thought. She put an interesting perspective on it...said she knew of a couple with a chap with significant needs whom they kept at home until first one, then the other parent went the way of us all. The son was then plunged into a whole new life very swiftly. She, the ex-neighbour, said that she felt that the parents had been rather selfish in the end. For the son, he lost both parents, his home and all that was familiar. If they had been brave enough to help him transition earlier, said the ex-neighbour, his life would not have rocked so violently and painfully. Something to think on.

As the thunders rolls and the potato cooks gently, I shall away to enjoy a moment or three, lost in the pages of my current book, before the wrangling begins again.

TTFN

The End

A big picture person

So.....at the Bookface,during the Summer holiday,  we have had activities and crafts for kids...a different theme each week....this is our penultimate week.

Where did THAT time go?

It hasn't quite panned out as I had envisaged, with one of us being creative and arty, reading engaging theme related stories while doting parents gaze on in delight and joy, purchasing armfuls of books as they depart...ah well. I had forgotten that we wouldn't really have the staff capacity, let alone the physical shop space capacity for such an ambitious imagine.

Thats always been my problem..if a problem it is.....I see the grand sweep of the picture, without the nitty, gritty detailing.

In one of my former lives, I was part of a team  making large fabric banners. Someone would say,"We would like a picture of..."They would name the thing, my brain would go into overdrive, I would engage my limited artistic skills, produce an image and then hand it to a marvellous group of people who could transform a crude drawing into a magnificent work of art, using fabric and sewing skills, the like of which held me in awe.

The memory of which still does.

In our marriage, I am generally the big picture person, with M patiently filling in the detail.

Bookface. Banner design. Marriage.

Thanks all of you for enabling me to be me as I grandly sweep through life, swishing my metaphorical cloak as I go.

That's it.

The End.