Earlier in October, Ross was scheduled to go away to New York for work. This was the first time I’d been left on my own without extra help in the form of my Dad and/or Julie. It was decided that if I felt I needed help, I could ask some of my local friends. I needed to see if I could cope with the kids on my own. I only have a finite amount of energy, and I have to work out how to use that energy. A lady called Christine Miserandino wrote a great post on her blog in which she described The Spoon Theory. It’s very interesting, and explains how it feels to live day to day with a condition which stops you living the kind of life you want to live - stopping you from living it to the full.

So, Ross went to Heathrow to start his long journey to The States on the Monday afternoon, and he was due to get back early Friday morning. We have to apply for her secondary school place by the end of October, and there was an open day at out local high school which he needed to be at.

If I walk to school, it’s a mile each way, and doing that twice a day pretty much uses up all my energy, all my spoons. It means I can’t cook tea, I can’t take them to clubs or lessons. It was not an option to walk them whilst he was away. Thankfully, the school have been great and I’m able to park in the school grounds when I take them and drop them off. Imy likes to walk into school with a friend most of the time, but on Tuesday’s she comes in with us. So, on Tuesday morning, we all drove to school, and I gave myself a pat on the back for getting there on time.

By Wednesday, I was starting to need flag and I had to call in a few favours. One was to collect them from school, and another to bring Imy home from Street Dance. I had hoped to go to choir, but despite having a few people offer to look after the kids, there were no spoons left. I couldn’t do it.

We got through the week, but I was exhausted. And that was despite the fact that the kids were at school for most of the day!

So when Ross was due to go away at half term, we knew I wasn’t going to be able to cope, so we decamped up to my Dad’s and Grandma Julie’s house. We had a lovely time. Ross drove us up there on the Saturday, he went to Brussels on Tuesday and then he came back on the Thursday. My Dad was able to take the strain with the kids, they were able run off their energy on the beach. Imy and Felix spent time with their cousins Oscar and Elsie, I made my Christmas cake and we spent time with my family.

Jx

p.s. Sometimes I don’t have time to write a full on blog post, so I’ve set up a Facebook page - @TeamLawley Big Lump and The Lawley’s which the new blog posts will be shared on, as well as other mutterings and musings. Give it a ‘Thumbs Up’ so you keep up to date with everything.