As the recent rain will attest, summer is coming to a close and with it school uniforms are being dusted down. Let’s rejoice … life seems to be returning to some kind of normal and I’m utterly delighted about it.
My youngest son seems to have doubled in size during lockdown (all that sleep and all that food no doubt!), so I’ve had to start from scratch on the school uniform front.
With a week to go, school uniform is labelled, sorted and ready for the new term.
I’m so organised I don’t even recognise myself because this has NEVER happened before.
I’m usually the one at the back of the queue for school shoes, convincing my kids that whatever shoes are left are the coolest in the store (they never are, obviously).
Anyone would think I’m desperate to get the teenagers out of the house and back to school. And they’d be totally spot on.
This time next week, as the boys leave to start their new school years, routine will arrive at my house and it’s a very welcome, and long overdue, guest.
Hopefully we won’t have another lockdown as I need routine to hang around until, like, forever.
As a freelancer, routine isn’t something I have when it comes to work.
No set hours and no one setting the agenda. So when it comes to the rest of life, routine is EVERYTHING.
I need to get the kids back in school so that I have a marker to start the day and I can draw a line in the sand when the day is done.
I need more regular meal times, not the current constant of everyone seemingly eating all the time.
I need to get back to my local gym where I’ll head as soon as the kids are in their first lesson. That said, that I’ve been getting back into my (somewhat lax) fitness routine since the gym reopened and it feels good.
I even went to the Everyman Cinema this week (which was fantastic by the way) so things are definitely starting to look up.
So I think I speak for all when I say that Back To School also means Back To Normal.
Slowly, slowly, life is starting to look like it’s familiar old self and, despite a few extra pounds and worry lines, it’s looking rather good.
Don’t you think?
Rachel is founder Gossip Girl Gang, a networking group for women in business in and around the borough
