Friday Focus 29/11/19 – A flurry of activity

We’ve reached that point in the year where life feels like a flurry of activity. The calendar is filling up fast, and it seems like nearly all our free time from now until Christmas is now accounted for. This week has certainly felt like been quite a busy one with various events going on. We have the school Christmas fayre this weekend, so I’ve been busy baking cakes for that, as well as also baking scones and cakes for a surprise party at Halo last weekend and our coffee morning fundraising for Little Hearts Matter tomorrow.

 

Flurry - this week's word of the week

 

Thankfully hubby is now back home after a very busy couple of months. I’m hoping that things will be a little quieter on the work front as we head towards Christmas so we can enjoy a little more family time together. It has been lovely having him home to help with bedtime and to see how happy the children are to have Daddy home.

 

We’ve been doing some filming with Action Medical Research this week and sharing Jessica’s story to highlight the importance of some of the research that they have been funding. It made for quite an emotional day but being able to talk so freely about Jessica is such a precious gift. I do love to talk about her and it’s so hard not feeling like I can talk about her as freely as I do Sophie and Thomas sometimes.

 

Reliving our beautiful memories does bring so much sadness, but it also brings a lot of joy too. In those moments, I’m always reminded of the wise words of a friend of mine who is further down this road of being a bereaved parent. She told me that in the moments when my grief feels all-consuming, this is the time when Jessica is asking for my attention and that if I don’t give her that attention, she will shout louder until I do. I now think of those moments as being my time with Jessica, and when my grief is strongest, it reflects back the strength of the love I have for Jessica. Love and grief walk very much hand-in-hand.

 

As always, we take each moment as it comes. The festive season is such a busy time, and, in some respects, the distraction will carry us through it. I’m glad though that even with such a full calendar, there are still plenty of opportunities to draw breath and take a little time out here and there.

 

Things that have made me smile this week

  • Having two parties in one day – a surprise party for Alia, the founder of Halo, at this month’s Halo group meeting, followed by Sophie’s friend’s birthday party.

 

  • Watching Sophie concentrating on painting a lantern at Halo.

 

Sophie painting a ceramic lantern

 

  • Receiving a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a friend, just to let us know she was thinking of us.

 

  • Seeing Sophie and Thomas sitting on the floor together playing with the Playmobil 123.

 

 

Sophie on her bike with Thomas on his trike

 

  • Watching Sophie in her class assembly.

 

Word of the Week linky

8 thoughts on “Friday Focus 29/11/19 – A flurry of activity

  1. What wonderful advice from your friend, I’m glad you can talk so freely about Jessica, the sadness is inevitable. I often think of your beautiful little girl. I love the pic of Sophie concentrating, all my kids stick out their tongues when concentrating. I also love the bikes, it’s good to get out and some fresh air no matter how cold. x

  2. Your friend’s words are beautiful. Grief is such a painful thing, but to think of it as the strong love we have for someone, that’s very eye opening and reassuring. Thank you for sharing 🙂 #WotW

    1. It’s been such helpful advice and really helped me through some of the moments when the sadness is overwhelming.

  3. It sounds like you do have a busy time coming up. Enjoy! I bet you are glad to have your hubby home.
    What very wise words from your friend about about grief. x

    1. Thank you Kim, it’s so nice to have him home again. Those words from my friend really have helped me so much – it’s such a good way of looking at grief and helps make the really sad moments feel a little more bearable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.