Family

London with the kids

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In the August of 2019, I decided to meet my beautiful sister-in-law with her girls in London and do a bit of sightseeing with the kids. My oldest, Tom, was 11 and the youngest, Leo, was 4. Travelling to London on the train seemed the easiest way to get there and I knew the kids would be excited by the novelty of it. They all had their own backpacks with fun activities they wanted to do on the train, a few snacks and a drink. Great fun! The photo above was taken soon after we met up with our lovely family at Buckingham Palace.

By this time, I’d begun to realise my mistake in thinking I could do this on my own! It’s another example of my ‘It’ll be fine’ moments. When we got to London, I bought all the kids day tickets for the tube so they could get themselves through the barriers. However, Leo is left-handed, so at every ticket barrier he tried to go through the wrong gate! I would have to grab him to push him through the right one and make sure he got his ticket back! This happened every time, and you can imagine the other people waiting to get through the barriers weren’t exactly pleased to see me handing out and collecting tickets, pushing kids through and then probably what looked like snatching a child from one of the barriers and shoving them through another.

Anyway, we got to Buckingham Palace and the children all stared through the iron railings. The younger ones couldn’t see very well, so they climbed up, as you can see here. Cute hey?

A few moments after this was taken one of the soldiers in front of the palace starting yelling. We all thought it must be the changing of the guard. But no, he stepped forward and pointed at these beautiful faces and yelled for them to get down and made a show of the massive gun he was carrying! A bit over the top. Not sure Leo was planning a coup!

So we swiftly moved on, trying to assure the children that they weren’t really at risk of being shot for standing on the railings! We cooled off at the fountain as everyone was already a bit hot and bothered! The girls were still smiling but the boys were melting! We tried to get them all enthusiastic about the historic sites but things began to slide from this point on!

We found a phone booth and thought it would be great fun to squeeze all the kids inside! As you can see the kids weren’t impressed, and Leo could only be appeased if he was allowed to hold the phone to his ear!

After a lovely picnic lunch, we said goodbye to the cousins and headed off on our own to the science museum. You can see from the photo that my kids were at the end of their patience for my upbeat optimism that we were having a lovely time! Even Abbie is flagging here!

I was sure the museum was going to be a win because it had to be cooler inside than out. A short tube ride later and a head count through the barriers we arrived, bedraggled and tired at the museum. By this stage, I was doing my best to keep everyone positive! We wandered through the upstairs of the museum, especially stopping to look at all the space exploration exhibits. My upbeatness was keeping everyone moving!

Abbie was buying it! She was embracing the fun! Not a forced smile at all!

A few moments after this photo was taken, I realised that Leo no longer had his bag. Now, if you’ve been to London, you know that everywhere you go there are signs telling you not to leave bags unattended!

Now everyone had begun to enjoy the water play and were quite chilled. Millie was probably on the verge of a meltdown but had been holding it together. I tried to stay externally calm, while imagining the bomb squad surrounding Leo’s bag somewhere in London, only to find a Nintendo DS and a colouring book. I calmly told the kids we would have to retrace our steps and find the bag. This was breaking point.

Poor Leo had no idea when he’d last had the bag. Tom thought he remembered Leo having it when we arrived at the museum. So with a lot of persuasion and a few tears, I rallied the kids, and we went back through the museum. In the space area, we found the bag in a video booth. No bomb squad, no alarms going off, we had done it.

This is the moment I gave up. I was hot and exhausted and couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to carry on exploring. It was hard work but I managed to get everyone onto the tube.

When we finally got to the train to go home, it was absolutely packed, and so we crammed five people on two seats for a two-hour journey. Needless to say, I didn’t do it again!

Beach Day!

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As the weather is so lovely, I thought it would be a good time to share one of our favourite beach stories! One summer about 8 years about when our kids were aged between 4 and 11, Sean was working most of the day on a Saturday and so was a good friend of mine, so I offered to take her kids and mine to the beach for the day.

So, I took all six down to the beach and reserved ourselves a spot. I set up the windbreaks and umbrella, sun-creamed all the kids and then entertained them for around 6 hours. Sean then arrived with my friend. She bought a dinghy, which we immediately blew up and took out on the water. Sean said he’d look after the kids while we headed out in the dinghy for a row and to give me a bit of a break.

Now, we had a lovely time bobbing on the waves and getting away from the noise of the shore. To be honest, I was a bit hopeless at rowing, a bit of lack of co-ordination! But we got pretty far out. Eventually, we felt we should head back to shore and check everything was ok with the kids. As we drew closer, we saw all the children standing on the shoreline calling something to us. We couldn’t hear, but they were very urgent about it. As it felt urgent, I jumped out of the boat and swam to shore. The kids immediately surrounded me, and that’s when I heard this story!

When I had left Sean with the kids, the kids had all gone off to play, and Sean had been enjoying a bit of peace after a busy morning. After a few minutes, he decided to have a quick headcount and counted only five instead of six. Both my friend’s kids were with him, but only three of ours. The youngest, Leo, 4, was nowhere to be seen. Minor panic set in. Sean was sure he must be with one of the other kids.

He checked with them all, and none had seen Leo for a few minutes. Bournemouth beach in the summer is heaving! Sean took a deep breath and commissioned the kids to go off in pairs to try to find him. They scoured the shoreline without success, and they regrouped. At this point, Sean began to try to rationalise in his head what he would say to me when I got back. He knew I’d had the kids on my own for six hours and he’d had them for less than half an hour and lost one! One thought was that maybe three out of four was ok!

Finally, my friend’s daughter ran up and said she thought she had found him but couldn’t be sure. Sean was a little baffled by this but ran in the direction she pointed in. There was a large crowd of people surrounding a beach hut. Sean pushed his way through and there, right at the centre, with some police officers and some friendly beach hut owners, was Leo. Sean swooped in and scooped Leo up. He reassured the police he was definitely Leo’s dad and managed to convince a tearful Leo to agree!

He headed back to the beach camp and gathered the children to talk to them. “Now kids, Leo’s here, everything is ok, there’s no need to tell mum about this!” Cue the kids then running to the shore to wave and shout at us as we headed back!

Camping with young children!

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We have been camping with the same family every year for the last 11 years, since our youngest, Leo, was 2 months old. This means we have quite a few funny stories. Camping with toddlers leads to some hilarious moments. When we recently went away, we were chatting about some of these, and I knew I had to write them up for you. Don’t judge us too harshly; we’re good parents really, but these stories don’t show us at our best!

When the children were very young, getting them to sleep was a bit of a challenge. We would take it in turns to settle them before sitting out in the fading light drinking something, usually alcoholic! One evening, when our littles – Abbie, 2 and Leo, 1 – were just about asleep, we sat out in the awning to listen for Abbie to settle before we snuck in to get the wine out of the fridge. Finally, all seemed quiet, and a sneaky peep through the window showed two sleeping toddlers. Sean went to open the door, but though the handle turned, the door wouldn’t open. Of course I had to try too, but no, the door was stuck. We realised that Abbie must have turned the latch on the bottom half of the door and locked herself and her brother in!

At this point, our friends had finished settling their kids too, and we all stood staring at the caravan, trying to work out how we were going to get in! Fortunately, the window to the ‘bathroom’ (really just a cupboard with a toilet in) was open. This was still quite high up, as you can see from the pictures! It wasn’t easy for Sean to get in and we were all laughing more than helping!

Another morning the kids were entertained watching a film in the caravan while we had our coffee outside. Abbie came out and told us there was a bird. We all said that was nice, they were watching the Lion King and she was right there were birds in that. She frowned and went back inside. A couple of minutes later one of the other kids came out and told us the same and said we should come and see. We’d all seen the Lion King numerous times and so weren’t overly excited about rushing in to look at Zazu on the TV! We said we’d come in a minute. Sarah drew the short straw and went to see! She dashed out a moment later saying there was an actual bird in the caravan! She then managed to catch the bird and release it back to the wild!

When Leo was younger, he had a nasty stomach issue, which meant he regularly would have a day of vomiting. Poor boy, he coped with it really well. This happened once when we were camping, and the best thing to do seemed to be to keep him isolated in the caravan and let him try to sleep it off. He was very sleepy and so slept a lot of the morning. By lunchtime, I brought him outside to sit on my lap, and he seemed to perk up, but being concerned in case it was a tummy bug, I took him back inside and he felt sick again. Sean came in and noticed there was a funny smell in the caravan. Sean has a very sensitive sense of smell, so I wasn’t really that surprised. Leo had been sick more than once, and so the smell was to be expected. But when one of the kids came in and said they smelt something funny too, we investigated a bit more. To our horror, we discovered that the leisure battery was leaking gas into the caravan! We’d essentially been poisoning Leo by leaving him in the gas-filled environment! Fortunately, a caravan serviceman was on site and quickly helped us to get rid of the battery, and I sat outside with Leo until he was feeling more normal!

There’s another poisoning incident, but I think that deserves a blog post all of its own!

There used to be a very tall and, let’s be honest, quite rickety slide at the campsite. This was the focus of much of the park fun. In the pictures below you can see Sarah, safely holding onto her daughter as she went down the slide, and also Sean kind-of holding Abbie. However, when Leo was old enough to go down at around two, he was a little scared to go and so Sean decided to help him. He did this by taking him up the steps and then holding him dangling at the top, before (much to my horror!) letting go and allowing him to whoosh down on his own! Needless to say he didn’t enjoy it! We still talk about this and wonder if it’s why Leo is so fearful of slides and often concerned about safety.

Next time I’ll elaborate on the poisoning!

Sean’s 40th birthday fail day!

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When Sean was turning 40, we made all kinds of plans to have family and friends over. It was going to be great fun. We had family come over and he had his presents from them. As the day wore on, he was feeling a bit under the weather. The next day, after family had left, Sean had a fever and as we were still in the Covid season, it made sense for him to do a test before we had any guests over. Unfortunately, it was covid! So all our plans had to be cancelled, and we were going to be homebound for a few days.

I’m not one for sitting around doing nothing. I felt fine and so I got started on a job we’d been avoiding! The drains! We had noticed the drain in our garden seemed to be backing up. So we followed the drain line to the next manhole cover, we lifted it to discover it was full to the brim with floaters of many varieties! Disgusting!

Our drive is on a hill, so we walked down to the bottom, opened that cover and it was dry as a bone. So I went on Amazon and ordered some drain rods for next-day delivery, closed the manhole covers and waited for the rods to arrive.

Fast forward to the next day, Sean’s birthday. Thankfully, he was now feeling much better, just a mild cold. The rods arrived, they extended about ten metres when all connected. I was looking forward to getting this sorted and so I opened up the man hole cover at the bottom of the drive and fed the rods through. I ended up lying on my front leaning into the man hole reaching to push them up as far as they would go but didn’t feel any resistance. Not long enough.

Never to be deterred from a mission, I scoured our shed for something to make the poles longer. I found a crowbar which I then taped to the end of the rods. Now, at a stretch, I could just about feel the point of resistance. But still, it wasn’t quite long enough. There was nothing else in the shed I could use, so still determined, I searched the house for something to add to my rods! My eyes lighted on Tom’s retractable light sabers! I took one of the red ones, the dark side, it was definitely a job for the baddies!

Back out by the man hole cover, I taped the light-saber to the crowbar, then taped all the retractable parts of the lightsaber. At this point, Sean came out, shaking his head at my contraption! But I was confident. I lay back down on the ground and reached into the hole, holding the handle of the lightsaber! Finally, I could feel the resistance and so started to shove with all my might. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing.

I looked up at Sean standing with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “Do we really have to do this today?” Perfectly reasonable question. It was his birthday after all! Next question was, “What do think is going to happen when you release the flow! Your face is pretty much in the hole!”

I reassured him that I could do it, I’d be able to jump up in time! So I continued to try to clear the blockage. Eventually, with a sigh, Sean indicated with his head that I should get out of the way! He grasped the lightsaber handle, lay in my place, and gave an almighty thud.

There was a gulping sound and Sean leapt up, all of us screaming as the brown tsunami gulged to freedom. Sean retracted the rods with impressive speed as the flood of our families excrement made its way down the hill. The speed it came at was quite shocking. We all took a step back as the hole filled with …. well, you can imagine! Fortunately, it then moved into the main drain and didn’t splat anyone in the face, or anywhere else (Sean’s big fear)!

You’d think that would be the end of the story, but Sean then had to clean the rods before putting them away! Not his favourite birthday story, but one that always makes us laugh!

Killer Cat

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As the weather is getting better, we all start thinking about BBQ’s (or in our house Braai’s). This always leads us to the story of a BBQ we had a couple of years ago. The sun was obligingly shining for us and we were all enjoying chatting and the smell of cooking meat! We had a few friends over and Sean had made his usual platter of meat, which I’d supplemented with some salad!

I should mention here that we have a little black cat called Ozzy. He’s often the cause of drama in our house, whether that’s trying to get on the countertops to get at the meat or trying to eat sticky tape and gagging when he does! Well, this day he had been helpfully out of the way while the meat was being cooked and while everyone served themselves.

But clearly, when we all sat down to eat, he decided now was his time to make his big entrance. We’re all sitting with our plates balanced on our laps as he walked into the centre of all of us, a large flapping pigeon in his mouth! Cue guest jumping up and away from this demon proudly carrying his latest kill!

Horrified, Sean handed me his plate and tried to intervene! He tried to shoo the cat out of the centre of the circle, but he wasn’t having any of it. He obviously thought he would join us and bring his own meat!

After several failed attempts to get him to move away, Sean picked Ozzy up, flapping bird still firmly in the cat’s mouth, and threw him over the fence into the neighbour’s garden!

By this point there’s blood drops all along the patio and feathers everywhere! Half of the guests sat opened mouthed at the horror scene just played out, and the rest of us were in hysterics at the look of shock on Sean’s face!

This is probably one of Ozzy’s low points, or if you think it’s impressive that he caught the pigeon, a high point! I’m sure he will feature in other stories, usually being naughty somehow!

Cookbook for the kids!

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I’m taking a break from our ‘Table Tales’ to let you know that for Christmas this year, I made a cookbook for my kids. As they’re growing up so quickly, I wanted to make them something that means they could take me with them wherever they are. Something to accompany the stories they’ll continue to share around their own dinner tables.

I learnt to cook when my oldest two were babies, mostly because I don’t like to be bored, and as much as I loved having the babies around, I needed to feel like I’d achieved something every day. I started out with a book called ‘Quick and Easy Recipes’ that I found in a charity shop. We had some absolute disasters along the way! The time I mixed up the sugar and salt in a lemon drizzle cake! Or the soggy courgette quiche, which even now makes Sean gag at the thought of! But over time, I’ve made fewer mistakes and gotten a better idea of what will work and what definitely won’t.

I’m not claiming to be an amazing or even a natural cook, I’m probably about an average family cook and the recipes are for things that I genuinely regularly make for my family.

If you’d like to have a go at a few of our recipes, then the cookbook is available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback and hardback. If you enjoy it, please leave a review or let me know if you have any other recipes I should try.

My Dad

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I’ve been quiet on my blog these last few months because we had an unexpected loss. On the 18th May, my lovely dad went to bed and on the 19th, he didn’t wake up. Since then, it’s been a journey of navigating grief at a whole new level. When thinking of posting here, I wanted to start with telling you about this special man I had the privilege of calling Dad.

One thing to know about my Dad, is that he was fastidious about being on time and would rather be half an hour early than one minute late. It feels as though God understood this and so has taken him home early, before we were ready, but just right for him. 

Dad was born and raised in Guildford with his parents and sister, Angela. He had a happy childhood and loved his family very much. In his late teens, he unexpectedly lost his eyesight due to a blood disorder. Which meant an end to his motorbike loving lifestyle. For months, he travelled to and from the hospital while they tried to work out what was wrong. His family were so supportive and his older sister Angela, in particular, he mentioned with fondness during this difficult time. But he didn’t allow his disability to stop him. He married my mum, Jean, at 24 and then had my sister and I, his girls, over the following years. 

There were many highs and lows and one particular low was in 1990, our family had been made homeless and we had been temporarily housed in Lancing. We were invited to visit Grace Church, and it was here that Dad made a decision that changed his life. He gave his life to Jesus and devoted himself to learning about God.

From then on, his life was one of devotion. He volunteered at an audio production service and travelled there every day by train. Of course, he would be sure to be there at least an hour before he started! He loved his job and working with his best friend. Even when he retired, he kept up his friendship and learnt to play piano with his best friend’s wife, who did an incredible job helping him to learn by ear. Even passing exams, an achievement he was so proud of. 

I know he loved us girls, but he would have loved to have sons, which is why he was so pleased when we were both married and he had sons-in-law! He gave fantastic speeches at both weddings with no notes, just from memory. He’s been a great granddad to his seven grandchildren, willing to play games with them even when it’s been a struggle for him to see what’s happening. He would love to play catch with the kids and caused great hilarity when getting shocked at catching the ball! Often using his catchphrase of ‘Oh dear me no!’

In his retirement, he didn’t slow down. He volunteered at the food bank and anywhere else he could be useful. He was often concerned that he was in the way without realising that his presence alone was an encouragement! 

Being a member of a local church was really important for Dad and so for many years he would travel to Worthing to be a part of Redeemer, where he made some incredible friends who meant an awful lot to him. Then when the travelling got to be too much, he moved to join Lancing Tab, where he has made a whole new group of friends and has thrown himself into community life. I don’t doubt he’s missed by his church family.  

He learnt new technology and taught himself how to use an iPad and iPhone, meaning he could take part in meetings during lockdown and had weekly FaceTime chats with me. Even if some weeks it was a conversation with his forehead!

Apart from all these facts, my Dad was one of the kindest and most generous men I’ve ever known. He wouldn’t hesitate to help anyone who was in need and hated to ask for help himself. He had struggled with his health over the past few years, but even when he was down, he would cling to the hope of the gospel. He didn’t lose faith, but knew he was going to a better place.

Our whole family will cherish our memories of Dad. He’s been a devoted grandad to his grandchildren. Always ready to play games with them. Whether that was chess, catch, or the Sock Game.  What an incredible man he was. He taught me how to have a good work ethic, how to persevere no matter what, how to forgive and how to live life to the full. 

I love you dad and will never forget all that you taught us and the way that you lived and loved. 

Autism and the power of the tongue!

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Recently, I’ve had conversations with my kids about what it’s appropriate and not appropriate to say to different people. I’ve always been very careful with how I’ve spoken to them but I know that in the past I’ve said things I wish I could retract! Now as I watch my kids grow up I want to spare them the pain of making similar mistakes and having similar regrets.

I want my kids to be able to express how they feel to me and other close family but to have a filter that they use with other people. Not everyone needs to know everything you’re thinking and feeling. Not everyone needs to know what you think about them! Even if you think it will be helpful!

I’ve had to explain that not everyone wants to hear the truth about everything. But how do you explain what’s ok to say and what isn’t?

The best way we’ve found is for us to model it for them. We have a very large dinner table and we sit at it every day for our meals and it’s rare for it just to be the six of us eating together. This gives us an opportunity to model communication.

This in some ways is a high risk strategy because it means there have been some big blunders! But it also means that our kids get to see how we handle those blunders. How we apologise if necessary and we can chat later about where they went wrong. Usually though we all end up laughing and don’t take ourselves too seriously.

We have tried a couple of techniques to get everyone around the table involved in the conversation and help with turn taking. The first one we did for a few years was to let everyone share their happiest moment of the day and their hardest moment. This meant everyone got to speak and we all got to hear about each others day without interrupting and then at the end we could offer some encouragement for getting through whatever the challenge was. We could also talk about what they could do differently the next day.

More recently, we’ve made it a family tradition on birthdays or special occassions to put the person for whom the day is special, in the spotlight and everyone else says what they especially love about that person. We’ve found this so helpful especially with our teenagers, as they often only hear what’s wrong with them from the world around them. This has lead to some really special moments of recognition and confidence boosts.

Whether you’re neurodiverse or neurotypical, we all have to learn to control our tongues! So the best advice I’ve heard is to remember you have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion!

Helping Children with Anxiety

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A recurring theme in our home is anxiety, and it’s clear that anxiety is a common challenge faced by many families. It can impact our daily lives and the whole family’s overall well-being. As parents, we have to learn how to support and guide our children.

Here’s a few of the things we’ve learnt and are still learning with our children.

  • We need to create a safe and supportive environment. It’s important that we have open communication, this means our children can share their worries and fears. We encourage them to share their thoughts and try not to speak too quickly. We ask lots of non-judgemental questions and reflect back what they have told us. We want them to know they’re heard and taken seriously.
  • We’ve realised that we needed to educate ourselves about anxiety. Don’t assume you understand, as I’ve said before there are lots of helpful YouTube videos about it. Don’t just watch the clinicians but listen to the people who have struggled with anxiety, even if it feels like they don’t have any solutions. It will help you to know what your child could be going through and not able to express.
  • Learn some relaxation and grounding techniques. We’ve found helping our child to focus on something specific. E.g. Name five Marvel superheroes. What’s one thing you can hear, smell, see, touch and taste? Describe your funniest moment in my little pony/ninjago/how to train your dragon etc. All these are good ways to calm down their breathing if they’re having a panic attack or at bedtime if they’re worrying. It also means we can get regulated before we discuss what is causing the anxiety. A relaxation technique we use at bedtime is when they’re lying in bed, to imagine themselves saying goodnight to each part of their body, starting at their toes and working their way up. Both of these have been a good way to stop anxiety at bedtime about the next day.
  • Equipping our children with coping strategies when they’re away from home is important and a big part of that is an active lifestyle. Exercise is so important, it helps to release endorphins or if not exercise, then finding a hobby they get joy from (the trampoline was great for this). Through these things, they’ll also learn some problem-solving skills.
  • Encouraging positive self-talk is really important. We can do this by modelling it for them. But also when our children are in a heightened state, we speak positively to them and don’t let them say they can’t do anything or they will always be this way.
  • We’ve worked at creating predictable routines. As I’ve mentioned before, food is a big deal in our house and so we have a chalkboard with the meal plan written on. Before the weekends, we lay out the plan for the days. Even if the plan is to stay home and relax. If there’s going to be any change, we make sure we give enough notice and if we can’t, we factor in some time to be upset before we need to get out of the house. We’ve found that predictability helps reduce uncertainty, a common trigger for anxiety.
  • This one can be a challenge, but promoting a healthy lifestyle really supports our children’s overall well-being. This means a good amount of sleep, healthy meals, regular exercise and a good self-care routine. Sometimes this means ensuring food isn’t being hoarded in bedrooms and trying to get some fruits and veggies in their diet!
  • Lastly, if you’re still finding your child/children are struggling then seek professional support. There’s no shame in saying you need help and it could make a real difference.

Our experience has been anxiety can be intense for a season and then pass. So we try to make sure we’re preparing them outside of these difficult seasons. This way when anxiety hits the tools are already in place and familiar.

Starbucks Season

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For the last year or so, my writing and publishing partner, Sophie and I, have been meeting in Starbucks on a Thursday to write and talk about publishing, family, and life in general! It’s been so good to have a rhythm to writing and to have a quiet place (earphones in!) to concentrate and when distracted, people watch!

In the time we’ve been meeting, we’ve managed to get a book published and have been individually completing our own novels. This week is one of the last Thursdays I’ll be able to do this. I’m sure there will be other days and other opportunities, change brings with it both positives and negatives.

It’s given me an opportunity to think about seasons of change and transition and how we all cope with them in different ways. This is probably more relevant for me with one child about to finish his GCSE’s and another struggling with a change of teacher. When we get to the end of a season, we sometimes get time to realise it’s coming to an end, as with my son. He’s very ready for it to end. He can’t wait to leave school. Even though he’s going to continue his education, he’s going to be in a different setting with different teachers and less of the subjects he doesn’t want to do!

I want to tell him to enjoy these last few months of school. He’ll never get this time back and so I want him to embrace the school experience, to enjoy being with his friends every day. To choose not to let the stress of exams wear him down but to realise this is one step towards the future he can’t yet see.

But maybe change comes suddenly, as with my daughter, whose teacher has gone off sick. There was no warning and so the change has been jarring. She couldn’t prepare for it and so is struggling to cope with the variation and regular teacher change. This is partly due to her autism, but I think we all find sudden changes hard to cope with. I wish I could help her to understand that change can be good, even when it’s sudden. I want to calm her racing mind and show her the school is doing so much to help her cope, including adding a well-being day to help her find things that she enjoys and is good at.

So as my Starbucks season comes to an end, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve enjoyed about this season, apart from the coffee! It’s been a time of creativity and, let’s be honest, sometimes stress, as we published our first book for Cadence Publishing. I’ve been able to edit and write, people watch and chat. It’s been time to allow my introvert side to get some breathing space. (Our house is very often full of people!)

As I enter a new season, I’m thankful for Starbucks and all that it’s represented on Thursdays for me. I want to remember how important creativity and space to think can be, and in the busy-ness that’s to come, I want to find new ways to get creative. Maybe Starbucks will still feature, somehow! Either way, I’ve a lot to be grateful for.