The Winds of Change

Change, that words sweeps a world of emotion over me at this time. It makes me feel a little scared, a little worried, a little apprehensive for what will be, for you see my world is turning and changing.  My whole family is experiencing the winds of change.

I have lost my youngest companion, my wonderful Mini to school this week and it is a huge change in my life.

My balance is off, my sense of direction skewed and I am not sure which way I should be facing.

For you see, my child, my wonderful confident, happy child has embraced this change in his life with open arms and gone running in to the unknown to breathe in all he can.  To learn new skills, make new friends, experience new things, to learn to be still in life and to also use the life lessons I have spend the last four years instilling in him.  He makes me proud, proud that he is confident enough in himself to feel the joy of newness.

Maxi too is being stellar about the change from Reception to Year one, which is some ways is harder than the transition Mini is going through from preschool to reception.  Maxi now has a timetable, regular break times and regular lessons throughout the week.  He has more responsibilities within the class structure too.  He is relishing the changes and is enjoying being back at school. 

But for me it is harder, I put on a brave face, a happy front and will not allow them to see my feelings or to pick up on my anxieties, for these are mine not their to be concerned about.

So what of me, well I am trying to put my best foot forward and look at this change as an opportunity.  A beginning, yes the beginning of the new me.  I am still looking for part time paid work (writing, PA, sewing, anything for some extra money), but in the interim I will be going in to school twice a week and baking with the 90 reception class children.  3 children at a time, so hopefully I will have baked with them all by Christmas. 

I am going to be making biscuits with them and some of these children will have never baked before.  Many of them will think that biscuits come from a packet.  We live in Teesside, which is where the BBC predict the public spending cuts to hit hardest.

This post was inspired by this weeks writing workshop over at Sleep is for the week and more speicfically by the work that Sian, Mummy-Tips Josie, Sleep is for the Weak and Eva, Nixdminx  are doing on behalf of Save the Children

Every year almost 9 million children under the age of five die, most of them from preventable illnesses such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria.

At the end of September Nick Clegg will be at the UN Summit in New York. Ten years ago world leaders set targets, called Millennium Development Goals , to reduce poverty, hunger and disease.  So please sign  the petition to get Nick Clegg to push for commitment to the targets at the UN Summit.  Lets make change happen for the people less fortunate than us.

Autumn is here, the season of change

It seems apt to me that it is Autumn, it is a season of change, a season of colour and a season of harvest.   I love Autumn and Spring the most.  I love crisp days walking through leaves, hearing them crisp underfoot.  I love hats and scarfs, I love hot chocolate when you get in to warm up.  I love watching the ever changing landscape around us.  I love berry picking and eating!  I love the closing in of the evenings and closing the curtains.  I love that I can peek into other peoples houses when I pass.  But what I am trying to say is it just seems right, for us as a family to be where we are now.......

Change - there is lots of change going on in TheMadHouse this month and also there will be even more in the coming months.  MiniMad has his first afternoon at Preschool today (well if he is feeling well enough, we have been vomit city, but that is enough of that).  MaxiMad is settling in well to school, enjoying his new challenges, his new responsibilities and getting to know his new classmates.

I am going to be working from home part time doing some accountancy work, which will enable me to take and collect the boys from preschool and school and be there for them at all times.

We are trying to sort out the clutter we have accumulated, both times we moved I have been pregnant or just given birth, so we didn't clear anything and although it is not evident on the surface, the garage and loft are full of "stuff".  So we are busy ebaying and sorting through it all with the intention of doing a few car boot sales and recycling the remainder.

Colour - we have just decorated the study/sewing/ironing room a lovely silver and pale grey colour and added burgundy curtains.  We are also planning on painting both the sitting room and dinning room before Christmas.  I have just changed my cushion covers for lovely orange ones and brought out our winter throw, a huge red and orange checked one.  For me these are the colours of autumn and make me feel warmer.

Harvest - we are just enjoying the fruits of MadDad's labour in the garden.  We have harvested our pumpkins, onions, carrots, marrows and squash and are contemplating what to plant next.  The MiniMads are also so aware of harvest due to my MIL being a farmer and MadDad growing up on a farm.

That is enough comtemplation for now, safe to say we are busy, busy, busy and I am also nesting and planning, as my next operation will be on Monday 3 November.