Family...

 

Silver Linings. Apparently every cloud has one. My problem is that I'm a tad rubbish at finding them. I tend to only see the rain approaching.

You see, I'm actually really bad at dealing with change. And things not in my control. In fact, if I'm totally honest, at the moment, I'm just really bad at dealing with everything. I mentioned a while ago (I think) about how there would be a blog post later on about some slightly not so cheery stuff to do with stuff. This is not going to be that blog post but, to sum it up, I'm a pretty anxious person, with a fairly hot head, and a knack for crying a lot.

So yesterday (after I had planned a whole week of staff shifts to work round the shop move, plus friends and family cover to look after the Sconchlet during this crazy moving period) when we all rocked up to collect the shop keys and all piled in to my lovely new shop to begin decorating and we found it actually not even remotely ready to move in because, well, I won't go in to details, but let's just say the builders have had to be called in, it wasn't really a great time for me.

We will gloss over how I coped (both outwardly and, even worse, what was happening inside my brain) as that is for another time, but to say it was a bit beyond my capability coping with the change of plans would be an understatement.

However, as I said at the start, every cloud and all that...

For a start, yesterday evening I took down our Christmas decorations. And whilst I was doing this with the Sconchlet it occured to me that if I hadn't have done it yesterday they would probably have been up until February! And we did it in our pyjamas. Whilst dancing around to music (Britney Spears to be precise).

I then sat and slobbed out on the sofa with Mr Sconch and we watched Nativity! which was actually it turned out, a rest I really needed. I then went to bed fairly early (rather than 1am after having done admin) and slept for most of the night (child and dogs breaking sleep excluded).

And today we went to the zoo. If you've read my blog before, you'll probably know this is a favourite place of ours to go, but we don't often get time to go (or else if we do go, I spend the whole time watching the clock as I've got to shortly run off to work). We got to mooch around and look at all of the animals, have some lunch, watch and panic wildly as the Sconchlet got wedged half way down the tubular slide with no seemingly easy way of getting her out...*

Don't get me wrong, this delay is pretty bad! It means we no longer have 'day hours' to do the move (as Mr Sconch will be back at work on Thursday), and we will be fitting everything into evenings, which will be exhausting for everyone involved not to mention a much slower process. It means stock deliveries all need to be changed as I don't have room to store it all as it was planned for arrival at the new shop. It also potentially means problems for classes already organised as they were also all planned for the new shop.

But yesterday and today we got to have some family time with our precious little girl, who turns 4 in a week. Which, in itself, is terrifying as her childhood seems to be slipping away from me. I got to dance with her, sing with her, sit and make Lego with her, and hold her hand as we watched, in wonder, the animals at the zoo. I got to be a mammy for two days I had expected to be covered in paint. Two days of her precious school holidays with her that otherwise I would have lost.

So yesterday and today I got to see the silver linings. And that, especially for me, is a pretty amazing thing.

Sam x

*she did make it out eventually. after flipping herself onto her tummy and yelling all the way down, 'I'm on my belly, I'm on my belly!'