5 things on Friday

There was potential this week for me to get totally bogged down in the negative bits of life. You know, the child that's so sick you can't send them anywhere and have to take time off to look after them. And then the surfaces that are covered in a tacky layer of Calpol and Covonia and the tissues that are literally everywhere you look. Or the middle of the night nosebleeds that make you wonder if a 7 year old really has room for that amount of blood inside them! You could really mope about this kind of week for a long time with good reason, but this week good outweighed the bad. I had a really good think about my week as a whole to come up with 5 good things, because 5 things on Friday sounded like a fun blog post! Actually I could have waited for 6 on Saturday or 7 on Sunday but I thought I'd go with it while I remembered! So here they are.1 :: unexpected appreciation......from my Year 12 class! This one really turned my week around so it's only fair that it comes in at number one. I've worked at my school for 16 years and this was the first time I've ever had a thank you of any sort from a GCSE class. I've loved having this class both as my tutorial group and my English class, but it's hard to tell when they're sitting in front of you, looking blankly at a multi-modal text, whether they're learning anything or if you're making any sort of difference to their education. So I was equally shocked and touched when they interrupted my half-hearted attempt to start a final revision lesson with them to present me with cards and the cutest little collage of their Year 8 photos! Bless their teenage hearts - I shall miss their daily requests for nail varnish remover, their too cool for school scowls and their charm in equal measure.

I'm sure none of them will ever see this post but on the off chance any of them do, this really meant a lot to me - thanks 12JB :)

2 :: unexpected sunshine...

...saving my children from rickets, which I'm sure they were pretty close to experiencing given the shockingly poor spring we've had so far! So to sunshine, I say this..

sunshine also means Converse can officially be worn with no socks. Score!

3 :: giant pots of tea with friends...

...the kind of friends who don't judge you by the fact that when they arrived to pick you up, you were on the verge of losing it because you couldn't find the hole for the washing line in the grass! That sort of friend is in short supply, if you ask me. If you don't have one already I would strongly recommend hunting one down immediately because you just don't know when that sort of crisis will occur! I am fortunate to have several of this variety of friend - I keep them in many locations because the crisis could just as easily be a surprise tearfest on your way into school for no reason whatsoever, or simply needing to squeal about amazingly good news with someone who finds the news as worth squealing about as you do.

it goes without saying that for a pot of tea that size,  chocolate banana bread makes the perfect companion

4 :: good music...

...particularly the kind your son purchased with a birthday voucher, thereby freeing up the £8 you might have had to spend on it yourself! I listened to this all day today. Quite loud. While walking in the sun. It was an excellent combination and I hope to recreate it soon! To those reading this who may be part of the F13 holiday experience, it's quite likely you will hear a lot of it - perhaps you might even fancy a copy of your own for preparation! To anyone else, it's really worth a listen which is why you can find a YouTube link at the bottom of this post to save you the hassle of looking for one yourself!

5 :: quality evenings in...

...especially the self-indulgent variety. Given the nature of this week - the sick child, nose bleeds and general lack of sleep - I chose to go down the route of period drama, specifically The Paradise. My sister had lent me the DVD at the weekend, but the question must be asked, how did a veteran of period dramas, such as myself, manage to miss this when it was actually on TV? I will never know. It was amazing! I can't say I was won over by Mr Moray initially, but by the time the last 10 minutes had arrived I was suitably swooning! I watched it all in a week. And I'd watch it all again next week! My other indulgences this week have included the always fabulous Grey's Anatomy and Nashville. Grey's needs no explaining, I mean what's not to love about catastrophes interspersed with Alex Karev? Nashville, on the other hand, is new to me. One of those aforementioned friends has sucked me into it. It must be my early childhood exposure to country music that has allowed me to tolerate the twangy accents and slide gee-tar thus far. Plus there's heartache and craziness at every cut and turn! I'm going to have to watch from the start when it comes out on DVD because I've leapt in right in the middle and there are questions to which I have no answers!

the good thing about this kind of evening is that it goes particularly well with wine and/or chocolate

And that concludes my 5 things on Friday. It's been a good exercise looking for the good in what started out as a less than stellar week. I might do it more often. I'd promise to blog about it more often but I think we all know my blogging promises count for nothing! I wonder, though, if my ramblings might inspire you to seek out the good in your own week? If you do, it'd be lovely to hear what you found if you fancied sharing. For now, though, I shall leave you with a video as promised.

 Happy weekend xx