Out With the Old

It goes without saying that today is a day of reflecting back on the past year. I guess this whole week between Christmas and New Year is a time of quiet reflection. That's how it is with me right now. Unusual for me. I'm not usually a one for nostagically looking back and reflecting as we head towards a New Year. But I am. Not feeling particularly nostalgic but definitely looking back and thinking about all that's happened this past year.

I think it's because my life has changed so incredibly dramatically over the past 3 yrs. Having gone through huge emotional, physical and geographical changes in that time, I'm looking back in quiet awe. I survived. Thank God. I'm moving on. Slow but sure. New challenges ahead. I know. But I'm moving on and forward. Trusting in God more. Me less. Being Still. Listening. Taking time to find purpose in my life. Real purpose. Every day purpose. Diane. Finding Diane. Knowing that being who I am is enough. Wife. Mum. Grandmum. Daughter. Sister. Aunt. Niece. Friend. Neighbour.

I'm quietly confident about the New Year. Not making New Year's resolutions. That's not me. But looking forward to new things. Fresh starts. I love that feeling of fresh new hope at the beginning of the New Year. It's motivating. Inspires me onwards. I'm excited about the goals, hopes and dreams I have for this New Year. Happy to leave the old behind. Living in the moment. Hoping and praying for the future.

Happy New Year!

Moments of Nothing

I've had the most wonderful couple of days filled with moments of nothing much at all. I'm fighting off a cold virus (again) but mainly, I've been exhausted and just needed to do nothing. Both my parents have been very ill recently and the run-up to Christmas was so crazy busy making sure everything was in place for a special altogether family Christmas. And we did it. So the exhaustion was worth it.

And there was peace and comfort knowing we (my siblings and I) did all we could to help our parents in their time of need. Even with great resistence from them. Huge resistence. They're so young. Really. Not even 70 yet. Isn't that young? I think so. And as such I understood their frustration at not wanting their children to help them as much as we had to. C'est la vie. I also noticed that the resistence got less and less as they realised deep down, they needed the help.

So back to my nothingness. I sat and watched tv and dvds most of yesterday and today. Nothing exciting. A couple of costume dramas, Jane Eyre, The Tudors and some West Wing as well watchable rubbish on tv such as Christmas cooking shows.

I slept. I dozed on and off. I needed that. I needed to just sit and do nothing. I lit some candles and pulled the curtains. It's been so cold outside and seemed perfect time to just curl up and do nothing. We all need those moments of nothing sometimes.

Comfort & Joy

Comfort and joy of spending Christmas with my family. All my children, their families, my parents and my brother and sister and their families. Yes. Much comfort in that and oh so much joy. Incredible time. Interesting too. Cooking for seventeen of us. Seating seventeen of us in a fairly small dining room and then living room for the traditional present opening. Oh it really was a joyful time. I feel truly blessed to be part of this family.

It's different. It might not be to everyone's cup of tea. All of us. So close. Almost too close. In each other's pockets really. But it's us. It's who we are and right now at this time of year, it's what we all needed. It's what I needed. To be with my mum and dad. To have my children close. To have my granddaughter close. We had fun. It was a good day.

And now a time of reflection. A time of thought about the end of this year and the coming of a New Year. I love the hope of a new year and the opportunity to make plans and write out new goals.

December Happenings

Fighting a rotten cough cold kinda thing at the moment. Ugh! Not nice but praying it'll be gone before next week so I can enjoy the festivities with my family. We're having a big family Christmas; my parents; my siblings and their families and my kids and their partners, families. Yay! It's exactly what we need. To be together.

I've had a busy couple of weeks with various family, work and festive happenings. It's been good albeit tiring. One the more recent events was my granddaughter's 2nd birthday! Happy Birthday, Jorja. Yay!
Two years old. She's such a ray of sunshine and a huge blessing to us all in oh so many ways. I'm so very proud of her and of her Mummy and Daddy who do extraordinarily well bringing her up. Seriously amazing parents. We had a small family gathering on her actual birthday and then she had a bigger party for everyone at the weekend. Both events were lots of fun although we left the party early due to aforementioned illnesses! Blech!

A week before her birthday and before this wretched cold, I took Jorja to the Reindeer Village in Bethersden with my sister and her little girl and my parents. What a wonderful place! So much fun and really got us in the festive mood. The girls (granddaughter and niece) absolutely loved it. Wasn't that too impressed with Father Christmas ha! We were though. It was the real deal. Not just a pretend Father Christmas with fake beard. Nope. We saw the real Father Christmas. A fleeting visit before his busy period really kicks off!