Tick Tock

I nearly didn't use this photo, I was looking for a clock I hadn't used before and this one seemed ideal. It lives above a bookshelf in the entrance of my house. Hasn't worked for years, but looks good (I thought!). It was only when I stood on top of our coffer to take a photo of it that I discovered how covered in dust it was - utterly disgusting.

Obviously I could have taken it down and cleaned it and put it back up before taking a photo - however that's clearly not the approach I decided to take.

Difficult week for son this week, his final week in junior school. It's been a rubbish year for all the kids in his year as a lot of it has been home schooling. He's missed out on so much - PGL (don't know what it means, but son says it's 'parents get lost') when the kids go away for a week without the parents, he's missed out on his class having the leads in the school play, being a senior prefect and the patina parade they do for those moving on in Lewes where he goes to school. 

He's not even going to have a proper school photo. That said his school have decided to give it a go by taking photos of each bubble and 'stitching' them together. In it's own funny way it's a piece of their history.

One benefit of the crazy few months is that we're slowly setting up a mum's social media group for senior school, inviting people as we find out who they are. The kids have been able to get together already on Zoom to do a quiz and get to know each other (amazing amount of hard work done by some mothers who are far better than me!). I suspect that none of this would have happened if we hadn't had home schooling and lots of mothers who usually have high powered jobs who are on furlough and looking to use their skills wherever they can to keep some level of sanity.

We've decided to give him a special event this weekend. We're going to have a family party and he'll be the guest of honour (bit like a birthday, without the birthday bit!). Cake for pudding and everything. After that we'll go out and light some sparklers I've got left over from bonfire night - try to find a venue that will give him a memory. Finally we've got him an echo dot that's also an alarm clock as a present. Seemed like a good idea for somebody that's got a whole load of new responsibilities like setting an alarm, doing proper homework and generally becoming a teenager.

He's really sad about getting older - I genuinely think he'd like to do a Peter Pan and become a lost boy - although I fear he's already too late. He's definitely on the first steps to adulthood. Last night we started recording his voice - in preparation for when it breaks. I'm convinced there have been a few squeaks recently. He wants to remember what he sounded like when he was younger - so he's going to record a diary over the summer - a message to his older self.

If you're a mum I don't even need to explain how many pieces by heart is breaking into - not just because of the fun he's missing out on - but that my baby isn't a baby any more.

On a positive note - I have found that with every year of his life there's always something positive that comes out of it. Something that makes it better than the year before. So I'm officially bucking myself up and looking forward to discovering what that is. Onwards and upwards.