Yes. Yes. And Yes. I have news. I return to full time employment on Monday 7th September. Mum’s all inclusive, five star, bespoke meals on wheels and snacks on demand home school / holiday resort is closing. And for the most part, I’m ruddy delighted about it. This is a long ish post, with a full life update, so get a brew and settle in.
Background: I left Belbin (my choice, love the product) in February to return to Airport Lynx / Lynx Autocare / M&M Motorcycles. Ten days in, COVID-19 changed the trajectory of their businesses for the foreseeable and whilst they’ve been entirely supportive of me as I’ve worked out what to do, I’ve not worked full time since. I’ve been looking for a while and at some points, have been worried that I’d never find a job I really wanted to do ever again.
In some ways, it’s been an awful experience and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Thankfully our home is secure which meant it was nowhere near the situation it could have been. Nonetheless, money was tight and we were nervous to spend our savings. It’s not something people talk about – is it because we’re ashamed? That we feel like a failure for getting into that position in the first place? I wish we did talk more about it all. I know people who are in the position of working out when their money will run out and I know people will want to support them, but can’t when they don’t know of the situation.
For me, my ‘awful’ came about because I tried to use my education skills with my own boys who quickly came to hate me. Their school work came out in inconsistent formats and many times, we were all crying by 11am. It was not a pleasant experience. They were nervous about the changes happening around them. They didn’t like to watch the news – and nor did I. I don’t want to trivialise it – what we did together. I’ll come back to it when I can write about it with humour. What I can say, is that next time there is a lockdown – and I think that there will be another – Lovely Bloke will definitely have to do 2.5 days a week of home working to supervise the homeschooling. I’m certainly not doing it all.
Anyway. Moving on. Looking forwards.
- The utility room wall is down. We have a fully functioning kitchen to use in there whilst we get the last bit of the money together, have the walls knocked down and new kitchen put in.
- The boys go back to school soon. I am relieved to be encouraging them out into the world again. Nervous. But pleased. We have to find a way to adapt and evolve and want to do this positively. Whilst also having everything ready to hit the ground running when we need to do home schooling.
- Lovely Bloke will continue to work. He loves his job. If he had to, he could do some work from home and the office is five minutes from us so it’s all good on that front.
- I’ll start my new job – more on that in a moment. I will have a lovely space to work from home in – am about to paint it the office as we’ve never done it. Why will we have the extra space? Because we’ve packed up Hope House Press and it’s moving on to pastures new. It’s going to a lovely team who have the time and energy and resource to take it to the next level. Please don’t ask me any more about it as it’s not my story to tell. You can be nosy on the Hope House Press blog and follow them there.
- And the job. Well….
After struggling to find an organisation that I really wanted to work for, for several months, I received two job offers in one week. Yes. Two. It’s incredible how life comes together. Both were exciting, interesting and had a good package. I’ve had so much support in recent months and I will be forever grateful for it. Friends have listened, nodded, gotten angry and calmed me at points where I’ve been frustrated and unsure of myself. In the end, I partially made the decision based on a conversation about sweaty teenagers.
Watch. This. Space.
PS. I’ll write about the courgettes on a separate post.
PPS. If you want to see the utility room transformation you’ll need to check out my Instagram story highlights. As far as temporary kitchens go, it’s rather fabulous.
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