Wheeew - and pause for breath!

Whoa, where the heck am I on this roller coaster right now?!

It's been manic- okay, rephrase that, it's been more manic than normal!

Mr Beehive is now working full time in Scotland and we are awaiting the imminent arrival of boxers and men wot pack to go with them.

It's been a rough ride for the last three weeks, all of them were sick the first week that Daddy left - nice timing guys, bringing me to my knees mid week. Then my mum came out - that wasn't rough at all - a blessing most definitely, but the leaving brought the tears - from the children.

Master Beehive the elder has been a troubled soul for the last few months. Part of this is down to the change in his school environment since September, he has a new teacher who, naturally, has new and different ideas and he is feeling the aftershock of the implementation of this. I am saddened by this as I no longer watch my happy child go into school and instead see this dejected, fallen character trudge his way up the corridor as if I've sent him along the green mile!

I'm putting lots of this down to the move and some of it down to this teacher shift and perhaps a small personality clash. I think the beauty and curse of Montessori is that you are with the same teacher for three years. If the child bonds well with this teacher, as MB the elder did with the previous teacher, then when there is a change - they can be hit hard.

Then, this weekend, daddy flew in for 48 hours and surprised them. It was a fantastic weekend, we just mooched as a family all weekend, went to the IMAX to see Grand Canyon, went to the aquarium, played chess and read books and basically had a fun fun time. But, weekends always pass so much quicker when one is having fun.......so this week, we are back to the drawing board again.



Things are picking up speed with trying to cram everything in before we leave. I'm teaching twice a week and fitting in hair appts, opticians, dentists, friends and all sorts.

Sorting clothing is the hardest - we need to pack for snow in Lake Tahoe, warm spring in San Francisco and Napa and then presumably wet and dreary in the UK and we only have two suitcases between us!! Working out what we're going to need three weeks from now when we have 54F one day and then snow and ice the next is proving challenging!

Oddly, we've moved so many times, you'd think we'd be dab hands at it. I've moved twice pregnant and once with a very small baby across continents too........I have to say, hand on heart, it is far harder, doing the shift with an older child. The depth of his thoughts and the release this is manifesting in quite defeats anything I was prepared for.

I'm cooking a big pot of chicken noodle soup right now - it's meant to be good for the soul. I hope it reaches out to my sad boy at the moment!