A long time between posts or an ode to my hubby

Hi

This year started off full of promise as all years do, however we knew at the start of the year that this one would be sad.  On June 12th my gorgeous mother-in-law lost her battle with cancer.  A battle that had consumed my husband for much of the last 18 months.  My MIL had decided long ago that she wanted to stay at home until the end.  And my wonderful husband, who can work from absolutely anywhere, decided that he could help his mum attain her last wish in her last days.  So for much of this year I have been solo parenting whilst hubby spent time in Raglan with his mum.  He pretty much nursed her for the last 6 weeks of her life.  He left us on ANZAC day, a day that is particularly special to his mum, as she was a WRAC during the second world war and only returned home for a brief respite until after her funeral.  He thanks me for running the home through this time, but really it is him that needs the praise.  There aren't many men who would drop everything and go and look after their parent.  But things are different for my hubby.  His dad passed when hubby was only 7 and his dad only 56, his mum had celebrated her 90th birthday last november.  His mum was an amazing lady and I would never, ever change the decisions that were made that meant he could look after her.  Hubby missed out on a lot this year with us and I missed out on a lot too, but what he gained and our children gained by what he did is irreplaceable.

So this year really has been tough for me.  Maybe tougher than I let on to most people.  Things have slipped at home, read total pigsty :-( , read routines that were shaky at the best of times turned to mush, read kids not achieving as well as they should do, read not in a good space at all, read maybe more wine has been drunk and more chocolate has been eaten than is really good for you, read too much computer and tv and not enough connecting, read takeaways happening too often and no healthy eating.  Yup it has been a rubbish year so far.

But here we are at the end of the school holidays in which we have all been sick.  Our delightful Emma brought the cold virus home on the last day of term and kindly shared with the rest of us (except Bear, who had surgery on her ear in the last week of term and made a remarkable recovery and avoided the cold).

So this weekend we went down to Raglan and had an amazing time.  We went for long walks each day and talked, we started to connect again.  And this term we are getting back into our routines, we are getting back into our jobs, and hopefully, we will start achieving again.  And maybe I'll start getting back into my blog.

Thanks for reading

Barbs X.