Feeling like a Loser

A horrible day's supply a few weeks ago at a school which should not remain nameless, but will because I'm the soul of discretion (!), during which I was called a 'fat witch' and was told by the same 'delightful' girl that I have a fat a**e and eat too many cakes, prompted me to not only decline more offers of supply work in that part of that school, but also to realize that I was sick of hearing the comments (some coming from no other than my own 5 year old son!) about my size or weight.

We'd been watching 'Fat Families' with Steve Miller on Sky 1 and although I would never consider myself to be in the same situation as most of the families features in the program, what Steve Miller said each week just seemed common sense. His basic advice to everyone was to "Eat less, move more".

So, I started on Sunday 14th March by going out for walk in the New Forest with the family. Since then I have just taken Steve's advice. I have cut down my portion sizes, stopped eating sweets, chocolates, crisps etc. reduced the amount of bread I eat and most importantly I have exercised every day for at least 30 minutes. I lost 5lb in the first week and 2lb the second week and 3lb so far this week. The best part is that it hasn't cost lots of money. I don't go to a gym. I just go out walking. I have tried to build it into the day, so instead of driving, I park the car and walk. The only thing I have bought is a pair of black trainers so that I can walk comfortably to work without looking silly in work clothes and white trainers!

Easter is going to be tough, but I am allowing myself an Easter egg and have made sure I have some healthy treats in, like fruit I don't usually buy and expensive fruit juices.

I don't feel like I'm missing out, but I do feel much better in myself for losing weight, being able to get into clothes that didn't fit before and am feeling so much healthier for all the exercise I'm doing.

Parents Evening

Got through parents' evening and the experience was less stressful than I had envisaged. I had been warned at interview that the parents had very high expectations and that if they were not happy they would not hide their concerns. So, still on a temporary contract, I prepared apprehensively for parents' evening.

The general consensus is that the children are happy at school and the parents are happy with me. Phew! There was only one child whose parents were unhappy with his progress which actually has more to do with their unrealistic expectations of what he should be able to do (i.e. multiplication at the age of 6!!!) and the fact that they make him do an hour or so of written maths work at home several times a week. I pushed the boundaries as far as I possibly could and may have even stepped slightly over that fine line a little when I suggested they were pushing him too hard and should be making it more fun so that he would enjoy it.

I think overall, I handled them well: a parent governor, the chair of governors, a bloke in a dress (lovely black boots, actually!) with his (soon to be ex-)wife, as well as another mum with a history of being verbally abusive.I had the headteacher on hand for that one, but am pleased to say I didn't need her to intervene.

Eater weekend could not come soon enough. No, that was not a spelling mistake! I shall not be celebrating the death of Christ. I shall be eating lots of chocolate!

A Long Day

What a fantastic day out. We spent the day today at Longleat Safari Park and although it cost us £56 for 2 adults and 1 child (we don't pay for Big J) it was worth it. We only managed to visit half of the attractions in the main grounds before driving to the Safari Park. Luckily, the "Passport Ticket" we bought allows us to go back within 12 months to visit all the attractions we did not manage to visit today.

There is no way we could have crammed any more into today. We got to the park at 10.30 (it only opens at 10am) and left at 6.30 (it closes at 5.30 - not sure how we managed that!)

By far, the highlight of the day was seeing an outgoing, confident (words never previously used to describe Little Z) Little Z running around the adventure playground, climbing rope ladders, walking across high bridges and going down long tunnel slides. These are all things which a few months ago she would not have contemplated doing. The mere thought of going down a big tunnel slide or climbing apparatus by herself filled her with fear. I never used to see the point in taking her to these adventure playgrounds as she never wanted to go on anything by herself. Now, I will definitely take her to theme parks etc as she seems to have gained some courage to try things out even if she's not quite sure if she's going to like it.

Other great moments of the day included feeding some fallow deer. We bought a cup of deer feed (looked like rabbit food) and let the deer eat out of our hands. We also gave a ride to a monkey (other than Big J) as he jumped onto the campervan and climbed up onto the roof taking a little peek in at the top window.

It was all too much for Big J and by half way around the Safari Park he fell asleep. He missed the Rhino (his favourite animal at the moment!), and the deer and woke up just as we got to the lions and tigers. I would have been more comfortable if we'd had a childlock on his door as we went through the lions enclosure, but luckily he was too sleepy to try to get out and play with the lions.

The only disappointment was that the traffic queues at the Safari Park were very long and we had to wait quite a while sometimes to move onto the next area. It usually takes about 1.5 hours to drive around the park. We were there for about 3 hours. It did not spoil the day though and it's a day out I would definitely recommend.

Happy Easter!

This morning began, as it does every Easter Sunday, with a mad rush to tidy up so that the children could do their Easter egg hunt in the living room. It did not occur to me until afterwards that it would have been much easier to do the egg hunt outside. After sorting out the squabbles over Big J picking up any eggs and not just the ones with the blue stickers on (Little Z's had a red sticker on so they would know whose were whose) they found all their eggs. We had to encourage Big J to keep looking, as once he had found an egg he wanted to eat it straight away. The baskets were hand made by myself a couple of weeks ago. I thought basket weaving looked easy and decided to give it a go using strips of coloured card. Apparently it is not as easy as it looks. I have since been told it is a therapy used for people admitted to mental institutions. Well, I got that right then!

We looked at all the gifts we had been given for Easter and it was obscene.



Apart from two eggs for PP and I, all the eggs on the left are Little Z's and all those on the right are Big J's. Who got the most this Easter? Cadbury's, I reckon! Apart from all the chocolate there was one really cool toy I just have to tell you about which came with a "Milky Bar Egg". It's a Milky Bar Kid Mr. Potato Head. It officially belongs to Big J, but I think I will have hours of fun with it!



Before anyone asks, the "true" meaning of Easter has not been forgotten by Little Z, who has spent much of the last week asking about how Jesus got out of the cave and how someone can come back to life after they have died. If you have a good explanation for this I would be very pleased to hear it. I am afraid her questions remain unanswered.

Have a great Easter everyone. Eat chocolate and be merry.