To Find A Silver Lining

Well... maybe not feed me; as I tend to do the cooking - but need me, now that's a different story! 

I am going intersperse this post with wedding photos - just for the heck of it!
A very emotional groom waiting...
Thirteen years my love... and I still remember bits of it like it was yesterday; but we're getting so old now, that other parts are fading around the edges a bit 😂😂! Maybe it's time we dusted off the old photos and movie, and reminisced a bit tonight!

One of my all-time favourite wedding photos.
So - what have we accomplished in thirteen years;
* Two amazing little people
* A Mortgage
* A Cat
* Two Guinea Pigs

24th December 2016
Looking at it in black and white (well, purple and white), it seems so boring and dull... normal really! But there is so much more behind those statements than what you can read - 

* We have survived and beaten Hidradenitis Supporativa
* We have survived and beaten anxiety
* We have survived and beaten Postnatal Depression
* We have survived and beat…

Dear Dad,
You always loved the weather - right to the very end you would always watch the 6pm News on Channel 1(Channel 3 just didn't do it for you), and the news didn't finish until you'd seen the weather; and then you'd analyse the next few days ahead, despite the fact you didn't go outside much in those last few months...
So as the day of the funeral got closer, and it became apparent we would be saying goodbye to you in cyclonic circumstances; it was quite ironic wouldn't you say!
But let's back track and I will take you back to the week between your passing and your final send off...
I had stayed the Saturday night with Mum, and in the morning Andrew had joined us again, and together we'd called Derek (the Funeral Director) to pop over and go through a few things. A decision was finally made to hold your funeral on Friday 12th May at 1pm, and we discussed a few other things as well - catering, format of the service, who was doing what. It was a hard mo…

One of the many benefits of belonging to a small church is the opportunity for our kids to grow up around all different age groups... it's not something everyone has the privilege of! Families tend to hang out with other families who have children in a similiar age bracket (trust me, we do a lot of that too - just so convenient when the children all get along and play nicely together), but there is something special when you see your child bonding with folk who are of a different generation.
Watching my children strut around church like they own the place brings back so many precious childhood memories of my own... like them, I was brought up in a small town church, and while I was blessed enough to have had my best friend attend the same church all the way through; I have very fond memories of everyone. I am still in touch through Facebook with many folk from that church, most of them are totally different age categories to me - some younger but many older, they remember me as a y…

💔 HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD 💔

This Fathers Day was particularly rough - even more than I had anticipated; how do you celebrate Fathers Day when your Father is no longer with you?
I hadn't realised how deeply this would effect me - we have never been big into celebrating these holidays as a family; so I had hoped to glide through the day fairly unscathed, and keep my focus on my husband instead.
But it didn't really work that way... hubby could see what was happening, and he suggested we skip church and head up to the cemetery instead; which was just what I needed. It was wet, windy and very cold - not quite as bad as the day of the funeral, but we had to laugh at the similarities. The kids took some flowers up, and I had written out a card for Dad, which I placed on his grave:

Some days I can't quite believe that I'll never see him again; it just doesn't make sense, other days it's like a punch in the guts and a pain in my chest - making it difficult to breathe. And …