An End and A Beginning Samuel starts school in three months. The enormity of that statement keeps hitting me like an express train. At the moment, it still feels a long way away; the rapid flicking of the calendar over into new month after new month, tells a different story. I have such conflicting emotions about the whole thing. When Benjamin started school it was different – a new adventure for us and him. He was well and truly ready. Now, three years on, facing the impending start of “big school” for my smallest boy, carries with it quite different sentiments. It is a turning point, a rubber stamp on a page in my passport, declaring that I am now entering a different and completely foreign land, from which there is no return. For precisely seven years (Benjamin celebrated his seventh birthday less than a fortnight ago), I have had small children at home. There have been seasons when I have stayed at home with them full time, and seasons where I have worked part time,