A Mother's Ramblings

The appointment with CAMHS was in the middle of a School morning, so after picking up Top Ender from School, we drove to the hospital. We weren't as nervous as we might have been as we'd done a little research about what would happen in this appointment and knew that someone was going to talk to us and be nosey and ask a million questions. We sat in the waiting room side by side making silly jokes and trying to relax, when the Nurse, a rather handsome chap, came up to us and invited us into one of the rooms. After reminding Top Ender to say Hello, we sat down and started. The Nurse told us that at some point, he might ask me to leave the room and talk to Top Ender alone. We were ready for that, but it turned out that I didn't have to, but it was a fair warning and I thought I'd leave it here in case you are reading this looking for information about what could happen at a similar appointment.

I wrote this post a little while back, ready to be published when, well now. Two days ago, Top Ender and I went to our local hospital to meet with the CAMHS service. In case you don't know CAMHS stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and to be honest, I was half expecting them to tell me that I was wrong. That my instincts as a mother were wrong. That my teenage daughter was just a bit of a drama queen and testing her boundaries. I thought this, because, well Top Ender is Top Ender. She's perfect. She's funny and caring and loving and all her little quirks, are just that. Quirks. Turns out that I was right and those little quirks? Yeah, they aren't just quirks. Really though, to tell this story I need to go back to the start. Well, the start of recognising that those quirks that made my daughter unique, might actually be a condition.

Is it just me or has the first week of the holiday flown by? Luckily, I am fairly up to date with what is happening in the world (Alexa give me the headlines every morning) and so am still aware of the day and date... Hopefully, I won't lose this ability by the end of the School Holidays!

I almost can't believe that the first week of the School Summer Holidays is here, but here it is. We have so much planned for the summer, that doesn't cost very much, that between Mummy Home School and our trips, I'm not sure we're going to have much time to eat! This week is all about chilling at home however, so I've prepared a meal plan just in case we do want to eat... who am I kidding we always want to eat!

In a couple of weekends, we are going to have a BBQ for my Mother in Laws birthday and I've been trying to think of some lovely grown-up dishes to have with the obvious BBQ'd Meats, that is a bit different from the usual Salads, Corn and other normal Side Dishes. Luckily,  Sopwell House ’s Executive Head Chef Gopi Chandran has shared a recipe that is perfect in this weather and it will be perfect to accompany our BBQ as a side dish to blow all other side dishes out of the water! I know that we are going to love this (well I may have to ignore the olives) and can't wait to make it.

Oh my gosh, I swear this month is just gathering speed! How can it already almost be the end of the month and the English Children breaking up from School? I swear this is the quickest July we've ever had and I still haven't got round to buying myself some blooms to cheer me up! Right, on to the food before it's next Saturday and I'm thinking about feeding my children several hundred times a day!

Dan Jon and I have a really big secret to let you in on, but you have to really keep it a secret and not tell anyone else okay? We're not Footie fans. Some of the little children I read with at School, will tell me all about their latest football accomplishments, and I've learnt some of the right noises to make (mostly by a trial and error) and I've given one of the children the nickname Mr Football Legs. I'm really not sure what it means, but he seems to like it! Dan Jon is really struggling this week, as the project they have been working on this term is all finished and so they have a short project to see them to the end of term... The World Cup and he is fuming! He has no clue about Football other than players try to get the ball into a goal and he hasn't yet watched a single World Cup Match (I've managed at least three!). Saying that some things we do know about Football is that our local Football Club is the MK Dons, that Dele Alli is a Milton K

Normally I post at 7am in the morning, on the A Mother's Ramblings blog, because I like to have a post up and ready for the day. Today, however, this post won't go live until around 11am, because I'm keeping a secret, and at some point between 10am and 11am, if all goes to plan, then my secret will be revealed. A couple of weeks ago, I was released as the Primary President in our ward. ( That isn't the secret.) The reason for the release was that the two wards that met in our building were merged to create one ward, our boundaries were slightly changed and this meant, for the most part, there were two people in every calling. Everyone in our ward with a calling and the ward we were merged with was released and the only callings put into place that weekend was those of the Bishopric.

This week has come round so fast! I was so ready to be full of the joys of summer, but somehow it is Friday already and I'm needing to work out what we are eating next week so I can go shopping in between visiting with a friend, going to School for a Curriculum assembly to see Dan Jon as John Logie-Baird and cooking our Mexican feast! So with that in mind, here is my meal plan for next week!