The Ordinary Moments 47/52 – Laughter is the best Medicine

Our lives can feel pretty heavy some weeks, and I’m not just referring to the continuing struggle of adjusting to life after baby loss. The day to day drama’s of family life and parenting struggles, mixed in with the worries of deadlines, sales targets, our safety, time management, to do lists and finances can sometime really take its toll on us both as individuals and parents.  It seems like every so often we don’t get the time together we’d hope and that we don’t have opportunities to have fun as a family outside of being tired from our individual schedules and responsibilities…It makes me frustrated and a bit sad, and I know that when things become out of balance like this, it all of sudden makes life feel rather weighty, we all feel a little grumpy, and we long for time to just feel like our own again!

We both have been aware of this big need lately for us to have both a date night out together (to be arranged) and also for us to have some good old family fun out and about as a family.

Our Saturdays have been a continuous cycle of kids birthday parties (hello reception year of school) and my diary has been PACKED with Body shop parties, I’m not complaining, its great the kids see their friends outside of school, and that I am earning some great money for Christmas, but every so often the accumulation of all of these extras around normal stuff makes us all just get a little up tight with everything we have to do, cranky with one another and extremely tired! We forget that we just need to have fun, we need to laugh together, we need to refocus and connect.

Saturday morning did just this for us, as some previous planning led us to a local garden centre in Tong to see some Christmas attractions and for the kids to ride donkey’s to kick start what we hope will be an array of festive activities leading up to the big day!
 It was great to see and hear their giggles as they rode along, and then to see the excitement in their faces at all of the lights, decorations, nativity scenes, models and general attractions.

This particular garden centre also boasts an unbelievable outdoor play area with bouncy pillow, sandpits, zip wire, park and a track to drive around and It was perfect for us, despite the chilly air, to just let our hair down for a bit and laugh together, scream, giggle and just have a whole lot of fun in the crisp wintry outdoors! I really am loving garden centres at the moment.

I loved to just be together, to have a few hours away from all things everyday and just laugh and play, be a family and enjoy being with one another!

I sometimes think know I get a little uptight, that I forget how to be spontaneous and have fun and it is ordinary that sometimes, because of my loss, I almost feel guilt for having fun and being silly. But I know deep down it is what is needed, not just for Ethan and Megs, but for me and Nath too. Laughter is the best medicine and it often is found in the ordinary family moments of playing and letting go. Life’s treasures really are in the small things and being together…I love life when we are together and laughing and having fun. I feel very blessed in these ordinary moments together, to be their mother and to be Nathan’s wife!