Reality check. The rushed version. in Summertime, and the living is easy... 2015

WHERE: I’m in the bath but I don’t have a massive amount time. I’ve also made the water a little on the cool side, accidentally, so I’m not sure how long I want to be in here!

WEARING: I usually bathe in full wedding attire, including a fascinator complete with live butterflies.

FITNESS UPDATE: I can run five miles! After a dodgy start to running at Easter in which I didn’t give my body enough time to recover, my physio manipulated my muscles, told me off and started me off again, this time only twice a week. I’m still sticking to his running schedule and will be running six miles on Monday..! If you’d told me, during the Easter holidays, that I’d be running six miles in June, I wouldn’t have believed you! One of the positives is that the weight I put on during my last week at the old school (I was eating school lunches to save money) plus what else added on afterwards as I was carb craving again and eating lots of toast, has come off. I’m down 8lbs! I would be happy to lose another 3 or 4lbs, then I’ll have to change my eating somehow! I’m not really sure what to add though, as I’m rarely hungry!

IN THE NEWS: ugh. News. Man shoots people in ‘black’ church, someone else burns another ‘black’church. Why have we created this society where there are black churches and white churches? How can we (humanity) be so scared of what is different that we feel a need to stay away from it, create our own society in which we can believe we are the only race?

On a lighter note, in Brazil a man parked in a disabled spot without a disabled badge and someone covered his car in blue and white post its. Depicting the disabled parking space sign on his car. I do have the mild, niggling worry, that he had a hidden disability or his parking need wasn’t just a selfish one, but I haven’t read the article either.

READING: I just had a need for something that I knew would make me smile and so I pulled Chris Stewart out of the bookcase. Poor bloke, it’s a tough life when one is wedged in between the books. Of course I started with Driving Over Lemons and then moved on to Parrot in the Pepper Tree but haven’t read Almond Blossom Appreciation Society because I don’t own it! I do remember that it didn’t have the gentle naivety of the first two though.

ACTIVITIES TODAY: today I shall get out of the bath, get the girls up (cuddle Talaia a lot as she came back from a two night residential trip yesterday which involved two very late nights. She’s absolutely shattered!), make breakfast and lunch, get shoes on, Nag the girls, leave the house and walk to school, gently convince Talaia to go into her classroom (transitional issues), do my early morning phonics group, literacy with a child who needs her ideas scribing and then break. I’m on a social support intervention at this point. I then do maths with a very bright child who is very good at maths but needs to be kept calm and on topic otherwise the child just wanders around the room, chats, leaves the room etc leaving the teacher with the need to focus on the child too much. Then I eat my lunch as quickly as possible before going out onto the school field to Assist the Supervision during Midday. I will tell one child to stop throwing the safety rubber from under the jungle gym, I will remind others that play fights shouldn’t involve actually hurting others, I will watch various dance routines made up by groups of kids. Then I will scour the bushes to ensure that everyone has returned to class. Friday is my handwriting intervention. I will start with warm ups (look up handwriting warm ups on YouTube, they’re fab!) And remind the kids how to sit properly for writing (both feet on the floor, chair pulled in, book at a slight angle, non writing hand holding book and pen in a loose grip. After the last group has finished I will start my marking in Lila’s classroom as that is my base and stop once Lila is ready to go home. I will pack my things away, find Talaia who will be reading in her classroom’s book corner. She will be unwilling to leave (transitional issues), but we’ll get out. We’ll walk home, Talaia will moan and flop while Lila will ask to watch telly and I’ll cave in because I want to finish my marking and the planning for next week’s handwriting intervention.... And Friday night is usually beer night :-)

THINKING ABOUT: how Talaia will cope with the day. She doesn’t cope well with lack of sleep, I feel today would be far better spent at home. She had also been under threat to lose school trips based on behaviour so she has kept it together (mostly, she lost a theatre trip a couple of weeks ago). But now she has no trips to motivate her and she’s knackered…

PLANNING: getting out of the bath!