Project 52 2019 week 36

Week 36 of project 52 has been a week of back to school and work. There was a short week due to an inset day it’s been tough and really busy at work. N seems to have enjoyed school with routine getting back to normal.

Here is our week 36.

On Sunday I dragged N off to junior tennis hour at the local club. He didn’t want to go but once he was there he had a great time. He and and the other boy who have lessons, got to hit with two of the adults from the club. The rest of the day was just a relaxing one.

Monday N and his friend went to tennis camp so I spent my flexi day sorting out my banking. Sorting out all the bank changes needed for N and my own accounts, which have been outstanding tasks for the past year. I spent the afternoon in Starbucks writing a blog post and trying to get some video and photo editing done.

On Tuesday it was back to school and work. N has gone into year 4 although he’s still with the same teacher. Their class is still over capacity despite 2 kids moving away in the summer. They’ve got yet a new girl in their year and year 3 as well. It’s frustrating going back up over capacity again because our year have to work so much harder than other years to achieve weekly star and learner of the week, standing for year group reps etc. For swimming there’s 3 people too many for them all to go for the whole year. If those 2 hadn’t come in, and the year 5s who didn’t swim outside of school and still need to go swimming to reach 25 metres, then the whole year would have got a whole year of swimming. Damn being in a baby boom year.

On Wednesday N came home with the first homework of the year. It seems getting the Xbox could have been a good thing because he has to do his school reading before he can go on it. So far, no moaning about reading.

Thursday I nearly shed a tear. N told me he didn’t go to choir and didn’t want to go back. I’m gutted because he really enjoys singing, likes the choir mistress and enjoys being part of it and performing. He couldn’t tell me why he wanted to give up. I think he was led by 2 friends who joined after him deciding they didn’t want to go. One has a younger brother who started school and they wanted to look after him when he comes up to the big playground. He’s a pretty confident little boy and I’m not sure he needs help from them 5 days a week, choir is only one lunchtime. One of his friends still went to choir practice, so I might see if he can persuade N to go back with him. N refuses to learn an instrument and choir was my one hope for him getting that experience of being part of a team, learning and appreciating music of all sorts, and using his musicality.

On Friday his school shoes were brought home because he says they’re rubbing and leaving marks on top of his feet. He has insoles in but can’t take them out as the shoe insoles are rock hard. He was also back at tennis, although only 5 of them turned up. It was good to see them back playing again.

Saturday, I had a hair appointment. I tried a new hairdresser again, after the last one I tried lectured me on using high street normal shampoos and didn’t knock off the 15% off for new people. This salon is more pricy, but it’s a lovely salon, she’s great and I like my hair. So all good.

The plan was that I’d get N from the farm after my hair appointment and we’d go to the shoe shop. But the OH took him off farming. Luckily he rocked up at 10.30, so we headed to Stow to get the shoes checked out. Apart from the rubbing at the top of his foot, he now talks about little bumps on his toes, but they rechecked the fit and couldn’t find anything that should be rubbing. They said he’s worn them in well, but they didn’t have another different (non trainer) school shoe style in his size to try. So he’s stuck with them and hopefully it’s just the tongue that’s solid and that will give a little. I’ve put washing up liquid on the tongues, to help soften them.

I spent the rest of the day trying to make headway on clearing out the larder. I’ve cleared out one shelf, all the boxes and old appliances we don’t use, and lots of way out of date food. I also cleared out the window ledge and got rid of the spiders’ webs. I’ve still got the 2 shelves to do but it’s a lot better. It’s a good job the in laws are away for a couple of days – it means there’s enough room in the bins and recycling, otherwise I’d be struggling.

This week’s photo was taken on the first day back at school. N refused to stand and have his photo taken (shock, I actually remembered to do one), so all I got was him getting into the car.