Wow what a week. I am grateful that on this stormy Sunday afternoon I can finally relax, breathe and reflect on an eventful week.

At present we are trying to find our son a special school placement and it is the most stressful and unpleasant experience. It’s a simple situation, everyone agrees he needs specialist support and we would like him to attend our local state Special Needs school. However the process is hell. We now have a complaint lodged with the government ombudsman and we have been given appeal to tribunal. This is what I spend most of my free time doing and it is genuinely making me quite poorly. I spent a couple of evenings on it this week when I really needed to relax.

Despite the stress caused by the above I was happy to get my Uni result and I have a good pass for my module 1, yippee. I’m now halfway to my qualification. I did feel my result was a little overshadowed by some bad news we had about the school placement and I still don’t think I’ve had chance to feel pleased with myself.

However here are some of the things from a very busy week which definitely seemed longer than 7 days!

I read …

Lots of people have recommended The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy and I found myself listening to the author talk about his book on radio 4 last week. He was so lovely that I popped into the local bookshop for a copy. It is so beautiful and what I can only describe as an heirloom book with such wise words and delightful illustrations. I read the page above on Tuesday when I had really struggled to get up in the morning. I genuinely felt sick with the stress of the school place but this gave me a little hope.

I watched …

No doubt about the watch this week as Little Miss starred in her first secondary school production Fame. It was brilliant, a little gritty in places but what a show with such amazing talent. We all saw it but on different performances. Little Man saw the dress rehearsal put on for all the town’s Year 5s and 6s, this was the child friendly version. I saw it with my parents and Mr S saw it with his dad, sister and brother in law. With the dress rehearsal it was five performances in total and three late nights but Little Miss has been brilliant throughout and loved being part of such a special event.

I listened …

Two of my favourite podcasts had interviews with Marian Keyes this week. I love listening to Marian Keyes’ beautiful Irish lilt as she talks with such honesty and wit. Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail was poignant and a thoughtful listen, this is a great podcast and the interviews are always very telling. Marian Keyes features prominently this week as her new book was published and I am so excited to have a signed copy as a belated Christmas present. It’s my first ever signed book and one to treasure. Marian has been there all through my adult life, I’ve read all her books but love her in Twitter too, I’m definitely a fan girl!

I wore …

This week I treated myself to a skirt I found on the White Stuff website. During no spend January I kept it on my wish list and with a special offer I finally bought it in February. The skirt is amazing, it’s one of those items you just put on and feels so right, so you. It’s a perfect potter around town outfit and with thick black tights and a bright red jumper and pumps, I felt like skipping rather than walking, it brought me that much joy!

I made …

I’m afraid it’s a tenuous link this week as I’ve been a bit busy to make anything new. However pesto seems to have been my secret ingredient in a couple of dinners this week. One night I needed a super quick tea and tossed together a few vegetables, pesto and whole wheat pasta for a delicious meal. I also added it to the stock for a casserole which worked well too.

Happy new week.