Back to School…. In a Hurricane

What cruel trick of fate would send everyone trudging back to school and work in high winds and pelting rain?

Is it not hard enough to get up, in what already seems like the middle of the night, on this first dreaded day, without having to battle a force 8 gale?

The kids were very excited when the elements knocked out the tv.  The power of nature on full display.  It felt as if the weather was mirroring our own heavy hearts.  The wind wuthered and throughout the night I kept being woken by a tap, tap, tap as if Cathy herself wanted to come inside.

In the morning, in the cold (very cold) light of day I realised it was just the Christmas lights on the window, but it led to some dreaming, including one where I forgot to pick the children up from school.  Even in a dream the horror of looking at my watch and it being an hour after the bell had rung was horrendously panic inducing.

Rupert Murdoch, may or may not have tweeted that for a broke country the UK have too many holidays, but this Christmas-New Year break seems to have gone in the blink of an eye for us.  But at least we have had a wonderful time, time to treasure with the children, despite the usual amounts of squabbling and bickering.  I had a lump in my throat seeing them lined up at the door this morning.. all shiny shoed and scrubbed faces.  Bags and PE kits and homework in hand.  The house seems supernaturally still and quiet now.

Still the school day goes by also in a flash and it will feel like they are tumbling out of school again any minute.  We will back in the routine before we know it, all the activities starting up again, those time-markers of my week, ballet, swimming and the rest.

So I wish you all a gentle day today, a quiet easing back into the flow of work and school, that the harness of timetables and schedules return lightly on your shoulders.  That you are not strickened with the back to school blues.   At least the wind has died down a bit.