For the first time in 28 weeks, happy Friday everyone!

At one point I was going to carry on with Weekly Check-ins throughout mat leave and I was even going to start a new series called Mum Mondays to go alongside! Because I was going to have so much time and so much opportunity to think and write and blog…

Pfft.

So here I am, with Weekly Check-in 106 after a 28 week break because that obviously didn’t happen. But this week does seem like a good week to pick things back up because:

-Baby Sophia is six months old!

-Which means that we have managed six months of parenting!

-And I have been breastfeeding for six months!

-This is the first week that we have attempted to juggle our daughter and two churches.

So, what’s this week been like? It’s been surprisingly good! It turns out that you can get a lot done when you have less time than you used to and you’re determined to be productive!

Highlights include:

Sweaty Mama exercise class.

A great mat leave debrief with my core team.

Foodbank (with Sophia in pram/sling!).

Rhyme time in Bootle.

Getting the annual meeting paperwork sorted.

Going to our breastfeeding group (the highlight of my week for the last 5 months).

Challenge: Coming back was tough. Let me be candid, I am back so soon because it’s what church needs, not because it’s what me or Sophia need.

Drain: Surprisingly, nothing feels like a drain yet. Not the 3 wake ups each night (minimum), not the 400+ emails in my inbox, not having to answer the phone again.

God moment: Despite being so heartbroken about going back to work, I was walking around church on my first day and I felt just as excited about it as I did when I first arrived. I know God has work for me to do in this place, and I’m excited to see what it looks like!

Ta-dah moment: I cleared 200 of those 400 emails!

Foodbank: I don’t know how many people we fed but I know I fed Sophia twice between 9 and 12.

Mum moment: Argh, how to pick just one?! Today Sophia went from a sitting position to a crawling position. She did this safely and on purpose. But what was her motivation? A bowl of chinese! That’s my girl!

Mum fail: I booked a funeral into my diary. I was free, church was free, the verger was likely to be free. But I completely forgot to check if Nathan was free to look after Sophia. Turns out that he’s also doing a funeral (that I put in his diary for him). Fail! But Nanny to to rescue!

It’s been a whirlwind of a week but I’ve enjoyed the challenge. Let’s see how long it lasts!