Thursday’s Fostering Blog
We are fast approaching half term. It has been one of those half terms that has felt like it has gone on forever, but now we are approaching the break it somehow seems to have gone fast. Looking back we have crammed so much in; so many appointments at the hospital and in the community with our foster daughter. I think that Lauren has just about got into the new routine at her new school and we are all getting to grips with the amount of homework that high school expects and the stresses that causes both the girls and Charlie and I.
Lauren will be celebrating her birthday during the half term. We have booked a week away in a cottage on the south coast, so she will get to do some of her favourite things by way of celebration – choose her favourite breakfast, sit on the sand and watch the tide coming in eating pasties and then have her favourite takeaway for tea – Chinese! But before all that can happen I have got today and tomorrow to sort everything out for the holiday – packing clothes for me and Alice, checking that Lauren and Annie pack their clothes, then I tend to the list we have for Alice – her medications, catheters and equipment that must be taken wherever we go on holiday. I now have a list that I print out whenever we go away. Although, I have a pretty good memory, there are things that simply can’t be forgotten and would be impossible to replace while away – the last thing we would need is a trip home to fetch forgotten items.
As well as all the packing, we also have to finish buying and wrapping Lauren’s presents and then try and hide them in the car without her seeing. The last thing on the list to sort (and probably the most time consuming) is the birthday cake. Unfortunately a couple of years ago I started making home made cakes. They went down so well, that now the girls only ever want home made cakes. Shop bought cakes simply wont do.
This year is a cat theme! So in the middle of packing, I bake a three layered madeira cake (have found that madeira lasts a bit longer, and is easier to ice) filled with butter cream, crumb coated and then covered in fondant. I will then pass the baton to Charlie who is very creative and will make the fondant characters to place on top of the cake! And when all that is done we can go on holiday and hopefully get some rest and relaxation too!
A Less Ordinary Foster Care Blog
