This week's Gallery theme, in partnership with Josie at Sleep is for the Week, is Emotion.  It's only the second time I've posted to the Gallery - here is my post.

Hold on tight for the mother of all rides
Laughing so hard my cheeks might split
Sometimes dipping low, depleted
It's the best ride of my life
Motherhood

I know last weeks theme was motherhood, but I just started thinking about emotions and this is what came out!

1. You feel that 8am is a luxurious lie in.
2. You realise you've driven a whole journey by yourself and forgotten to change the children's CD.
3. Your 'best top' is about 5 years old and you still refer to it as your 'best top'.
4. You enjoy 'pegging out'.
5. Your idea of a good night probably involves peace, quiet & a bath.
6. You become a master at balancing towers of tupperware on the draining board.
7. Your car bears a striking resemblance to a rubbish skip on wheels.
8. You catch yourself saying things that your mum used to say to you.
9. Your once plump sofa cushions have been replaced by an assortment of festering apple cores, biscuit crumbs and those really annoying plastic toys from the front of children's comics.
10. You love it, you hate it, but wouldn't change any of it.

This post was written as part of the British Mummy Blogger's carnival with no other theme than to be fun and uplifting.  I chose to pull together a list of 10 things that I know make me look at myself and laugh and think how much my life has changed since being a mum.  The photo was taken last weekend on my birthday - cycling with the kids & my husband in the New Forest & sums up the happy day with the kids trying to push me down a slope into the stream!

On Friday my little boy looked at me and asked; 'Mum, why don't we go on adventures any more?'.  It stopped me in my tracks.  Our 'adventures' started when my daughter, Rosie, was born as a way of creating some special one on one time with Will.  So, on the weekends when my husband was around to look after Rosie for a while, I would whisk Will off for a morning of 'Rosie free' fun and adventure, a chance for us to spend some time together larking about like we used to without the demands of a newborn to tend to.  Over time, as Rosie has grown and Will is now at school full time, finding this one on one time has proven more and more difficult.  This Saturday we reclaimed it and went on a magical mystery tour.

'Where are we going, mum?'
'Aha, you'll have to wait and see!'  (read - 'Don't actually know, hoping for inspiration as I pull off the drive')

I slurp on my big takeaway insulated mug of black, sugary coffee and frantically rack my brains.

It comes to me. 

I remember seeing an intriguing path dipping away from the road down between the trees and vaguely recall someone telling me of a little known park in that direction.   We park up and I refuse to give in to Will's demands; 'Mum, TELL me, where are we going?', enjoying building up the anticipation for him to experience.  He scoots along happily through the cutting, alongside a delightful stream and a boardwalk with unusual bog plants and grasses.  We spot butterflies and genuinely delight in enjoying the experience of these new surroundings together. 

Then I spot the park, and it's a good one - there's a zip wire and swings like ski lift seats.  I'm no longer his mum but his 5 year old friend haring around, equally as keen as him to try out the new park. 

Happy boy Will

On the way back to the car, I realise it's not the end destination that's so important about this experience, more the fact that for that short space of time he has my undivided attention.  I can carry his water bottle, his coat, and chat with him about why butterflies don't fly in a straight line without having to balance his demands with those of my daughter.  This, I realise, is what makes the experience magical for him, and for me too.

There were 3 things Will was really cross about on the way to school today;

1.  His hair was sticking up
2.  He REALLY needed a wee
3.  His new shorts were rubbing his knee

...and I mean cross like you would be cross if you had a nasty, unexpected bill to pay, or had dropped yoghurt down your top.

My attempts to smooth things over:
1.  'I LIKE your hair like that - it looks ... cool.'
'No it doesn't, it looks STUPID.  I HATE it.  Why does it DO that?'

2.  'If we keep going, we'll be there soon and then you can go for a wee.'
'But it really hurts mummy and I need to go now, oh , oh, oh!'

3.  'You'll get used to your shorts - it's just because they're new and you're not used to feeling them rub on your knees like that'
'But it really hurts mummy and they look STUPID.  I HATE them.'

There were 3 things that Will was really excited about on the way to school today;

1.  We saw a HUGE woodlouse ('Mum, I think he had a big birthday party last night and ate a big wooden birthday cake - that's why he's so big')
2.  He found a bolt lying in the road
3.  The sun was shining

... and all was well with the world again.

A small trip to school but so typical of our many travels with the kids that I decided to record it - ups, downs, disagreements and a good few laughs along the way.

We are just emerging from 5 weeks of building chaos to a newly modelled version of our house.  Having spent 5 years living in a cramped, peeling kitchen and putting up with carpets which make you feel like you're living on a fuzzy felt set we have been thrust into a newer, sleeker way of living, with open spaces, wooden floors and uncluttered worktops....

Feels great.  I don't want to break the spell!  I'm scared to start bringing 'the stuff' back out of the loft.  Last night I had a liberating thought; 'Maybe I won't.... maybe I'll just leave it there.... maybe we could even get rid of it.'  For years I have been struggling to find places on shelves, worktops and windowsills for vases, 'nick nacks' and other well meaning gifts which we could well do without, and now that we have done without realise we actually prefer the clear, uninterrupted space and feeling of travelling light.

Do you love to collect & hoard things along the way or prefer to travel light?