As we stepped into 2020 earlier this month, it was from a full and busy end to 2019.
We had a Christmas period filled with family, friends and festivities; from our daughter’s 2nd birthday to Christmases with both sides of the family, games and merriment interspersed with a few much-appreciated quieter moments – walks underneath the twinkling lights, a time to pause at a Christmas Eve Christingle service, slow-start mornings at home just the three of us.
I also worked a few extra shifts over Christmas, my first year working in care over the holidays, and really enjoyed the chance to be a little part of such a special time of the year in the homes I visit. It was a lovely festive season – despite the logistical challenges of fitting everything in! – and one I was very grateful to have had. Still, as I always do seem to find in the steadying and refreshing first days of a whole new year; it has been wonderful to settle back in to a routine once more, open up a brand new diary, feel things slow down a little again and relax into the fresh start.
My weekdays, spent at the moment at home looking after my daughter, have built over the last year to be generally quite structured, as we get out every morning to a toddlers group, class or a Bookbug session (the most wonderful free library singing and story groups we’re very lucky to have here for wee ones), and then in the afternoons have a walk, meet friends, do the shopping or more often than not head to the farm to spend some time with the pony. The little one really loves her routine, getting to her same groups every week with her friends and getting out and about exploring; and it’s all absolutely brilliant for building up to her heading off to nursery in what seems a crazily short time, less than a year from now!
All this was new to me last year, just coming out of maternity leave and finding my feet with it in the longer term, and our weeks were more flexible back then, being much more dictated to by ad hoc napping and feeding! This year though, I’ve so enjoyed returning to it all in much the same way I used to to work in the office, and it’s lovely to look ahead at the term unfolding.
Of course, life is going to change and rhythms adjust (or more likely be completely turned upside down!) for us in the coming months all over again, as we prepare to welcome our second child in April, with our due date now just 10 weeks away. It’s been lovely starting to get ready for that too – packing a hospital bag, getting our little crib out again and buying a new mattress for it, washing and drying baby clothes and finding it unbelievable how impossibly tiny they are!!
For his part, my old man Charmer has come through now the majority of this winter wonderfully well generally speaking – his arthritis, being managed every day this year just depending on how he’s doing, has for the most part been on an even keel.
This year I was more worried about the impact of the winter on him than ever since his legs had already been causing him some trouble in summertime; but we’ve been incredibly luckily from his point of view with the weather – not from every other horse owner’s I’m sure, or every other general winter fan, as the beautiful crisp frosty days here have been very few and far between, with generally damp, muddy and ridiculously mild weather throughout nearly all of November and December. For Charmer, this has actually been perfect, as it seems to be when the temperature drops below zero that his wee bones feel it, and so he’s managed to be sound and relatively pain-free with only some double doses of pain relief needed in the occasional colder snap. The biggest change to his management this year has been that for the first time in many years he’s managed to be wintered out (so far at least!), mostly due to an excess of grass we ended up with in the summer and a gradual re-widening of the field bit by bit over the last few months after having it partly fenced off. This has been wonderful for keeping him moving and reducing his stiffness, and he’s thrived on it so far, keeping weight on and enjoying his freedom.
He’s got to keep me on my on my toes to some extent though, of course (he just wouldn’t be him otherwise!), so at last week’s annual health check a damaged canine tooth was discovered which is unfortunately going to need X-rays and extraction up at the vet clinic next month. I just hope it can all go as smoothly as possible for him, as he is definitely not a fan of travelling in the trailer or really young enough to bounce back easily if the procedure turns out to be a complicated one; but we will just have to see how it all goes.
This year is undoubtedly going to be a big one for us all, and I’m so looking forward to it. We’ve actually been very lucky to have started it with some wonderful times already, even though we’re only a few weeks in; and it feels like we’ve had a chance to travel our beautiful country a fair bit, having started the new year in the south with my husband’s family, and last weekend having headed north for a wonderful farm weekend away with my sister. Very grateful for time with some of our favourite people in some of our favourite places, taking in amazing views and watching the beautiful January sunrises and sunsets. ❤
Looking forward to writing more in the coming months, and hope you are all having a good week. xx
~ Life, Loves and Adventures ~ 