September!

I can't believe it's September.  We have had a long, lovely summer holiday and obviously I have been aware that time is passing - but still, September. 

On the bright side, September has been one of the best months, weather-wise, in the South of England for the last few years.  So there may be a heatwave due.  On the other hand, the kids have to go back to school now, and I will miss them.  Toddler is due to start full-time school (I really must stop calling him that now) so for the first time in twelve-plus years I will have no little people at home during the daytime. 

I am not too sad about it.  School is only from nine to three, five days a week, and allowing for half terms and teacher training days and some days off for sickness and so on, I will probably not have that much child-free time.  But it is definitely the end of an era - no more toddler groups, unless I 'borrow' a young relative to wheedle my way into one (and really, what would be the point?)

I am stepping up on the work front - at least three whole days this month and several afternoons in my Peer Specialist role, which may not sound much but is considerably more than I have been doing.  And I will continue to do my ghost-writing, which is going quite well - it is amazing how quickly that book is progessing. 

The trick this term will be to use the time I have as efficiently as possible.  I will spend one afternoon each week teaching, one day ghost-writing, as much time as I can writing my new book...  I am not going to go on about it all any more, as the logisitics of it all are making my head spin. 

The funny thing is, almost everybody I know keeps telling me how I won't know myself once all the kids are at school, I will have so much free time.  And I think, yes, it could have been that way - it would have been that way, perhaps, if I hadn't written my memoir and published it just over a year ago and thus started my life spinning off in a new direction.  I could have sat at home and watched daytime TV or read novels all day, or been a lady who lunches.

Perish the thought.