Good morning – just about at the time of writing – and welcome to February.  It is a freezing morning here and we have even had a few flakes of snow – yours truly plans to stay indoors for the day.  It must be cold as the lovely girl actually put on a coat when she went out to do her paper round this morning, and believe me this is unheard of!.  Then it took hubby nearly 10 minutes to defrost the car windscreen, which was just as well as the student engineer and his other half wanted a lift to the station, but they were both still in bed 10 minutes before hubby needed to leave to get the girl to school!!  I have never seen two young men get out of the house so fast!!

Never a dull moment in our house this week with umpteen trips to see different doctors.  Gastroscopy on Monday – “would you like sedation, Claire?” “err…do I look stupid? Of course I want sedation!!! I’m a nurse and I have seen these….” – orthopaedics on Tuesday,(will write a proper post), GP on Wednesday.  Dad was really disappointed that I couldn’t arrange anything for Thursday and Friday!!  But of course there was the Blue Moon to distract everyone…or not in our case as it was too cloudy to see….and for me it really didn’t matter as fatigue and brain fog as dense as those clouds took over.  Well that is my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

I wouldn’t want to leave out the middle child – particularly as we did receive contact from our politics student that wasn’t football related.  At 11pm Saturday night the ipad pinged and a message popped onto the screen – words to the effect “I have flu, I’ve thrown up everything I’ve eaten…what do I do?”.  Isn’t it amazing how these young, independent adults suddenly want their mummy & daddy for advice?  I mean what does he really think we are going to do from 300 miles away?  That makes me sound awful, and I’m not, honest – it just amused me. “Keep drinking….no, not alcohol, water!  Paracetamol….well ask a friend to go buy you some…..and don’t exceed the 24 hour limit!!”  We did speak to him yesterday and half his halls have flu, but I think he will survive.  I mean, I have had a shoulder hanging out again all weekend – what is he complaining about?? (This is tongue in cheek for those of you now wondering about my sense of humour – believe me, the son in question has the driest, darkest sense of humour around!)

In England the 1st February was #TimetoTalk Day – recognising and talking about mental health and illness.  I hope that opening up about this health issue is not confined to one day only, and I have found some great blog posts that focus on different aspects of mental health.  There is also a cosmetics review, some tips for all us bloggers to help our writing, and tips to juggle a busy life.  Two posts that really jumped out at me this week: one is published on a new blog, Chronic Pain India – please read the story of Namrata, A Hashi Warrior; the second is something close to my heart as an ex NHS nurse – the decision of The Ealing Mummy to leave the NHS.

Pin for later:

So give yourself that break from whatever you are doing, grab a cuppa, sit down and explore some fantastic blog posts!

https://avionneslegacy.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/staying-afloat-while-riding-the-waves-of-depression/

https://myanxietymatters.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/the-amazing-power-of-storytelling/

https://chronicpainindia.com/2018/02/02/the-winning-horse-a-hashi-warrior/

https://phayteaspulse.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/simple-guide-to-having-a-daily-blog-routine/

https://www.raisiebay.com/2018/01/dont-look-forward-look-back.html

https://orianasnotes.com/2018/02/02/review-urban-decay-naked-illuminated-trio/

https://chronicillnesstraumastudies.com/patient-medical-history-new-doctor-appointments/

http://honestmum.com/my-tips-on-juggling-work-and-family/

http://theealingmummy.com/the-day-i-was-interviewed-live-on-bbc-television/

http://butstillbreathing.com/hypocratic-oath-a-letter-to-all-the-doctors/

Please give some feedback and comment, like, share posts!

Have a great week,

Claire x