memories

Word of the Week #35 Memories

August 30, 2019 by Anne Sweet 13 Comments

Hello and welcome to the home of Word of the Week, a nice and simple weekly linky, with everyone welcome to pop by and share. The idea of the linky is to reflect back on your past week and share it with us. It’s great if you can sum it up in a word or phrase, hence giving us your Word of the Week. My word this week is memories and you can read more about that below.

I’m not totally strict on using just a word or phrase but please try to stick to the theme of summing up your week.

There are not too many rules with this linky, just remember to read at least another couple of posts in the link up after adding your link. I will read and comment on all posts and tweet them out for you. I also have a Pinterest board devoted to Word of the Week and I will add posts to Mix Please add the badge below to your post so that others may find us and join in. If you comment or tweet then please use the hashtag #WotW

Word of the Week is open from 6am on Friday Morning to 12 noon on Monday. Plenty of time to join in!

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

MY WORD OF THE WEEK.

Memories

This week I decided it was time to sort out our bedroom. We broke our wardrobe when moving house six years ago and only use one side of it. The other side is full of boxes and stuff that has barely been moved since we put it there.

So, I ordered a new wardrobe and side table. My first job was to empty my side table. It was rammed with stuff! The top drawer was full of drugs, but don’t worry; they were all prescribed. Some of them were past their use by date though.

As I moved down to the other drawers, I found photographs and notebooks going back ages. I loved the baby books that I’d kept for my three youngest. I also found a lot of crystals and a fair amount of small change.

The Wardrobe

The broken side of the wardrobe is guarded by my daughter’s dog Sasha. The dog is now over 20 years old but she’s still looking good. I remember buying her as a birthday present; she was pretty hard to wrap being the size of a regular sitting labrador. She’s easy to care for, she doesn’t eat, move or bark. My daughter gave her up when we moved and we found she made a good doorstop for the broken wardrobe door. I don’t know what we’ll do with her when the new wardrobe is up.

I moved Sasha out of the way and started to go through some stuff in the wardrobe. Wow! I had drawings and hand prints from all of my five children from when they were little. Such precious memories. I whittled two huge boxes of paper down to one though. I find it difficult to part with things, but I reckon one huge box of memories is enough. Then there were the baby clothes. I don’t know why I kept them? Some were woollen jumpers that my Mum had knitted, so I get that, and the Christening robes. Everything else had to go. Including about 20 different princess dresses. Oh, my aching heart.

Then there were the photographs. Oh so many photographs, going back over 40 years. Oh my, I was such a pretty teenager, why didn’t I see it then? Maybe I’ll scan some later.

Sad Memories

It’s also been a sad time for memories as I lost a dear friend to the dreaded cancer this week. 15 years ago I was searching the internet for someone to talk to about my miscarriage (my one and only.) I came across a forum (Facebook wasn’t a thing then and forums where a good way of making connections.) I came across a group of women who were all of a similar age as me and were all trying to have babies, or had lost babies. We became friends and over the years we laughed and cried together as we all went on our parenting journey. I still know many of these women now (Although we have moved on to Facebook.) I know so many women with children the same age as my girls (not so much my boy as we were all a little bit ‘past it’ by then…well apart from 3 of us!

Maggie was a lovely member of our group and we all will sadly miss her. She is the second member now taken from us by cancer.

Another of our group also lost her partner suddenly last week. So, it’s been a very sad time indeed.

So my memories this week have been cute, heart-warming and very sad. A true mixed bag of emotions.

Now it’s your turn, what word or phrase sums up your week this week.

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Last week my word of the week was washing

Kids say (and do) the Funniest Things

February 18, 2019 by Anne Sweet 21 Comments

This is a purely indulgent post, full of personal memories. But I do hope you find a few things that will make you smile too.

I love the memories you can get on Facebook, when it shows you what you have posted on the same day in the past. I get some real gems showing up so I thought I’d collect some and share them in a post.

Christmas 2009

Star was a little girl of four years old, Boo was two and the Little Man hadn’t yet made his appearance (although I was soon to find out he was on the way.)

One day I was playing with Star and I asked her if she’d like to sing a Christmas song. ‘Yes’ she said, she always loved to sing.

So I asked her what song she’d like to sing, thinking maybe she’d come up with Jingle Bells or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

No, she said. Let’s sing the one about the turkey and the custard cream.

Ah yes, that good old Christmas classic. I’ve never worked out what she meant.

two little girls on Christmas day 2009 — Christmas 2009

2010 One For All

While I was pregnant with the Little Man we braved a holiday with the girls. It was a lovely holiday camp and we had a great time. Boo was around two and a half at the time and one day she was prancing around with a stick saying ‘We are the Biscuit Ears!’ We thought it was hilarious.

Star understood her so we asked her to explain. Of course, she meant musketeer. Barbie and the Musketeers was currently Star’s favourite DVD to watch. We’ve constantly teased Boo about being a biscuit ear.

two little girls standing on a rock at a caravan park in 2010 — The Biscuit Ears

2011 Gems

In 2011 the Little Man was around but he wasn’t talking yet. So I have a couple of gems from the girls.

Just before the Summer holiday break up at school Star’s class all came out with painted faces. They ran out of school like a herd of animals. Then came Star with a clean face. When I asked why she wasn’t painted like the other children she replied, ‘I washed it off Mummy, because I didn’t want to scare you. So sweet! I do think that there is more to this story though as Star became traumatised by face paint since then and will not even go near a child that has had their face painted.

Early 2011 Boo was just three years old. They had both been given a packet of sweets on the way home from shopping. At home Star was looking for her sweets, I asked Boo if she’d seen them. She replied, ‘yes Mummy, I’ve seen them and now they are in my tummy.’ If nothing, she was honest! And how could you be angry when she had such a sweet little face…look this is the face of the innocent..or not!

a little girl standing by a duck pond — The Sweet, sweet thief in 2011

2014 Hair Dye

This one is for the Little Man. In 2014 when he was around three and a half he was at that stage where he followed me everywhere around the house. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom in peace. I’m sure you parents can understand.

One day I grabbed my towel, my hair dye and popped off to the bathroom to die my hair. The Little Man asked ‘What you doing Mummy?’ So I told him I was going to dye my hair.

Five minutes later there is a knock on the bathroom door and the Little Man called out…’Mummy, is your hair dead yet?’

a little boy standing by a fence — The Little Man in 2014

Music

I’m pretty sure when I was a child I listened to ‘normal’ music. At the present I’m in the same room as the girl’s while they are playing on the PS4. They have their own playlist playing and boy do I feel old when some of the ‘tunes’ just give me a headache. But the worst is they love some Youtuber who sings Minecraft parodies. His lyrics are clever, but his voice is just plain awful. So bad that it’s funny at first, but when you’ve heard it more than once you really want to turn it off (or cut your ears off!)

But lets go back to 2016 and the Little Man when he was just five years old. He was playing a little game on the computer and had his own playlist on in the back ground. It was four songs on repeat; We Will Rock You, Levan Polka, It’s Raining Taco’s and Gummy Bears. I think you can understand why all my children now have headphones!

As an extra special treat for you, here is the Levan Polka as performed by the magnificent Hatsune Miku. Spin those leeks!

Back to Normal

January 7, 2019 by Anne Sweet 9 Comments

So Christmas is over for another year, it’s official, the tree is down and decorations banished to the cupboard for another year.

Here’s a query for you…for many years I took my decorations down on January 6th which is the Epiphany. It was what my Mum did and I followed suit. But, then I discovered that most people take their decorations down on 12th night which is January 5th. Despite my Mum teaching me it was incredibly unlucky to take them down before the 6th, I have in the past couple of years taken the opportunity to be rid of Christmas a day earlier, sorry Mum. So, what do you believe is the right time to take down the tree and decorations? Maybe you are like a lot of my friends who like them gone before January?

This Christmas passed peacefully and we had a lot of fun as a family. I think maybe I got stressed out in the run up, not because of the usual things, but because we are renowned to have disastrous Christmas holidays and I was worried it would go wrong again. Our track record includes 3 family deaths, pet deaths, huge fall outs, and calls to the police and ambulance services. Even I didn’t escape as only 3 years ago I ended up in hospital on New Years Day. You know what, we only need a murder to fully compete with an Eastenders Christmas script.

New Year!

Sadly we did begin the New Year on a bad note as my Mother-in-law’s dog passed away during the night on the 4th January. I’m not a huge dog lover but Sasha was such a gentle friendly dog, she will be missed.

a head view of a staffordshire bull terrier dog — In Memory of Sasha

On 7th January I am having my hospital treatment which is much needed. I think I totally wore myself out over the Christmas period. Bad eating, too much alcohol and too many late nights have taken their toll.

The Little Man is back at school on the 7th and the Girl’s go back on the 9th. It will be strange getting back into a routine. But, I’ve found the solution to a lot of my woes. My son bought me a new tumble dryer for my Birthday back at the end of November, and last week I bought myself a new washing machine. Both new machines are 10kg loads and super quick, I can’t believe what a difference it has made to my washing mountain. (my old machines were both 7kg loads) I’m almost looking forward to tackling the school uniforms and p.e. kits again. (almost)

The Blog

I’m migrating my blog this week to a new host so I may disappear for a while. I should be back by Friday for my Word of the Week though. Nothing will change, Raisie Bay will still look the same. (hopefully)

Thanks for reading x

My Sunday Photo December 23rd 2018

December 23, 2018 by Anne Sweet 10 Comments

Christmas 1983

In loving memory of my Mum who passed away ten years ago on December 25th 2008.

One particular icy day, a week before Christmas 1983, my mum fell and fractured her arm. It didn’t stop her getting everything done for Christmas though. It was her favourite time of year. Together with my Nan they would cook up a gorgeous Christmas dinner and we would have loads of treats. Nan’s mince pies where to die for.

We didn’t have a dining room and the kitchen was small, but we did have a big round table that Mum used to put in the middle of the living room on Christmas day for us all to sit together for Christmas dinner. I would help lay the table while watching Top of the Pops on the Television. The after the Queen’s speech we would all pull a cracker and settle down to eat.

There would be various other family members visit throughout the day with extra presents for us all. It was always fun, even the washing up wasn’t so bad with us all chipping in. Everyone was in good spirits, and even though my Nan has a bottle in her hand here, I didn’t see her or Mum drink more than one glass of wine with dinner.

Boxing day all the family would visit for a party. Mum and I would move the furniture around to make more room, and we’d blow up balloons and give everyone party poppers. We’d play music on our Stereo gram, usually albums that I’d had as Christmas presents, and after a few drinks there would be some dancing in the middle of the room.

Then we’d rest for a while until it was time to get ready for New Years Eve. For this the whole family would save a little money each week in a Post Office account and it was all pooled together. We’d hire a hall, a dj and all my aunties would chip in preparing a huge buffet. We would have a huge table of drinks for the adults to help themselves. There would be loads of decorations, Mum and her sisters would work all day making it look totally amazing. Then we would party all night.

Thank you Mum for giving me these happy memories. They keep me going through the sad ones, like sitting with you in the hospice back in 2008 watching you slip away from me forever.

For anyone missing someone this Christmas, I know how difficult it is, but eventually the happy memories are what you grab in those sad moments. It’s okay to be happy without them, even though it’s hard.

Merry Christmas to all My Readers, Peace and love to all,
Anne xx

Why I Choose to be Positive

January 22, 2018 by Anne Sweet 17 Comments

a field of dandelions with the text, when you look at a field of dandelions you can either see hundreds of weeds or a thousand wishes.

People often ask me why I’m so positive. Well, I do have my down moments, times when I feel I can’t cope anymore. But it’s my positive attitude that pulls me through, and it’s always there, deep inside, even when I feel depressed.

I’ve always been pretty laid back, I let life’s problems flow and deal with them when I can. Sometimes I procrastinate (okay, I procrastinate a lot) and this doesn’t help, but eventually I get everything sorted and back on track.

I always say that I had a good childhood, and I really believe it. But, how good could it have been really when my Dad died while I was young and mum had to bring up me and my brother in a time when one parent families were a distinct minority.

I always say that my first marriage was good, but it wasn’t really. despite the happy times and the births of my first two children, there was a lot of misery. When he finally left for good I didn’t cry, I’d done that too many times before when he’d left me. The last time I just felt relieved. We are still friends because I don’t hold grudges and he’s my kid’s Dad.

I don’t hold grudges you see. It’s not easy, but I forgive people that have hurt me and don’t dwell on it. I never used to, and it made me miserable. Forgiveness is like a magic potion for healing. I know some people find it hard and really can’t forgive those that hurt them. But you don’t even have to tell them you forgive them, just hold it in your heart, forgive them and the pain eases. You don’t have to worry or stress about them and what they’ve done, it’s over.

I don’t believe in karma. I think it holds you back, it’s kind of like revenge. If someone hurts you and you think that karma will get them, then it’s like saying you wish something bad to happen to them. Then there is good karma, where you think that those who have awful things happen to them will get their good things by karma. It just doesn’t happen and it’s not worth waiting for. I don’t believe in karma because I’ve seen too many bad things happen to good people and too many good things happen to bad people.

I never say ‘why me’ because it just makes you feel miserable. I know that bad things happen to people all the time, this time it’s my turn. Maybe I’ve had more than my fair share of bad things happen, but if I think why me, then I have to believe that I deserved them in some way.

Positivity

So, why am I so positive despite everything. Well, I deal with my problems as they arrive, I may procrastinate but I do deal with everything eventually. I don’t dwell on the bad things that have happened and I don’t blame anyone, not even karma or myself. I forgive those that hurt me and don’t hold grudges. And I am determined not to let my old age be full of regrets or bad feelings, life is short and you have to make the most of the happy times and hold them close in your heart.

I would never look at a field of dandelions and think of them as a hundred weeds. For me they are wishes, little happy moments that are so much more special than the bad things.

How do you stay positive?