Well the countdown to the end of term is definitely dragging now, lots of schools seem to have broken up today, but we’re still at school until next Wednesday.  It’s been a quieter week as some clubs have already stopped and the most excruciating back pain stopped my normal frenetic pace for a few days.  A ‘quieter’ week still has included a Brownie adventure day on Saturday, two trips to the beach, a class assembly and school music concert (that’s 3 in the last month) gymnastics class, a training day in the county town for work, shopping trip to ‘big’ town for all the little things I need for the summer (shopping with my two is too stressful) and a busy time at work, if this was quiet can you imagine what my normal week looks like?

READ

At the weekend, I picked up the latest half price paperback in WHSmith.  This week’s book was We were Liars by E.Lockheart and although I didn’t realise it at the time it’s a Young Adult read.  Don’t let this put you off, it was brilliant and one of the best books I’ve read in a while. It’s the story of four teenagers on their annual summer holiday, there’s a great twist in it and although I had my suspicions I was so keen to know how it had happened it didn’t distract.

As a parent and teacher, I have also read loads of school reports this week.  I have to check the department’s reports at work for content, spelling and grammar and then I have read my own children’s reports brought home this week. I was impressed by my children’s reports, they were really personal and thoughtful and I was delighted how well the children have done at school this year.  My department have also written some stunning reports, I felt quite emotional reading them, I’m so proud of our students.

WATCHED

I’ve not been able to watch lots of the tennis but ensured I was in front of the television for the final.  I was so relaxed watching Murray win Wimbledon, the nerves and butterflies I often have disappeared as he seemed so in control of the match from the start.  It made it so much more enjoyable!

I also watched Little Man’s class assembly on dinosaurs, it was brilliant and the children were amazing, they had so many words of rhymes, prose and songs to memorise but performed faultlessly.  Little Miss was also really impressive in her music concert playing the ukulele, she has the confidence and poise to entertain and certainly makes sure all notice her enthusiasm!

MADE

I made a mushroom risotto this week which was delicious, it was  an adaption (OK perhaps a mash up) of various recipes I’ve used in the past to use up some of the ingredients in the fridge and a little bit of jiggling with ingredients I didn’t have although Phildelphia was a great alternative to Parmesan. Amazingly it all worked really well and was one of the tastiest risottos I’ve made.

WORE

A bit of a tenuous link here as its about wearing those sticky disposable heat pads.  I have no idea what I did to my back but I woke up in the early hours of Sat morning in excruciating pain from the upper / mid back.  It was so awful, by 8am I went to our local hospital as I couldn’t cope with the pain, every few minutes I was doubled over in agony, crying and screaming it was the worst pain I have ever experienced.  I got pain relief at the hospital and the diagnosis was that I had probably torn or twisted a back muscle some time before.  As a consequence I have worn lots of the heated muscle pads to try and relieve the pain, alongside prescribed pain relief medication and alternative remedies. I’m not sure how effective the disposable heat pads were but I have now bought a hot water bottle infused with some essential oils to do the same job as the heat pads, should be cheaper in the long run. I hardly slept at the weekend and Monday was really tough at work but as the week has progressed the pain has dramatically reduced.

HEARD

What a week in politics, it’s unbelievable what has happened since the referendum.  I listened to Cameron’s leaving speech live on the radio and was surprised by the things achieved under his premiership.  Interestingly he mentioned the rise in children moving from care to adoption and it is true that when he became PM both our children were in care, Little Miss had been so for more than two years and both children were adopted by us during his tenure.  I think work had already begun before his government but it has continued to develop a lot of adoption friendly policies, PPG, ASF, first choice guarantees for school places so I do have something positive to take from his premiership.  I also listened to Theresa May’s first speech, I think she could make a very interesting PM.

My quote of the week was from Little Miss, I had written my  Light box to reflect the changing of the guard and we were talking about Theresa May being a woman, she innocently asked so do boys and girls take it in turns to be PM? If only.  She was genuinely puzzled that May was only the second female PM.

AND LASTLY

I am so looking forward to Wednesday, oh the pleasure of not doing the school run and no more busy mornings, from Thursday its just planning our day on mood and weather.  Last year we made a bucket list for the summer holidays which was brilliant and it’s my intention to do this as our first holiday job.

I’m linking up with Morgana and her lovely contributors for this week’s Litle Loves http://coffeeworksleeprepeat.com