I’ve been feeling a bit at a loss since my form left school. It’s always strange having a group of kids you’ve had since they were little, watch them grow up and then suddenly they’re gone. The cogs of the school keep turning, but they’re not there and it takes a while to adjust to life without them.

Two of my lot popped in to see me today with one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done. They’d been down in the art room and had produced an enormous poster for my wall with their hand prints and a lovely message from each of them. When you’ve got a couple of 16 year old boys thanking me for ‘helping to make me the person I am’ and being soooo appreciative of all the nagging and teasing and chivvying I’ve done for the past four years, it makes me really quite teary.

Yes, the job can be hideous at times, but knowing you’ve made a difference… knowing they appreciate it just that bit… It makes all the difference in the world.

Some days, teaching is the best job there is. I’m dead proud of them too!

The hubby and I had a hot date for fish and chips at the beach during the weekend and as we were paddling along the edges of the bracing North Sea in the dusk, we came up with a brilliant idea for a faux holiday. It’s well known that we don’t get to go away as a family because of Little Nutter, but we can holiday at home as long as he’s in his bedroom every night.

There - spread along the shore - were a series of bright and cheery beach huts. Suddenly idyllic images of deck chairs, ice creams and knotted handkerchiefs (ok, so maybe not) wafted into view. It’s almost a real holiday. I grew up by the beach and I do miss it a huge amount, as we’re a bit landlocked where we are. And spending time at a beach is a holiday, even if we do go home every night. Sheer brilliance. I’m totally sold on the idea.

A phone call or three later and we’ve rented a hut for a week in late summer and we’re on the gargantuan waiting list for an annual lease of one of these gems. Yes, they may just be trumped up garden sheds, but right now, I can’t imagine anything better.

I’m in love.

I have Joseph Fiennes’ autograph on my desk and his picture is sitting looking moodily at me. And he signs himself ‘Joe’ - how thrilled am I?

If you can’t remember who he is, you might remember him best in this role…

Such a distraction from all these exam scripts, not that I’m complaining :D

It’s that time of year again. Exam scripts are dropping on my doorstep spelling out surefire doom for the next few weeks. I’ve got my mark scheme, a list of examiners in my team and my hotel is booked for the meeting next week. I’m all set to go, and I know it’s all going to happen, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to the lack of ‘me’ time that it brings. Still, the cheque is nice at the end of the summer and it means we can put a deposit down on a new car.

So, here I am, enjoying my last weekend of freedom before the silly work hours begin. We’re off into York later this afternoon to pick up the piggy banks (one pirate skull for Tiny Flirt and one cutey Lion for Little Madam - yes, my children are that stereotypical!) that they painted at the ceramics cafe last weekend, then I’ve got a bit of shopping to do if Little Nutter will play ball. I loathe shopping with him - on a good day we can just about make it inside a shop door before he starts screaming, but the chances of looking at or (perish the thought) actually buying something are slim to none. I’ve got my fingers crossed, because I really do need a couple of notebooks for work and there’s a Bookmooch parcel to go.

Speaking of Bookmooch - I’m thrilled. I manage to snaffle a new copy of Meyer’s The Host this morning. Generally speaking, I’ve probably got the worst luck out of anyone I know. I don’t know what it is, but you can guarantee that if there are 99 prizes in a 100 ticket raffle, I’ll be the one left at the end. So to snatch the book before over 200 other people got to it has me squeaking with glee. Hopefully it’ll be here in time for my trip to the States. Stephenie usually spins a good yarn, so it might be just the thing for the flight.

All is well, albeit busy, here. Tiny Flirt gave us a bit of a scare with a chest infection yesterday. I had to gallop up to school during the day, only to find he’d been taken over to the infirmary at the college to see the doctor there. Scary as it was, it’s a relief to see that they’ve got such a good care system in place for the students and he was incredibly well looked after. Needless to say, he charmed the socks off the doctor and both matrons. Then we went to the local pharmacy. By the time his prescription was dispensed, not only were the staff smiling and calling “Bye!” to him, but all the customers were as well.

The boy is incorrigible.

We’ve had a new addition to the family. He’s very cute and perky and is chasing the children around all over the place.

Meet Fido.

Yes, we’ve caved to gadgetry insanity and have bought a robot vacuum cleaner. The theory is that we use the Dyson for a thorough weekly clean, the steam cleaner for those Autistic incidents that can’t be tackled by normal means, and Fido can do a superficial nightly clean of downstairs after we go to bed every evening, just to keep the worst of the dust gremlins at bay.

We brought him home at lunch time, and I have to admit, he’s very cute. He’s been beeping his way around the rooms, and picked up a huge amount of debris from family life. Holly (the spaniel) is wagging madly at Fido, hoping he’s going to play, but Katie (our ancient feline) is sitting watching suspiciously. These strange gadgets never bode well.

He’s just taken himself back to his dock and is snoozing while he recharges. The children are now begging to tidy their rooms so Fido can clean there too. This sounds like a plan with no drawbacks.

Muahaha!

Once a year we have what can only be described as a day from someone else’s life. Little Madam and Tiny Flirt attend the same school in a glorious valley in the wilds of North Yorkshire, and we are cordially invited for a day. Little Nutter has already gone gleefully to respite, leaving us as a completely neurotypical family.

We wandered from the castle to the beautiful valley fields with stunning views of the abbey and fields beyond it for sports day. Little Madam did herself proud for her house. Lots of very determined running and jumping and a raft of second places for 800 metres, long jump, 150 metres and even throwing the rounders ball a startling distance. We’re just so proud of her. After the total mess that the state school made of her life when we moved cities, she’s growing back into a confident, bright, sporty young lady with a very appropriate wicked twinkle in her eye.

Tiny Flirt is far more chilled about the whole thing. His winning of the five-year-olds skipping race was greeted with a huge beam and a “Please can I have a sticker?” We do have to work on his sportsmanship though. When he passed the baton on for his part of the relay race, he turned to the little girl in the team beside him and did a “Ner, ner ner. We beat you!”

The thing that always strikes me is just how wonderful and easy parenting is. The children are so happy and so easy to look after and encourage. We had lunch on the lawns and wandered down to watch Tiny Flirt in concert this afternoon. Little Madam’s concert is tonight. They love this day because for once it’s about them, not about Autism or smearing or being thumped in the eye. We love it, because it’s a chance to be really proud of them both. They’re good kids and I’m so glad they’re mine.

It’s been a hard couple of days. Something I was really looking forward to hasn’t come off - well, it has, but I haven’t been included in it although some of my work will be. It’s a tough one to deal with. I certainly don’t hate the good friend who’s cut me out of the loop, but I am bitterly disappointed.

I think the one thing I’ve learnt about having a disabled child is the importance of having ‘feel-good’ things in the pipeline that keep your self-esteem high and make sure you have a sense of value and purpose. I’ve got my trip to the US looming in July, we’re off to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Patrick Stewart and David Tennant in ‘Hamlet’ in August and we’re talking about taking Little Madam (10) and Tiny Flirt (5) to London again when Little Nutter (8) is in respite for a couple of days in the summer holidays.

Beyond that, I’m looking at my own writing with renewed determination. ‘A Smudge of Rainbow’ is done. It’s been professionally edited. All of my guinea pigs have been hooked and have read it in one sitting. Heck, even Stephenie Meyer fell for Josh. It’s a good book. I know it’s a good book. I need to bite the bullet and send it out to agents because it’s languishing in a bottom drawer and it’s doing no one any good lying there. The lovely Mel is planning a website for it to try and help with the marketing pitch and Alphie is going to give US agents and publishers a whirl on my behalf.

Now that the exams are underway, I’m looking at ‘Bedeviled’ again and I’m determined. The book should be a huge amount of fun and I’ve worked out how to carve an hour out of my day for frittering on a story. Escapism rocks!

They say the future is what you make of it. Well, watch me

I stumbled across this article on Stephenie Meyer in The Times this morning and it made me smile. Given the massive attention her books have had in the States, it’s about time the UK finally sat up and took some notice of her.

Although I have to admit, it’s quite bizarre to be casually reading the paper and then suddenly come across someone you once spent time with in Madrid. A definite tea spluttering over the newspaper moment!

It was one of those surreal chance things. There I was, browsing the Bookmooch forums when I came across a link to Blog A Penguin Classic.

What a fabulous marketing idea. Give one free copy of each classic to a volunteer who will then blog about their book on the penguin website and on their own blog. It’s a brilliant way to spread the word about some of the more obscure classics as well as to remind people of some of the fab books out there. Needless to say, I leapt on the bandwagon with gusto and have been allocated Voltaire’s Letters on England. It’s got a 5* review on Amazon and I laughed a lot when I read ‘Candide’, so I’m hopeful. The hubby, on the other hand, is donning his tux to read some Ian Fleming.

My current ‘to be read’ stash is full of light and flippant stuff. It’s a tough time of the year and bright and breezy stuff that doesn’t require a lot of brain power is definitely on the cards. I’m in the middle of Julia Quinn’s series on the Bridgerton family. I’ve read books 1-6 and am currently waiting Gregory and Hyacinth’s stories from lovely people on Bookmooch. I’m surprised by just how much I’ve enjoyed these books as I never would have gone out of my way to buy them. Julia Quinn is very witty and she develops characters that you really grow to care about. One of the things that I’ve loved about the series so far is that no matter where Colin goes, he’s hungry. Food miraculously materialises with long-suffering butlers, or he grazes from what food is there. Little motifs like that just make it for me.

The banter between the siblings is fantastic, but mostly I love how she develops her characters. The relationships between them are so well done, and of course, there is the constant question of ‘Who exactly is the mysterious Lady Whistledown?’ to contend with. They’re real feel-good books, and I’d definitely recommend them!

I don’t often blog about my kids, but my eldest is ten-years-old (in Year 6) and was lucky enough to get a place on an oil painting course that her school was running today. She trogged off perfectly happily and we were expecting a few daubs of paint on a canvas to coo all over and hang with the rest of our children’s art work on the kitchen cupboards.

Imagine my surprise when I went to collect her and found that she’d painted this: