So, yet again, my wee blog has been neglected for two weeks. I give it a makeover and then I sod off and don't post.
I don't tend to write about my work much. I work with a family, and they deserve privacy, so I give them it. What I will say is that 99% of the time, I love my job. You know how people often say 'I don't want to go to work today'? That doesn't happen to me. I love my job so much that I am willing to travel 2 hours each way, three days a week. There is so much good to be found in working with kids. And not to toot my own horn, but I am good at it.
That said, the past couple of weeks have been hard. There have been days where i'd have happily just gone back to bed. Lots of factors have made them really challenging and dis-hearting, and I have let it squash me a bit. I am usually really on top of things, and if anything is chucked at me at the last minute, I just get on with it - my job is essential to be part of a family, and family life varies, so you deal with it.
For the past two weeks I have felt on the back foot for the whole time. It spilled into Friday, which means I spent Saturday doing Friday things (cleaning mostly), and now it's Sunday and work is tomorrow. I really don't like not feeling in control of and ready to deal with things, so I am trying very hard right now to make myself think positively and get ready to go into the next week feeling I'll be on top of things again.
So, that's the reason for the neglect. I have lots of nice things to blog about, but it's hard to do when you feel rubbish. Work and doubt got in the way. I really need to kick its arse and be a bit more positive. I'd quite like to wake up tomorrow wanting to go to work please. For now I'll just take sitting and reading, a bit of work on my sewing machine, and maybe later a bit of baking. It might just salvage this week.
At least spending the whole day cleaning yesterday means I can sit, and will wake up to a new week in a tidy, shiny flat. Tidy home, tidy mind?
One of the things I love about our life now is that other than a couple of times a year, Dave and I don't work weekends. Right up until we moved to Dundee, I had roughly one Sunday off every three weeks, and always worked on a Saturday.
Our weekends now fall into two catergories - completely jam packed, as last weekend was, or quite time weekends, like this one.
Note the size of the rocky road compared to the teapot...
Last weekend was of the jam-packed variety. Friday was lunch at Kimbles and a bit of window shopping with one of my very favourite girls, Mhairi and her wee baba on Friday, where I chose what I thought was a rocky road muffin for my puddding. It turned out to be a muffin-sized actual rocky road, and I ended up taking half of it home in my bag. Mhairi also very kindly gave me a coat that is now too big for her, having remembered that I am 'fully jazzed about grey' - her words, and so true! It is military style with a swooshy skirt and I LOVE IT.
Sgt Hughes at your service... (It looks better in person!)
Saturday was a visit to Dave's mum and her soon to be husband's house, where we had lovely stir fry and lots of tea and some wedding and politics and book chat, and from there, we went into Glasgow for our friend Dan's birthday, and what turned out to be a bigger night out than we had intended - drinking, dancing, mocking, eating, giving Dan hair bunches (he has long hair, my friends are silly), Dave photobombing spectacularly - he got IN FRONT of the people in the photo. Home via the kebab shop for a sarbeni, and with lots of silly chat. Oh, and Dave continually doing the 'circle pit' motion from this video (if you don't want to see an 8 year old girl's attempt at a hardcore song, don't click). Also, the boys from Dave's band said I looked like I was part of the French resistance in my coat - the red satchel probably added to the effect!
Dave, photbombing champion 2012 - Ali (the girl) ohas stretched her arm to take the photo and he still got in.
(photo used with permission of Alison Garrett)
Sunday was more family visiting, we went for Sunday lunch with my sister and brother in law and our wee nephew. Roast beef with all the trimmings, baby chat, playing peekaboo, reading stories, and again, a lot of tea.
This is the best lentil soup I have ever made TM
Fast forward a hectic, but for the most part good working week, and it is the weekend again. And it's really cold! This weekend was supposed to be very busy indeed, but a gig of Dave's was cancelled, and we were happy for the chance of having some time to lay low. On Friday I tidied and read and listened to the radio, caught up with blogs, made a big pot of lentil soup.
Book + cider = book being slightly more readable.
Saturday began with a lie-in a leisurely breakfast watching the snow, and continued with four hours of me being confused and trying to do a bit of a redesign of this wee blog. (I'm pretty pleased with it, but please do say if you have any ideas of how I could improve it). The redesign was interspersed with Twitter chat, swearwords, tea, chocolate, and slice and back pudding rolls. I tried VERY HARD to read my Blook Club book, which I am finding fairly mediocre at the moment - I am assured it gets better and it has very good reviews, so I will batter on (mostly because finishing the book is a rule of Blook Club!). Snowy days require hot chocolate, so that is how we finished the day.
Dear hot chocolate, get in my belly.
Sunday. Sunday is my favourite weekend day. another lie-in, bagels and sausages and proper pots of tea and coffee for breakfast. R4, An hour whiled away reading the gorgeous 91 magazine, beautifully put together by Caroline of Patchwork Harmony. The discover of a new (to us) band to love - Hail Seizures - punchy folk punk played fast and skilfully.
And then, the Sunday roast. This is essentially the Rachel Allen recipe that was on Red Online this week, with carrots instead of parsnips. We had half a bottle of about-to-go-off white wine, so I chucked a cup of it in, and covered the stuff with foil for the first 20 mins so it would steam the chicken and veg bit. It is tasty!!
Y to the UM
And soon, Sunday evening (can I just point out that it's 4pm and it's still light!!). Slow preparation for the working week, cooking and washing, savouring that last hours of quiet home time, reading, watching the rest of Birdsong, and a relatively early night.
