There are some weeks when there is plenty to write about and others where I do my entries fortnightly as there is less. Our life recently has consisted of work, school meetings and the humdrum of everyday life. We’ve done proper adulting on Sunday afternoons, and have sorted our finances and pensions, written a will and researched and renewed insurance policies. It may not be exciting but at least its given us clarity and peace of mind. Also it seems all our household insurances and plans, and car servicing, MOTs and insurance are due at a similar time, so our work is now done for another year.

Life is just ticking over, we are planning on transforming the children’s playroom to a more adult type of snug for them, so I have been looking at possible colours and home furnishings. We need to wait for the roof repair before we can proceed further. I have also been getting very creative at school so have been trying a few arts and crafts at home first. There are a small amount of stones in our garden which may have been accidentally spray painted white and silver with my experiments! I have continued with my weekly parkruns and am delighted to be running my fastest 5ks of the year. In pure coincidence, I was 80th on my 80th parkrun, of which I liked the symmetry.

My highlight of the fortnight was my first ever visit to a Literary festival to see the poet, Lemn Sissay. I follow Lemn on social media and have read his previous anthologies and his memoir, My Name is Why. I recommend this book to everyone, it is a tough read, but contains threads of hope. When I saw Lemn was appearing locally, I really wanted to go and see him, so got two tickets for me and my daughter. I wanted her to see someone who had come out of the care system and had been able to follow their passion to make a successful career. I wanted her to see a positive story. The timing could not have been better as she had had a really difficult week at school. The evening really was perfect, we went over early and enjoyed a girlie dinner date where we were able to talk honestly and openly about the week. Lemn was amazing in his sell-out session, we were all enthralled by him, he was very witty, thoughtful and entertaining. Halfway through the evening, my daughter just turned around and said I love this man and when he read a very poignant poem on being placed into care, she whispered ‘that hit hard’ I am so pleased that we got to see Lemn, in the words of Gretchen Rubin, live the bigger life.