Hello, loyal email and WordPress followers! Thank you for still being here. I have much to report, as you can probably imagine, but for now I thought it was time for a little life update.

Five weeks ago, after nine years at home with bumps, babies and preschoolers; I graduated. By which I mean that our youngest child ran skipping confidently into the classroom and I ran skipping excitedly back to an empty house! Was it sad? Not really – the school is fantastic, and the Youngest loves it as much as the others. Was it emotional? Yes, in the sense that I always lament a finished chapter, even whilst enjoying the next. Was I nostalgic? You betcha! Did I feel lost? Not a  chance!

In social terms, graduating to this next stage of Mum Life basically means going from:

“Oh, you’ve got your hands full there!”

To:

“Gosh, I bet you don’t know what to do with yourself now!”

Which is just flippin’ hilarious really, isn’t it?!

Imagine suddenly having two empty hands, space to think, and an empty house that stays clean a whole two hours after you’ve tidied it?! Imagine having your nerves intact and your wits about you for six whole hours a day… and not knowing what to do with it?! That’s got to be a work of fiction, right?

Maybe I’m just very fortunate. I never did allow full time Motherhood to become my whole identity, even whilst thoroughly “making the most of it“. I worked through the hormones, the Mum-guilt, the Mumxiety, the identity crises, and the lockdowns; the highs, the lows, the joys and the blows, with enough voluntary side-hussling to keep my self alive. Just. Thus, with a fair bit of reflective processing, I think I’ve actually emerged from this particular cocoon with the sticky wings of a perfectly capable butterfly!

In the past few weeks – between school hours-  I have:

– Sorted, tidied and steam cleaned my entire house, (I mean it doesn’t stay that way for long, but at least I know it’s done!)

– Bought, built, dismantled, rebuilt and shifted all of the kids’ furniture to create three separate bedrooms across two rooms…

– Bought a second hand desk and organised the 3 boxes of “random crap” underneath my bed into something resembling a study…

– Officially closed down our Ukrainian sponsorship (more on this later!)

– Massively overthought how to teach my older kids about sex (again, more on this later!)

– Written an extra long blog about another long blog, and joined a Flash Fiction community…

– Entered my first creative writing competition!

– Treated the mould in our bathroom and redecorated it…

– Attended a two day Christian leadership conference with my husband- and without a nappy bag!

– Continued to run two toddler groups and volunteer at a community church plant; as well as continuing to manage and coordinate our branch of a national charity, in which we provide 1:1 mentoring to 9 children across 3 primary schools. (Ahem.)

– And yes… I have also spent several hours on Facetime to Australia, and even enjoyed a few cheeky naps! (I mean, I am yet to join a gym, read a novel, get a haircut, or update a photo album, but hey… a girl can’t have everything! Yet...)

Anyway. All of this shameless non-humble bragging to say that… Yes! Whilst I have loved and greatly appreciated every opportunity to watch my babies grow, I am also incredibly grateful for this new phase of life! The children themselves are thriving, Husband is doing well, and as for me? I am knowingly blessed, satisfied, busy, and much, much more …

But the thing that I am not,

Nor can I ever imagine being,

Is- not even a little bit–

… BORED!

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Thanks for reading. Much, much love to you and whatever phase of life you’re working through!

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“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3: 23