I haven’t been around much at all in Blogland this month
– so apologies to you all for not keeping up with your blogs. I don’t have much of an excuse except that
once more my life seems to have taken over me.
The first half term of having a child in high
school has been a revelation. My eldest
has settled in well, in fact he loves it, and I can’t believe how mature (on
the whole) he is behaving. Homework is a
bit of a challenge though, and although he is being vigilant at keeping up with
it, he still needs help in prioritising it (and he’s asking me?)
The fact that he comes home each night and starts
his homework is great though, and has had a positive effect on my youngest who
is being much more conscientious about his own homework. I’m so glad that I can be around to help them
with this, even though it takes time (and patience).
October is the month of my Mum’s birthday and last
year we were very organised and bought this year’s present (tickets to go and
see Wicked and The Palace Theatre, Manchester) in advance. My Dad and brother aren’t big musical fans
but my husband likes to go as well as the boys.
My sister-in- law is mad about The Wizard of Oz – she even took part in
an Am Dram production last year as the Wicked Witch, so it was a great opportunity
for Mum to go with us and all her grandchildren (the other men just don’t know
what they are missing).
I didn’t know much about Wicked except that it was
connected to the Wizard of Oz. I
purposely didn’t find out much about it before we went because I wanted to
enjoy it without having any preconceptions.
It was a truly magical show telling the back-story
of the Wicked Witch of the West. The two
main characters (the Wicked Witch and the Good Fairy) really did carry the
show. It was fabulous and made me wish that I could dance, sing or act (sadly I
can’t do any of them!)
Half term has been taken up with our annual
holiday. I can hardly believe that we
haven’t been away properly this year, so we booked a week in Lanzarote. A chance to get some sunshine before coming
back to the mizzle and drizzle of winter.
We had a fabulous time – mostly spent lazily on sun loungers, although
there was a rather pathetic attempt to play tennis (least said about that the
better). The complex was quite small so it gave the boys for a chance for a bit
of freedom (while we could still keep an eye on them) and make new friends.
There was plenty of time to read, write and reflect
and I’ve really got my head around what I want to achieve over the next few
months. Now I’ve just got to act on it! We’ve had some brilliant family time
and I’m trying my best not to bump back down to earth too quickly despite being
straight back into a busy week, and all the washing and ironing!
