This is the week before we return to school and work and I am flabbergasted!

I cannot believe where all the time has gone. My only consolation is the fact that I shall be down to part-time hours which may help for me to manage this blog and other projects when I am not in school but I am nonetheless a little disappointed at myself that I have not been able to be online, updating this for the last 6 weeks.

Thats said, what I have managed to achieve during the last few weeks was a major catch-up in terms of DIY projects. Project number one was my son’s bedroom. My little hero’s bedroom is nearly completed. I had repainted the spare room to encourage this little man that my bedroom is not shared, that no toys are allowed in mommy’s room…. that it is actually mommy’s room and not his. The two-ing and fro-ing finally sunk in for him when he saw his Thomas the Tank engine theme room.

I now have to convince him that the room is not an additional play area to ‘his’ bedroom and that it is actually ‘OK’ to sleep in said room.

Project number two was to regain control of the garden.

It is a sad fact of life that a teacher tends to have a jungle for a garden during term time. During the breaks I can only devote a couple of days tops in order to tame the jungle. For this summer break I was determined to go all out and recreate an area where I can detox from working a 40+ hour week. I have now got a lawn, a plum tree with two whopping big plums, an apple tree teeming with so many apples due to the fact that it was watered regularly. I have been able to discover what is at the bottom of my pond (I was able to find the pond again under all the bramble and weeds). So, I am pleased to have sacrificed these precious waking hours to something where the kids and myself can once again enjoy outside.

Project number three this summer break was an unexpected one. Two weeks into the summer break, I had to take my little one for a check up at the local hospital. It’s been nine months since he had quite a big operation last year. Needless to say we were both not looking forward to it at all. I was told that they had to operate again. To say that my world nearly collapsed around me was an understatement. I had to prepare both my son and myself that he was going to have to go under the knife again in only a couple of weeks time. Obviously I didn’t put it to him like that but for a four year old, he knew that he was going to have to endure something which was really tough for him yet again.

This final task has been the hardest if I am completely honest. This was his third operation and to witness his floods of tears as I carried him to the operating theatre was extremely hard. You see, us moms (and dads), have to put such a positive encouraging face on while our children are in so much pain while we ourselves wish above all else that we could have taken their place 10 times over. He went to sleep in my arms and the operation took place. His recovery has been fantastic in terms of no pain, praise God. As to the success of the operation? I am not as certain. I will need to phone the hospital today as post op, the area is not doing what it ought to be doing.

So I guess having a child recovering from an operation again has me back at a cross-roads career wise. My current employers have made it quite clear that they do not like parent employees having to take too much time off work for a sick child. Being a supply teacher gave me this flexibility but I lacked the stability of a permanent job. Do I have stability but a crappy attendance record due to being a parent or do I gamble to the vocation which is sporadic in terms of continuous work but has the flexibility to drop everything and be a parent? This should be an easy decision to make but I am struggling.

I have one week to basically see how my son recovers and then assess whether there may have to be a meeting with my employers next week where I will need to see what they are prepared to do in the event that I have to take time off work as a result of this latest operation not working.

In all of this the Lord is my strength.