Suddenly this month we haven't just been new parents, but we've had a whole load of other things taking up our time too. Life has been so busy that looking back on the month we've hardly taken any photos and hardly done anything beyond Leila, cook, work and sleep!
For me this month saw the IB TOK Marking come online and suddenly I went from working one day a week at school, to working every free minute trying to mark 170 essays before my 1 May deadline. The first challenge was getting back into the TOK mindset and getting my head around the essay titles posed and the mark scheme. I did a series of practise scripts and two sets of qualification scripts before I was moved on to 'live' marking. I knew that I had to average 7 scripts a day to get to my target on time and luckily I managed to exceed this some days so made the deadlines with enough time. There is no way that I would have been able to get the marking done if Leila hadn't changed her sleeping patterns. Every 30 minute nap in the cot meant I could mark one paper and without being so tired from constant wakings in the night I knew that I could mark once she had gone to bed too. At the weekends Scotty would look after Leila for the day while I marked in the other room. Although it was tiring and utterly time consuming, it was excellent professional development and I'm really glad I was able to do it (and the bit of cash will pay for our summer flights home).
The way we spend our evenings once Leila has gone to bed has also changed with my new dairy-free diet. Previously we would cook up a big meal once a week and then have this for a few nights and then order in the other days or cook a simple meal. As we can't be sure that what we are ordering in has not been cooked with dairy, we have needed to cook every meal ourselves. Because you can't get 'ready meals' out here either, we have been cooking everything from scratch. We have had some lovely healthy food with loads of fresh, seasonal veg in it, but it has been tiring to have to buy fresh, prepare and cook every night.
Scotty has had a huge amount of work on these last four weeks with the school production of Les Mis. He spent hours and hours preparing the music when Leila was first born (and we were up all hours anyway!) but since January has been able to have a little break from it all. This month though saw weekend rehearsals and the usual jam-packed final few days trying to get everything just right. It was all worth it though because they pulled it off and as a school managed to stage not a school-version, but a west-end version of Les Mis.
Now though the production is over, I've finished my marking and the last day of term as been and gone. We've made it through the second term, we've made it through six months with Leila and we're finally having a few days to ourselves as a family here and our first 'holiday' holiday in years - five days in Luxor. Phew!
For me this month saw the IB TOK Marking come online and suddenly I went from working one day a week at school, to working every free minute trying to mark 170 essays before my 1 May deadline. The first challenge was getting back into the TOK mindset and getting my head around the essay titles posed and the mark scheme. I did a series of practise scripts and two sets of qualification scripts before I was moved on to 'live' marking. I knew that I had to average 7 scripts a day to get to my target on time and luckily I managed to exceed this some days so made the deadlines with enough time. There is no way that I would have been able to get the marking done if Leila hadn't changed her sleeping patterns. Every 30 minute nap in the cot meant I could mark one paper and without being so tired from constant wakings in the night I knew that I could mark once she had gone to bed too. At the weekends Scotty would look after Leila for the day while I marked in the other room. Although it was tiring and utterly time consuming, it was excellent professional development and I'm really glad I was able to do it (and the bit of cash will pay for our summer flights home).
The way we spend our evenings once Leila has gone to bed has also changed with my new dairy-free diet. Previously we would cook up a big meal once a week and then have this for a few nights and then order in the other days or cook a simple meal. As we can't be sure that what we are ordering in has not been cooked with dairy, we have needed to cook every meal ourselves. Because you can't get 'ready meals' out here either, we have been cooking everything from scratch. We have had some lovely healthy food with loads of fresh, seasonal veg in it, but it has been tiring to have to buy fresh, prepare and cook every night.
Scotty has had a huge amount of work on these last four weeks with the school production of Les Mis. He spent hours and hours preparing the music when Leila was first born (and we were up all hours anyway!) but since January has been able to have a little break from it all. This month though saw weekend rehearsals and the usual jam-packed final few days trying to get everything just right. It was all worth it though because they pulled it off and as a school managed to stage not a school-version, but a west-end version of Les Mis.
Now though the production is over, I've finished my marking and the last day of term as been and gone. We've made it through the second term, we've made it through six months with Leila and we're finally having a few days to ourselves as a family here and our first 'holiday' holiday in years - five days in Luxor. Phew!
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