Our new toy and smiley moments...

To try to lift my 'want to run away to sea' mood, I thought I'd write a post about the happy things that've happened lately. Like this:
My two favourite boys with our wonderful new toy. Phil discovered he hadn't spent all of his inherited money when he was eighteen and we decided to be totally irresponsible and buy this instead of paying off a bill. We figured that we haven't calculated for the extra money and can manage without it, and that since both people who had told us they were giving us a piano as a wedding present never actually did (Phil's dad and his best friend - not the most reliable people in the world!!), it was about time we had one. Phil's old keyboard broke and Finn cried inconsolably when it didn't make a noise, so the delight on his face when this beautiful instrument came home with us was priceless. Chloe has fallen in love with it and was composing by numbers before I told her the names of the notes, so I hope we can afford for her to have lessons. She's never wanted to learn an instrument before so it'd be a lovely thing to do. Phil is in love with it too, and I think his musical may get written a whole lot quicker now...

We've fought a lot this week which is not like us at all, but it's so lovely seeing him so happy, lost in his music. I sometimes forget to tell him how much I adore him and I know he needs to hear it so I must make more effort. It's hard to be vulnerable though.

Mustn't drift off...positive things! Also, it was my darling girl's birthday. I was icing this until midnight the night before - I've never used a shaped cake tin before and I was pleased with the result - she was impressed too, and that's what counts!

Her request was for my parents to come for a sleepover, but since my dad is recovering from surgery after dislocating his shoulder skiing, my mum came with my brother and my sister and her boyfriend came for the day. My brother flew to America for the summer yesterday, so it was really special to have the time with him before he went. We went bowling and had pizza (it wouldn't have been my choice, but it wasn't my birthday, and it was a great day!) and then watched Dreamer (horsey film - new obsession there...) and my brother took her swimming the next morning. I haven't seen a nice photo of the two of us for ages, but I think I like this one:She's such a sweet and happy girl when she's surrounded by people who love her and things are going well. I just wish I could shake the worry that she's becoming more like I was as a child - I was so unhappy and I want her to know only good things - she's come through enough already.

This made me happy too. Since moving to our gorgeous house three years ago, I've missed the writing I'd painted on my walls at my old house. I think this came from the Joys and Concerns thread (which I miss terribly and may start doing on here) on the GP forum one week and I really loved it. It's in our hall now, and although I messed up the spacing on the first lines, I love it.And a picture of my funny, happy, smiling little man, and his rather gorgeous daddy to finish with...I'm very lucky and I must remember to count my blessings even on dark days.