Goodbye 2013......

I don't think I'll miss you...

Gains And Losses

Some amazingly lovely things have happened this year and at least 3 of our children will end the year in a far happier frame of mind than they started with, but by God it's been hard!

I've had hard times before, money, health, relationships have never always been perfect, but never before have I had to work so damn hard just to keep it all together.

Running a household with 7 children aged from 3 to 19 isn't easy at the best of times, but this year I really did have to take on far more than I ever signed up for.

My broken leg and a catalogue of errors and unfortunate circumstances means that I'm still waiting for it to be fixed 5 months later. The simplest tasks day to day tasks take forever.You have no idea how often you crouch or kneel until you can't, and stairs have become my nemesis (I joke I'm a Dalek).

I've seen things I never want to have to see again, things I can't unsee. I have watched my partner and father of my children lying in a hospital bed seriously ill, I sat and cried with him while he had a lumbar puncture and thank heavens I have been given the opportunity to spend the last 6 months watching him recover.

One of my biggest gains in 2013 is this blog. Exactly a year old I could never have ever begun to imagine how far I'd come in only 12 months.

I could never have forseen the brilliant things I've been sent to review, the places I would get to take my family, the skills I'd learn and the lovely things people would say about my writing. I've worked with Britmums, Netmums, Mumsnet and Tots 100 and hopefully I'll add Parentdish to that in the new year.

Most surprising of all are the truly amazing friends I've made through blogging, my life is so much richer for having them. 

Goodbye's

Sadly there are always a few who don't get to stay with us....

Politics lost Jose Sarria, Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher. They'll all leave their lasting impression on all of our lives. Good or bad.

Roobarb and Custard, which was second only to Bagpuss in my eyes as a child, lost it's voice with the passing of Richard Briers and a few days later it's animator Bob Godfrey.

Ray Cusick, the inventor of the Daleks, and Mr Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK47, both left us in 2013 - I'm not entirely sure which we should have been more scared of.

Corgi lost 'Mr Corgi' Marcel van Cleemput - the designer of some of their most iconic models including the James Bond Aston Martin, the Batmobile and the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, which sat on my Great Grandparent's mantle for my entire childhood with flattened wheels where they'd melted.

Music lost Lou Reed, fiction lost James Herbert and TV lost Marcia Wallace......and so Bart must say goodbye to Edna Krabappel.

 So long to Alan Turing's conviction. His royal pardon has come a mere 59 years too late
 
I lost my schoolfriend Chris this morning, he always started conversations with me online at 1.30am and kept me awake for the next hour or so, and I'll miss that - as much as he'd often annoyed me with it and stole my sleep. Earlier in the year I lost Sara who I met at antenatal classes when pregnant with our first children. Cancer took them both too early.

Goodbye to them all.

Turn the page.....but never put down the book.

Happy New Year to all of my readers -
I wish you health, peace and happiness for 2014 x

The Dalek illustration is by Nick Abadzis - you can find him here
The Bart and Miss Krabappel still is taken from The Simpsons
The Roobarb and Custard illustration is by Captain Howdy and based on the original illustrations by Bob Godfrey