Uniforms

Today is free dress day at Amber’s school. They are raising money for cancer research, take a gold coin, wear whatever you like (within reason). So this morning she pops out of her room and asks me “skirt or pants?” I checked the weather, it’s going to be 31, so maybe skirt would be better. She pops out a few minutes later in a lovely skirt “which shirt should I wear?” She tried on three different ones and held up a couple more before deciding. It is so much quicker when she just gets her uniform out and wears it. This is one of the reasons I love uniforms, no need to think in the morning, just get dressed, eat and out the door. Another reason I love them is that they are comfortable (at least my kids are, mine was a bit lacking in the comfort department), tend to look quite good, and no one is showing off how rich their parents are because they have different outfits every day of the month. I have always preferred to have a uniform, I am never that fussed about what I wear, so not having to think about it is so much easier. Also uniforms tend to come at a discount, subsidised by work or school, so I don’t have to waste excess money on clothes I don’t really want anyway.

However, we are riding for conflict about uniforms in our small town. The three schools are amalgamating, so the two primaries and the high school will combine. Sounds great, except there is already conflict about what to call the place, and what the kids will wear. One school has green and white, looks great, the other primary is royal blue and light blue, also looks great. The High School wears navy and royal blue, actually doesn’t look that good, so change is going to happen. Trouble is the parents at the two primary schools are very attached to their uniforms and also there is a degree of antagonism from one school to the other, so the green parents will not want their kids weaning the same colour as the blue school. I don’t think the blue parents care that much, but the high school is blue too, so chances are we’ll all be blue in a couple of years. Maybe we should go for a completely new colour you say, maybe brown, trouble is we have a Catholic primary school in town and they already have that. I hope people see sense, because we need a good looking comfortable uniform and in a few years no one will remember where they came from and no one will care.

Yes, I love uniforms, but I really don’t like the hassle that comes with deciding what it should look like.

Balancing Act

Writing a blog is a bit of a balancing act. How to include enough detail to be interesting, but little enough to ensure privacy. This wouldn’t be so important if it was just me, but there are the kids as well. I mention them all the time, after all they are a very important part of my life. So how much detail to include? Do I use their names, and if not how do I refer to them? It would be easy if I just had a boy and a girl, but I have two of each. I can’t refer to the younger ones as the little girl and boy for ever. So I asked the kids. The response was: Amber (14), eldest born, wonderful daughter.

Techno boy (11), next one, into everything, still.

Lily (8), actually I forgot what she wanted to be called so am waiting for her to come home from school, my fashionista girl.

Possum (2), bonus baby, into everything.

The unconventional man, my other half,.

Me, well I’m the unconventional wren, and it looks like Amber is following in my footsteps, remains to be seen where the others end up, all part of the fun of the journey that is my family.

Excitement

The 16^th of October is here at last (OK, its after that now, but it took a while to set things up), a date I’ve been awaiting since late July when I sat the exam. I logged onto the website to check my results, and after a bit of searching, found the results file. Of course my secret exam results code would start with P, so I scrolled down 12 pages of codes followed by pass/fail. I think the results are about 3:1, so I began to worry for the first time, since sitting the exam. I remembered the slight concern I felt as I was among the first to leave both the morning and afternoon session. I had answered every question, and checked them twice before permission was given to leave. I glanced across at another candidate and she was still less than half way through, I could tell by which page she was on the answer book, but I couldn’t think of any reason to stay. So today I was watching all of those Fails pass me by, they looked so big and final. Finally reached my number and there it was PASS, yes I passed a very important exam, one that will hopefully impact the rest of my life, and give me the chance of an exciting and enjoyable career path out here in the sticks. Time to lift the phone and organise a job. What was the exam you ask, why the excitement, because I can now put the letters IBCLC after my name, I am now an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, so I can get paid for doing something I love so much I’ve been doing it for free for the past 11 years. Now I just need to convince the local community health office that they need me.