No dead dog jokes!

Ahhhh... it's the holidays again, no alarm clocks for a week and kids lying about in bed all day! Bliss, as long as I can go out a do my own thing for a bit - which, I have to say, they don't seem to mind.

So today was the holiday trip to Cheltenham to see Mum. She likes us to see us all together at least once in the holiday. And it was important to go this weekend as, very sadly, she had to make the decision to put her lovely Golden Retrieved down a few days ago. The poor thing was very old and had started to become quite ill. Mum is devastated, we can never prepare it seems, even though we know that the inevitable is near.

So, before getting in the car today I had a quick word with Small Sprog: he's quite often in his own little world and I was worried that, although I'd told him the dog was dead, that he would just breeze in through the door and ask where she was, without thinking. "Small Sprog" I said "Don't forget the dog is dead"
"I remember" he replies with a wry smile.

With Mum today we listen a lot. She has sorted through photos of the dog and wants to get a nice one framed. I help her take some digital ones off the computer so they can take them somewhere to be printed. She mentions the dog in most conversations, she is grieving. And Small Sprog manages admirably to say nothing dodgy at all.

By 8pm we are all back in the car and as I pull out of the cul-de-sac that they live in Small Sprog chirps up from the back seat "Mum, how did we do on the dead dog jokes?"! I exploded into laughter! Timing is everything and that boy certainly has it all...

Meanwhile on the motorway Tall Girl says "Oh! I thought I saw a deer but it was just a horse with a tree behind it" - Now she definitely is on a different planet- its just the way we roll...

Tuesday nights in suburbia

For the first time ever I am leaving the kids to their own devices for the evening, shocking isn't it?! Not that I'm leaving them but that I haven't done it before. Goodness me, they are certainly old enough to sort themselves out now but, as I only have them for 9 out of 14 nights I always try to be in when they are so that we can be together. However as they've grown older we do all seem to end up in different rooms or at least on different screens.

So when I saw the counselling course advertised I decided they'd be ok and went for it. And they are ok, so it seems, especially as every other week they are not with me on a Tuesday evening.

The course is going well so far and I'm loving the love there between us all as a group.

Last night I left the kids with written instructions for dinner and left them to it, reminding TG not to let her brother just forget to eat! When I arrived home the kitchen was relatively tidy and meals had definitely been consumed. "How was dinner?" I asked TG

"We had a great time" she replied "we danced together in the kitchen while we waited for it to cook"

Wow! That made me a very happy mummy...

The future

Sometimes things happen and you have no control. Life is good right now- I have a full life, love all the people in it, every single one, love my work and care about my caseload there (a lot). And then something happens to make you think you are not invincible. Life is short. It's beautiful and the thought of it being cut shorter is devistating but true for all of us...there is never a way of knowing how or when it will end. 

So, for now, love those who are most important and live like there's no tomorrow... Just sayin'.