February 2022 #TBCSmiles... 90 Months...

"It is February - yeeeay!" said hardly anyone ever... for the UK it tends to mean cold and dark, with added wet. No beautiful snow, but frozen pipes and fingers. Getting up in the dark, going home in the dark, and Christmas and New Year celebrations behind us. Even the Chinese New Year has passed, and Easter in 2022 is incredibly late. We are left waiting for Spring and hopes of sun to break us out of the gloom. 

Have some cake... 

Good news is that Spring IS coming - the first crocus are beginning to break through, and the birds are nesting. The days are getting longer, and we can begin to remember what it's like to be out and about in daylight. 

Even the longest and hardest of Winters (or most freezingly mundane and boring) will end. This year should be easier than the last. Less fear, less illness, less disruption to our lives, and maybe even a little 'normality'. We need to regain some control, and when we do, it'll give everyone a sense of wellbeing. 

Maybe while we wait for Spring, we should be making decisions on what 'normal' we want back. What don't we want to return to? How will we be doing life differently? How do we want our Summer to look? What hopes do we have? 

I never make New Year's Resolutions because frankly I think they're rubbish. No-one keeps to a plan they make when they're loved up from Christmas, full of food and potentially a little inebriated. But we can get a focus from looking out on one of the dullest days of the year, and knowing that it never stays like this for long... 

Smiles remind us we can do this, and why we bother - and thank you to everyone who has shared their smiles with the #TBCSmiles Instagram community this month. ANYONE can join in, and everyone is welcome. It doesn't have to be picture perfect, it can be a wry upturned lip or massive grin, and it can be posed, spur or the moment, or a long time coming. All of the smiles have value, and added together they create something truly special... 

Here are just 9 of the biggest from last month. You can find all of the smiles by searching the hashtag #TBCSmiles over on Instagram... 

 These gorgeous beauties were shared by the following Instagrammers: 

HollyBobbs / MrsShilts / EarthBasedFun

ChocolateAndWineAndIllBeFine / MrsAmyLFox / OurLittleEscapades

TheStrawberryFountain / CasaCostello / GoingOnAnAdventureBlog

My family made our own smiles too, but I hardly captured any of them, so I must try harder next month. I do have a collage though, and every photo in it tells a story. 

There are 3 of my boys at the pub to watch a football match - and learn to play pool. I haven't played in 10 years, and it was even better fun than I remembered,

There is me with Jane HodgepodgeDays, my roommate on my VisitDerby job last weekend, and that is the only selfie I took the whole trip! The only other photo with me in it is from our Derby Museum & Art Gallery visit, where we really enjoyed that dressing up box! 

Also from my visit to Derby, my Mother, in what I think may be her first appearance on the blog. I took an hour out of the schedule to go and visit her. She isn't well, so an extra trip over was incredibly welcome. My brother is also there - a photo within a photo. I love this photo because he looked so happy, and well. He will never be 33, and I miss him every day, but I smile at his photo, and I remember the good times when he made me laugh. 

Finally (or firstly because it's top left in the collage) my youngest son, and he is not smiling, he looks inquisitive. He was trying to answer a question in my favourite game ever, and it's one I was sent for review a long time ago now, Blockbuster from Big Potato. We played lots of games on Saturday and filled our day with family time, and we made so many smiles I couldn't possibly count them, and that was special because it was our 'double cake day'. Elspeth would have been 24 if she was still here. Someone else I miss every day. We all miss her, but we can all smile when we remember her... and although it's really hard, we can all take that deep breath, and play another game, and make some more smiles.