Wishing You A Happy 2017

Can you believe that a New Year is just about to start? I feel like I've only just got to grips with this year, let alone worrying about a whole new one. I'm fairly certain some months from 2016 have been lost somewhere, either down the back of the sofa, or in a corner of my car's boot because I am not ready for it to be January yet!

Lots of people have said what a dreadful year 2016 has been, but I don't agree. It's been a good year for me. One that has seen me get myself back on track and feeling like 'me' again, and it's been a long time since I've felt well and truly like myself, I can tell you. I feel, happy, confident and able to tackle anything. Of course, I'm not happy, bright and bubbly all the time, of course I sometimes feel sad, but I know how to manage my feelings and the friendship group I have, may be small, (but it is quality, not quantity that counts when it comes to friends) is super supportive.

I am so lucky to have a fabulously patient man in my life, two amazing daughters, and some pretty awesome friends, all of whom have some credit to take for my current happiness, but the other contributing factor is, of course, the blog.

Before I started blogging my head was full of thoughts that had no where to go, some would just get lost, whilst others would just keep going round, mutating and getting over analysed. Now I have a place where all those thoughts can just pour out on to a blank page and become something. Sometimes, that something is funny, sometimes serious, sometimes just a bit of a jolly old rant, but whatever the something. it is my blog and the difference it has made to my life and my confidence is immeasurable. It has opened up so many doors to me, I see things differently now (almost everything is a blog post waiting to be written), but best of all, I have met some pretty amazing people, I would otherwise not have met. And here, I must give a special mention to a super lovely lady, whom I feel like I've known forever, the lovely Mandy; she writes a particularly fabulous blog which you should really have a read of, just click here, you won't regret, I promise. Mandy is the funniest, kindest, craziest (in a good way) and most sensitive lady I know, she also loves her dog, Holly Bobbins as much as I love Max.

I'm not one for making New Year's Resolutions, but if I were, the first one would be to keep on blogging, because I am loving this journey.

So all that's really left for me to say is have a fun evening, stay safe, make happy memories and have a very Happy and Prosperous 2017.

King Max I

It's no good, I am an exhausted little orange doggy. Me has had far too much excitement and I just want to sleep now. It is a little bit Mummy's fault I am so tired, her keep coughing all the time and it really is disturbing my rest. I doing my best to look after though because I love her so very much.

What is a 'Friend'?

Obviously, I am not that poorly that I've forgotten what a 'friend' is, although I must admit it's a bit touch and go since I am spending most of my waking hours at the moment not knowing what day it is or what I am supposed to be doing, hence we ended up at M&S for a bra fitting a day early today. No problem, they had space and at least I don't have to go out early tomorrow now.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I know what a friend is. What I'm not so sure about is what a Facebook Friend is. Let me elaborate.

I use Facebook, but I am not a huge fan of it. It seems to me a lot of people use it to amass 'Friends' that they rarely, if ever interact with, which to me really does seem to defeat the purpose of social media. I am fairly sure I fail at this, but I do try to interact with posts my 'Friends' make, even if it is only a reaction and I do this because they are actual friends of mine; they are a mix of old friends I no longer see, friends I see regularly, old colleagues whom I love and miss and new friends I've made in the lovely world of blogging. They're on my 'Facebook Friends' list because I care about them.

I keep my Friends list small, currently only 108 and that's the way I like it. It means I am able to follow and interact with the people I care about. I'm also really careful about accepting 'Friend' requests. I never cease to be amazed by the number of requests I receive because I am a friend of a friend, and guess what? Yep, I ignore them. If I don't know you in real life (or in the blogging world, which is real life, right?) then I'm not accepting your friend request.

However, there is another type of 'Friend' request which is probably worse than the 'Friend of a Friend' request. It's the request from a previous 'Friend' you unfriended because they never interacted online, or in real life. This one is my top bugbear and one I usually shelve with the other declined requests. You see I have a theory about these people, I think they are essentially, just rather nosy by nature. They want to see what you're up to, when and with whom, but they will never comment, or send you a message.

I actually have one of these 'Friends' at the moment and I fear they must be very disappointed with how dull my Facebook account is. No really, it is. You see I rarely post anything other than new posts for the blog. If you're looking for fun and excitement, don't go stalking me on Facebook, you'd be better off watching paint dry. If, on the other hand you're looking for my latest post, stalk away, or better still like our Facebook page (ooh how cheeky was that?). You see, I'm very careful about what I share. I may have Social Media accounts, I may have a blog, but my private life is my private life, to be shared with only the most trusted friends. Hence making for a rather dull Facebook account.

It's not that it's a major issue to me, more that I don't see the point of sending someone a friend request only to sit back and never do anything 'friendly'. It just seems, well a little bit pointless, though some would argue that Facebook itself is rather pointless. Whilst I am not Facebook's biggest fan, I do see its value. It has enabled me to stay in contact with old school friends, colleagues and people who have moved away. It's also a very simple platform. You don't have to think about fitting what you want to say into 120 characters as you do on Twitter, making it more user friendly (although I confess to preferring Twitter and their cute wee logo).

However, I digress, back to Facebook and I intend to keep the number of Friends I have small and manageable; I really don't want to miss all the fun things you're up to, or the daft videos you share that make me laugh so hard I cry and I will continue to try and interact with you, but please forgive me if I do miss something. Please know I value you all consider you real friends.

Celebrating Wednesday's #8

Well, here we are again and it's the last Wednesday of 2016. We really hope you've had a fantastic Christmas, whether you've been relaxing or rushing around visiting family and friends, and we wish you a very Happy New Year.

Back to our Wednesday though. There were a few to choose from this week, but given that Christmas has just passed, I thought we'd stick with the Christmas story and I, therefore, present to you the very special day of ...

When Sharing Isn't Caring!

I love my girls. They're not always perfect, they don't always do what they're asked to do and sometimes they are stroppy little moos, but I love them and most of the time they are well behaved, fun and reasonably helpful and they do share, and of course, sharing is caring, isn't it?

Christmas Treehouse

Dr. BD is just a little bit obsessed with treehouses at the moment. I blame it on that much coveted 1970's Treehouse toy with the pop up lid that revealed a little home inside the tree. I desperately wanted one, but never did get one. Anyway, as I always do, I digress. Back to the main topic of conversation, Dr. BD really wants a treehouse to live in.

Christmas Wishes

Well Christmas Eve has arrived, which means I will most certainly be watching my favourite film, 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and getting excited about Santa's impending visit. Yes, I know neither of the girls believes anymore, but I do love the whole stocking thing and I am just a little bit envious of all you lovelies out there with little people who do believe. As much as I dislike the taste of milk and raw carrot, I will miss putting them out for Santa and the reindeer this evening and in the morning I will miss the excitement on little faces when they see the milk gone, the carrot munched and the stockings full to brimming.

I also miss having small people to take to the Christmas Eve Crib Service, singing carols and seeing all the little ones dressed as shepherds, kings and Mary's. To be fair, I could still go, but as we established in my Halloween post, both my girls have, for the moment, decided they don't believe in God and I respect that. Faith is a personal choice and not one which should be forced upon anyone, adult or child. As hard as it may be for us, I really do believe that having brought up children with our beliefs we do need to allow them to be their own person and make their own decisions. Some of those will be good, some not so good, but how else will they learn. I see my job as Mum, as a supportive and guiding role. Anyway, there I go again, slightly off track, but never mind, it sort of ties in with why I no longer 'drag' my offspring to church for the Crib Service.

I miss having a proper family Christmas. Even after separating, the girls Dad would come over to celebrate Christmas with us, so that they still had that family day, but since he remarried, it's no longer possible and we have to share the day. Today they will have lunch with him (feel a bit bad about this as they are both a bit miserable and full of cold; hopefully they won't share the love, although as we bloggers say 'Sharing is Caring'). Tomorrow they will be with me until early evening, then will go to their Dad's until early evening Boxing Day. It's all a bit of a faff to be honest, but at least they get to see both their parents over the two days and that really is the most important thing. That said the lovely Dr. BD is coming over early tomorrow morning (bearing much food) and we will be having our first Christmas Day together, which I am just a little bit happy about.

So what I really want to say is a huge, big thank you to all you lovelies who take the time to read the blog and leave such lovely comments. It really means a lot to me and I am so very grateful to you. You have made the past five months (or so) amazing and I wish you all the most fabulous and Happy Christmas. Whatever you do, whatever your beliefs, whoever you celebrate with, have fun, make happy memories and stay safe.