Saturday Roundup 31st August

Today is R's 11th birthday.
11 years ago I became a mother.
10 years and 46 weeks ago I became the mother of a disabled child.
And in 4 days I become the mother of a secondary school student.
It's been a long, and often hard, road but I am so proud of who R has become. He is a sensitive, caring, funny and gutsy boy with strong passions and fierce loyalties. I'm proud to be his mother.

This has been a week of hitting the ground running. Having arrived home from France at midnight on Monday night, I had INSET at college on Tuesday morning followed by 3 days of 6th form enrolment. It is all too easy to drop straight back into work-mode and feel the holiday slip away.

We celebrated P's 44th birthday on Tuesday with a takeaway curry for 15 people. No cake, I'm afraid, just a candle in a samosa!

 R and M have been in Holiday Club at Church for 3 days. A great opportunity for them to catch up with friends after our month away and get back into the routine of up-and-out ready for school to start on Wednesday. Today they held a Family Fun Day and talent show - it as great to see what they have been getting up to all week. Tomorrow they are running Family Service at Church.

After a burger for lunch at the Fun Day I took R to spend some of his birthday money on games for his XBox360 with Kinect. Video games are not my thing, but the technology involved is pretty amazing - for many games it doesn't even need a remote control - R just has to wave his hand at the sensor or - yes, really - talk to it! We had a birthday ice cream then came home to watch the new series of the XFactor (again, not my bag but his.) He must have enjoyed his busy birthday as he dozed off on the sofa!