Day 3 - Wednesday 1st December

Day three - Wednesday 1st December 2010
8.00 reading and homework with Rachel
8.30 school run
9.00 morning prayer
9.30 weekly volunteering visit to family for home start
1.00 preschool morale building outing
3.30 school run
4.00 friends round to play and tea 
6.30 Rachel bed
7.00 take miscarriage association calls

Today I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint.  Wednesday mornings I am a home start volunteer; this means that I visit a family with young children for a few hours providing emotional support through friendship to mum (and/or dad) and playing with the kids.  I have been doing this for 2 years.  I was with my first family for eighteen months and built strong bonds through some hard times.  My current family are equally fantastic, a perfect match, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing them.

Straight from my home start morning I went to a local garden centre.  I had arranged for preschool staff and committee members to have lunch together and then do some pottery painting.  A morale boosting and thank-you event for everyone.  The preschool is a charity and I am now chair of the committee (having had various roles over the last 2 years).  We have evenings out every term but following an excellent assessment recently we officers decided that an extra event could be fun.  And it was!

I dashed from there to home for the school run (where I froze to my bones for the second time in a day) and then a friend and her kids cane round for play and tea.  Perfect.  I can't tell you how much I value this friendship, the kids play well, the husbands get on, and we girls always seem to be able to support each other equally.  

I haven't had any miscarriage association calls yet today, but they might happen later, you never can tell. In September I took over 50 calls, October was only 11.

Reflecting on my week so far I feel that the balance of activity and relaxation is great, although I've scheduled too many play dates for one week and am missing my one to one time with Rachel.  But no doubt the weekend will present opportunities.