Where to begin .........

I really don't know where to begin.  I thought that this would be the beginning of our Easter holidays and that I would be running an Easter revision camp for my 4.  Charlotte doing her finals, Archie second year exams, Harvey year 10 exams and Abi year 8.  Charlotte is beavering away over her dissertation, she is unsure of the format her final exams will take as things keep changing, Archie's exams were cancelled, he had 2 essays to do but now one of those has been cancelled.  Harvey and Abi are not remotely interested in revising when they don't even know when they will go back to school.

The only plan made that has been kept has been the arrival of Dora.  What a bundle of joy, fun and mischief she is.  Such a tonic.

I received the most lovely email from a customer yesterday.  Forgive me for copy and pasting but I think you will enjoy what she has written......

"Dear Mum’s office

Many thanks for 20/21 academic diary, I love the coral colour, it is always an exciting occasion when the new one arrives.  As a nurse current events have somewhat overtaken me but finally at the weekend in clearing out the spare room I came across a pile of all my saved old diaries and spent an amazing couple of hours reminiscing. Incidentally the purple colour from 2016/17 is still my favourite!

Unknowingly they have become the diary I never planned to keep, 2010/11 was the year my daughter started school, she is now in year 9.  They provide an amazing record of 10 years of family and school events, the mundane, swimming and music lessons, to the more exciting parties and celebrations.  Birthday and Christmas gifts bought and received.  Meals repeated over the years and those that were never tried a 2nd time! Birthdays, weddings and sadly the year we lost far too many we loved.

Now as I head into the last few months of my 2019/2020 diary I found myself erasing far too many events ( I always write in pencil - a special pencil!), like so many we were heading into GCSE’s for our son, with the inevitable revision plans, exams dates and end of term sports events all scheduled in to be followed by an amazing holiday, a ‘carrot’ to get him (and us through) them.

Who knows where the next few weeks and months will take us but in its own way, the empty pages will be as much of a recollection of this extraordinary time as the full more exciting years.

Thank you and very best wishes"

Thank you Jodie for such a lovely email.  It really lifted my spirits to know that what we do is actually meaningful.