Goodbye 2014

So 2014 is nearly over…and what a year!

With a few very obvious exceptions, it has been a pretty awful year, and one that I can say I won’t be sorry to see the back of.

We started off the year with Graham out of work, which was pretty hard going. Money was very tight, and we ended up having to end the lease on my car because we couldn’t afford it. We are still yet to get another one, but hoping that in the new year we can scrape together enough money to buy a run around. With three young kids, catching buses is a nightmare! Luckily, in March, Graham’s old boss offered him a job doing what he loves doing – carpet fitting.

The house we lived in was making us really unhappy. It could have been a beautiful house – perfect size and perfect location – but we were cursed with having a useless landlord and a useless estate agent. The house was literally falling apart around us. The plaster was down to the brickwork in the hallway, the garden was unusable because of a huge hole in the fence, and the whole house needed lots of money spent on it – something that as tenants we were not prepared to do. In the summer, we were left without any running water for three days and hot water and heating for nearly four weeks because of our crap landlord. The icing on the cake came in early October, when he gave us notice to leave, citing that we were ‘troublemakers’ (how dare we demand our human right of running water!). We could have fought it, but by this point I was heavily pregnant with Benjamin, and we hated the house so much we couldn’t wait to get out. Luckily, within a couple of weeks we had found, and moved into a lovely house. We are much happier in our new house, but it means bus journeys to and from school, which is a pain.

In the midst of moving house, my dad also broke his ankle. He had to be operated on and have plates and screws put in, meaning he spent the last couple of months lying on the sofa, unable to drive or go to work.Just what everyone needs before Christmas! In the last couple of weeks he had the cast removed and his ankle is healing well, but he will still be off work for another couple of months yet.

A fortnight before Christmas, our lovely little nephew very suddenly passed away. RJ was just two years old. It came out of no where and completely devastated us all, especially his mummy, daddy and brothers and sisters. I know that as 2014 comes to an end, RJ will be very much in our thoughts.

The hardest part for us came the weekend before Christmas, when Benjamin suddenly became very poorly, and we faced spending Christmas in hospital. Luckily, he fought the illness off (which you can read about here, and we were home in time for Christmas.

2014 hasn’t been all doom and gloom though. Harrison started nursery in September and has settled in beautifully. He has made a lovely group of friends, and I love logging into the app the school has set up, where they share pictures of what he has been up to. He has grown up a lot and has learnt so much. I hope that all his school years go as well as this first term has.

I’ve also made a group of fantastic new friends. These lovely ladies are mums from school, and we always have such a laugh. They’ve been brilliant when I’ve needed help, and I really hope these are friendships that last for many years to come.

My little brother and his girlfriend (who is also my best friend) took the big step of buying their first house. This is a huge achievement for anyone, but my little brother has only just turned 22, so I think they’ve done brilliantly.

The highlight of the year was the arrival of Benjamin in November. When we found out I was pregnant back in April, it came as a bit of a surprise, and we were a bit worried – we would have three children under 3 and a half – but over the moon. The boys have been brilliant with their little brother, and life with three kids hasn’t been too much harder than with just two of them (so far!).

Finally – my blog. When I started it in November last year I didn’t expect for one minute I would even keep it going, let alone for it to be as successful as it is. I’m just outside the top 200 on Tots 100, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some fantastic brands, but best of all, I’ve made lots of new blogging friends.

I’m hoping that 2015 is a much better and much more positive year. Next year I aim to lose some weight and become healthier and happier in myself. I’m hoping to start up doing some home tutoring at some point in the Spring, to bring in some more money and keep my brain going. I’m going to work on my blog and make it as good as it can be. Most of all, I’m going to make sure that I fully appreciate my three beautiful sons, my family and my friends.

 

Happy New Year!!!

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