Domestic Bliss & Bloodshed

Two weeks ago, G had an operation on his back. He slipped a disc last March and finally the date arrived to get it sorted. This of course is wonderful, but it does mean that he a) cannot drive for 6 weeks, b) cannot work for 6- possibly 8 because he’s a chef and his work is very physical- weeks, and c) because of a & b, he’s living with me while he’s off. This is a huge adjustment for us. G works five days a week, leaving at 9am and usually arriving home around midnight as the restaurant is a 45 minute drive from my house. So although I’m now in … Continue reading

My Best Friend

Last night I was talking to my best friend and I realised something. It came after a fairly serious conversation. We’d been talking about the operation he needs on his back, how it’ll mean he can’t drive for 4 weeks, how his pay is going to be effected as he’ll need to take some time off. What we’ll do while he can’t drive (I can’t drive full stop and his house is really far away & nowhere near a train station) Our future, when we want to move in together, have another baby.That stuff. We talked as we do, about Chops and his relationship with her. We’ve talked about the … Continue reading

Miracle

Sometimes, just at random intervals throughout the day, I look at Chops and realise, as if for the first time that this is my Daughter I’m looking at. This astonishes me. Even though I’ve had over two and a half years to get used to it, 3 and a half if you include my pregnancy, sometimes, the fact that I Am A Mother just floors me. I look at Chops doing simple things- raising a glass of milk to her mouth before bed and having a drink and I think “Wow”. How on earth did that little person come from me? It’ll 11.40pm, just 10 minutes ago she woke up coughing (we’ve both … Continue reading

Regrets

Tonight has been one of those evenings where my mind has been haunted by memories of my past relationships. This happens to me quite a lot. Not so much about Chops’ Dad, that comes in fits and bursts throughout the day, I am attacked by those memories several times daily still but I am getting better at pushing them aside. Tonight I’ve been thinking about D. We were together less than a year, we had two break ups in that year. I feel over him now but it haunts my mind when I think about that relationship. I didn’t think that after everything that happened with Chops’ Dad that I … Continue reading

Trust

Trust. A loaded gun in the English language if ever there was one. Sure, we know what it means. But what it means to me and what it means to you or our partners, or either of our best friends could be two, or three, or four dozen very different things. I’ll give you an example. My best friend got married this year, she has been with her husband for about four years. About a month before the wedding, she was in the car with him (he was driving) and their daughter and he asked her to send a text to his brother letting him know they were on the … Continue reading

Last Text Of The Day

Before I go to sleep tonight, I have just picked up my phone and sent a quick text to my Mum, letting her know that Chops is sound asleep, we are both ok and Chops has not been poorly this evening. As I put my phone down I feel that pang in my chest. Sadness, rage, loss, disappointment, confusion, fury and so many other emotions hit me in the chest for just a fraction of a second, as it crossed my mind, however briefly that you have no idea about this. I text my Mum last night before bed, we spoke today before her lesson so I could relay what … Continue reading

The Good Parent Guide.

This post is actually going to come with a dedication. Why the heck not. This post is to everyone who has ever looked despairingly at their child(ren) or their own reflection in the mirror and thought “Am I doing this right?” Or even “I’m really not doing this right!”. But especially, this is dedicated to my friend Rachel aka Mummy Glitzer. I have spent many, and I do mean many, many, many MANY hours in the last three years worrying. About my capabilities as a parent. I wonder if perhaps, I feel that burden weighs heavier on my shoulders as I’m a single parent and therefore I have to be two people’s … Continue reading

Four

Babies. I’m obsessed with them at the moment. I’ve met the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, he feels the same about me. And so… “Procreate, procreate, procreate!” screams my uterus. I have never experienced ‘being broody’ before. Chops was born out of a very different relationship under very different circumstances. I was only 23 then not very young granted, but younger than I saw myself when I looked into the crystal ball of my future. I’m almost 27 now and my little girl is two and a half. Not a massive different in numbers but a complete transformation in all other manners. Although I’m also … Continue reading

Image

Before I start. I’m sorry. Sometimes, I look in the mirror and I hate what I see. Not in a pouty, girl posing and saying it for attention way. Really. Before I get my hair sorted and I layer on my make up, when my hair is all matted and frizzy and generally awful and I’ve got pores you could fall into, huge bags under my eyes, and I’m all pasty and grey looking, when I look at myself- my actual self, not the self I spend making myself look like before I go out, it makes me feel horrible. Over the summer, I lost 10lbs and felt great. But … Continue reading

Love After Love. A National Poetry Day Meme

As it’s National Poetry Day, I’m sharing my all time favourite poem with you all. Love After Love The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the … Continue reading