Last day at school

The days arrived. It's the last day for the kids at their current school before our move to Nottingham. It was 6 weeks ago when we started letting people know that we were moving and that time has just flown by. I'm looking forward to going to Nottingham and being closer to my family but boy, oh boy am I going to miss all the brilliant friends I have down here.

Some of these friends have witnessed the journey that our family has taken over the last 6 years (some have even been around longer than that, they must be mad!) and the support we have received has been incredible. I went from being a bright, bubbly, vivacious 20-something to nearly losing my life more times than you can count on one hand. I've gone from being a stay at home Mum, to working and then a 'sicknote' and needing plenty of favours from friends to keep everything ticking over. The kids have grown up and gone from being little ickle kiddies to ones that answer me back and cause me stress and worry but at the same time they're also these wonderfully empathetic mini grown ups and will still lie with me on the bed stroking my hair when I'm not well. Hubby has climbed the career ladder (and been knocked off it recently!) and at the same time he was, and still is, the glue that's held this family together. Now he's not working he doesn't know what to do with himself. I only hope we look back in 2 years time and say that taking Voluntary Redundancy and moving back to Nottingham was the best thing we ever did.

For me it's going to be hard turning up to a new school playground filled with Mums that have known each other for years and have already formed their cliches. Everybody tells me that I will make friends easily but deep down I am actually shitting myself. Yes, I can do small talk and am happy talking with strangers but how do I explain the fact that I can't remember any of their names despite the fact that I've asked them every morning for a week? Hopefully I will get invited for coffee one morning but what if I'm not good and can't go at the last minute? Or what if I forget to go?! How many times will I cancel before they stop asking me again? And how do I explain the frequency, length of time and noises that come from the loo if I go to someone's house??? These are all the things that I'm scared about. And if I'm scared and I'm an adult then I'm sure the kids must be feeling it too.

I don't know how I'm going to cope with today. I'm not good at goodbyes and I'm very emotional at the moment. I will be needing me waterproof mascara tomorrow for sure (erm, who am I kidding? Make up on the school run? Some days I'm lucky to be out of my onesie! There's another thing that will be different- I'm going to have to get dressed every day for the school run, at least to begin with anyway😉)

Luckily, or unluckily (depends on how you look at it and whether you're a glass half full type of person) I've got a lot of medical appointments coming up over the next few months. Almost one a fortnight, if not weekly sometimes. So I'm going to use it as an opportunity to catch up with people (and once the house sale goes through I will be sofa surfing!). I wrote a list 6 weeks ago of everyone I wanted to see before we moved. And I haven't even ticked off half, though not for the want of trying.

I'm hoping the weather is good today so that the kids can all play in the park one last time after school. I think a few Our ladies of pragues have been printed off and stuck outside to keep the sunshine here a little bit longer. I keep saying that the kids will need to go to finish off the chapter, but in truth it's me. I will need to eek out every last minute at the school tomorrow because once it's gone, that's it. Finito. For ever. And then it means moving day is just around the corner. And I haven't even started packing!!

NB x

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