just another morning here

Quite some time ago, I said to Anna that the birthday present I would love the most would be a CD that she could make/record for me. I even picked one of my favourite songs and got her the music for it. She and Steve began working on it, but it was a fairly disastrous process for many reasons – they kept falling out with one another, and there was never enough time when they were both home to work on it anyway. Getting tired of the back room being set up like a recording studio, I decided that it really wasn’t worth it and called the whole thing off.

Anyway, Anna managed to find something that means far more to me than a CD – she decided to get baptised. Actually she’d wanted to get baptised for quite some time but I think I put her off when she was really little, wanting her to be a bit older and wiser … and she put herself off at some point too, I think! Her trip to Romania over the summer was formative in the decision making process coming round again, and she has decided for sure this time. By chance it was planned to happen on a weekend close to my birthday, so we had a lovely family celebration day with my parents and Steve’s parents.

Baptisms are one of those things that invariably make me cry (along with nativity plays and the opening music to Fly Away Home), and over the past few weeks I haven’t even been able to think about Anna’s baptism without getting emotional, so I’m writing here what I couldn’t quite say today, for fear of embarrassing her (and myself!).

I can’t actually think of many things that I would value more, or be more proud of, than one of my children choosing to make a commitment of their own to the faith that means so much to me. I often worry that we’re doing a rubbish job with parenting, muddling through and making the best decisions we can, but not necessarily being sure about very much. But this has reassured me that despite my failures as a parent, God has a plan for my children, He wants to know them individually and personally, and that is something I am incredibly grateful for. The emotional occasion was probably made all the more moving for me by the fact that she asked my Dad to baptise her, along with Andy our own church leader, and that was very special.

Possibly the best birthday present ever (maybe even outdoing some of Steve’s gifts over the years ), and definitely a good reason for another ‘ditch the diet’ day. I have mentioned Esther’s and Ben’s baptisms on this blog in years gone by. Very pleased to add another. Lots of Anna’s friends came to church/the pool to support her, too, which was lovely.

We followed the baptism with lunch at ASK; we picked it because it’s cunningly situated on the Cathedral Green so that Josiah could down his dinner and then run back across in time for Evensong. We went to the service as well, after a slightly more leisurely dessert. After that followed some furniture removal (come on, what celebratory day is complete without it?!) then a cup of tea and some cake

Honestly, I was just planning to have one of these days every month, but all five of us ended up out for a meal last Monday night. We had something to celebrate; I had an interview for a permanent teaching position and I was offered the job – out of 80 applicants and 8 interviewees, so I felt fairly pleased with myself. Having said that I’m sure it’s probably just because I’m cheap and not likely to go on maternity leave any time soon!

Steve bought a little bottle of champagne and we had a lovely dinner with the children. The next morning I wondered if I’d dreamt it all and had to pinch myself – although I knew my teaching session had gone well and I’d really enjoyed it, I truly thought I’d not done well at the actual interview part and couldn’t quite believe it when they offered me the post.

The reality has sunk in over the past few days at my current school and I am genuinely sad to be leaving friends, colleagues, and the children – especially the children and their families – it will be a huge wrench, after four years there in various capacities. Still, a permanent contract is fairly rare these days so it’s a good achievement, and I am looking forward to being part of a new team and being able to put all the stuff I’ve learned over the past 2 years of teaching into practice in a different school. There are a few more weeks to go yet though … with residentials and reports to fit in before I leave.

Last week it was Anna’s 15th birthday. It was a fairly non-event, since I had to go back to work, and she’d already opened pretty much all her presents with my family the week before! Steve gave her something she’d been wanting for a while, and Grandma and Grandpa visited with a gift in the evening too.

Her present from us was a set of tickets to see One Direction in Plymouth two days later – so she already knew about that too, obviously. At this point I need to back track and tell the whole story of the One Direction tickets …

Back in October we found out about the concert and she said she’d like to go as a birthday present, but I realised that I wasn’t going to be near a computer or phone when the tickets went on sale. So, I enlisted two kind people to both try and get a set of 4 for us – and they both managed it (I had no problem selling on the 4 I didn’t need!).

Then, to cut a long story short – I have two girls in my class who are also One Direction fans and had got tickets, so I cooked up an idea whereby we could all go to the concert together. Anna was up for sharing her birthday party, so I carried on planning.

Just after half term (in the second week of their half term), Anna and her friends came into my class to meet the other two girls, and they spent an afternoon decorating a banner together for the concert and generally getting to know one another. Then on Thursday we all bundled into one of the school minibuses, along with an extra mum and an enabler, to go down to the concert.

When we arrived they did the whole screaming fan thing together outside the back of the Pavilions, then came back in dribs and drabs to hurriedly eat a packed tea on the bus before heading off again. At this point the groups split up with Anna and her friends going off together and the other two with their carers – they were gutted when their banner was deemed ‘too big’ and not allowed in!

It was absolutely fantastic for the two girls from my class to do something together with a group of teenagers, and I have to say that Anna and her friends were brilliant with them – they were all singing along to the 1D album on the way there, then all chatting about the concert etc. on the way home. And I don’t think they really realised how much of a big deal it was for the two from my class to be included in a trip like that. I was really proud of them

While I was dropping them all off I was given a flier for a free coffee in a cafe opposite, so I sat there with my book for the evening, and was joined by the girls from my class when they came out of the gig a bit early – I was very impressed they made it through as far as they did given how exceedingly loud it was! We waited for the other gang of girls to extract themselves and then drove on home, getting back around 11.30 – not too bad really.

We then had 6 teenagers upstairs while Abbie slept on the sofa They were all asleep by 1am which wasn’t too bad really. The next day was a bit of a blur all round though!

This weekend has been our last ‘holiday’ weekend, with no orchestra or choir commitments, and it has been quite lovely … Steve and I worked a bit in the morning, Anna had a piano masterclass at SWMS, Abbie did homework, Josiah had a Suzuki group lesson, then Steve and I went out to the cinema at teatime to celebrate our anniversary (more chance of me staying awake but I still didn’t quite manage it!). Got the ironing done for the weekend during the evening, so today was quite relaxed too – church for Anna and I, then I went out caching while she finished off her homework; Abbie had a friend round, and Josiah went on a choristers’ panto trip. Not entirely sure what Steve has been up to all day other than trying to plan a summer holiday and getting depressed about how expensive it will be …

Having not really had a family holiday this year, we decided to push the boat out at New Year and booked a break at Center Parcs. Gulp! It was embarrassingly expensive but we have had a lovely time together. The children didn’t have Christmas presents from us this year; instead they chose activities to do while we were away.

Abbie chose a horseriding lesson – she loved this as she got to canter and do a small jump as well, things she hadn’t attempted before. Having had horse riding lessons for birthday and Christmas, she is hooked (and I am very worried about this!).

Joe chose laser combat – so Steve HAD to go with him This actually looked like loads of fun and I wished we’d all gone!

Anna chose to come to the spa with me – I don’t usually go in for that sort of thing but it was quite relaxing I suppose … and very lovely to spend the time with Anna She will kill me for posting a pic but she did love the waterbed

We didn’t go out to the New Year’s Eve party (bah humbug) but cooked enchiladas at home, did our jigsaw, and then sat in bed listening to the fireworks. Instead we celebrated New Year’s Day in style – the kids all had a session aqua-jetting before a champagne buffet brunch with live jazz band. In fact we had live music twice as there was a classical guitarist playing in the restaurant where we had dinner in the evening, which was great too. During the afternoon Steve had booked pool tables so we enjoyed chilling out there.

Lots of swimming, sauna, and relaxation in-between all the activity.

Very much enjoyed the weekend Having said that, even though we all enjoyed it, I’m not sure we’ll go back in a hurry – it’s fantastic, but as we are limited to peak times these days, it is very expensive! I missed exploring the countryside and seeing something new of the world, something we usually do wherever we are on holiday, even just in the UK … we are trying to decide what sort of holiday to have in the summer but perhaps, having read the offer in the comments on the post below, we won’t need to book a holiday for the summer at all