Decking the halls etc etc

Well, its been nearly a month since I last posted owt, and felt it only fair to update whats happened since.

Mrs J had just got confirmation that she had a full-time position with the libraries locally, and this is indeed been great news.  It's been a month of adjustment to the new routine, namely me doing the school runs and fitting in work around that, which I've found quite tough.  It's not that resent doing it, more that doing this 4 days out of 5, means that I miss both the morning and evening rush hours in the capital.

We've had a chat and the management at the libraries are considering a rejig of Deb's hours which will allow me to do a bit more of the rush hours and balance things out a little.

The journey to primary teaching has started in earnest, my GCSE Maths, English and Science all arrived a couple of weeks back and so 2011 will be the year of learning again! really looking forward to getting back in the swing of it.

Christmas this year has been a very nice low-key affair, my parents came to us christmas eve and stayed over, having dinner with us and then they moved on to one of my brothers for the evening, Santa delivered some nice non-tech presents for the boys, one of the best being a football table - plenty of fun had with that already!

Boxing day was spent at Mrs J's parents with her sisters and their families, always a great time with nieces and nephews, lots of cuddles and laughs.  My father in law is an amazing cook, and his customary bubble and squeak didn't disappoint!

Today's been nice, just the four of us, a nice fry up for brunch and then an afternoon of mainly constructing Knex stuff that the boys got for Xmas.

So, I'll leave it there, suffice to say I'll be quietly glad to see the back of 2010, it's been a very rocky period since August, but I'm happy to greet 2011 with a plan for the next few years, and an appreciation for what I have around me, two great children who have fantastic things ahead of them and a wife and partner who I respect and value more than ever.......

That's all, more next year!

Control and changing roles.....

Good news this week, Mrs J has a full time role back with the local libraries, which is like going home to her. It'll be great, and in many ways is the missing piece that has been so for a few years now in her life.

As a result we're now changing roles a fair bit, she has a two week alternating shift pattern, and being self employed, I'm not dove-tailing my work around that. It's good for our boys as they get to see more of me, and I get the opportunity to get to know their pre/post school routine/activities a little better.

Naturally this will now provide a little more financial stability, and along with the new job, Mrs J has taken over the reigns of our day to day accounts, which I have to say, has been a huge relief to me, and a big weight off my shoulders.....I'm such a bloody worry guts, and she's super cool and much more practical.

It's been a busy past week for us as Mrs J has worked a lot of it, this Saturday just past she worked and I and the boys went to my nephew Harry's 2nd birthday bash, and saw my immediate family, even my elusive/reclusive elder brother and his kids.

This morning we carried on our recently new regime of going for a run and the boys joining us on their bikes. Today we aimed for and completed a 5 mile circular route which was v eventful, youngest son's bike chain came off in the first half mile.....and we all generally had to battle thru some desires to turn back at a couple of points....we did it and finished in 1.06mins, an improvement of 4-5mins on the last time we did the route.

Oh well, nothing much else to report, thanks for reading!

It's a funny old world.....

The past few weeks have been emotionally charged as I continue to get to grips with the downs I experienced towards the end of the summer....I'm slowly getting myself back on an even keel, it's not easy and I'm blessed to have a very understanding wife!  The plans for primary teaching are still firm and I'm hoping to get the GCSE's underway before the end of the year.

Positively though, Mrs Jackcabnory (follow her here on twitter..... she gives good tweet!) has finally started the sessional work back with the local library service, this is exactly what she was doing in a fulltime capacity before we had our two boys.   She has been doing quite a few days and we've been able, with my work flexibility, to ring the changes quite a bit and gives me the chance to do the school run......and get more practice at the diplomacy needed with a 7 & 10 yr old!!  If all goes well she could soon be working fulltime and we will be able to get ourselves financially more black than red!

On the subject of Mrs J, she sells greetings cards, gift wrap etc, so have a look at her site here (publicity push over!)

We've had some good and bad news in terms of new arrivals.....I'll start with the bad news,  my youngest brother and his wife, who already have a nearly 2yr old boy, announced a few weeks ago that they were expecting no2.  Sadly they discovered this week that the baby will not make it, he has a disdended bowel (enlarged) and it has already burst.  It will be what they class as an "assisted miscarriage"...........

But the good news is that we today visited Mrs J's younger sister, and had the pleasure of plenty of cuddles with our newest family member, Jack.  He's a gorgeous little boy, born with downs syndrome,   into a loving family where he has two elder sisters to dote on him!   We're very lucky to now have a total of 10 neices and nephews between our collective 5 siblings........

So, I'm going to sign off here, leaving you a picture of the new addition........thanks for reading, and as ever I will endeavour to post more frequently....

Time for a change.....

So it seems I haven't written a long form blog post for six months......I have however been prevalent on that other micro blogging world, twitter, so if you been checking back here for news, you will have at least seen the 140 character snap shots of life.

So, where to begin, it's been a very turbulent period since the last posting, moments of doubt at where I was going, what I want to do and who I'd be sharing that journey with.

Life as a self employed cab driver has been a very steep learning curve, from juggling a 3yr intense knowledge period/9-5 day job & young family....thru to the day to day work search and the uncertainty of whether work is there...

That may sound alarming to some, surely cabbies are always on the golf course? Well, yes some may well be, but it's unlikely if they have small children and mortgages etc

I reached a point in the summer where I looked back and thought "what I am doing?" and "why am I doing it?"
I became extremely depressed, and thoughts were both irrational and fantastical......I really worried that I would not be able to find that illusive light in what seemed an awfully dark tunnel.

So after much soul searching, a bit of therapy and the continued love and support of my wonderful wife, I've decide to start the journey to becoming a teacher.

I've chosen to aim for primary school, for a number of reasons :

- there is a drastic shortage (our boys school has only 1 for instance)
- it's a vital first building block of a childs education.
- I really don't thunk I could handle a lippy 14yr old!

So, that's my new resolve, just 3 GSCE's, a higher level education course and a degree and I'll be there! I'm so looking forward to learning and stimulating my grey cells again.

Lastly, I'm going to get stuck into a regular exercise routine, involving running 3 times a week, and doing toning exercises as well, the worry of the past few months has caused weight loss and want to make sure I keep that going but in a much more healthy manner!

The Country Life?

So, another birthday has come and gone - 38 now, and apart from the middle age spread and the inability to deal with late nights and or consumption of alcohol, I feel pretty much the same as I did at 18 and 28......

I've navigated thru my first tax return as a self employed worker, it was the "nose bleed" that my accountants had warned, but is now done.

So, the stalwart cab trade champions continue to berate the authorities for their lack of action to get the "touts/clipboard jonnies" to disist from their activities, but frankly I have a more pressing issue on my mind, as the title of my blog eludes.

I have two young sons, 7&9 and have found the balance between work and family life is not in the right balance...

We used to live a bit further out of town up to the birth of no2, and then following some compilcations in his early months and couple with an awful commute we (I) decided that we needed to be nearer work and family support. Now we are close to secondary education for the eldest, we need to either stick or twist, and twist is beig investigated now. The idea being we can hopefully reduce our mortgage and get a bit of cleaner living into the bargain...

We saw some great places at the weekend and some lovely locations - sadly the great homes were NOT in the lovely locations!! So the search continues, the property game has changed a little bit, upfront costs for HIP (home information pack for anyone not sure, or non-UK reader).

The hope is that we can do this move by the late summer.... Stay tuned, will post updates

Blog migration.....

Well, I've dilly dallied for ages, bit finally have migrated my blog to the hallowed ground of wordpress... This is short and sweet and blogs will be more frequent and detailed as I get more au fait with the inner workings of it all.

Will leave you with a small gripe, think I may have currency OCD, some womand gave me these two fivers on Saturday, must they be screwed up soo much?

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