loving on a Thursday

Today I am expressing my gratitude to the wonderful Mother Nature. She is a fantastic force of which I am always in complete awe.

Within the last 2 weeks, we have had freezing blizzards of snow, rain, beautiful sunshine and cloudy yet warm days.

yet, with all this interchangeable weather, the flowers still grow, the squirrels have awoken and are already busy collecting, the birds are returning and I am full of glee.

I love my life. When I was a kid and imagined how my life was going to be, this is it. I have a really brilliant husband who I love adore and a son who I feel blessed to have, for me, work is coming together.

Sometimes, when one isn't feeling so gleeful, it is hard to see the good in our lives. The unfinished book that we really want to find the time to finish and get published, the car that we long to have but is out of the budget range, the sleepless nights having a new born baby, or having a really stressful job - all these things can really narrow our impressions of life. But I dare you to go for a walk TODAY, and just take the time to look around and see what you haven't notice before, even if it's a 30 minute stroll to your local park. I was walking the other day along a route that I would normally drive and saw this really beautifully built building, it's really ornate and very well maintained. Its got really gorgeous flowers in the front garden and all the paint looks fresh, its on the roadside but not having a car allows me to just potter about.

I took the above picture on Saturday - the day with real sunshine in the sky. I walked past this plant and at that precise moment thought to myself, I want to smell the sunshine and to my friends amusement I stood stock still and just sniffed, rolled my shoulders back, looked up to face the sun and smelt this wonderful floral smell, looking down I saw this flower in all its spring time glory...I simply had to take it's photo!!

I love the fact that no matter what our human emotions are doing, mother nature rolls on doing her work, bringing out the flowers, making the ever changing weather and wiping the slate clean for us to appreciate.

So my thought for this blog is a) what are you loving today and b) when was the last time you took time smell the flowers?

so much kind support

Thank you so much, I have had soooo much lovely words over my poor little car, But, it would be nice if those comments were maybe left here for others (and me)to read.

I know that sounds slightly weird, but I would like to take my blog forward, with it becoming more thought provoking, and if you think that your words could maybe trigger some long forgotten memory for someone, or would add to my words then please feel free.
Before I starting writing this (and sometimes still do) I wondered if anyone would want to read my thoughts about me and my very ordinary life, I took the time to think, am I really that self centered that I would put my life out there for people to read? Now, I don't think I am being self centered, this is sort of a good thing for me to do. I love writing and I really enjoy allowing people to associate themselves with something I have written - as much crappy as that sounds!!! maybe write something about the entry, or to do with the ever changing thought for this entry - I really do take the time to read each and every comment that is left - I enjoy hearing what others are up to!!

I think as humans, what truly sets us apart is our deep rooted emotions, to love who we love, to laugh at the things we find funny, to cry in the bad times and get so angry to the point of wanting to change whatever happened, to truly look at our children when they are unaware and to feel that warm glow with the knowledge that they are yours.

my son asked me once "mummy, do you like me?" I looked at him and in the most sweetest motherly voice I could muster I replied "oh, honey I love you sooo much", he then looked straight at me and said "yes mummy and I love you too, but do you like me", I inwardly smiled and told him that yes, I liked him and that he was my best friend. I think he had just turned 4, so no age at all, but was surprised that a person of that age new the difference between like and love. Sometimes we don't really get the chance to tell the difference, raw and unsuppressed love sometimes blinkers us in other areas.

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my blog through the good times and the bad times and I now ask for your help in taking it forward. Some people may feel slightly awkward about leaving words...please don't, most of my words are garbled nonsense!! others may feel as though they want to share something that is related to the entry - I say go for it, don't hold back!!!

Again, my deepest gratitude to you all and may you love like you ain't never loved before, each and everyday.

So my thought for this blog is - what have you always wanted to do but kept putting it off and maybe still haven't done it???

and so, I had to bid farewell

Saturday was a very sad day for me. The car went to it's retirement home....yeah right.

When I woke on Saturday morning, I had this feeling of foreboding and whilst I lay there, I couldn't remember why. Then it hit me, like a big bang hit me.

My little whistling car was going to the breakers. With a little tear in my eye, I was ready to face the day.
It was a beautiful, sunny, spring morning that one couldn't feel sad. So I went outside and took some photo's of the doomed car and said my farewell.
And off my husband took it. I simply couldn't go, it was too sad for me, but i waited at home with a cup of tea and my son to keep me company.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to our favourite lunch place with some friends and then take our son and their son to the park. Where I saw carpets of flowers, the first squirell of the year and lots of smiling happy people.

But, alas, it was a bit of a down day for me.

When the first day of spring comes its rather hard not to feel light and happy, as though the blinkers have been taken off.
It does make me laugh, that first day though. People clearly have no idea what to wear (and yes, I do appreciate that's a very girly thing to say). Some people were wearing their full coats with scarfs and big foot wear, others were in t-shirts and some even had sandals on - slight wishful thinking!!

The onto Sunday, Sunday was a bit of an odd day, a bit like the calm after a storm. The weather wasn't as great, and everyone seem to be a bit "ooohhhh wheres it gone". My husband, bless him, realising that the day before had upset me, let me have a bit of a lie in.

Now, you would think that maybe I got breakfast in bed or something sweet like that..nooooo. I woke up to the sound of "loving in an elevator, living it up when your goin dowwwwwwwnnnnnnn" and lots of what I interpreted as thumping noises.
On further investigation I find my 30 something husband and my 5 year old MOSHING. I have to ask, how old is the legal consent to mosh with ones father, I thought it must be those god awful teenage years, right?
And after that, when things had calmed down in my house, I asked my son to tidy his room - he then declared "my life's over" - HE'S 5, not, as you may be forgiven on thinking, 13.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell...the ups, the downs and the down right weird.

So my thought for this entry is - how was your weekend my dear friends?

wow - what a week and some sad news.

Don't grow attached to things because the bubble of love will burst. Read on for it to make sense.......!!!!!




All I can say is...I am sorry for not writing sooner. I have an excuse, this week has been manic!!!

So, we went to the wedding on Sunday which was magical. It was everything that one could want from a wedding. An excellent exchange of vows, excellent food, funny and endearing speeches, a good old jig on the dance floor and new people to meet all set in the most beautiful surroundings - my idea of a great time.

Then back to reality on Monday, we picked up our son and basically hung out on Monday. Tuesday my son and I went on a dinosaur walk at ryton pools, brilliant time. Wednesday saw us back at ryton pools to go den building, I am not sure who enjoyed this the most most - kids or adults!!!...again a great time. That night my son had 2 friends for a sleep over - they went to bed at about 8.30pm and woke at 5 am!!! tired but very very mental boys!!! we then went off to see the chuckle brothers in the afternoon on Thursday and then today, I was at work so my boys had a man day.

This week has been filled with laughter and naughtiness!!! we have had so much fun. My son and I used to just hang out all the time before he started school and we very rarely get the time to do it now that the weekends are so precious. So this week we got to be mates again and yes, we got into heaps of trouble!!! the house looks like a toy bomb has gone off and we are all very very tired.

But, my dearest friends, I have some sad news, you may all want to just go make a cuppa with biscuits and then continue reading, for this will make you want to cry.

10 days after my 30th birthday I passed my driving test. It was the second test I had done and I failed the first one in total laughable style. My very generous friends gave me a car, of which I decorated with flower decals. I love that car. The freedom it gives me is liberating and, although I don't necessarily need to drive, I do when my son and I need to do..for example, swimming or taking a picnic to the park in the summer or taking his bike to the park in the winter. but...and I say this with a genuine tear in my eye..the car failed its MOT..not to worry I hear you cry... but its old, knackered and it whistles to me when at a certain speed...I love being able to say "just going to get that out of my car" or "shall I drive today", but the end is nigh.
For the last 2 MOT's it has passed (which was absurd the age of the car and the amount of miles it has done) and every time my husband has said "if it fails honey, its car history". But the little banger sailed through. Not this time.

I asked my husband what would become of my little clapped out car and he said that he will have to contact the breakers yard....whats that I naively asked.
Now a normal person, seeing that I was very upset, might have spared me the finner details of putting a car out to pasture..I imagined my car in a lush green field somewhere with others just like it, but no apparently not.
The breakers yard man comes along, and takes the car. But not to a green pasture full of the rays of sunshine with frolicking lambs in the distance, but to a bleak cold dark and damp place where...oh gosh I don't know if I can even write this - take the car apart and sell the bits for parts and then - aaahhhhhhh - crush the rest. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DO THIS???? its horrible.
I know, I know, its a lump of metal on wheels, buts its my first ever car, that I decorated with love and now some big fat hairy lump of a man will come and rape my car...is there a telephone number to the car police where I can report this atrocity??

I have to now move on to the thought part of my blog or I will just rant on forever.
Have you ever grown attached to an inanimate object that needed to be thrown out but you just simply couldn't????

sniff sniff

love on valentines day, extra entry

My son has gone to my parents house until Monday afternoon and all is good in my house.

I have been spoilt today, I got coffee and toast in bed with a vase full of tulips (my favourite spring flower). I had the previously stated words from my man and all was love.

then we went into town and my husband bought me a Bopit (google it!). its a very addictive toy that was first introduced to me over Christmas by my sister in law. we were supposed to be having a family gathering and there was 11 of us, and i sat there playing on this damn thing against my brother in law...a lot of frustration and a lot of laughs later, i announced the fact that i absolutely needed one of those things.

anyway, between then and now i can say that i had almost forgotten about the Bopit, till today.

Now, I adore and worship my husband with all of my love, he is my world and the only one to match this love I have is for my son. However, he is THE most competitive person that I know...and so the games begin...at the moment I have the best score which is driving him mad!! - oh the smug, glee called fun.
We have soo much to do tonight though before we head out before silly o'clock in the morning to go to a wedding, so there is little time for him to practice (as he calls it when he is doing crap) before we do go out the door tomorrow.
I fully expect to be woken in the middle of the night to "bop it, twist it" (those of you who are familiar to this game will know).

So I thank my husband for a wonderful loved filled day and look forward to beating his top score!!

so how was the love in your house today?

share the love on Valentines day

This is the day that we explore and celebrate our love for other. Some may say that its a load of rubbish and why do they need a commercially endorsed day to show love for our partner?? I assume this is spoken by men???

My husband and I write letters or do research and try to find the poem that sums us up as a couple, instead of buying cards. We always feel that bought cards are words from someone else's view point and not our own personal relationship. I like simple words, rather than long meaningful "I love you because..." and then a whole list of things. Simple to the point poems. I like it when he researches this because (and you may think this a little silly) I like to think that he has thought about me and what he is going to write, without me being there!!! - that makes me sound really high maintenance doesn't it!!

For me, this year, he says he really thought that the poem that he found and it summed things up nicely. I was touched by what he had written, Its written by an old favourite of mine, Shakespeare (this my husband knows) and it read "I love thee, I love but thee, with a love that shall not die, till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old"...hmmmppphhh I love my man, he knows me soo well.

So where did February 14th begin.....let me explain.
It began when Rome was at its strongest during the Roman Empire. In the middle of February they would worship the God of Fertility by the men choosing their mate. When Claudius became emperor he outlawed marriages, thinking that husbands wouldn't leave their wives to go into battle.
Young couples who fell in love still wanted to get married though and consulted the catholic priest VALENTINE. Valentine then started to wed people in secret. Claudius found out about this and ordered Valentine to death. In prison, however, Valentine began writing letters to the jailer's daughter and they fell in love. On the day before his execution, he wrote "to my love from your Valentine".
When the Christians took over, they outlawed this pagan festival and replaced it with something more appropriate and decided to set a day in February to worship St valentine the martyr.
In 1969 the church removed the day from its official calender.

So it is no longer what is known as a religious festival but more of a tradition.

So my thought for this entry is...do you continue with the tradition and if so, how to you show your partner that you love them???

love thursday

Welcome to my first real "Love Thursday"

The photo above is of 3 hearts that my son and I bought for all 3 of us at Christmas. They got individually wrapped and to whom they were for and were put out under the tree like every other present, my husband was very chuffed that my son managed to keep them a secret!!
They are to indicate our love for each other, no matter how different we are, yet still similar to each other.

We use them as place settings during mealtimes so we know who's sitting where. My son normally "helps" me lay the table so he normally gets to do the seating arrangements.

I am very lucky within my little family that we have a lot of love and respect for each other. Don't get me wrong, we are by no means the Brady Bunch - we have our moments, but I pride my little family on the fact that we can talk to each other before the fireworks start.

So this weekend couples HAVE to be romantic to each other and be all lovey dovey for the sake of one day. My husband and I are going to a really exciting wedding on Sunday so that night we are staying in a B&B, so my parents are having my son from the Saturday afternoon onwards till Monday morning.....nice.

So our plans will be to have a nice meal from Marks and Spencers and then maybe go see a film endorsed by sooo many awards - I am thinking Slumdog Millionaire. We will awake on Sunday to rush round and head out of the door before 9am to get to the B&b before 11am. So Saturday will be a bit like the calm before the hectic storm.

Please leave your links to your own Love Thursday or simply tell me all about your love.

Nathan my darling, I always love you no matter what day it is...kisses