Negotiation, Negotiation, Negotiation

It's all about negotiation. Whether it's governing the village primary school, sitting on the church fete committee or just organising the family.

Half term is over and my life can return to normal. Both girls are now at the secondary school so at least their timings and days off coincide, and the bus deals with the journey so I don't even need to get dressed until they've gone - in fact it's a strategy I recommend to avoid the call to take them into school in the car.

Eldest has been ballet dancing throughout the holiday and then performing on stage. She loved it, and would do it all over again tomorrow, but it was tough on the rest of us: weekends committed to getting her to and from 6 hour days of lessons and rehearsals, and then ditto during half-term. Not much fun for Youngest, 'though she seemed to enjoy 'just chilling': largely prone in front of the telly. We also sorted her room and did a bit of cooking, but it was hardly holidaying in style.

In case you wondered the show was great fun: Coppelia, with a large cast of children - mostly girls - and 4 professional dancers to keep them in line. Colourful and humerous with hummable music... I saw it twice. Difficult to spot my apparently grown up daughter amongst the 3o on stage with her all in the same costumes!

Governing continues to take up quite alot of my time, and could take it all if I let it. It doesn't seem to matter how much time you give it because it is never enough and there's always more we should have done. And getting people on side seems to take up so much of the time that moving forward always takes longer than you expect (and my targets are pretty low to start with).

And we've had our first church fete committee meeting of the year, so that's another area of negotiation and gently gently don't upset anyone plans set in motion. I wonder if I dare abandon my planned stall and set to sorting out a different one...