The swing

This is Madeleine, flying. The swing is her favourite thing in the world to do right now. She can stay on there for hours. Sometimes in silence. At other times, the park echoes to her jubilant shouts of joy: "Weeeeee!" she yells, mimicking Peppa Pig, as her funny little baby-mullet lifts in the wind and her knuckles turn white to my "Hold on tight!"

"More high? More high?" she begs, and I really  put my back into pushing her. "Do you feel like you're flying?" I ask. She grins. "YES!"

I am swinging, too. Up: I am trying new things and I am taking the Blog With Pip course from Pip Lincoln and I am mapping out the beginnings of a new book... I am high and I am flying. Down: Harry is waking and staying awake throughout the night, I'm getting less than three hours of sleep in every 24 hours, and I ache with weariness. Sometimes my eyes can't focus. Sometimes it physically hurts to sit up. But still I have to care and play and nurture and manage tantrums and comfort fevers and meet those pesky work deadlines... I am low and I am motion-sick. I am probably just one more sleepless night away from administering tea intravenously.

The swing is why things have gone a little quiet around here of late. I'm giving myself permission to focus on other things. Like survival! Yes, survival, but also very exciting changes to happen on this blog. I can't wait to share them with you when I get them finished. Oh and that new book. Not the I've-been-working-on-it-forever novel, which will still happen ONE DAY, but something a little closer to the contents of this blog and I really hope you like it!

Way to be all circumspect, Naomi. I think on Facebook they call this "vaguebooking," don't they? I'm sorry, I just have to clarify everything in my mind and plot everything down on paper (I'm old-fashioned like that) before I will know how to share it with you. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I hope you are well. Tell me what you have been doing! What have you been dreaming / planning / wishing for? Fill this space with your lovely words while mine take a back seat!

Yours truly, Naomi xo