Well what an amazingly exciting start to the week.
No, not because my husband and I were jumping around the living room at 6:30am this morning doing our "Beachbody Insanity Max Out 30 session with Shaun T" as an attempt to build ourselves back into a routine after the festive period and determined to get it done before the kids wake up.
No, not because I have one week til I perform "I'm Sorry But..." with Bee in my Beanie Theatre Company at The Bread and Roses Theatre, London where I collaborate with a bunch of brilliant woman to showcase our own new pieces of work.
No, not because it is a few days since I met with the cast of 2019's UK Theatre Tour of "Hormonal Housewives" for our photoshoot as I will be joining them (stay tuned - another blog coming about this!)
Although, all of the above are rather exciting!
No, it is not because the children were back at school today either. It is a particularly brilliant start to the week because my daughter, Bea, was not at school today! She was with me, doing her first acting job. We were acting together!
I am oozing with pride, my clever little girl has gone and done her first job. And what a fun one it was!
We travelled to London together, working our way through colouring books, sticker books, search and find books and some good ol' sessions of 'eye spy'. We did also visit the train toilets about a trillion times because what is not to love about the futuristic locking loos that speak to you when you enter? (To which my daughter replied politely with "We know that thank you" every time she was robotically told to "Please lock the door" too).
We arrived after a quick coffee stop - cos mummy really needed a coffee - and a rapid outfit change for Bea, as her light grey leggings were now covered in the remains of anything she ate on the journey. We were greeted with smiling faces upon our arrival, more food and drink and a gigantic box of a well known brand of building bricks which kept us entertained for hours.
We played as the other children and parents were called to do their bits, my little firecracker of a daughter took the whole thing in her stride, as if she had done it hundreds of times before. Finally it was our turn. Bea was called in first and happily marched off with the lovely chaperone to go and do her job. I was then called to do my bit and lastly we were reunited again to do our bit together. What a way to kick start a week eh?
Parents everywhere battle with guilt - are we doing things right? Is the work/life balance ok? Am I making the right choices? And believe me, I am no different, but today was proof that everything was right. My daughter and I were working together and both loving every minute of it. Meanwhile my son and husband were holding fort at home, having treats of their own and a scalextric-a-thon until way past bed time. All previous efforts and uncertainty and sacrifices seemed to make sense as it has led us to this.
To the me who worries about every eventuality, to the point of exhaustion sometimes, thank you for following your heart and trusting your instinct, please worry less and trust yourself more. Here is to a brilliant 2019 so far (and we are only a week in) and more of the same please.