Christmas is just one miracle day, savour them all

This is the last official blog post for a few days. I will be taking some much needed time with family to relax and retreat at our beach shack, where I can watch entire sunsets, hear the ocean, smell the salty air and walk with my toes in the sand. I will also be cuddling my family. A lot. We all need to take time out sometimes and as someone who finds it hard to switch off, I really need to force myself to look away from the interweb a little and out into the world a bit more. I need some healthy people time.

For eager beavers I will be rewinding and sharing some of the best posts from the year on the blog for the next week or so. There will be plenty of interesting bits you may have missed! I wish all of you a wonderful time with your loved ones too. If you do not have someone to share with, or are not feeling so festive, I wish that you can find a moment of happiness in some small way. We all need that. Perhaps a warm cup of tea, the sunshine on your shoulder, the sounds of the birds, or listening to your favourite song.

You can look forward to lots of great stuff on the blog in 2014, connecting to the Healthy Planet, Healthy People, Healthy Homes heart. Photo challenges,  DIY  to get stuck into, ideas for sustainability and green living,  how to have better health and wellbeing, and a new series about healthy relationships, with plenty of great interiors, vintage finds, sustainable homewares, artists and designers, house tours and decorating ideas!

After looking around my happy and often messy home, with little pieces of me scattered all through it and a never ending battle with picking up lego pieces (usually after stepping on them and swearing – don’t you hate that!), clearing food wrappers, crumbs, wiping up spilt milk off my velvet cushion and Armadillo & Co rug; battling with cushions being constantly thrown on the floor; throws being thrown and bedroom floors being covered in boys clothing, I  am also launching my “Designing Mums” series in 2014 which will share ideas and ways to make your home both stylish (whatever your personal style is) and child-friendly, using vintage and sustainable ideas to create a home that you love and that works for you, when you are a busy Mum.

Speaking of Mums, I visited both my Grandmas this weekend for Christmas – my 90 year old Grandma in the nursing home, who despite dementia, knows all of us and just smiled the entire time as she soaked up my children’s faces. Apparently, she started a conversation with my Mum after we left about us, when she usually forgets as soon as the visitor leaves that they were even there. And my 99 year old Grandma who still lives at home, alone. They are both amazing and they both reminded me of the importance of savouring every moment of every day – even if we are having a shitty one. My 99 year old Grandama said to me today, “you wake up in the morning and say, I am here for another day”.  She also said “Christmas is just one day – and then it’s all over, just like all the others”. She has just had both of her eyes treated for cataracts after being blind for ages. These women are living, breathing, miracles.

It got me thinking about how there is such a hullabaloo about Christmas and so many people tie themselves up in knots and go into debt and have arguments and stress, for what? We usually take a pretty laid back and simple approach to Christmas and have done so even more this year. I love Christmas. I love special family times. I love giving and excitement in my children’s faces. I think we have far too little ritual in our lives. But I don’t think one day is worth more than all the others. Except perhaps the days my children were born. And the day I went on Safari with my Mum in South Africa.

On that note, here is a quote from one of the greatest minds of our time about miracles and some photos (unstyled and in their natural state and yes I LOVE flowers, can’t live without them!) taken around my home – my little piece of healthy planet, healthy people, healthy home.

Have a wonderful Christmas, thanks for visiting my corner of the blogosphere and see you in 2014!

xx

Helen