just another morning here

… was mostly playing ‘I spy’ in the waiting room at A&E.

Yesterday Josiah went to play with a friend, and just before I collected him he tripped over in their garden and put his hand out as he fell, landing mainly on his wrist. He did complain that it hurt a bit yesterday but being the sympathetic kind of parents that we are, we just sent him to bed and told him that it would feel much better after a good night’s sleep.

Well, this morning it was still painful, he couldn’t use a knife to cut pancakes at breakfast time (and they’re not exactly hard to cut), or play the piano. When he was sick during violin practice (I was only asking him to do vibrato exercises as well, I wasn’t making him use his right hand, otherwise I’d have felt really awful!) I began to think that perhaps there was something more serious wrong! So I took him off to the hospital to get it checked out. After two hours we were seen for an x-ray, and sure enough it showed a fracture on his radius, right near his wrist. Glad we checked!

Another hour later we emerged, Josiah proudly sporting a bright red cast. He chose red just because he liked it – it will clash terribly with school uniform but at least it will match his cassock! It was a simple fracture so he’s only got a soft cast, which I can take off myself in three weeks without needing to go back to the fracture clinic (you should have seen my face light up when given that option!). There’s a fair bit of flexibility in the cast around his hand, and again at the top near his elbow, but the section around his wrist is rigid. I guess it will just make him (and his friends!) take care of it while it heals. Suppose I ought to get some Calpol just in case he needs it over the next few days though …

This photo was taken during the practice for Josiah’s chorister installation. He’s got a white pinny over his dress now as well

The past week has been a whirlwind in more ways than one – I think it’s all good but I need about another month to get used to everything before I can be sure!

I spent the week on a very steep learning curve at work; my new job is basically that of a cover supervisor, taking classes while the regular teacher is on their planning time, covering classes if the teacher takes time out for subject development, that sort of thing. Loads to learn, as in my school each class does things differently and has their own little routines etc. It’s a completely new post in the school so it’s not only new to me and the other person doing the same thing, it’s new to everyone involved. And of course there’s never enough time to keep up with paperwork. But hey ho, it will probably get easier.

Meanwhile the other big news in our family is that Josiah had a successful voice trial at the Cathedral just over a week ago. We’d had it fixed for months and it finally came round; Steve and I had sort of prepared ourselves for him being turned down but in fact the result was overwhelmingly positive and the long and short of it is that he was offered a choristership, and as we don’t believe in wasting time, after a good taster day on Friday, he will be starting at the Cathedral school on Monday. He’s really pleased and excited; we are too, but still feel slightly astounded about the whole thing. It’s a huge commitment which feels pretty scary, but at the same time, it’s an opportunity for Josiah that neither he nor we wanted to turn down, so we are going for it!

So, lots of new things to get used to. Stress on! But it really is all good and underneath all the anxiety we’re pretty happy about it all

Otherwise entitled ‘thank goodness for Tesco!’

Josiah came home yesterday after a wet afternoon at Laser Camp with soaking wet trainers. Of course I didn’t think to put them in the tumble drier (which, to be fair, might have wrecked them anyway leaving us in the same predicament in any case), I just put them on the radiator. Radiators round here aren’t on, of course, because it’s the summer, in case you hadn’t noticed (and you would be forgiven for not realising).

So this morning when it came to getting dressed, they were still soaking wet. And it’s raining again, so not the weather for sandals, even if you did wear sandals to a multi-activity camp, which you don’t because they’re not really the right sort of footwear, especially not Joe’s el-cheapo sandals! Neither can you wear school shoes, as they (a) look daft, and (b) mark sports hall floors – and as it’s raining I suspect they may spend a fair bit of time in the sports hall!

SOooo we made his lunch and got ready in double quick time, and went off to the nearest supermarket to look for a cheap pair of trainers for him to wear today. Sainsbury’s didn’t have any so we carried on round the ring road to Tesco! They came up trumps, so for a fiver he was ready to go.

When we arrived at Laser today I also stretched to booking a quad bike session as a ‘well done on your distinction’ thing, he’d looked longingly at a couple of kids doing it yesterday I think, and wondered out loud if he could afford it with his £1.60 … at which my heart melted and it was nice to have a reason to add an extra gift on to the week. Probably would have done it without the reason, too, mind!

He is really enjoying the week And I must admit that we’re quite enjoying doing girly things at home without worrying about him as well!