And a time for every purpose, under heaven

I had a startling moment yesterday morning. I looked at the kid and realised that she's no longer a kid, she's a young woman. I guess with the wee bit of drama over the last few years, I never really stopped and looked at her. She was just always there, a constant. But over the last few months, she has really matured, which says a lot for a 17 year old. I'm extremly proud of her and how far she's come. Sure, she still drives me up the walls but those days
are becoming less. When I think back to her curled up on the bed, crying and crying, her arms red from where she'd been cutting herself to the confident and much older version walking out of NCAD with her portfolio under her arm its hard to relate the two. Its hard to go back to that time. That time when she didn't want anything except her mammy back. When her crying would absolutely kill me because all I could do was make her tea whilst Mammy2 held her.
Nowadays, there's the constant chatter of teenagers and her playing the Playstation. She has survived so much and come such a long way.

That was some long moment wasn't it?! She txted me on Monday to tell me she failed Maths and got a C1 in her english which she was very happy about. When she got home, we all headed to NCAD to pick up her portfolio. Apparently, there are over a thousand portfolios in there. She's not stressed or worried about it at all. I really want her to get NCAD. Although its not part of the Access programme which is a bit shit. The Access programme helps people who can't really afford college fees and all that. Its available on all the other colleges she's applied to but not NCAD. I'm sure we'll manage but it would have been handy. The mate K dropped over and I cooked dinner. The ever reliable potato. The mate was chatting about how she's going to get a job in the summer and she worked
last summer for a while and got some money. She gave most of her to her Mam though because her mam takes care of her and all that. The kid was pratically under the table at this stage with embaressment. The mate K continued with mentioning that she did her own washing and ironing. The kid had the sudden urge to to the toilet.

I was supposd to catch up with the mate from college yesterday but with funds quite low and the rent due on Thursday, I rescheduled. I had no plans and the mate R was having a shit day, so I met up with her as she de-stressed. I was fecking freezing, the night was so cold. What the hell happened to spring? Eh?

A phone call from the kid yesterday evening.

"Hi, one your way home bring pasta sauce"
"I'm not coming home until later"
"WHAT? There's no pasta sauce and I've just cooked pasta for K"
"Wait, you cooked pasta without checking if there was sauce first? What sort of weirdo are you?"
"Shut it, tell Mammy2 to pick some up, I want to give K some pasta"
"Mammy2 is in the gym and I don't know what time she'll be finished at. You'll have to cook her
something else"
"Crap, fine. I'll just make her something else"