kids

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!

Camping Dramas Part One

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Some of our favourite ‘Theunissen Tales’ are related to our annual camping trips. We’ve been going to the same campsite for the last twelve years, usually twice a year. There’s nothing fancy about it, no fancy facilities, just a play park and the woods. As soon as we arrive, the kids disappear off to the park or the woods and only reappear for food or because they want one of the dads to take them on an adventure. This is about our most famous adventure!

One year, when the children were between 2 and 9, Sean decided to take some of our kids and our friends’ kids for a walk in the woods. He had Millie (8), Amelia (7), Abbie (4), Leo (3) and Eloise (2) with him. They were deep in the woods, ducking under low branches and climbing over fallen tree limbs, often Sean having to carry them over!

As they climbed over one branch, an ominous buzzing filled the air. Sean saw the source, a wasps nest! ‘Run’ came the cry! Sean picked up the two smallest children, Millie ran faster than she has ever done in her life and they all came screaming out of the woods, wasps pursuing!

Sean was being stung repeatedly as it was taking him longer to get out! The other children had mostly escaped, Millie arrived at the caravan having totally lost it! She was trying to pull off her fluffy cardigan, which had wasps clinging to it, screaming the whole time. I helped her rip it off and threw it onto the grass. She was still screaming as everyone else turned up.

There were still wasps buzzing around and fellow campers on the site were now staring at us as the screams continued. Unable to calm her down and check the other children, we safely put Millie in the car, unreachable by any wasps!

The wasps slowly dissipated, and we could survey the damage. Adam and Sarah, who were camping with us, checked their girls while I checked my little two. Sean had been stung all over, the most painful sting on his lip. Fortunately, the only other person stung was Abbie who had been stung just above her eye and it had started swelling. We reassured all the other campers around us we were ok and gave Abbie some antihistamine.

Millie was still in the car, but the screams had subsided. Abbie’s eye had swollen shut by this stage. She was perfectly calm but thought we should get it checked out and so headed to the out of hours GP.

When we got back, everyone was calm, and we sat down to eat dinner. Unfortunately, as we were eating a wasp (in reality a fly) decided to join us. Sean, still traumatised, leapt up from his bench and yelled ‘Quick! Everyone inside!’ But Adam had his ‘Executioner’ bat and swatted the offending creature away!

Everyone recovered fine from their wasp stings and now it’s just funny story! We can all laugh at the image of Sean running out of the woods carrying two children and surrounded by three others, all screaming, like something from a horror movie!

Brownsea Island

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This is an infamous story the kids love to tell about Sean. This is from 2012, when Tom was 5, Millie was 4, and I was about five months pregnant with Abbie. At the time, money was extremely tight and so my mother-in-law had bought us National Trust membership and I wanted to take full advantage of it! One of the few local options was Brownsea Island, just off Poole. This was quite exciting because we had to take a little ferry to get there. We would have to pay for that, but we’d checked the prices and thought it was worth going.

We drove to the ferry port to discover there was no parking. Sean offered to drop us off and find parking, but I was hesitant because Sean’s sense of direction is a little dubious and I thought we might end up never seeing him again. So we drove around the roads in the area looking for somewhere to park. All the roads had double yellow lines! So we ended up having to park at the beach in Sandbanks, probably the most expensive parking in the area and a good fifteen minute walk from the ferry.

Once parked, Sean and I dug out all the cash we had in order to pay the extortionate parking fee and headed off to the ferry. Millie was never a great walker and so Sean carried her most of the way. We got to the ferry and saw that we were just in time as they were getting people on board to leave.

We went to the little booth to buy our tickets. Four tickets, all good. They had space, and it was free for the children. All perfect. Sean handed over his debit card to pay and the man in the booth shook his head saying, “Sorry mate, we don’t take cards.” Sean’s mouth dropped open at this! Who doesn’t take cards?! Sean asked how he would prefer to be paid and the reply came, cash or cheque! He quietly lost it at this and laughingly said, “Cheque, cheque? No one has carried a cheque book since the 80s!” The man smiled in reply and insisted that we would have to pay by cash. Shaking his head, Sean got out his wallet and rummaged for some cash, but came up short because we’d used all our cash for the car park!

Turning back to the ticket man, he asked where the nearest cash point was, assuming it must be close if this was the only way to pay. But no, the nearest cash point was back at the beach.

Sean looked down at the kids, back at the ticket man, then at me. “Do we really want to go to Brownsea Island?” The chorus was “Yes!” from the kids. Sean sighed, and we walked across the road to where there was a tourist shop that the kids could look at the junk for sale.

We had a hasty whispered conversation about what to do and agreed there was no way round it. We’d already spent a fortune on parking, we were going to Brownsea Island. Sean left me with the kids and headed back to the beach.

We waited, and we waited. I was getting nervous Sean had gotten lost and, being five months pregnant, was desperate to use the public toilets. I took the kids in and realised that we couldn’t all fit into one cubicle with my enormous belly, and I was too nervous to leave them outside on their own. It was pretty grim in there and I was probably a lot more cautious when I only had two kids! We went back outside and waited as I hopped from foot to foot. Just as I was deciding we would have to all walk back to the car to find my geographically challenged husband, Sean came into view limping and with a face like thunder.

He was shaking his head and muttering under his breath, “This better be flipping worth it!”. I smiled sweetly and asked him to stand for a minute with the kids while I dashed into the toilets. We went up and paid for the tickets with cash and waited for the next ferry to arrive.

While we were waiting, I looked down and noticed Sean’s foot was bleeding. I reached into my bag and got out the ever ready wet wipes and gave one to him. Not daring to ask what happened!

He gave a half smile and told us what happened. He’d left us and ran along the road, thinking there must be a cash point somewhere between here and the beach. But no, he got all the way back to the car and finally found a cash point, still fuming about being offered to pay by cheque. He put his card in and entered his pin. It was at this point the cash point informed him that there would be a £1.50 charge for every £10 withdrawn. As I said, money was tight, and to spend £1.50 on getting his own money out of a cash point was a no no. So he walked a bit further and found another one but this one had a 25% charge! But by this stage, he knew we were waiting. The kids wanted to go; I wanted to go, so he had to get the cash. He walked back to the first cashpoint painfully and forcefully agreed to this outrageous charge and yanked his card and the cash out of the machine.

At this point, he was absolutely livid! This trip was supposed to be fun, and he’d had to drive around to find parking, walk for miles carrying a by now fairly heavy four-year-old, only to be told he couldn’t pay for the ferry unless he had cash or a flipping cheque(!), had to walk again to get the cash and finally pay for the cash. It was the last straw. He was so frustrated he now had to walk all the way back and pretend to be happy and enjoy this stupid island! An innocent pine cone lay on the road and so Sean took aim and kicked it with all his might!

The pine cone remained in place as his foot smashed into the pavement! As we heard this, I did my best to keep a straight face as Millie asked, “Why did you do that Daddy?”

We remember little about our time on Brownsea Island, but whenever someone mentions going there, Sean frowns and says definitely not worth the effort!

Key Dramas Part One

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You wouldn’t think there could be that many stories about keys, but as we were collating these stories, we realised that we’ve had some hilarious moments with keys. This is the first of them and I’ll intersperse them throughout the year!

Sean’s favourite key drama happened when our eldest two, Tom and Millie, were very young. Tom was two and Millie was under one. I had to take the kids out to do a food shop so took them out to the car, got them strapped in, put the buggy in the boot with the changing bag. I then reached into the changing bag to get the keys to drive. They weren’t there.

I was sure they should be in there. I emptied the entire bag into the boot and couldn’t find them. Then I repacked it and unfolded the buggy. I must have left them in there. But no. Still calm I realised I must have got them caught on one of the kids as I put them in their car seats. Nope. I strapped them back in the car.

Panic began to rise. I knelt down on the ground and looked under the car. I peered into the drain by the curb. Ran back to the house and checked they weren’t on the floor by the front door.

They had vanished.

Fortunately, I had my mobile with me. I called Sean at work, more than a little panicky, saying I couldn’t find the keys. He was very calm and said they must be there somewhere or I wouldn’t have been able to get the kids in the car. He suggested I look for a little longer and if I really couldn’t find them, he’d walk home and give me his keys.

Well, I searched and searched, now very tearful and exhausted. Shopping forgotten, I just wanted to get into the house. I called Sean back, and he agreed to come and rescue me!

It was about a fifteen-minute walk for him to come home and when he got to our road; I saw him running to get to me. He arrived at me at the car, walked around it, closed the boot and pulled the keys from the lock, handed them to me and ran back to work! Ooops!

Theunissen Table Tales

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At a wedding last year, my husband Sean was delivering the message, and he mentioned that to get to know us as a family, all you need to do is come for dinner. It’s around our table that you’ll hear all our stories, and our secrets! At that point in the service, several faces in the congregation turned to us and smiled knowingly.

It’s one of the things I love about our family. We can laugh at those little accidents and mistakes everyone experiences in everyday life. It means although some stories might have been difficult to live through with distance, we’re able to find the lighter side.

So with the help of my children and their permission, I’ve collated a whole list of favourite stories to share. Last year was a tough year and so rehearsing those moments of laughter is often what carries us through. I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and mishaps. I’d love to hear yours!

I’m going to start with a story the kids love to retell about me! I don’t think of myself as clumsy, but the reality is, I probably am, just a little!

A couple of years ago, Bournemouth introduced electric scooters and so we took the kids down to the seafront and hire them. Leo was very cautious and so instead he took his hoverboard with the go-kart attachment. We hired three scooters and took it in turns to scoot up and down the prom. Everything was going fine, the sun was shining, kids were laughing and racing each.

Then, unfortunately, Leo’s hoverboard battery died before we wanted to finish with the scooters. It was heavy and so we couldn’t just carry it around for the next hour or so, which meant someone had to take it back to the car. Sean was happy to walk it back, but I was sure there was a quicker way.

I suggested we strap the go-kart attachment to the handlebars of one of the electric scooters and then carry the (very heavy) hover board under one arm while scooting back on one of the other scooters. Sean was not keen on the idea but I’m a trier and so wouldn’t give it up! I strapped the go-kart on to Tom’s scooter as he watched with a doubtful look.

Sean and Tom both said they thought it wouldn’t work, but I was adamant it would be fine. Saying my stubborn catchphrase “It’ll be fine!”. I put the hover board under my arm, kicked off on the scooter, and accelerated off.

I say accelerated off, but in reality I went about 5 meters before the hoverboard started to slip and I had to readjust it. It turns out you can’t use an electric scooter with one hand while adjusting a weighty item under the other arm! I wobbled and toppled!

The crash was loud enough to draw the attention of everyone on the prom, which was, as always, very busy. My family stood 5 meters behind me staring and, in Sean’s case, hiding a smile and shaking his head. I lay, starfish style, on the sand covered concrete, assessing my injuries (a very real concern in your forties)! Definite bruised knees and elbows, and more importantly bruised ego!

After the freeze frame moment, Sean came jogging over and helped me up. The kids followed, staring down at me with incredulity. To his credit, Sean didn’t laugh, or say I told you so, not then anyway! He checked I was ok, picked up the hoverboard, unstrapped the go-kart from the other scooter and walked back to the car, despite my insisting I would try again!

To this day, whenever the kids tell this story, I still think we could have found a way! I think this story illustrates well one of my biggest blind spots! I think with a bit of effort anything is possible, and I’m willing to give it a go anyway!

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.

Saying Goodbye to 2022

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At the beginning of every year, we are filled with optimism about what lies ahead. We make plans and set goals. Often to be forgotten only a few months (maybe even weeks) later. Around Christmas and New Year, we have a few family traditions. My favourites are the little routines we have at New Year.

On New Year’s Eve, we sit down as a family and make a poster of thankfulness. We draw around each family member’s hand (the poster has gotten bigger each year!) and then fill the hand with all the things that person is thankful for. This gives us a chance to look back at what has happened over the year. We laugh at the silly memories, we talk about the best parts of our holidays, the biggest surprises we had and touch on things that made us sad. But mostly we’re grateful for all that’s happened.

Then on New Year’s Day, we sit back down at the table and take out our time capsule envelope! In it, each year we write a note to ourselves a year ahead and open it on New Year’s day of the following year. This is always very amusing, looking at the things we hoped we would achieve or resolutions we made. It’s always interesting to sit and write a letter for the next year. Thinking this time I’ll be realistic, but as we start to dream about what we’d like to achieve in that year the dreams get bigger! I encourage that! Aim high, who knows what might happen and even if it doesn’t work out, what have you lost? We’ll all enjoy reading it next year.

Both these traditions can draw groans (particularly from the teenagers), but every year we can see how far we’ve come and look forward to what’s ahead. I’ve kept every one of those posters and letters. When the kids were small, they would draw pictures instead of write letters, they’re dreams were smaller but no less important. Time has flown and so these traditions mark time and keep us aware of how fleeting our years with children are.

As 2022 draws to a close, I can honestly say it’s been a real rollercoaster of a year with spectacular highs and dramatic lows. A year when my oldest son turned sixteen, the age Sean and I were when we met! We’ve been able to have dozens of different friends in our home for dinner or just to spend time with and we’ve been learning again what it means to rest.

Saying goodbye to 2022 is a relief in a lot of ways, but as often is the case, we start a new year at the top of a rollercoaster, waiting to see what lies ahead as we launch ourselves into 2023!