Joys and Concerns

Well, I've been trying to find a spare moment to post here for ages, and tonight's the night! My baby brother (who is not a baby at all) has just got back from America, where he's just spent his summer, and has come to visit but is currently asleep on the sofa beside me. Phil is upstairs with swine flu (which he wishes he'd waited until next week to catch as this is the last week of his holidays) and the children are - for a short while, at least - both asleep! So, not to push my luck or induce guilt that I'm not using this time to work, I'm going to get on with my current joys and concerns.

Joys:
We've done some lovely things this summer
I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful family
My doula training course is already proving an incredible experience and we've barely started
I have read a lot lately
I've done some writing recently
I had a little time to do some crafty things this week
We visited my Grandparents this week and they are very well and happy
The No-Cry Sleep Solution is helping me feel more positive about our nighttime situation!

Concerns
My sister and her partner's best friend was found dead in his flat yesterday. He was 25. No words are enough.
Chloe is still unhappy and it terrifies me when I can't reach her.
I was expecting an all-clear from the hospital but have been called back for a further appointment, which is making me anxious.

None of the usual rubbish seems to matter much in light of my first concern. I only met him a few times. He epitomised 'live fast, die young'. Everyone is in shock right now and the utter devastation left behind him is vast - he was his parents' only child. I can't get them out of my head. Or my baby sister, who's partner is unpredictable and doesn't deal with emotions very productively. I just spoke to her and she sounds stunned and very, very wobbly. They don't even know what happened yet, it's just so very sad.

What a way to get back to posting. I guess I just needed to put this somewhere, and I'm sorry this isn't uplifting like the J&C thread usually is. Normal service will resume soon.

All singing, all dancing...

I am writing this to a background theme of the songs from Mamma Mia and two dizzy children, spinning around the lounge! It's a good way to relieve tension, we've discovered, and is a great way to energise us all and blow away the cobwebs.

So here are some photos of the fun we've been having. We've also had some bits which weren't fun but we didn't take photos of those as I thought it'd make a miserable post - maybe we'll do that one day when we're bored, lol!

This is the gorgeous meal Chloe cooked for us - she planned it and made it all by herself and it was delicious:

Vegetable Risotto and chocolate cake! We went to Phil's cousin's wedding last week - it was a really lovely family day and we were very proud to have such happy, smiling and funny children with us! They had a great time dancing with their aunties and finding frogs in the grounds of the reception venue - and Finn gave up during the meal and just took some time to chill out:

On his back is his relaxed pose, on his tummy is full-on tantrum sulk - already, and he's only 15 months!! He's got a few words now, 'bu-bye', 'nunnight', 'daddeee' and 'hiya' (usually with a pretend phone by his ear, lol) are the extent of his range but are very, very sweet!

We've just had a lovely week in Cornwall, in a cottage my parents rented for a fortnight - I'm sure they were more exhausted at the end of the holiday than the beginning but at least they had a peaceful week before we arrived! We were supposed to go to Wales to visit my grandparents this week, but I had mastitis at the weekend so have been recovering, and it's actually been lovely to have the time at home. I've done a lot of the work for the first module on my doula course, it's very intense and there's a lot of it, but it's going to be a wonderful experience and I can't wait for the first weekend.

A lovely tom cat has adopted us and we're waiting to see if anyone claims him but secretly hoping we can adopt him too! And we're off to Exmoor tomorrow, which will be lovely (but we need some sunshine as we're borrowing a caravan and want to play in the stream all week!) - got to pack now, lots of board games and a guitar for our evenings. Can't wait!