The mum & the …mum

I started writing this blog 5 years ago when we moved from the UK to Vancouver Island with our four children, aged 6 and under.

What a five years! Some pretty serious highs, some fairly substantial lows, a pandemic, a cancelled move to California, four much larger children and an extra baby in the mix: and here we are, with a new and different international house move: this time, back to the UK.

Paradoxically, this past year has been one that I wish I could have written more about, but so much has happened that it’s been hard to commit it to paper (screen). After a gentle prod from a wise and lovely friend though, I thought it was about time I revisited the blog writing.

The blog radio silence has been in part because our littlest of the five – Hugo (2) – has had a pretty mammoth year after a diagnosis last summer, a year of physiotherapy, and then a trip to the US this summer for him to have a major spinal surgery, followed by an intense program of rehab. I mean, it’s his story to tell not mine, but also, what. a. year.

The rest of us, just your average international house move to contend with (just as dreadful in the opposite direction, as it turns out and absolutely not helped by covid) – although our things arrived a few weeks ago and we’re relatively unpacked now. The children are starting to sound like extras from Oliver Twist instead of the erratic mix of London and west coast Canadian that we’d come to love over the past few years. We miss our home on Vancouver Island pretty viscerally, but last weekend we got together with my siblings and there were 9 cousins under 11 running around together and, well, you can’t beat that can you? (And who needs orcas, mountains, clean air and natural beauty all around anyway?!)

So, a quiet hello; a rekindling. More to come soon. Thanks for sticking around. How have you been? Is there anything I should be writing more about? Let me know. xxtMatM