Last year was the first year I blogged about the World Vision initiative, a night of hope. I found it important, at a time when the children in our privileged world stuff themselves with treats and have fun pretending to experience fear, to remember the ones for whom fear is a daily fact and occurrence. World Vision has kindly invited me to be part of their yearly Night of Hope Halloween campaign. This year the focus is the Syrian children and we are all invited to carve a heart in a pumpkin thinking of them, write them a letter telling them we care and make a donation to show them our support. So, here is my picture and my letter: “Dear little ones, I am so, so sorry for the hard times we have been having. I am sooo sorry you had to see things you were never meant to see. If only I could, I would give you all a tight hug. If only I had the power, I would rewind the time and …

Back in October we were privileged to be picked by Brioche Pasquier to sample and write a review about their lovely milk chocolate rolls and brioche sliced loaf. They were also extremely kind to send us a voucher so we can create an autumn picnic for the family. The lovely offering came presented into a cute picnic basket and it arrived bang on time as we were heading out for a weekend away to Newcastle. Emma was absolutely thrilled with the chocolate rolls and devoured a good few before we even arrived at our destination! I sampled the brioche loaf the following morning and I found it delightful, reminding me of my mum’s Easter cakes, full of flavour and incredibly soft. I had it toasted with a cup of coffee, bliss!! We came home and since Halloween was approaching I decided to use our Halloween molds to cut out cute shapes for Emma’s afternoon snack. Winner, once again, the loaf was perfect for shape cutting and Emma enjoyed her seasonal snack to the full! We …

Where am I in my grieving journey and how do I practice gratitude each day? I am at the beginning, this is all I know. I do feel at times I am in totally uncharted territory. Grief is a deeply personal journey in which you have to allow yourself to go down deep into your emotions in order to find your way out. I do have days when I think avoiding pain would be easier. But then I also know that I am only cheating myself. Pain is there and avoiding it will only make the outburst more violent, as pain was not meant to be held in. Pain was not meant to be. Full stop. So I try and grieve a bit each day. Release those pent up emotions as they surge. Talk about them. Cry about my loss. Write a blog post. Shout at God. It feels almost like looking for the pain in your heart, pulling it out from where it is hiding, the dark corners in which it is most comfortable, …