That's my boy!

It's all about the boy this week making me cheerful, or rather his very first school report and parents evening this week. 

The pupil report came end of last week, which we were not expecting, but was a very pleasant surprise. Not a report card, as it was back in my day, but a six page document, split into the different 'curricular areas' which now form the new 'Curriculum for Excellence' in Scotland. Each area is marked 'Developing' (beginning to make progress), 'Consolidating' (breadth of learning across many areas), or 'Secure' (achieve breadth of learning across all areas and more forward to more challenging learning).

Cheerful highlights include:

B achieved 'secure' in all almost all curricular areas.

His confidence to contribute in class has significantly increased over the year.

His grasp of certain ideas or learnings is such that he is one of a handful of pupils the teacher asks to help her explain things  to other pupils, to boost his confidence and to keep him challenged.

He got 100% attendance (up to the point of writing the report, anyway! still got a good chunk of term left!). We'll gloss over the few times we've been a few minutes late and had to go in the front door.

The teacher said she couldn't really find anything of great worry to report to us and that she found him an articulate, pleasant member of the class. 

Long may that continue! The fact that he "understands and respects the rules and boundaries in school", but not always at home... meh, we're working on that one! 

Now obviously, being P1, it's just the start of a very long educational journey, but it's fantastic to hear how well he is doing, not just in the learning itself but in his social and emotional development too.

And he's very happy with his special purchase for a job well done.

. 

Roll on next year!

What's making you cheerful this week?

Back in the writing groove

I'm feeling very psyched right now.

Can I say psyched? It sounds very american-football-esque. Maybe I should go with 'energised'. No, that sounds like I've just come out of a management team-building session... ok stick with psyched.

I'm psyched, for want of a better word, after my evening class last night.

Firstly, it's a blinkin' novelty for me to be able to get out of the house of an evening midweek. Without B's dad around any longer to take up the child-minding slack, I've come to accept that midweeks are for browsing the blogosphere or catching up on ER on Sky+ (I've only got 18 episodes to get through...).
 

(Note to self: 

may be watching too much ER. 

Had 'odd' dream about ginger-haired doctor Archie Morris

last night. Not Kovac or Carter. Archie Morris. Hm.)

[image credit: nbc.com]

But B's dad and I managed to agree that when he comes up to our house to see B on a Wednesday, I can get out of the house for a couple of hours to do something for me. It's taken almost a year to find something I want to do which is on a Wednesday and doesn't finish too late (B's dad chose to move a bus and a train journey away and doesn't have a car and I can't be bothered with the "i'll miss the train" moaning every week...).

I've been really wanting to start writing again. I started about 3 years ago, did an intensive summer course to get the 'creative juices' flowing, and carried on for about 6 months. Then, all hell broke loose in my life... but that story's for another day (or lifetime).

Needless to say, I may have collected a load of great story ideas, but my head has not been in the right space to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) until recently. Starting the blog was the first step back on the writing path.

And so the 10 week writing course run by the university has come at just the right time. I may even have been a little too keen, as I turned up at the class a whole week earlier than I should have. D'oh!

Two weeks in, I'm amazed at how easy it has been to get back into the writing groove. Within the confines and guidance of the class, at least. I was so scared to start writing again, my confidence having scarpered long ago. But the class is just the kick up the wotsit that I need to get going again and I'm damned if I'm going to give up this time. We also have a bit of 'homework' to do each week. It's been a looong time since I had homework. I never thought I'd say that I'm looking forward to doing it!

[imagecredit: writersbreak.com]



I might even have a stab at the odd Three Word Wednesday or another writing bloghop when I'm feeling bit more confident.

p.s. to self: I will return to this post every so often if I'm feeling a bit of writer's block, may be good therapy.

Shame on me?

Wow i've been very neglectful of the blogosphere of late. It's been nearly two weeks since i last posted, or did much else online, which has taken me by surprise this morning.

There's been some sort of fog surrounding me, killing any concentration or motivation i have had for anything much really. Not just for blogging, but for anything that needs any more effort than vegging on the couch of an evening. Bit of a strange one really, don't know why the fog has descended, but I have come to the conclusion I'll just have to ride it out.

As the days have passed, I was beginning to get myself stressed out for not keeping up my blogging duties and posting, reading, or commenting on other blogs. That's what I 'ought' to be doing, isn't it, as a blogger? But then I thought, if it is making me feel duty-bound to do it, even when my heart is temporarily just not in it for whatever reason, it strips all the fun and enjoyment out of it - and if it's no fun, I ain't going to keep it up for long, am I?

The fact that I'm posting this, perhaps there is a chink of sunlight burning through the fog, but it's not lifted completely just yet, so I'll slink off again now and maybe I'll feel I have something I think worth blogging about soon.

A job? For me?

Yes, an actual job. Someone has offered me an actual paid job.

Woo Hoo!!

Now, it's not The Job, the one which will save me from the financial hole I'm rushing towards. But it WILL slow the rushing.

It's also not going to quite give me the fresh new challenges I'm looking for or get me completely away from what i was doing before (which is what i want), but it WILL give me fantastic experience in the sector I want to get into, it WILL get me meeting people and organisations which I hope will open up new opportunities a bit further down the road.

It's only 1 day a week, so it'll mean that I am not stressing myself stupid about fitting school-runs in with getting to work and back again.

And I hope, I really hope, it will boost my dwindling confidence, so I feel like I am worthy of being paid to work again.

So it's all good. I can't give up the job search quite yet, but it's a long-awaited small step in the right direction.

Yeh me!