A moment that mattered from 2013

2013 was a funny old year.  With much of the early part of the year given over to Ian's operation and long, slow recovery, my memories are a bit of a blur.  It took a long time for Ian to get himself back to normal
and I think my brain has safely locked away all the stressful moments and worrying times that we experienced.  Recovery time was meant be be three weeks, but it took Ian something like six weeks to feel like himself again. That aside, and given that the outcome of the operation has improved Ian's life and future health, it wasn't all bad.

In 2013 we enjoyed some great family holidays to Center Parcs, Disneyland Paris and Butlins.  We had loads of great days out, threw some fun parties and did some cosmetic work on the house.  There was lots of fabulous family time and I got to meet my beautiful great nephew who I am totally smitten with.  I spent time with my grandson and watched as my own son became a wonderful dad, which made me immensely proud.

But if I had to pick one moment from 2013 that really made a difference to me, it would be Freddy starting school.  Being a July baby, meant he was just over 4 years old in September.  He had an incredibly traumatic time on starting nursery and never completely settled into the routine of his daycare.  Consequently I was worried sick about my baby boy being thrown into full time education. It really affected me negatively, although I tried not to show it. It hung over me like a dark cloud as the school holidays came to an end.

The local school he was due to start at, is a big, oversubscribed Infant school with a reception  intake of over a hundred children.  Securing the much sought after place just did not feel right for us. I thought he would be lost in the sea of little people and not given the one to one support he'd need.  So, at the eleventh hour, I refused the place and I found him one in a tiny, rural school with an intake of just seven kids and an ethos of care, compassion and family values. It just felt like the perfect setting for my little boy to thrive in, where he would be treated as an individual and given the time to grow.  I was still nervous about Freddy being at school from 9-3 everyday and worried about everything from him eating lunches to going to toilet.  But my boy surprised me.  He went straight in on day one without as much as a backward glance and has been a happy schoolboy ever since. He loves the school routine, adores his teachers, has lots of little friends and is learning at his own pace. I am just so proud of him and am so impressed with how he tackles life head on. He may be little, but he is a tough cookie and a real star.

This moment is also significant to me as his mother because I trusted my instincts and went against the expected route to find something that was right for my son.  It's a reminder to me of the importance of doing what's right for each of my children, treating each of them as an individual with their own needs and to fight tooth and nail to provide the best for them.  This is something that I try my very best to do, and so when it works out I feel totally validated as their mum.  It's nice to feel like I've done the right thing.  I so often second guess myself or over think situations or doubt my decisions, but sometimes you just have to trust your judgment and do what you believe is the right thing!

Competition entry for Lloyd's Bank.

Memories and Resolutions

Saying Goodbye to 2013 and Looking Ahead to 2014

Christmas wasn't quite the smoothly run affair I hoped it would be.  With storm damage that caused fences to fall like dominoes in our garden, to an oven that decided to give up on Christmas Eve afternoon, tripping all the fuses in the house, my plans didn't quite go to plan.

In spite of the disasters, we kept smiling.  Although we had no working oven on Christmas Day, my wonderful neighbours allowed us to pop over and cook our Christmas pie in their kitchen as they were away for the day. It wasn't the easiest way of cooking dinner, running between two houses wielding stoneware and oven gloves, but we managed. Thank goodness we are vegetarian and didn't have to worry about cooking a whole turkey!  We managed to improvise on the trimmings and knocked up a passable festive feast for twelve.  The vegan Sweet Potato, Chestnut and Cashew Nut Pie went down a treat with a host of vegetables and potatoes.

It was lovely having my parents, all the kids and Ian's sister Debbie over for Christmas Day.  Presents were exchanged and fun was had by all.  I gave my parents a photo book that I had made, detailing the story of my mum and dad's story from their childhoods through to the present day.  I loved finding old family photos, editing them to bring them back to their glory and including them in the photo book. It took me hours and hours but was worth every second of effort.  To say that my parents were delighted with it, is an understatement. I'm so glad that I was able to make it for them. My girls made me a hamper filled with fabulous things from Lakeland, so lots of baking will feature in 2014!

My son Joe, his girlfriend and my grandson Ted spent Christmas with us this year.  As ever it was great to see my son Joe enjoying being a dad to his little boy.  He is a fabulous father to that little boy.  Joe hasn't had the best time of things lately following a motorway car crash, which has knocked his confidence and left him with injuries that although minor are affecting him rather badly.  I love my son and want to see him happy and healthy in 2014.

We had some Christmas props to add to the fun and we took a load of photos of us wearing silly glasses, hats and beards!  They were the only photographs I took, due to my camera playing up and the general chaos of the day.

There is always a lot of laughter in our house, which always raises my spirits and fills me with cheer.  A hilarious highlight was when Megan and Joe managed to get a photograph of my 80 year old mum retweeted by Ricky Gervais and over 200 other people on Twitter! They re-enacted a scene from Derek where Kev puts cracker hats on the old folk that he had written rude names on.  My beautifully innocent and extremely accommodating mum became an internet sensation for the day appearing on Ricky Gervais's timeline for his 5 million+ followers to see, sporting an orange hat complete with a Sharpie marker embellishment.  So wrong, but so right, especially as my computer savvy mum understood the enormity of a celebrity retweet!

I was so proud of Freddy on Christmas day.  He is a child who does not enjoy change and thrives on routine.  He had already expressed concern about the idea of presents (as he doesn't know what was inside them) and struggled with Christmas decorations changing the way the house looked.  But with some cajoling he actually got quite excited about the concept of Christmas.  We had contingency plans in place in case he had a melt down, but bar a few inappropriate no-filter comments regarding presents that he did not approve of (namely clothing that wasn't blue and a book that wasn't a toy!) he coped perfectly well and had a wonderful day!

Ian bought a new oven on Boxing Day morning as soon as B & Q opened and installed it as soon as he got home, ready to cook a late brunch.  I love how efficient he is!

Adding to our festive disasters was the extra present delivered to us by some of our house guests, namely a rather virulent sickness bug that hit on Boxing Day afternoon, giving my three girls a night of tag teaming the toilet to be violently sick multiple times.The sicknesss bug was not fun, but the camaraderie shown by my kids as they supported each other through a horrendous night of being sick followed by a day of lying on the sofa feeling wretched, demonstrated the strength of their relationship.  It was heartwarming to see the three girls together under duvets watching their new Gossip Girl boxset together.  Plus Megan was delighted to have lost three pounds making the excesses of Christmas day obsolete.  Always a silver lining.

Megan went back to Manchester on New Year's Eve to celebrate the end of 2013 city style.  She has an exciting year ahead of her and I am extremely excited to see what 2014 brings to my wonderful daughter!

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve night eating, drinking and watching TV together.  The London fireworks were amazing to watch at midnight!

I hope 2014 brings good things to everyone.  This is the year that my Godson and nephew Thomas marries his American fiancee Ashley and starts a new life for himself in the USA. It is the year that my daughter Ella goes to university (conditional places at Salford and Manchester means she will be living in the same city as her big sister - perfect for me!)  It's Kizzy's last year at primary school before she goes up to secondary school, a huge milestone in her school life. Megan is embarking on a whole new adventure this year after re-evaluating her life. I am so proud of her! So there are some big, exciting changes coming.

On a sad note, I was devastated to discover some tragic news about a family member this week.  My thoughts and love go out to her and her family at what is a truly terrible and heartbreaking time.  Some tragedies put everything into perspective and make me reassess what is important and what really matters in this world.

With this in mind for 2014:

 I resolve to become the best version of myself that I can be.  
I resolve to be the best wife, mother and daughter that I can be. 
I resolve to look after myself and be as healthy and as happy as I can be.  
Everyday is precious and I resolve not to waste any more time through apathy or disillusionment.

Ja-NEW-ary Thinkings

It's the time when thoughts turn to resolutions, plans and hopes for the new year. Whether we are hoping to get slimmer, richer, fitter or more successful, the internet is awash with people's dreams for the 2013.  To be honest, up until now I haven't really involved myself with the concept of change this year.  I've been doing OK so why fix what ain't broken?!  But on closer inspection, my life could do with a bit of a makeover and the setting of achievable targets never hurts in motivating oneself to get off one's arse!

As an avid list maker, I have taken my virtual pen to virtual paper to jot down my '2013 To Do' list.  It includes people to see, places to visit and a few personal goals thrown in for good measure.

• This year will see a huge change for me as my baby boy Freddy will be starting school.  As a summer baby, he will be just 4 years and 2 months old as he joins Reception class. I've applied for a place at our local school.  He has his pre-school jabs next week, which makes it feel very real!  It breaks my heart just to think about it!  However I intend to spend the months up until September preparing my son to be ready for school.  We will do reading and writing and counting and crafts together. His fabulous nursery has made him so much more confident around other kids and will stand him in good stead for the hugest step in his little life to date.  For me, I will have much more free time.  I pledge not to become a couch potato glued to Jeremy Kyle and This Morning.  I will blog, I will volunteer, I will get fit and I will do more domestic goddess style cooking (I'm loving my slow cooker!) I will be productive!

• My blog is now over two years old.  It started with no expectations.  It grew quickly.  For a moment I thought I could make it something special and find a niche that would fit.  Then I was seduced by opportunities and PR contacts.  It evolved into something else.  It took on a life of its own.  In 2013 I want to reclaim my blog and steer it in a direction where I can be really proud of it.  I am not precious.  I am realistic.  I am happy to work with brands.  I enjoy doing blogger competitions.  I will never be dictated to nor will I lose my integrity.  I just want to find a bit more structure and balance.  As long as I enjoy it, Inside the Wendy House will continue. (I even bought my domain name - but am too scared to use it!)

• This year I really want to see the people who I care about that I haven't seen for a while.  Last year flew by and I neglected some of the relationships which matter most to me.  I have some amazing friends out there that I need to catch up with. This personal housekeeping is long overdue!  I also want to try to nurture relationships with other relatives.  I hardly know Ian's side of the family, and I'd love to rectify this in 2013! 

• As I am now a granny, I will make sure that I do as good a job as possible getting to know the adorable little boy who is my grandson.  It is an amazing feeling seeing the new generation of our family emerge and observing as the changing relationships develop.

• Last year I was lucky enough to give my family lots of amazing experiences through blogging and comping.    I hope that 2013 gives us as many brilliant opportunities.  I love watching Freddy's face as he witnesses something new and the girls love family days out.  We have our Merlin Annual Passes too plus we have our Butlins and Centre Parcs holidays booked up.  I want to fill the calendar with as many events as I can to punctuate our year.  I want Freddy to visit Warwick Castle this year.  He loves historical places and is so interested in castles and towers.  He is an old soul at heart!

• I intend to celebrate milestones and special days as memorably as I can.  We are beginning 'Operation Reclaim The Dining Room' and hope to enjoy many sit down meals together now Freddy is more open to the idea of sitting at a table for more than 5 minutes at a time.  In reclaiming our dining room, we will also be re-doing our living room, donating a load of stuff to charity shops and sorting out the chaos that is just beginning to subside now Fred is getting older and is less of a whirling dervish of destruction.

• Following on from celebrating special days, I intend to experiment more in the kitchen.  So for Burn's Night, homemade vegetarian Haggis will be on the menu.  Celebratory pies will be invented (my New Year's Day pie was pretty good!) and baking will ensue (themed gingerbread houses anyone??)  I plan to add a few more dishes to my repertoire.  I will be posting recipes on my blog to share my love of veggie food and grouping them on a 'Food For Thought' tab on my homepage.

• Lastly, I want to take photographs to document everything and preserve special memories.  I won't be doing any official Project 365/52 entries this year, but I will be taking pics everyday.  If I decide to post any I will.  Simple as that!  Oh the freedom :)

Add to the list: drop a dress size, buy some jeans that fit me, revamp my underwear drawer and go on some quality dates with my husband and I'm pretty much set to make 2013 as good as I can.  I hope that this year our highs will outnumber our lows.  I hope that we grow stronger in light of our inevitable challenges.  I intend to take stock of my blessings regularly and hold my loved ones close.

Goodbye 2012 - Hello to 2013!

Following an eventful 2012, we have thankfully survived the Mayan end-of-world predictions and are now poised at the threshold of a brand new year, 2013.

2012 has seen a lot of changes, some good, some not so good.

There have been some devastating tragedies that have made me take stock of my own life and hold my loved ones a little closer. I have shed so many tears and felt such sadness at times.  But there have also been some wonderful experiences, brilliant opportunities and joyous events that we have celebrated. I have laughed hard and had such fun making memories.

These days, I am not one to dwell on the negatives.  I finally see that the glass is never half empty ... it's always got air in it so the volume of liquid is irrelevant, it is always full!!  Life is so very precious.

I have learned a lot in 2012.

My family has been the cornerstone to my happiness this year.  I am so blessed to have really great parents who we are able to lavish love and attention on during their fortnightly visits.  The kids adore them and I am so happy to have seen the relationship between my mum and dad and my children flourish in 2012.  Making memories that they will cherish forever is something very special.

I have a wonderful nephew and niece, Tom and Kate, who mean the world to me.  I have been lucky enough to see them both this year and meet their respective other halves, Ashley and Mike.  I wish all four of them an amazing 2013 filled with everything they wish for.

I am so thankful to all the other people that have helped make 2012 so special for us all.  I hope to continue to surround myself with their love and friendship in 2013.

My own children make me proud everyday.  They are amazing and I am so honoured to be their mother.  They inspire me to do better.  To be better. They define me.  I adore each and every one of my wonderful children.

Finding the right college for Ella and the right nursery for Freddy has been a huge factor is ensuring my kids' happiness this year.  Being empowered to make changes has been so beneficial to us all.  No longer will I ever sit back and accept situations. Things don't have to stay the same.  If something isn't working, we can change it for the better.  Anything that allows negativity into our lives does not need to be tolerated.  I will fight tooth and nail to ensure that my loved ones are happy.

My marriage is a gift that I am blessed with.  The relationship I have with Ian is the thing that keeps me grounded, gives me confidence and strength.  By nurturing our relationship we become better people and better parents. I love my husband who is my best friend in the whole world.

The arrival of our first grandson on December 17th has changed the dynamic of our family in such a positive way, bringing such joy to myself and Ian, as well as to his doting aunties and Uncle Freddy and to his great grandparents who were all so delighted to meet him.  Baby Ted is a beautiful boy.  Seeing Joe as a daddy fills my heart with love and pride. We have so many wonderful adventures awaiting us in 2013.

I am entering 2013 with a happy heart and a positive outlook.

Happy New Year to everyone. x