Me and Mine – A Portrait for March 2016

These monthly family portrait posts usually come around so quickly, I’m nearly always writing about how I can’t believe four weeks have passed already. This month seems to be different, and I’m not sure why as I don’t seem to have done that much but it seems forever since I was writing about what we got up to in February.

This month has been pretty mixed with some emotional highs and lows. It was the month that marked my first wedding anniversary without Roger, on what would have been our five-year milestone. I found that pretty tough to be honest, but as I’ve said before it’s the thought and the build-up to these special dates that I find hard, rather than the actual days. I think I must be planning in my head how awful I might feel, and then the stress of thinking about it leads to a major ‘pre-special-date’ wobble.

Luckily I avoided this wobble on my birthday, as I’d arranged to go out with my friends and there really is no better tonic (no gin pun intended there, promise!). I even managed to keep with birthday tradition and have a cup of tea in bed while opening my presents and cards, with Sam and Flo snuggled in too of course. Sam was delighted that my birthday happened and it meant only one thing – we were a step closer to his big day, coming up in a few weeks’ time.

As the nights get lighter and the sun gets a tiny bit warmer things are starting to feel like they are moving again after such a long and dark winter. We have now booked our summer holiday after being so lucky as to win a week in a villa with James Villas. I’m going with one of my my best friends and her son, and we finally decided on an amazing villa in the Algarve which has its own pool, pool table and table tennis set up – oh and a pretty little outdoor table for long shady lunches and evening sundowners. Do you reckon we’ll get any of those with three kids in the house? I can’t wait anyway and it certainly helps to have something to look forward to.

I guess I’ll have to curb the Easter chocolate addiction before then, something which is pretty hard at the moment as there are still four whole eggs sitting in the kitchen, just waiting to be broken into once Sam and Flo aren’t looking. Flo’s stash has been hit hard, as unfortunately for her, she is too young to notice and Sam would detect even the slightest missing crumb!

You need a bit of chocolate when you’re watching TV though, don’t you? I haven’t been watching much tele for months to be honest but in the past few weeks I’ve been trying to force myself to slow down a bit and chill out more. This has happily coincided with lots of good stuff being on like Happy Valley (ace ending), The Night Manager (even better), the Line of Duty (just beginning but such a good series) and the second season of Girls on DVD.

We will all be looking forward to April as not only is it the school holidays, but Sam will turn seven, we will take a few days away and make time for lots of meet-ups with friends and family. It also would have been Roger’s birthday in April, and I’m hoping we can mark it with happiness and reflection rather than too much sadness.

Thanks to Mum for taking the photos – even though they are a classic example of how many outtakes you need to get a half-decent shot with my kids! I think my favourite is the one where Sam’s covering his eyes and Flo looks like she’s asking what on earth is going on. You’d think they’d be used to mum demanding photos by now, wouldn’t you?

x Julia

This post is linked up with the Me and Mine project – hosted by Dear Beautiful, Bump to Baby, Capture By Lucy, Let’s Talk Mommy, Mummy Daddy Me and Tigerlilly Quinn – where you take a photograph a month of your family all together.

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