Reagan is guarded but if you allow her to talk about how hard she is working she will tell you she is doing her to pass as many GCSEs as she can, I only want her to do her best because that’s enough. She is learning to play the piano which is a nice break from academia and likes buying clothes off Vinted I will always be there to support her as she makes me proud every day as she approaches her 16th birthday.

Lincoln seems to find academia easy obtaining a near perfect score in religious studies and all the teachers want to teach him because he has the potential to pass any subject highly if he put the effort in. The next two years will be very good for him after choosing subjects that light him up like drama and music but I hope one of the lesser subject like photography or film study don’t go ahead because I would live him to study history. Playing drums is good for him but drama at school and at the Lyceum is his favourite and I will support him whatever he does. He makes me proud every day!

Jamie has two main roles the main one is matriarch to our family something she has waited her whole life for and is so good at it even if she thinks otherwise. The second is her career that in 13 years since deciding to do an Open University coarse, to running the best fertility counselling team in the country from Harley Street, London, she just carries on achieving what she knew was always possible. I love watching her thrive and she makes me proud every day.

Me I just their biggest supporter…

After “acquiring” an NVR that has sat by my feet for a couple of years I got a bee in my bonnet to see if I could get it working so bought a PoE camera and give it go.

I was surprised how easy it was once I had factory reset the NVR it was basically plug and play after that.

Talking to Jamie I explained how I could use it and add a couple of cameras cover the whole property so its going to be a little side project to install what I’ve got and add to it as and when?

Odd fact while I practiced setting it up i got it all running in the bedroom and Jamie suggested letting it film us all night! Fascinating as it sounded we created a yawn movie with undubbed snoring lol

With Reagan in Poland on a school trip, Jamie in Newcastle upon Tyne speaking at a conference, and Lincoln home alone, I was lying in my hotel bed looking at the 360 app and realised our family has probably never been independently as far away from each other as it is right now.

A sure sign that the children are growing up and beginning to need us less… sadly.

When I got home, the house was as tidy as I left it. Linco had been skating with his mates the night before, come home, cooked some food in the air fryer, washed up and gone to bed. This morning he got up, showered, fed the cat, walked the dog, made himself some breakfast and, again, made sure the house was tidy. The last thing I said to him was, “I love you, don’t let me down!” and he didn’t.

Reagan had organised herself while I slept and woke me at 03:10 to say we needed to be across the road in 20 minutes to meet the teachers (who didn’t arrive until 03:50, by the way!). She then flew off to Poland for the weekend to experience Krakow and visit the Auschwitz camp museum.

Jamie was working, being the success she was always going to be, speaking at a fertility conference in Newcastle, where lots of people will undoubtedly be impressed by her and realise what we already know, how great she is.

I love seeing how my family is thriving and living their best lives. My tiny part in all this, might just be my greatest achievement.

I hope I’m with Reagan at that moment when she realises how hard it is to earn enough money to buy something she really really wants but has to prioritise buying something she needs instead.

Tonight she ‘needed’ to go to Boots in Crewe to get liquid items small enough pass through airport security tomorrow when she travels to Poland on a school trip. She bought every single thing she might need plus everything suggested on the school packing list then added snacks mints and sweets as she dragged me round M&S food looking for over priced breakfast bars? Unable to locate said granola bars needed to call at Morrisons on the way home to finalise her shopping for a two day trip.

£40+ later she’d even bought a £5 clear case to put it all in, I should say here that it was me paying through gritted teeth knowing half the stuff she does not need and the rest I have witnessed her throw away because she’d used it once and now it wasn’t new! Reagan turns her nose up watching her mom scrape the last dregs of foundation out of a bottle using the tube attached to the dispenser because she  know how long it takes to earn another bottle a lesson our daughter has yet to learn!

I have a drawer full of pencils in my shed all recovered from the bin when Reagan needs all new stuff for the new school year, most of them still factory sharp when I got them? All the torches I use were from bin dipping when she “tidies her room” I could go on but my frustration would boil over.

So tonight she got what she wanted all new all just how she imagined in her head she would arrive at the airport, so she’s happy. What I am going to do is unpack her bag on Monday because she will be too exhausted to do herself just to see how pristine most of all that new stuff still is!