You have a sick little boy on your hands again today. His mouth a mess of swollen gums and ulcers, but his spirit as always, still high. He cannot eat so you fashion teeny little men out of cheese on toast and give them cheery little ketchup faces and he nibbles their heads off slowly, breakfast looking set to wander way into lunchtime. There is much to be done, but your will to achieve has taken a package holiday to the land of Never Never. Routine and ritual are the mainstays of your life, but willing is always the driving force and when it is gone, you flounder in no-woman’s land contemplating volunteering for a faraway Kibbutz or selling up and travelling the world in a pale pink camper van…
But there is no escape from obligation in December. Though the list has lingered in the chimney for almost a month now, you have not yet got around to ringing Santa and asking him to leave a calling card and a promise of another visit on the 25th. Presents remain unwrapped and far to many are still living in the shops.
What a stark contrast this is to last year when your rein on all things festive was white knuckled and necessary! The difference then is faith that it will all come together. The belief that the world will not collapse if you have not wrapped and baked and jingled yourself silly. So you let Christmas happen regardless, because for sure as baubles are baubles, it will. You feel relaxed and accepting. Sad for a lunch cancelled by the necessity to be at home, but content to sit at the window and watch rusty leaves dance a hooley in the lane…
Now you are spritzing Christmas cards with a blend of vodka and cinnamon oil. Finding yourself mesmerized by Harry Styles and hoping your son will have the patience to teach you how to play chess – or will tolerate a quick game of draughts if you cannot tell your King from your Bishop…
The house is warm. There is chocolate bubbling on the stove ready for flour free chocolate cakes and a pile of Carry On films waiting to be enjoyed with a long glass of cold milk.
All is calm. All is bright. Happy Thursday Darlings.x
Create your own Brocante Life Book, plan Christmas, set up routines and rituals or live life the BrocanteHome way with my guided workbooks and planners.
Must stop gardening in my nightie. Must stop gardening in my nightie. I have this ludicrously hideous nightie. It is a fake lilac satin, voluminous ugly affair I bought in the first addled days of new Motherhood, and you know that is…
It is a hot sticky night. There is a dove gray furry moth flitting across your ceiling and you can’t decide whether you can bear to spend the night with him. You switch off the light and decide to take your…
I am as you are all probably aware in a permanent state of befuddlement, a look rather becoming with my bed head hair and constant expression of random cheerfulness. But at night I lie awake pondering. Not the meaning of life or…
Just before Christmas, my Mum and I went on our annual, post school nativity jaunt to Cedar Farm for lunch and a giggly mooch. And there we bought kaftans for each other… mine tie-dyed pink and hers an explosion of burnt orange, before…
Well scrub my floorboards and call me a meringue! Did I fall asleep and dream up an online store? GollyGosh has got to be the cutest little shop on the web… "We love our homes. And we love our families and friends…
Mother, Washing Dishes She rarely made us do it— we’d clear the table instead—so my sister and I teased that some day we’d train our children right and not end up like her, after every meal stuck with red knuckles, a bleached…
8 Comments
Poor Fin!It’s howling a gale here, rain flung against the windows in the already dusk (2pm). I’m with you in the campervan …!
Poor Finn, hope he gets better quickly. It’s strangely warm here but there is a fast moving storm headed our way this weekend full of snow and ice. I’m up for the camper too, as long as mine can be turquoise. 😉
Sorry to hear that Finn is poorly again. mouth ulcers are miserable. Just a word of caution though, tomatoes and vinegar (both in tomato sauce) can make them much sorer and can also make them spread so you get many more. It is a big problem for me when I have mouth ulcers and I avoid tomatoes like the plague! I found this article helpful, hope it helps you too x
We have snow here today so though I have only 1 gift bought I’m not worrying at all. The past several years we have kelt things very simple and it makes the holidays so much nicer! Get well Finn!
Do hope Finn is on the mend. Campervan or Kibbutz….both sound enticing on a very cold day. Five days of freezing temps, so cold the snow can’t melt, has kept me housebound. Baking, decorating and lots of reading. And NO shopping. And I’m not missing the shopping crowds so this is actually a nice week.
Hope Sir Finn is improving, poor little guy. I’m just NOT into the whole Yule thing this year. No idea why. Again there’s that word “obligation”. Ali x
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Poor Fin!It’s howling a gale here, rain flung against the windows in the already dusk (2pm). I’m with you in the campervan …!
Poor Finn, hope he gets better quickly. It’s strangely warm here but there is a fast moving storm headed our way this weekend full of snow and ice. I’m up for the camper too, as long as mine can be turquoise. 😉
Sorry to hear that Finn is poorly again. mouth ulcers are miserable. Just a word of caution though, tomatoes and vinegar (both in tomato sauce) can make them much sorer and can also make them spread so you get many more. It is a big problem for me when I have mouth ulcers and I avoid tomatoes like the plague!
I found this article helpful, hope it helps you too x
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-148911/What-eat-beat-mouth-ulcers.html
We have snow here today so though I have only 1 gift bought I’m not worrying at all. The past several years we have kelt things very simple and it makes the holidays so much nicer! Get well Finn!
Do hope Finn is on the mend. Campervan or Kibbutz….both sound enticing on a very cold day. Five days of freezing temps, so cold the snow can’t melt, has kept me housebound. Baking, decorating and lots of reading. And NO shopping. And I’m not missing the shopping crowds so this is actually a nice week.
Hope Sir Finn is improving, poor little guy. I’m just NOT into the whole Yule thing this year. No idea why. Again there’s that word “obligation”.
Ali x
They holidays are just around the corner once again. I’m getting to the deep cleaning and baking lists. Soon it will be time to bake my heart out!
They holidays are just around the corner once again. I’m getting to the deep cleaning and baking lists. Soon it will be time to bake my heart out!