Every day has its highs and lows…

but when the lows are met with humour and acceptance, rather than resistance and annoyance, they are much easier to deal with and quickly forgotten.

I have a saying that is frequently used in our home, ‘It’s in the past, put it behind you and move on’. I use this a lot when the children have had a little confrontation. I try to encourage them to leave the negative energy behind and focus on feeling positively energised.

On Sunday we had a fabulous family day, but as with any long day out there were a few hurdles.

The morning was spent at the stables, where Sophie loves to ride horses. Charlotte, however, doesn’t like the ‘smell’ and is not a country lass (at this stage in her life); but she accepts that we all like different things and is learning that as a family we all have to do things that we don’t always like and it’s important to support one another in the family. So she happily took herself up to the comfort of the cafe, with a book, a pen and some paper.

After lunch we fed the eels and played at the little play area by the stream, but we forgot the nasty mosquitos and how much they love Charlotte! When she realised she’d been bitten she was screaming with the trauma of it – they rise up big and quick on her skin and we didn’t have the antihistamine cream (note to Mum and Dad – always carry some in the first aid kit in the car!). So, off to Johnsonville shopping mall.

We sprinted through the shopping centre, with a teary Charlotte on Dan’s shoulders, to the pharmacy. Once we’d applied the cream we had a much happier lass.

On the way home we decided to stop off in town to visit Te Papa, where there was a dance festival on. Unfortunately it was Sophie’s turn to hit a low… she screamed when trying to go wees in the toilet and since she’d mentioned earlier in the day that it was ‘owy’ we thought we’d better veer on the side of caution and take her to ‘after hours’ to check it wasn’t a urinary tract infection. So, Dan and Sophie took off in the car, leaving Charlotte and I to enjoy the dancing – which we certainly did (a real high for us!).

Thankfully, we soon heard back from Dan that Sophie’s tests came back okay and she was alright and happy (she’s such a brave lass). Must have just been ‘one of those things’!

Dan and Sophie drove back into town and met up with us for a lovely chinese dinner. Charlotte isn’t very keen (Sophie ate like a horse), but she sat so politely and was great company (on the promise of a drive through chips and burger from Mcfilth on the way home!).

We drove home enjoying a beautiful starlit sky. I lent next to Dan and enjoyed a quiet moment. The girls were beautiful going to sleep for us. Dan read Little Miss and Mr Men books to Sophie. Charlotte and I started on the first book of the Narnia series and then a little read of one of her Andy Griffith’s books, ‘Just Macbeth’. Alice lay between us, quite jittery with tiredness, before finally falling asleep at ze breast!

A perfect ending to a very busy day, with the highs at the forefront of our minds and memories. The lows are quickly brushed away and forgotten. That’s what I love about this blog – I mostly write about the highs. I see little point in writing about the lows, as that only compounds them (though I totally understand how writing can be wonderful therapy when working through something difficult, and I do that occasionally). In this blog the highs make for happy reflection and drive positivity for the future too. The girls are getting to an age where they are becoming aware of the history they are making and actually ask, ‘Can we put this on the blog?’. It’s amazing, in this technological age, that they will have such a detailed record of their growing years.

Thanking the heavens for bestowing our family with mostly highs and only a few lows to help us learn some lessons along the way x