Thank You.

Home from our holiday, just in time to get Christmas morning party-times ready for the little ones. But before I finish wrapping presents, and eating Santa's biscuit, and ignoring the washing-up on my way to bed, I want to say thank you to this blogging community that I love so much. Thank you all for your support and friendship this year.

This year has been tough, perhaps our toughest yet, as I have struggled to cope with the demands of parenting three kids and keeping a household running. I have wobbled under the heavy backpack of motherhood, I have staggered, and I have lost my footing more than once. I have fallen in puddles, and my pants have fallen down, and I have made my snotty, ugly cry-face, and I have felt overwhelmed and exhausted and  panicky.

But I have also felt elation and incredible joy.  I have felt a deeper connection to humanity in all its forms - somehow, motherhood has bound me all to all mothers everywhere - and a sense of inching closer to the bravery of knowing myself,  warts and all.  I feel changed. I am locked to these kids and this man for my lifetime, and the massive, incredible, wondrous idea of this family of ours is at the centre of who I am.

One foot in front of the other, one snotty ugly cry-face at a time, we step into the future together.

Thank you for sharing this year with me.

x