Has it REALLY been that long?

I can't believe it's been 16 months since I last blogged.

What happened?  Life happened, that's what and I fell off the blogging bike and didn't manage to get back on again.

However, things have calmed down now and so I shall start posting things about my crafting again.

Nothing drastic or bad happened over the last 16 months, it was simply that life got much busier. 

Both daughters started the last year at their respective schools in September 2017.  This meant that a couple of months before that, DD1 started considering which universities to look round and apply to.  We spent three days and two nights away from home, attending the Open Days at three of her possibilities and she went to look at another one with her school.  Then came writing her Personal Statement for her UCAS application (I hadn't realised how important that is).   She also had mock A-level exams and sat the Cambridge University entrance exam.  Then came university interviews and offers.  Of the five universities she applied to, four asked her to go for an interview and one gave her an unconditional offer without interview (if she put it as her first choice).  She was offered conditional places at three of her choices and got a rejection from Cambridge (there were tears, but she soon got over it).  Then came final choices and finally she sat her A-levels and we then waited for Results Day and were delighted when she got 3 A*s and an A which meant she comfortably fulfilled her first-choice offer and just over five weeks ago she and I went to London so she could move into the Halls she'd been allocated and start her degree in Physics at Imperial College London.  I can't express in writing how proud we are of her and her achievements so far and how hard she's worked to get where she is :)  She calls a couple of times a week (I think now that she's halfway through the first term and the excitement of the first couple of weeks is finished she's feeling a little bit homesick) and seems to have settled in really well and sounds as though she's met some very nice people.

As for DD2, she had to move from the SEN school she'd been at since a week after she turned 5 to somewhere else that offered a suitable place for her special needs.  In short, I narrowed it down to one place and told the local education authority that if they couldn't confirm a place there, we'd have to think about the private school owned and run by the National Autistic Society (which costs lots of £ a year).  She started at the school (sorry - College - we're not allowed to call it School!!) at the beginning of September and has settled in well, helped by knowing three girls she used to be at school with who are a year older than she is.  It wasn't an easy transition as she was resistant to changing schools, but we got there in the end, but had some bumpy moments.

So, life has now calmed down and we've adapted to our new routine, so feel able to start blogging again, which means I need to dust off my proper camera and make sure it's got an SD card in it!

I'll 'speak' to you again soon

xx