High Five!

I am delighted to have been tagged by Mum With Carrot in Her Hair for the High Five meme. Beginning my blog has been a major highlight, but so many people have offered that so I won't include it. Here are five other highlights of my 2009:

1. On the 3rd March at our twenty week scan finding out that 'Minibunks', as we had christened my bump, was not only healthy and growing perfectly but was a boy! Now we would have a little brother for Gertie, which I knew, despite my husband's protestations, was what he really wanted. Gilby arrived safely (though not quite in the manner planned) on 27th July.

2. My husband getting through to the televised stage of Masterchef. Strictly speaking this should be his highlight, not mine, but I was thrilled.

3. Getting my bicycle for my birthday. I probably shouldn't include a material thing, but it really was a highlight as I had wanted one for ages and my husband managed to select the perfect model. The timing wasn't brilliant as I was seven months pregnant and I have had periods in my life where I have had a slightly better centre of gravity than that, but it has had plenty more use since the birth.

4. Having my poem, Apgar Score, published. Since this post is all about me(!), I will reproduce it here:

APGAR SCORE

There was a final tearing wrench
before we went from one to two.
They held you up in alien air
And took you for a minute.
Then they placed you on my skin.
I smiled, uncertainly, for the camera;
You turn your squashed-up face away
And in to me, as though to tunnel back in.
I didn’t know what to do
So I cried, I think;
And you cried, I think.
But somehow we muddled through.
Soon they took you from me again,
And did some things to that tiny you:
Weighed and measured and judged.

On display in that glass box
You passed your first tests.

5. This one might also seem a little odd, but it was going to the NATE (National Association of English Teachers) conference back in April. It was a whole weekend away with the chance to think about my teaching in a very focused way with no distractions. I had also been trying to get to the conference for five years and this was the first time my school had agreed to let me have the time and pay for the trip. I went with a good friend and had an amazing time - and these 'solo' experiences are so rare now.

So I know that lots of people have already been tagged with this, but I would like to pass it on to:

Hungry but Happy Mummy

It's A Mummy's Life

And anyone else who hasn't already been tagged but would like to share 2009 high points!

Life's Little Pleasures

I have been invited by The Wife of Bold to join the meme to list the ten best things in my life that are free. I love to think about life's little pleasures and remind myself of them - especially at new year, even though they change all the time. Some of them I can engineer, and some of them just have to happen spontaneously. Here are my current ones, in no particular order:

1. Watching a good crime drama with high production values. My addiction for Morse a few years ago has now been replaced by series like Wallender.
2. Doing anything together as a family, like our walk on new year's day or all going swimming.
3. Reading a book in the bath. It feels really indulgent and I am going to do lots more of it in 2010.
4. Riding my bike to the shop. My husband bought me a very retro 'sit up and beg' bike for my birthday last year and if it is a nice day I so enjoy a ride down to the local shop on a Saturday or Sunday morning when he is home to look after the kids. I feel healthy and free.
5. Scrapbooking. Creating a beautiful record of our lives and generating order from the chaos of a bundle of photographs and some dog-eared tickets or a theatre programme gives me a real sense of satisfaction.
6. Feeding scraps to my two chickens, Cecily and Isolde. They are so absurdly grateful and I feel a little like Ma Larkin.
7. Seeing my name in print. Sadly, even if it is just for a silly letter or filler in a magazine I get a little narcissistic buzz.
8. The feeling of total relaxation that comes when the house is completely clean and tidy and I am on top of all my chores. This one happens very, very rarely.
9. Watching Gertie do something charming and unprompted, like give her baby brother a spontaneous kiss, or throw her arms around my neck and clasp me in a suffocating cuddle, or do something little and helpful around the house without being asked.
10. Sitting by a roaring fire with my husband on a cold winter's evening when we have shut out the weather and the woes of the world.

Good. I feel better for all that. Looking forward to seeing if any of them happen today!