Blog for Friday 2nd January 2026

I woke up late as I had had a very restless night, so I slept in a bit.

I woke up sobbing my heart out, my face wet with tears, my pillow soggy and with such a heavy and sad heart. My dream was about my Mum – just a horrible dream about her dying – and it was far too real.

When I was up, and throughout the day there was a deep sadness that clung to me as I miss her so. Grief is like that - it wells up from nowhere and unexpectedly.

After my Quiet Time I decided that today was the day that I would remove all the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year. I must admit it is so much easier now that I have containers labelled for the different colored themes – gold; silver; and red. I got Ken to help me put the Christmas tree back in its box too. So, all is cleared up and stored away again.

I then moved all my plants et cetera that had been moved around to make way for the decorations. Done! Yahee, a task well accomplished!

Ah yes! We had 8mm of rain overnight, so Paddy’s plants are delighted. Plus, it is a cooler day today.

At about lunch time I told Ken that I wanted to read for a little while then I would have a snooze at about two o’clock. W-e-l-l, that was my plan. Except when I sit still for any length of time, I just nod off to sleep! So, not much reading was done, and I had a fifteen-minute snap snooze earlier than originally planned! Well, you know what they say the plans of mice and men …!

At about lunch time we had a phone call from Tayla, (our eldest granddaughter) saying that she would try to take some more photos of Zara (their first baby and our second great-grandchild) when she was awake and would let us have them later today. But then she phoned a couple of hours later – face timed us – and we got to see little Zara, but she was fast asleep looking very content after her feed. Beautiful little girl with lovely chubby cheeks. We also got to see Malcolm, Tayla and Ren’ (our daughter-in-law, Paddy’s wife, and Tayla’s Mum who is visiting them to help alleviate their lack of sleep!)

In the afternoon I finished – yes! Can you believe that – I have finished the embroidery on my little smocked dress for Zara. I am hoping to go into town tomorrow as I need to buy some lace, white fabric for the collar, piping and buttons to be able to finish sewing this little dress.

I had thought of going into town today but then feeling as I did, all sad and heavy of heart, I decided we could go in tomorrow instead. Ken was fine with that idea.

The book I am busy reading at the moment is fascinating – “God, AI and the End of History” by John Lennox – who is a Northern Irish mathematician, bioethicist, author and Christian apologist for his work on the relationship between science and religion. He was born on November 7, 1943, in Armagh, United Kingdom. (So, he is the same age as Ken, a few months younger  - seven actually, and Ken’s family are all from Armagh in Ireland too!) John Lennox has written many books on religion as well as ethics and has had numerous public debates with atheists including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. John retired from a professorship where he specialised in group theory. John is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics as well as Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. John is also an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School and a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. I love listening to his debates as he is so down to earth and speaks in simple terms because he is so profound, knows what he is talking about so has no need to impress people with large words to get his point across. Plus, he is a humble man without the arrogance of some highly intelligent people.

Yahee! Tomorrow, we get to buy a new microwave oven. Yoh! I did not realise how often we use one until we have been without one for ten days! So, that is something nice to look forward to.

I went to bed early tonight and was hoping for an uneventful sleep - no thrashing about, smacking Ken or horrible dreams.

What lesson did I learn today? It is okay to be sad some days.

What am I grateful for today? That I have finished the embroidery on Zara’s smocked dress.

My saying for today is …