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I’ve always regarded myself as a homebody, someone who is happiest to be at home, doing my own thing and finding pleasure in pottering around the house, finding little things to do. I can’t deny it hasn’t brought me a lot of pleasure over the years, but today I feel something different, and it feels…

Learning

Last year I spent a short while saying yes to everything. This year I’m learning how important it is for me to say no. I often say yes to things I don’t want to do or that I know will have a negative effect on me in some way. If I’m going to really live…

2014

It’s the first day of 2014 and I feel really positive, content and happy. The children and I spent the morning preparing for our ‘Open House.’ I decided a couple of weeks ago that I would invite friends and family to come round any time of the day, spend time together, share food and start…

Balanced

2013 was one of my most challenging years to date, with Rosie’s operation, her extended and very worrying time in intensive care and her month-long recovery, followed soon after by Amelia being diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and spending what seemed like half the year sleeping. That has put added pressure on her at school in…

Receive

It turns out that letting go – when you make up your mind to do it and then just get on with it – is easier than first anticipated. Today I got rid of a load of stuff. I had people knocking at the door throughout the day to pick stuff up, and it actually…

Path

My feelings for Phil have changed, yet again. How many times does this have to happen before I act on them? How many times am I going to have loving feelings towards him, and the next thing he’s the last man I want? It started on Saturday. He was due to come over, but I…

Duty

Yesterday, my mum turned up with a bag in her hand and asked if she could stay the night. She’d had an argument with my step-dad, and she didn’t want to be around him. I let her in, and she spent the entire afternoon and evening offloading it all onto me. Once she left today,…

Directions

Susie and I had lunch together, and I had a surreal moment of realisation. Firstly, Susie and I have lost the connection we had. Whereas we used to spend hours together most days, and then still ring each other up later to talk more, today we sat for ninety minutes and soon ran out of…

Forgot

I woke up still feeling really angry about having to take Jasper away with us, but I spoke to Karen and Susie, who both said I shouldn’t if I didn’t want to. Regardless of whether people were expecting him or not, they both said that it wasn’t fair for me to have to do something…

Decision

Last week, Phil said he’d booked for us to go away this weekend to meet his Dad’s side of the family. He told me he’d booked a dog-friendly hotel so we could take Jasper, who is only five months old. I told him I was going to ask my sister, Susie, to have Jasper. He…

Mojo

I’ve lost my mojo. I’ve spent the past few days searching everywhere I can think of, but it’s nowhere to be found. I suppose when some of your last blog posts are called Unravelling, Survive, and Alone, it’s inevitable that the next one in the sequence will be about lost mojos. Maybe I need to retrace…

Deep

When I have a counselling session that goes quite deep, it can leave me feeling a little bit like I’m in shock for a day or two afterwards. It leaves me drained and exhausted.

Losing

Dreaming Tom has a large spider on his hand; he is putting it near my face. I scream, “Don’t show me, don’t show me.” Responding I woke in a panic. Breathless and absolutely petrified, I retreated under my quilt to try to hide from the dream. Spiders represent my biggest fear, so to me, this…

Adjust

Dreaming I am in Izzy and Susie’s bedroom at Church Lane. I open the window, but it doesn’t sit properly, so I pull it back in to adjust it. As I do so, the whole window, frame and glass falls out and lands on the bush dividing our house from next door. I am in the kitchen of Church Lane. John is there; he says something about it being different. I look around and see that everything is completely different. The way…

Link

At my counselling session today, we discussed something that’s become a bit of a problem recently – my use of the internet. My eyes open, I go downstairs, and almost every day I turn on my laptop before I do anything else. Some mornings we’re late for school because I’ve spent time on there. Often…

Weight

I received a letter this morning informing me that the government’s recently announced changes are starting to take effect, which means that a benefit I receive for the children will be cut by £10 per week. This means I now need to find an extra £40 per month. I’m almost sure that if I were…

Self-Conscious

Dreaming I’m at home; Josh comes home feeling happy. Tom goes up to his bedroom; I can hear him shouting at Josh. I go to Josh, and Tom leaves; Josh is hurt and upset. I ask Josh what it was about; he said he was at Danny’s, needed a poo, chose the toilet that had no door and was open for all to see, and that a woman had come along and seen him. She had reported back to everyone else, and Josh thought it was funny. I’m at a hospital in the waiting room with Susie,…

Six

In six days, I get the keys to our new home. I wish I could say I’m excited, but I don’t really feel anything. This house – or at least the things that are mine – is still nowhere near packed. I’ve done most of the bedroom, half of the older girls’ stuff, the utility…

Integrity

Discoveries are not always good things, but maybe something to learn from… I discovered that I speak from my head and not my heart. I’m not sure I’ve ever really spoken from the heart. I definitely think that what I say or do an awful lot of the time is driven by fear, but how…

Revert

Tom has really thrown me yet again. He rarely joins in with anything the children and I do. In fact, I can’t remember the last time he did something with us, but today when I told him the girls had been invited to a Halloween party at Susie’s, he said he wanted to come. Not…

Passed

Recently, I’ve been feeling that life has passed me by and it’s really starting to get me down. In the last couple of years, I’ve gone from being someone who lived life to the full with parties, pubs, clubs and singing lessons. I’ve gone from going out dancing, to karaoke, camping weekends with Susie and…

Garden

Tom has been away for four days visiting his family. While he was gone, I decided to give the garden a makeover to create somewhere for the children to actually be able to use. All of my children, Susie and her two children, and my two oldest nephews came to help. By the end of…

Due

Izzy and Susie popped around today. When they left, they did something that really upset me. I was standing outside on the doorstep saying goodbye to them when Susie said in a loud voice, “Look at the state of your eyebrows. When did you last have them plucked? They look a right mess.” I was…

Severed

Dreaming I am at the register office in Linton. I am there to collect some papers/document. The cost is £68. The person at the desk isn’t sure this is right but tells me they will be ready later that afternoon. I look at the paper in my hand; it actually says £12. I tell the…

Naughty

Dreaming I am in a shop/supermarket at the tills, which are in a circle. As I look around, I see wads of money on the ground. The members of staff at the tills haven’t noticed the money on the floor and carry on serving the customers. I go to the right-hand side of the circle,…

Wisdom

Dreaming I am in the living room. I pull up an area of the carpet to reveal a beautiful wooden floor. I say to Tom that we should pull it all up, as we now have the floor we want. As I look closer, I can see there are actually more layers of carpet to…

Change

Susie called me a bitch, and I have to agree with her. She was talking about how people change, and she said that I’ve changed so much over the last couple of years. She said I’ve gone from being really fun, outgoing, easygoing, funny, not caring what anyone thought in a carefree kind of way,…

Family

Dreaming I am at a family get-together; it is summer, and the feeling is very relaxed. I am inside taking photographs. I decide to take some of the people outside as the light would produce a better photo. Outside are Grandad, Justin, Dean, and some others. I sit on a picnic bench next to Justin. Ants are…

Different

 It’s been another weekend of ups and downs. Yesterday, I woke feeling really strong and positive. I decided I wasn’t taking his crap any longer and never again would I ask him for money. When I needed to go and get some shopping, I just said, “Where’s the bank card? I’m going to get food.”…

Bleeding

Dreaming I am in a house with Clive, Susie and the children. Clive is taking the children somewhere and tells me they’ll be back at 9.15pm. Susie and Clive think this is okay. I am unhappy and tell them there is no way my children are going out alone until that time, and that I’ll be going…

Rash

When we moved in together, Tom refused to let me bring any of my furniture to our new home. He said it was all ‘cheap shit‘. It wasn’t. He said we’d get new furniture even though it would cost us money he said we didn’t have. Weeks later, we still have no dining table, so…