A Mother's Ramblings

What I love about the Winter is that it is so easy to wrap up warm, hide under a blanket or Umbrella and hide away from the world. You know what I mean right? In Summer, we wear T-shirts (Yes I know I'm wearing a T-shirt right now, but I also have a cardigan on) and short trousers or shorts but here right now we're under layers of clothing, blankets, clouds and we can forget about the Sun warming our bodies, it barely has enough power to warm the British Isles! So because I'm forgetting what it's like to be seen and to not have to wear twenty layers of clothing, here's a throwback to the Summer to cheer me up and remind me that Summer is a few short (and dark) months away. Top Ender and Dan Jon Jr on the Carousel in the Summer was a lot of fun. Top Ender was the oldest child there and I'm pretty sure she won't want to go to the undercover beach at the Garden Centre again as a paying guest. Still, I can remember what this last summer was like!

When does a situation become awkward? When does coincidence become more than a casual connection of events? I'm not sure that there is really an answer to these questions, but it's something I have found myself pondering on after a series of choices that made me wonder... made me think about what I do and why I do it and if there is more to it than just because that's the sort of person I am. If where I live has more of an effect on me and my personality and manner than one would think... I'm not explaining it very well, am I? Let's examine a recent situation I found myself in, and you tell me if my findings and musings are the same as yours. As you know, I'm a School Governor. I'm actually now, a governor at two schools. No, not because I'm a glutton for punishment, but because I realised after a friend gave a lesson at Church a few years ago, if we don't take accountability for what we can, if we don't volunteer our time and efforts, ...

With the hectic life that the children, Flyfour and I lead, I shouldn't have been surprised that when I looked recently at how much time the children and I had spent together without the added distraction of computer games and TV, I realised that it was pitifully small and I needed to rectify that. So I told the children that we were going out and the plan was we were to have a fun evening together. And then I took them to Ikea.

Last year I jumped on board the "word of the year" bandwagon. I decided that it would be a good thing to do, it would help me bring to mind my goals and allow me each day to ensure that I was doing what I wanted to be doing. I put the word up on my wardrobe door, which meant I could read it each night before going to sleep and it was one of the first things I would see each morning after waking up. It sort of worked.

I'm known for being happy almost all the time. On the School run, I give everyone a cheery hello, a smile or a grin depending on the age of the recipient, giggle with them over a shared joke and I am generally the smiley person everyone always assumes "larger" people to be. I guess it is because of this that sometimes people almost accusingly ask me; "How are you always happy? And I have to think about it. I didn't always have a grin on my face, it was something I "trained" myself to do because I have resting bitch face (before it was a thing!) and because I don't think of myself as happy all the time. I'm just me. Normal Pippa. Okay , crazy Pippa. If you need further proof of this, you should see me at 3 am when my phone alarm has gone off to wake me up to do a blood test for Dan Jon Jr. I am not happy then!

I'm used to it now. I'm used to the looks the other parents give me after seeing my childs name in the newsletter for having reached the next reading certificate in the ongoing reading challenge. I'm used to the not so subtle questions the other parents ask about what we do after school and how many out of school activities we take part in. I'm used to the even less subtle jibes about how parent A works full time and how by the time they get home and feed the family it's time for bed. I'm used to it, but I still don't like it.

I've not been publishing my menu posts for a few weeks. At first it was by accident, I simply forgot to post the meal plans after checking that I'd not written something super stupid, that they were formatted how I liked and that the majority of my spelling mistakes were corrected. And then things changed.

The last time I posted my attemt to bannish the blues of a Grey day photographs, it cheered me right up and got me motivated to face the rest of the day head on and get not only my chores done, but also enabled me to remember that the Sun would be back in just a few short weeks and so I thought I'd post some more! During the Summer, the Children and I decided to camp out in the back garden. I woke up before them one morning and set camp up at the patio table with my Fruit tea, my books, Netflix, my knitting and even my laptop to do a little bit of blogging if I felt like it! It was the best day.