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You WILL relax and chill and take it easy

Determination.

That’s probably the one word that underlined Christmas, and the days just before and after, for me. I have never been so determined to enjoy a season as I have this Christmas. I resolved to go with the flow, not let anything upset or anger me and just enjoy myself and celebrate the festivities as much as possible.

And you know something? It worked! Shocked? I was.

There were no sharp words on Christmas day, no frayed tempers and no tension or nervous twitches – just a complete peace and relaxation, the sort I haven’t felt for a considerable time. Continue reading “You WILL relax and chill and take it easy”

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‘Tis the season… a very Merry, Happy and Blessed Christmas

Apart from colds and sniffles we seem to be recovering from illness now, just need some sleep really which isn’t particularly likely at the moment – just need to hope the kids sleep in sometime (yeah right!)

Anyway – health update provided onto the main post…

Being the first Christmas for a few years where I can fully appreciate the joy and wonder of the season it’s been a fairly emotional time as once again I am reminded of the joy and wonder of this season, and once again I am aware of the grace, mercy and Love that God poured out on us when He sent Christ to be with us.

I’ve made a resolution this year to make the most of the season, to fully enjoy all that we can and to spend as much time rejoicing and growing in excitement as the Advent Calendars count the days.

Continue reading “‘Tis the season… a very Merry, Happy and Blessed Christmas”

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You give me fever…Fever!

Sigh…

As in the last post – illness has been doing the rounds in the Hartley household 🙁 And it’s still going around.

The coughs and colds refuse to go away and so, unfortunately, does the seriously nasty fever bug that has been going around. All the kids have had/still got it and so too has Mrs H now.

With fevers hitting over 39c (thats over 103f!) all we can do is keep the Calpol and Nurofen flowing on regular cycles and keep praying that it’s going to break. Unfortunately it’s really vicious as it will hit one day, be fine the next and then hit again the following day… and it’s been like this for nearly 2 weeks now.

The doctors have come out with the usual “it’s a virus” line and have told us to carry on as we are – the only useful thing we have heard is that there’s “a lot going around and people are struggling to shake it”. So useful to know that really.

And so we keep praying, keep plodding along and keep getting little to no sleep at all at the moment… and just when the year is at it’s busiest 🙁

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Oh irony sweet irony…

So it was week 9 of the “Making Life Work” series at Church this week… all about “Seeing Red” (i.e. Anger!)

It was one of the sessions that was really key for me in this whole series as I can, at times, be erm…. let’s just say somewhat erm….. sensitive in a non-constructive manner.

Oh alright – if I’m being totally honest I can fly-off-the-handle sometimes and it’s something that I dearly want to manage a bit better than I do now.

Continue reading “Oh irony sweet irony…”

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Maybe we’re just trying to get it all out of the way?

‘snot been much fun of late over at Hartley towers sadly with Mrs H feeling seriously run down and then getting a cold to boot along with the kiddies all coming down with varying bugs, viruses (anyone else noticed how *everything* is a virus these days?), sickies and colds.

Me? Well, I started to come down with a dodgy stomach mid-week but seemed to manage to fight it off thankfully – which was nice 🙂

I’m just really hoping that we’re all coming down with the usual bits and pieces now and getting it all out of the way so we can try and have an enjoyable winter instead of spending 4 months looking after one sickie after another… that sorta thing can put a crimp on what is an exceedingly busy season for us, but one that should be seriously enjoyable as well.

Gotta admit that I’m *really* looking forward to Christmas this year, not only have I managed to book a few days off but it will also be the first Christmas for several years that we can truly celebrate it properly as a family – and really enjoy the occassion for its true meaning!