Baby no.3

So I haven't updated my blog in far too long. You all know the drill - life gets in the way, too busy, too tired etc. I thought after Christmas and into the New Year that I was going to get some help for my 'emotional wellbeing' - basically I was depressed. The situation with my family had pushed me beyond the brink and that combined with ever present and real money worries was too much. I started to get these terrible migraines (I have never suffered them before) and eventually bucked up the courage (mostly because of the severe pain of the headaches which lasted three weeks at least) to visit the doctor. When I explained my symptoms she suggested tension headaches but wanted to run some checks as well so sent me for a blood test. A few weeks later the results came back low in iron and folic acid. - Time for another test!
And so it is out of something terrible a miracle comes. A little ray of hope in what seemed to be such a bleak time in my life. I'm not silly having to take maternity and then pay for childcare compounds our problems but we've been through worse and can make it.
This baby will be my last so I am trying to 'enjoy' my pregnancy. Any woman who has experienced pregnancy can tell you that in itself it sucks - having said this I cant wait for my second scan to see if its a boy or a girl!

Inspired

Today I had the privilege of taking 8 of my stars to an event called Youth Summit at the City Hall  organised by Team London and part of the WEday programme. It was a day dedicated to inspiring our young people to create movements for social change in their local, national and international settings. So far so good. 
I  expected a day of chirpy teenagers bouncing around telling the children to organise a bake sale and smile at strangers. Now whilst there were elements of that to the day (plenty of blue t-shirted 'ambassadors' and smiley faces) - what I had forgotten was just how brilliant the young people I teach are. Although the warm up speaker interviewing the room when we got there was overly enthusiastic and a little ambitious asking children for contributions to a conversation when they clearly didn't have a clue what was going on, his heart was in the right place and it laid the foundation for the upbeat engagement that the team expected to see from the children. They settled following a speech from a para-olympian and an amazing performance of poetry (I didn't catch the speakers names so will look them up and let you know) This was followed by warm up games and then a workshop where they had to get busy. 
I had wildly underestimated their grasp on issues that effect them; particularly in the setting they are in,as unlike all of my other teaching jobs, these children are (on the whole) well loved, well rounded and reasonably well off. I somehow thought this would give them a narrow minded and shallow view of problems in the community however they immediately jumped on the idea of inequality and the need to promote unity within our community as things that they wished to focus on. They were able to identify and discuss why housing was such a big issue when it came to inequality and permeating the cycle of injustice. They came up with a clear plan for action and, when asked to present this to the summit at two minutes notice, acted like they had practiced it for weeks. They truly were incredible. They reminded me of me when I was their age. Oh how I wished I had someone to point out how truly wonderful I was. If only I had followed through all of the wildly ambitious plans I concocted to right the worlds wrongs I might have actually made a difference. Now what I have is the opportunity to do this through these children. To give them the push and the guidance to dream big and organise something amazing that they can be proud of. 
I know, with the madness in my own life, I should focus on sorting my own life out first - but the future can't wait. Mine didn't. 

Beautiful rainbow to greet us as we left. 

London Town

City Hall Building