Tag: Family

Pockets of time

When you’re young, free and single you don’t realise how much free time you have.

“Don’t have time for that” shouldn’t have even been in my vocabulary.

When you meet someone and start getting serious, you will probably start seeing them most evenings and / or weekends.

Despite enjoying the time spent with your new partner, you will remember just how much extra time you had for those pursuits.

Then you move in together and perhaps get married.

You may then start to reminisce about those evenings every other day when your time was all your own to do with as you wished.

Staying up till 3 am to play video games? No problem!

And then you may have a child together.

Now yours and your partner’s every waking moment is there to make sure that your child is happy, healthy and loved.

They have no past memories.

They are a clean slate.

Their time for pursuits and discovery is in front of them.

When you are woken at random times in the middle of the night, which then makes you too tired in the day, you will remember how much time your partner and you had before your bundle of joy arrived.

And then the second one arrives.

You will start to reminisce over how much time you actually had during nap times. And at night when your first one started sleeping through the night finally.

Now it’s just small pockets of time.

Concentrated moments for you to really focus in on the things that you want to pursue for yourself.

I’m lucky.

I found the person I’m happy and grateful to be spending the rest of my life with.

And we’ve been blessed to have brought two perfect children into the world.

I love my life now.

This is a post for my children to read when they are old enough.

I want them to consider the path they choose to walk — with whoever they hope to walk it with.

I want them to know that if they find the right person as I did, then the sacrifices are merely exchanges; upgrades to an even better, more fulfilling life.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us

Gandalf — The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien.

The ever-growing sleep debt

I have a compounding sleep debt.

We have a 2 year old and a 6 week old. To say my wife and I are tired is an understatement to say the least.

Our children are definitely worth it all but I am looking forward to a full night’s sleep again.

It’s like being in a constant foggy haze — a fugue state.

The weird thing, is that I know I will miss these times. When they are all grown up, or even a little bit grown; when they no longer need us for basic survival; when I’ll no longer be woken at 3:30am to feed her a bottle, followed by an hour of playing Silent Hill 2 remake whilst she rests on me as her milk settles before she sleeps.

Also those decaf cups of tea in the middle of the night. Delish. And the opening of the fridge door to get the milk, only to be greeted by an ocean of melted ice below the fridge door.

These times will be but a memory sooner than I think — I should enjoy the insomnia while it lasts.

A lovely belated Mother’s Day outing

Today I took my mom to Middleton Hall for the afternoon and had a great time. After lunch in the small cafe, within the old stables, we ventured around the Hall itself and surrounding gardens. It’s amazing how much interesting history is right there on your doorstep. For example the Middleton estate was leased to … Continue reading “A lovely belated Mother’s Day outing”

Today I took my mom to Middleton Hall for the afternoon and had a great time. After lunch in the small cafe, within the old stables, we ventured around the Hall itself and surrounding gardens.

It’s amazing how much interesting history is right there on your doorstep. For example the Middleton estate was leased to the Knight’s Templar in 1185 by the owners at the time, the de Marmion family. Also one of the commanders at the largest naval battle of World War One, The Battle of Jutland, was from the Willoughby family. The Willoughby family owned the Middleton estate for about 500 years.

Those are just two snippets but you can find out more on their website. Also one of the ladies working there was very knowledgeable on the whole subject. She gave us loads of facts and figures but I can’t lie – there was simply too much to take in during one sitting. But very helpful nonetheless.