Oh, February, how much Difference you have brought into our lives!?
What’s Difference Day all about? Check out here to find out 
February has been a difficult month, much has been going on, and yet it seems that not a lot has happened. I have found blogging difficult, in fat, many days have been difficult, and I really didn’t think I would be able to do this post as I didn’t think there was anything that I could tell you about.
At the start of this month Miss 5 started school. This is something very new and very different for us. The transition has gone smoothly and she is loving it. Each day she comes home and she wants to DO things outside, play catch, play football or ride on her scooter. With the lifting of the water restrictions we have seen something I never expected to see again – a child running through a sprinkler in the backyard! It has been amazing to see the new interests and enthusiasm for simply, outdoor entertainment in Miss 5. I’m not sure what has brought it on, but it is getting all of us up and outside
In relation to Miss 5′s school, they run a breakfast club three mornings a week for those who may not be able to have breakfast at home due to having to leave home early or perhaps for financial reasons. Last week we donated some breakfast spreads to the club as our monthly “MAKE a difference” project, and I hope we can contribute something regularly. Miss 5 did have some issue with this, partly because she will not be attending the breakfast club, so I did have to take it to the club room myself, but hopefully she will become more involved over time.
The big change for me with Miss 5 going to school has been the need to look for a job. This has not been a positive experience for me. I have never thought of myself as “unemployed” before, I have only ever been “out of work” by choice. I have had two opportunities for work, but I have to weigh up the opportunity against the cost. What am I willing to give up to work? I nearly took a job which would have seen me underselling myself because I do not like the alternative of putting Miss 5 into care from early in the morning until the evening. How can families maintain their relationships when they never see each other? I am struggling with this a lot at the moment, and if there are any working mums out there reading this, please let me know how you manage it.
It was my birthday at the start of the month. I tried to keep it quiet as birthdays never turn out how I think and I would just rather it went away. This year, however, Dadda & Miss 5 made me breakfast in bed and we went out for a lovely lunch and decided to GO the afternoon at Heronswood. It was a lovely day, overcast but warm (it did rain later), and I took loads of photos of the flowers. Miss 5 was thrilled when she stumbled across a blue tongue lizard in one of the flower beds. She promptly announced that its name was bubbles and we kept an eye out for it for the rest of the afternoon.
We had hoped to have lunch at Heronswood, but it was booked out. We did stop and have some flourless orange “birthday”cake, which was very delicious.
For some reason, what should have been the easiest part of our Difference challenge is turning out to be the hardest. I have stopped looking to the exotic fruits and vegetables in the shops and have been just trying to focus on what Miss 5 will eat. This goes for all meals. Breakfast is proving hard as she won’t eat a lot of cereals and never has toast. I was kind of surprised this last weekend when she asked me what an omlette was. I told her and she replied “I don’t want mushroom in it” , (she’s developed an aversion to mushroom, except in carbonara of course). I made an omlette, with ham and cheese, shared it between the two of us and she LOVED it! Yay! Another breakfast/lazy lunch or dinner option! A dish that covers all three meal breaks!
I’m really hoping that March sees us getting used to the new normal, and that I will be blogging more. I miss blogging, it’s one of my special places.
For now, I want to know what you have been doing differently Add your link to the widget below.
Our school has a breakfast club two mornings each week. Brekky Burra. But everyone is welcome. Is yours not that way? We try to get to school early on Brekky Burra days so that my kids can join in. And because we don’t really need it, I just make a contribution of a loaf of bread occasionally and help clean up when I can.
One of mine has an aversion to breakfast as well and I almost bought the breakfast biscuits that I saw in Safeway this morning. The are biscuits with cereal or fruit and nut in them. But when I saw 7gm of saturated fat per serve, I reconsidered.
Everyone is welcome to the breakfast club, but we have breakfast on getting up, and I don’t want to mess with the routine as it is working for us. It’s great that school’s now offer this kind of thing, and it’s because of this school’s great support of the students in all areas that really drew us to it.
Breakfast in itself isn’t a huge issue. Smoothies would be the breakfast of choice if I remembered to make the yoghurt regularly, and if the noise wasn’t a problem on some mornings when there may still be a sleeping Dadda, and she loves her cereal or fruit, it’s just that she has a real problem with toast. I would say she had a problem with bread, but she takes a half sandwich (a sandwich of only 1 slice of bread) to school each day. I find it a little baffling as I love bread.
Mine eat breakfast before we go as well, but they always find room for a slice of toast at Brekky Burra as well. It’s such a communal thing, that they don’t like to miss out.
Can smoothies be made ahead of time or do they have to be done right before you drink them?
I love bread too. Trying not to eat so much of it as the spreads and cheese that go with it are an issue……