Tuesday 20 September 2016

Ten Random Things









Hello there.

Some randomness from here. My whole life is pretty random actually. Does that count as one?


  • There's been a change of colour around here. Everything becoming more muted in its' palette. Earthy tones are returning; those moss greens, bracken browns and slate greys of nature are more visible as the sharp yellows and bright blues retreat. There's the odd pop from the boats in the harbour, or the buckets and spades outside the post office. But the colours are easier on the eye, which pleases me very much.
  • I have bought a new jumper. It's grey. Of course it is. I always buy grey jumpers.
  • Olly starts Beavers on Wednesday. It's his first after school club. I've held him back from them for some reason. Alfie was already swimming, surfing, tag rugbying and judoing at his age. Sam eschewed clubs until he found drama in his teens. What cubs do your children go to? I kind of feel that you can do too many. Alfie certainly did, and he burned out. He does none now.
  • My friend Sarah wants me to start going to yoga with her. I kind of want to, but I also don't want to. To be frank, I'm petrified of breaking wind during dog head down. It's happened before, to my eternal shame.
  • We spent a lovely morning visiting St Michaels Mount on Sunday. Unfortunately the battery in my camera died, so the last picture above is the only evidence. Olly loved all the weapons in the armoury. Of course he did. CJs latest (and hilarious) post told of a boy and a desire for an axe. I can sympathise. I found Olly wielding the fish gutting knife this week....
  • I'm currently reading 'The Devil's Serpent' by Sarah Perry, after having a huge Anne Tyler fest over the summer. I read a really intriguing article about Ms Perry, and was desperate to get hold of the book. So hurrah for Kindle daily deals.
  • Olly seems to have settled in well into his new class. There is a definite shift towards more formal schooling, rather than the emotional and social aspects of development that his first two years concentrated on. We have spellings, reading books and maths sheets. It's all a bit too much, but he's taking it in his stride for now. I'm remaining very laid back about it all. I really don't have much truck with SATs, which is what it's all geared toward. I won't set any store by their outcome in the summer either. I feel dead rebellious in the playground, brandishing my devil may care attitude.
  • My phone is broken. Again.
  • It is still very mild in St Ives, and the flowers in the garden are thriving. I even have some late blooming Dahlias. I have tidied a little, but have given way to laziness in the face of such floral abundance.
  • It's my wedding anniversary tomorrow. Twenty years of marriage. I don't recognise that girl in the wedding photos.
Thank you for you lovely words after my last post of woe. It's really hard being a SAHM, who is no longer needed in quite the same way as before. Who feels rather left behind in the world of work, tech and all that that entails. Who wonders whether it was right to stay at home at all, and whether it would have been better all round to have combined work and the family. It's a weird time for me, I won't lie. I have found my confidence has been sapped over the years, along with my voice. But you all help to amplify, and put into perspective, and edge me closer to action. Aren't you lovely. Give yourselves a gold star.

Leanne xx



13 comments:

  1. You have me chortling as usual with your worries in yoga. Yep that's the sort of thing that happens to me too. Good on you to be rebellious in the playground. After many years of teaching Year 2, I don't hold much faith in SATs either. Fortunately Jersey chucked it out years ago but there is still continuous tracking and checking. Grrrr. What happened to creativity and spontaneity!!!
    How about enrolling in some sort of techi class to make you feel more in tune with the world. It's good to get out of the daily rut and be with new people. Who knows what may come of it. How's the book going, I'm still waiting for one of the first copies. Get one with it woman !!! B xxx

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  2. My boy was a Beaver many moons ago. I think it's nice to have a club or two, but also good to be able to hang out at home and just 'play', we don't get to do it for many years really xx

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  3. Hi Leanne. Everyone breaks wind in downward facing dog, in fact, you'd worry about your bowel health if you didn't :-) My younger ones do Beavers/Cubs, swimming and football. Too much if you ask me but not enough if you ask them. We have no SAT's here, and I am glad we don't. Children are under enough pressure already. Happy wedding anniversary! xx Christina

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  4. I can relate to that last paragraph. Tricky isn't it. Boys and their knives. Sigh. Thanks for the mention, you are very sweet. My dahlias are suffering from a sudden bout of basketball frenzy, being positioned as they are under the basket. My littlest boy does cubs, football and swimming. He likes the first two, and I like him to do swimming ready for when he falls in, which he is bound to. I hope you have a lovely wedding anniversary. CJ xx

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  5. I can understand your concern about yoga: I fret about the relaxing bit at the end, drifting off to sleep and snoring hideously (because it has been known...) Love your randomness! And happy anniversary to you and Mr P X

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  6. I have yoga later today and shall think of you whilst downward dogging! I fully sympathize with the last paragraph and, now that E has gone off to uni, the feeling is crescendoing. I don't want to rush into anything though and plan to do some decorating first before making any decisions. Enjoy your anniversary. xx

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  7. I love your random things. No weekday clubs here - I think I'd find it too hard combining working, nursery pick ups and having 'playdates' on my non work days. We just have swimming on a Sunday. SATs drive me bonkers. BigR mentioned them and I went off on a rant!! 😀 Poor child. Hope you had a fabulous anniversary. Keep in just bring you - you're fab xxxx

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  8. I've just read your previous post (and commented). I do know what you mean about being a sahm – even though I do bits of freelancing I have similar thoughts. I find yoga stops me from being a complete sloth and we ask our yoga teacher to open the windows :-) When my boys were Olly's age, they did swimming and Saturday football, that's about it. Sam xx PS Happy anniversary.

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  9. No clubs here now and few when they were younger. They found their own way with activities and amusements I guess. Grinning about the yoga. I'm sure you're not the only one! Xx

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  10. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary Leanne. I hope you had a lovely day. :) As always I enjoy your posts so much. Such a lovely mix of the ups and downs in life. And your beautiful pictures as well.

    Take care and have a great weekend there by the sea.♥

    Charlie
    xx

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  11. Happy Anniversary xxx

    scouting here for the boy, and drama. guides for the girl. they had swimming lessons until I was confident they knew how and then that was enough. some of their friends swim for an hour every morning before school and twice at weekends. madness........

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  12. Many congratulations on twenty years of marriage, that's quite an achievement these days, isn't it? My two did lots of out of school things, they both started beavers and rainbows as soon as they could and then moved on to cubs, brownies, scouts and guides. In addition to that, they both went to swimming classes until they'd achieved honours and Eleanor continued and competed for her club. Daniel went on to cricket and Eleanor had singing lessons and joined a youth theatre group. They both did other things in between all these things, but these are the things they really stuck with. To be honest, it was a bit of a pain having to be here, there and everywhere all the time but they enjoyed them and they made lots of friends out of school.

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  13. Lovely random life stuff. I like how you chat to us in these posts. I was sent to every after school club going and didn't enjoy it - now, the only thing I insist my two go to is weekly after school swimming lessons, even though I hate every wet changing room floor moment of it. The other nights are theirs, and they need that down time - the jump to y3 and y5 has been intense.

    Happy anniversary. Twenty years, wow! Big love to you. Xx

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