Busy Buzzy Bee

It's been a really busy time lately, haven't had anywhere near my usual quota of time to waste on the internet :)  This is down to a few different factors all combining at the same time.

1) Leilani's school is 1 mile away.  Which doesn't seem much, but I try and walk it wherever possible.  This means 4 miles a day and, if I walk each trip, I end up walking 20 miles in a week.  (Although the last 2 weeks Adam has dropped us off in the morning on his way to the gym so it's only been 3 miles a day).  So one way on my own I can usually do in 20 mins.  But 2/4 trips is with Leilani so it's slower, then there's the time of getting her in and sorted, a little wander through town (with obligatory trip to Heron* with Sandy and Angie), get a few groceries and head home and all in all it takes an hour and a half from when I leave the house to when I get back. Sometimes longer.  So just by Lani starting back at school I've lost 3 hours of time at home.

2)  I'm getting my head in to the new routine of back to school.  This in itself takes some adjustment from holiday mode of "aaah, I'll just do it whenever..."  So my to do list of the normal housework chores just seem to take longer to get through because I'm still thinking I've got loads of time and not many constraints on it, which is of course wrong and the sooner my brain figures that out the better.

3)  My week to view diary ran out.  Being a teacher (and having an irrational love of stationary) I usually have a week to view diary to plan my things to do that runs according to the academic year, so it ran out in the holidays.  This is the first time in 8 years I won't automatically be given a lovely new Espo (school stationary company) diary.
But, feeling the withdrawal symptoms, I sent a facebook message to Andy (the head of maths at my old school) to see if there were any spare knocking about that I could pinch.  There almost always are one or two that are left over, despite the "right" amount being ordered way back when the numbers were worked out.  I wasn't disappointed and will be going in to get one some time next week and will be able to get my brain (which incidentally is very much a visual learner and does much better when it sees things written down) back in gear.

4)  I have started teaching early morning seminary.  This makes my head spin, in all ways possible.  I get up at 5.50am, there's head spin number 1.  Sooooo hard and I spend a lot of evenings feeling more than a little bit dazed.  During the day I need to prepare the next one, which will take around an hour, and until it's done it's always nagging at the back of my mind.  And the lessons go into quite a lot of depth, which uses up my limited daily supply of mental faculties.

So when I come to having a little bit of free time in the evening I rarely have my wits about me enough to make any sense on a blog post.

*for those who don't know, Heron is the best shop in Louth (and some other northern places).  It is not possible to walk past Heron.  Whether you think you need anything or not you must go in and look anyway.  It has lots of freezer stuff and sells things that are near their use by date very cheaply.  Yesterday I got a pack of 18 Petit Filous for 35p which is now in our freezer ready to be brought out for Lani's lunches when the Froobs run out that I bought a couple of weeks ago (3 packs of 9 for £1 and are also excellent in the freezer).