All posts filed under: Parenting

A Christmas Present List and Lottie Dolls Giveaway

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So, before I start, this is by no means a bragging post. I am acutely aware of the fact that so many children out there who will not be visited at all by Santa this year. My heart breaks for all the Syrian children and the sustained attacks they have had to endure in the past months. This is just a post to inspire other parents who are lucky enough to be healthy and well, living in a country where peace reigns, who can work to make their little ones’ dreams come true. What has my seven year old girl been dreaming to find under the Christmas tree this year? At the top of her list, we have had My Little Pony dolls and sets. I have been scouring the shops since November and managed to get her half price items and two for one sets so the house will be filled with glitter and pink ponies on Christmas morning :-). I love it that she is still into dolls at 7. To me, that …

Visiting Mount Pilio

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We are back to Greece, although, if you are a regular reader of my blog, I didn’t think I will return this summer. I did for a number of reasons; my strongest being my daughter’s happiness. We landed in Athens on Wednesday night and headed towards Thessaloniki after a couple of days of rest and a lovely encounter with a loved family member and friend. The journey from Athens to Thessaloniki is long, especially when done in the summer, in a car with a faulty air con system. We decided to break the journey in half and have been staying on Mount Pelion, in a small but beautiful village, called Agios Georgios (Saint George), for the past two nights. Blog post to follow on our delightfully luxurious B&B! Mount Pilio(Pelion in Greek) has been capturing the imagination of the Greek from ancient times and it is believed to have been the home of Centaurs and the starting point of major mythological events like the Trojan War. Nowadays, the mountain continues to attract a lot of …

Father’s Day with Scruffs

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Emma’s has become more aware of special days as the years have clocked by so this year, she really wanted to get her daddy something special! We had already got lunch booked to celebrate Father’s Day but she also wanted to give him something more than a card for the occasion so when Scruffs agreed to collaborate with us again, for a third time, I knew we would have the perfect present to give Alex on the day! Alex loves all his Scruffs gear he has accumulated over the last year. You can read about his winter jacket here and about his spring one here. This time, knowing that Alex’s jeans always end up ripping when out working, we decided to go for a pair of work jeans, to begin with. I was amazed at the quality of this pair as well as the totally reasonable pricing(£34.95) . The jeans come with loads of pockets, all so very handy for busy working hands and knee pads for ground level work. They look amazing, not at …

On Pan, the movie and the fear of Death

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On Sunday, Emma and I took the car into Belfast, on a very quiet and bright morning and went to see Pan, the movie released last year. Emma knew of Peter Pan, of course and had watched the classic version of the film several times but you can never beat a Disney movie! We had booked our tickets online via the Odeon Kids’ Cinema and paid £3.00 for both of us, so it was an extra bonus realising that we were the only ones watching Pan, as we got to sit in the comfy seats and chatted to our hearts’ desire, without disturbing anyone. Emma was engrossed from the word go and although she found some elements spooky, like the pirates kidnapping the boys from their orphanage dormitory at night and of course, cruel Mother Barnabas, she thoroughly enjoyed it and spoke about it for the rest of the day. What did I come away with myself, as a bereaved mother? I picked some golden nuggets that continued to simmer in my head over the …

Children’s Grief Awareness Week UK

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Last week I wrote a blog post about Emma’s struggles as a bereaved sister and Vicky, a bereaved mummy and friend, commented with information about Children’s Grief Awareness Week in the UK. Information about Children’s Grief Awareness Week can be found here, and I will let you skim it in peace, in your own time. All I will mention here is that it is organised by Grief Encounter in collaboration with the Childhood Bereavement Network and a wealth of information and resources are only a click away from the link I included above. What I feel I need to contribute to this initiative is a personal account of how difficult bereavement has been for us as a family and especially for Emma, as a sibling. I will also include what has worked for us, when it comes to grief support for Emma, and what other alternatives have been suggested to us by people who are either specialists, educators or have suffered the death of a sibling when they were young. Some of these suggestions  you …