Jen, the lovely mummy behind the Smiles and Trials blog tagged me last night for this meme. I have been dragging my feet,blogging wise, and I decided taking part in this challenge would be a nice way to shake some dust off my writing tools. Here are the questions the meme challenged us to answer. Please show grace as you read through my answers. 1. What was the last thing that made you cry? For a long time, I kept putting off sorting out the picture frames I have for the living room for Georgie’s pictures. Last night I managed to start the job but came across a picture of Georgie days before he died. I cried. Silently. With my back to Emma, who remained blissfully unaware of my struggle and continued to watch Frozen. The living room has been her den and her retreat during the very hard months before Georgie’s diagnosis and I didn’t want her to come to associate it with pain. So I cried silently for my boy while my girl …

A bubble gum flavour Angel Delight! Sounds delightful? You bet it is! A couple of weeks back BritMums and Angel Delight Desserts kindly sent us their new, bubble gum flavoured sachets to sample and encouraged us to come up with new ways to enjoy the very popular and much loved dessert. If you have never tried it yet, Angel Delight is the easiest way to make dessert and keep kids happy in busy households on weeknights. All you need is a sachet and half a pint of milk! Oh, and a keep helper, of course :-)! We decided to take it up a notch today when we came back from school, since it was Friday and include our dessert in an Eton mess. We added the whipped Angel Delight to crumbled meringue nests, strawberry jelly and cut up strawberries. The preparation took no more than five minutes and provided Emma with an opportunity to use her fine motor skills in whipping the milk and her negotiating skills in trying to convince me to let her …

We have been away for the Halloween weekend. Went to visit Alex’s family and were very intent on giving Emma a sense of normality in the midst of all that has happened this year. I normally love travelling but I have found this trip tiring. It wasn’t only the visiting and being in a different place and the staying in other people’s homes. It was a very mentally tiring trip as well. You see, grief does that to one. It robs one of all her strength and energy and resources. I have now learned to manage life at home, I know how far I can push myself and how much I can expose myself to emotional triggers. But being away from home is a step too far for now. So as soon as we left, the nightmares started. I had prayed a lot for God to show me in dreams how Georgie is doing. Instead, I found myself in the Royal hospital, the CHU ward, time and time again. Reliving the pain. Holding babies. Being …

These are two very big words, fairness and loyalty. Two very big words we would love our children to learn the meaning and appreciate the value of. Easier said than done, you would tell me, especially if you are a conscious parent who is aware of the realities of the world we live in. Teaching about fairness and loyalty goes against the grain of what the society is teaching our children from when they are babies. The strongest gets the toy, if mummy isn’t there to watch out. The loudest one gets the attention most of the time, if the presence of a responsible grown-up isn’t there to mediate the conflict. My Emma is no different from any five year old girlie out there. She wants to be the best, the fastest, the prettiest girl of them all. She thrives on praise and would do anything to get herself noticed. Nothing wrong so far. But I have noticed that as she get older and is exposed to more TV and outside influences, the more self-absorbed …