Things moving fast.

This pile of lavender arrived today but yesterday was when I could most have used its soothing qualities...

Yesterday was one of those days where little challenges kept presenting themselves. First poor Dave who is currently overworked to the point of ludicrousness due to not only being a teacher of children aged 11 - 18, but also being a teacher of teachers (known as an AST - one of the top 2% in the country she boasts proudly) which involves even more paperwork and travelling to other schools around the county to boot. On top of this he is also heavily involved in whole-school policies as part of the senior management team dealing with behaviour (!) and a number of other areas. Add to this the fact that this year he is doing his Head-ship training, a highly intensive and stressful course which only 5 people in the county have been accepted for and you kind of get the picture. Sleepless nights are many as the challenges of what is effectively the equivalent of holding down four seperate and demanding jobs are beginning to take their toll on my poor chap; he leaves home by 6.30 am to drive the hour and a quarter journey and frequently isn't home till after 7 because of meetings which I think is a bit more than most people could do with. Yesterday he rang to tell me that OFSTED - school inspectors - had rung to say they would be coming in to the school on Monday next for two days and would be only in his department!!!! Talk about the straw that broke the camel's back.

So why is it that as I blearily looked over the covers this morning I saw him clutching a bag containg a sugar thermometer, essential oils and jojoba oil? Well, he cares so much about these kids who so often get labelled by lousy teachers as 'problem' or 'bad types' that he is running a lunchtime session teaching them to mix bath lotions - sounds crazy? Yes when you consider he also has an hour's meeting straight after with the Head and an after school meeting with someone else as well as a full day's teaching; no when you think of what it would have meant as a child, a not always easy teenager, to have someone in authority choose to spend their free time doing something fun with you just because they wanted to. I think he's a star and I love him to bits!

Goodness, that ws a bit of an offload there and probably more than any of you wanted/needed to know, but I feel better for it.

On to other things... a little bit of knitting I started on Sunday for Isabella.






It will be a jacket of soft cotton with a little collar and I have to say that as stress relief knitting can't be beaten! When I have things to mull over I find there are several activities that help - gardening is great, particularly a bit of mindless weeding where I can let my thoughts drift as I work the soil; sewing is good though I do find I have to concentrate more these days as it is not me I am making things for; and then there is knitting which sees me dreamily working the stitches in a steady fashion when I have nothing much to think about, and conversely when I am feeling a little stressed (or better still am really cross over something) sees my fingers flying and the rows growing at an alarming rate! It's a great stress-buster really.


Other good things happening? Well, I completely forgot to post these pictures of something I won through another blog giveaway. This time the blog was called Raindrops on Roses and I won this...







The soap smells of rose geranium and is beautiful, while the bath crumble is a mix of rose milk and oatmeal. I am planning a long soak in the bath for Dave and I tonight so this will be perfect along with a glass of the necessary and some soothing candlelight so thank you x


And a funny - well to me anyway - thing that happened yesterday... quite often when I come out of the front entrance of my sewing room which leads through our dilapidated garage onto a drive, there is a man waiting to collect his teenage daughter from the school. Obviously this only happens around 3pm, but invariably this is when I realise I should be collecting my own children from another school and sort of erupt through the doors scaring the poor man half to death. Lately I have noticed he stands half facing the door, I imagine to try to prepare for my entrance and to avoid nearly dropping to his knees in shock! Yesterday as we all know, the weather was a challenge in itself. I was clutching a box full of Babbit legs, arms, bodies and ears intending to work on them in the evening while I watched some rubbish with the children. I raced through the door and there he was, smile in place as the both of us rolled our eyes at the furious winds in that way peculiar to the Britishzx when a particularly spiteful gust of wind grabbed two Babbit's legs and took them swirling high into the air, twisting them this way and that before stealing them away forever. The man looked at them in wonder then looked at me.

"Babbits," I said.
"Yeah, bugger innit?" he replied.


Well, I thought it was funny...

Have a good day xx