Mummyfried

As the sun begins to dip toward the horizon on my two-year journey with the School Parents and Guardians Committee, I find myself navigating a sea of nostalgia and frustration. It's been quite the adventure, filled with highs and lows that have left their mark on my heart. I stepped into the role of secretary (despite my lack of Greek) with lofty ambitions of revolutionizing our local school community with global best practices. Little did I know the whirlwind of emotions and experiences that awaited me. Perhaps it’s the exhaustion, the perimenopausal rollercoaster, or the stress from work, but this school, nestled in the sunny coastal suburbs of Athens with just 200 students, has become more than just a place of education for my kids—it’s my second home - a place to rest. Balancing the desires of my children has been like walking a tightrope with fire underneath. One demands my participation at every turn, while the other wishes for invisibility at the school gates. It's a del...

For those who do not know me, I am not particularly comfortable around animals. I selectively pet dogs and avoid cats like the plague. I think household pets are seriously smarter than what we give them credit for. Find a good docile attentive owner - and the ideal lifestyle is created. This gives any human like me, watching from afar hope to be reincarnated into a household pet. Birds are as close to my heart as my love of hard labor on a summer’s day. Fish are to be eaten, or left to navigate the planet's plastic polluted waters. They definitely should not crammed into a small round fishbowl or not flushed down the toilet when they die. We live in a dog-friendly and dog-loving leafy area, decorated with an enormous sprinkle of dogshit. This means I walk around the area with a not-so-happy or light spring in my step.  My discomfort goes further. I simply can’t deal with houses that smell like animal. Despite the above, I often find myself in the distasteful position of having cats...

Last week was unusual. Filled with genuine highs and laughs and a very big punch in face low. The impact of the low made me feel like a flat tyre rotating on a long steady road. The sound of a dead thump repeating itself over and over again. The extreme high of reconnecting with people, experiences, love and the promise of a new adventure pumped some air into the tyre and the sound of the dead thump wasn't as deafening. A serious ‘one to one prep talk to myself’ combined with a few laughs with my two cherubs and Mr Lucky normally snaps me out of the low but for the first time in a long time, I haven't been able to shake it.   This low has made me want to run it out get my heart pumping, start sweating it out, return home to shower it all away. Of course I visualise the running thing. Being a role model (note, the emphasis on role and not model) to my children, an individual that can deal with anything thrown my way - my comfort eating technique stopped a long time ...