well, life seems to be finding some sort of rhythm. it's a little irregular but then i'm a bit of a jazz fan, so that's fine with me - always good to work your way around a bit of improv!

it's been all hands on deck for the first 2 weeks, getting all the stock inventoried, barcoded, re-boxed and organised in the stock room. yes, you can now tell the difference between the stock room and the office! we've had more lights installed in the shop as the oh-so eco-friendly led lighting just wasn't cutting the mustard and we were getting tired of hearing comments from outside the window about whether we were open or not, even if they were fair comments.

even the children are adjusting to having daddy about during the week. rebecca (2) took to it in her stride (as i expected) but i think liam (4) was a little disconcerted - suddenly very objectionable. however, that seems to be passing now and it's less of a problem for him as to whom takes him to nursery, forces breakfast down him, etc.

you accept that your children will favour one parent over another in different circumstances and that there are 2 parental roles - mother and father. however, i think that this is often just an extenuation of the roles we played in their early lives. anne is their mother who nurtured them through their first months and years and i am the clown/ grumpy, over-worked wage slave who turns up at the very end of the day. now we're breaking those stereotypical roles, ie we're now both grumpy over-worked wage slaves! seriously though, we're not.

i'm a lot less grumpy (believe me, i still have my moments!) and i know anne appreciates sharing the burden more equally in raising 2 children. and neither of us is a wage slave to the extent that i was. we're doing this to make a living, certainly but we're doing something we both choose and (so far) thoroughly enjoy.

as we enter the full swing of the festive season and all it brings for us as novice retailers, i'm sure there'll be many more lessons to be learnt from new experiences but at least i won't be off to the far side of the world for 10 days immediately prior to christmas and we can both prepare together for a family christmas.