Looking back at 2022

And around rolls another January 1st!

As we look back on the last twelve months and promise ourselves that this year will be better, let’s just take a moment not to remark on how crappy 2022 was but to express a little gratitude for the good it brought.

For us, choosing the highlight of 2022 is the easiest task of all. We welcomed our fourth child and first girl in November and became a family of six.

Well, six humans.
Two rabbits.
And a dog who is as mad as a box of frogs.

There were so many good things about this year though. Some highlights for me were:

January

Turning 40 – My friends and family were phenomenal when I turned 40 back in January. A weekend away, dining in a Michelin star restaurant, being whisked away a limousine, being thrown a surprise party and so much more. I am so, so lucky and have honestly never felt so loved in all my life. Celebrations aren’t even finished yet as I have experience vouchers to use and IOU gifts that were put on hold during my pregnancy too!

February

February was a really sad month for us. Six months after being diagnosed with diabetes and just weeks after undergoing an eye removal operation for lens luxation, we lost the best dog there ever was. We were, and still are, pretty heartbroken.

March

Dog Walk for Dementia

Azucar and I raised over £75 by walking 62 miles (100km) over the month of March. It’s always good to do something worthwhile, its great support charity, being outside is good for the body and mind and the dog kind of enjoyed it too. Thanks again to people who donated.

Dottie

March also saw us welcome a new member of the family as Dottie the rabbit joined us. We’d had our rabbits Jack (Sparrow) and Jess for a year or so, but sadly had lost Jess a few months prior. Through synchronicity, the universe or simply fate, we heard Dottie was looking for a new home and were able to bond her with our lonely little Jack.

And baby makes 6

March was also the month we discovered we were going to be parents to another little bundle of joy! After our miscarriage the previous October this was such welcome news but understandably brought its own anxieties.

Slow Living

We also spent a lot of time outdoors on local walks during March, as well as time at home just enjoying life together as a family.

April

April was a pretty quiet month for us. Pregnancy nausea was intense and I spent a lot of time just moping about. We did, however, start spending more time outside which was great after what felt like an extended winter.

Still, we managed to get a lot of fresh air and play time, even if it was only locally.

The rabbits bonded really well and Dottie became a permanent part of the family, and Azucar started getting used to being the only dog in the house.

The boys tried their hand at pouring art with their dad and got some really quite lovely results too! They also went on what’s becoming an annual water sport day with their home ed friends. We weren’t blessed with the weather this year but they still had a great time!

May

A busy month! We did some nice easy walks during May, including Hardcastle Crags (where I bumped into a friend I haven’t seen in a very long time; Jak from Jaks Trips), Heaton Park (where we were able to explore some of the newly renovated Heaton Hall after many years of it being in complete disrepair) and RHS Bridgewater (where sadly, it rained all day and the highlight was the play area). We spent a lot more time outside in general, both in the garden and at the allotment as the weather started to warm up. My step-brother Andy got married and we spent some time at my in-laws caravan too.

May was very much a family oriented month as we celebrated my husband and mum’s birthdays in addition to the wedding – I think we even managed to get the teenager to join us once or twice!

June

Ted and the boys went fishing with my dad, and I’m not sure who had the best time! We took a train ride to Carlisle from Settle so we could go over (and see) the Ribblehead Viaduct but were sorely disappointed to discover that you really can’t see much of it from the train at all! It’s much better to take a drive out to Hawes where you will be able to take it the magnitude of the structure before visiting the Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes for the best cheese in the area.

In Carlisle itself we visited the cathedral and the castle – both worth a look if you’re in the area.

June was, of course, the Queen’s jubilee and so we stopped in Bolton by Bowland to celebrate with family who live in the village. Everyone had a great day!

More celebrations came later in June when my husband was awarded not only Team of the Year at work but also Employee of the Year – the award is quite the accolade and we’re really proud of him!

More June fun came in the form of an axe throwing event I actually organised for the home ed kids, but which ended up being just as much fun for the parents!

We also spent a day in Blackpool and at Coral Reef – that was great fun for all of us, even if we did choose the windiest day ever…

Oh, and a day at Gulliver’s World theme park with our home ed friends too. Come to think of it – June was super busy!

July

Ah, July. Slightly quieter than June but only a smidge. More time outside where I continued to set up messy play/invitations to play for EJ, and we went on a couple of ‘night walks’ which he really enjoys.

The weather was gorgeous and so the hot tub turned into a cold plunge pool (and sometimes a beer cooler!) as we soaked up some rays. Unfortunately, I soaked up a few too many rays on our trip to the beach huts at Lytham St Anne’s and gave myself sunstroke and major sunburn. What a wally. Still, it was a brilliant day and it was so good to spend time with the wider family, all together.

We also had a day out at Bewilderwood in Cheshire during June. It was good, and I would take the boys again but I think EJ was a bit timid to try most of the slides and I was too pregnant to go on with him, so I think we’d probably enjoy it more next time.

Life took a bit of a dip in July as work started on our loft conversion. Unfortunately, the people we hired turned out to be pretty terrible and we ended up being ripped off and left with a very poor, unfinished job. The least said about that the better I think but it brought a lot of stress for me at a time when I really should have been trying to take it easy.

August

The big chop! EJ decided to have his shoulder length hair cut. Ted and I were sad to see it go, but EJ loved it and has continued to keep it short ever since.

We had two birthdays in the house during August as Rowan turned 12 and EJ turned six. Rowan and his friends opted for a cinema trip and a sleepover, while EJ had friends round for hot tub and a visit from the ice-cream van. How far birthday celebrations have come since I turned six!

We had a little holiday with our friends at Haven Thorpe Park – a great site for kids but at over £600 for four nights I think we prefer term-time holidays!

August was also filled with outdoor fun, trips to visit friends, hands-on science and making cardboard models at the library and many, many park visits.

September

Ah, I always love September. The weather is still quite nice, the kids are back in school and we have lots of our favourite places all to ourselves again in term time.

In previous years we’ve attended lots of festivals as a blogging family, but last year and the year before I haven’t really blogged at all so we haven’t been to any – except for when Ted and I went to Fields of Gold Festival to see my brother-in-law perform. It was a great night and had I not been almost seven months pregnant I might have been tempted to go for the full weekend.

Of course back to school for other children also meant back to learning for EJ and Rowan, and so we got stuck into some new projects, discovered some new places and Rowan began his creative writing course at the local library.

September also means a new football season, so the biggest two went back to training and our family afternoons at the local semi-pro matches resumed too.

October

In October I promised myself for the hundredth time that I was going to ‘slow down’ as I entered my ninth month of pregnancy. How you can slow down as a self-employed, home educating mother of three-nearly-four is beyond me really, but I vowed to try.

We found a new local forest school for a few weeks which neither of the boys really took to, but I wonder if that’s because it was getting colder and we were always having to rush there since the timings overlapped with their online science class… I don’t know but it didn’t last. Maybe now we’re embarking upon a new year, I can tweak their schedule a bit to make it less stressful.

We celebrated our eldest son’s 15th birthday as well as my in-laws’ Golden Wedding anniversary, so quite a bit of family time this month. Home education continued of course, with an impromptu lesson in road surfacing as our street was treated to new tarmac and white lines.

And we finished off the month with a little bit of trick-or-treat fun, and some time reflecting on those we’ve lost. I am more a Samhain kind of person than the commercial aspect of Halloween, but the local community here do a fabulous job of decorations and really go all out for the children’s enjoyment so it’s lovely to see people coming together.

November

Well there was one major event in November and that was the arrival of Freya Elizabeth. Born on Wednesday 24th, she is absolutely perfect and we are obviously thrilled to have welcomed her into our family. If I can find 10 minutes to spare, I will write up her birth story… it’s a good one!

December

December was busy and quiet in equal measure really. We’ve had a steady stream of visitors to the house to meet our newest family member, so there haven’t been many slow days, but equally we are adjusting to life as a family of six, we’re bedding down for the winter months and enjoying time together indoors.

Of course there was also Christmas but again, quite a quiet one this year. I am forever grateful to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for hosting Christmas dinner, and to Freya for sleeping through it!

So that’s my year in a rather large nutshell. I have plans and goals for 2023, but not for today. For now, we’re just enjoying our new baby and our family time together for a few more weeks.