Filling the Internal Treasure Chest

As I sit here at Clare's with the very rare luxury of "time on my hands" it gives me time to just think of where I am and what I'm doing here while my lovely husband Richard is slaving away in France trying to get our room somewhere near finished. Basically I came back because I miss my family, my two daughters, my grandchildren and my wonderful parents. I feel so lucky that I still have my parents and that I can have so much fun with them. My father is 90 in August and my mum will be 88 in October, and in June they celebrate their 67th wedding anniversary!! How cool is that? I have to say, hand on heart, that they are as happy now as they were when they were married, so much love they share with themselves and with us, so a great example to all our family. Also while I'm here I want to catch up with my sister and my friends.

As you know the first few days were spent with Vicki and the grandchildren. Wow, what a whirlwind few days that was. They are adorable and Bubbs the grandson is talking so well now and some of the things he comes out with are classic. I will share a couple of them with you. Firstly he wanted to sleep in the room I was sleeping in, so when he asked me it was "Excuse me nannie, please could I sleep with you?" I looked at his mummy whose eyebrows were raised and I said, yes if mummy says it's OK. he replies "Mummy said it's OK but please nannie will you not snore this time, it wakes me up" Ho hum, out of the mouths of babes. The other one was, in the mornings, he comes into my room and we read stories or play pass the parcel, but on the first morning, he handed me my glasses and said "Could you put your glasses on so you look like my normal nannie" The twin girls are just as adorable, just 19 months so not so vocal, but like the word "No". Why are boys and girls so different at that age, boys are so much more placid, little girls give this high pitch scream which boys don't seem to do and they are much more independant. I love it when their little arms are lifted up to be carried or cuddled and I did a lot of that while I was there. The three of them love having stories read to them and they have lots of books, so I found myself many times with the three of them on or around my lap listening to a story or making the sounds of the animals we were picking out of the book. Oh what very special times they are.

Also while I was there it was time to take my cat to the vet for his annual injections. Gizmo is very good with this, so no trouble and when we got home we gave him a bit of a cuddle and fuss and then when Vicki and I came back into the room this is what we found. One of the girls thought it was great fun, getting into the cat's travelling cage. I thought it was bad enough getting Gizmo in and out of there, but when I tried to pull a little girl out of there who was quite content to stay in and play, Gizmo was a doddle. Not quite the healthiest environment to play in, but hey, you have to be exposed to germs of all kinds to survive. That's my story anyway. I felt really bad leaving my cat behind when we went to France and the reason we did, was because we inherited an old cat with the house we bought, and I didn't want to upset both of them with us coming and going, and Vicki said she was quite prepared for Gizmo to stay with them. Coming back this time was lovely because he looks a lot more settled now and gets on with the children so much better. He adores them and lies down each morning for them to give him a cuddle and give him treats. He will be 12 in May, so perhaps he will be living out the rest of his years in the UK.

I am going to spend the day with my parents on Wednesday, we are going out for lunch and again a day I will treasure. I am thinking that the days I spend over here in the UK, I am filling up my internal treasure chest (hence the title of my post) so that when I'm back in France, I can pull out the memories one at a time when I need them and savour the moment. Don't get me wrong, I love being in France and doing what we are doing there, but I wouldn't be normal if I didn't miss my family and friends, and we are all very close, thanks to my parents who bind us all together with the invisible bonds of love.

Talking of time on my hands, I think I may go and do a spot of knitting, I have just noticed the cats are out of the room, so I will go for it while I have a chance :-)