It's been a while...

...6 months to be exact. That may be the longest time I have taken away from this blog, but don't quote me on that! This time I (sort of) have a reason. Basically, I've had no motivation, I mean my only motivation at this current moment is procrastination (I mean who does want to write about pre-mixes!?) and the fact that my sisters are away so I'm really bored. I was getting bored of writing the same things on here and it was making me unhappy with what I was producing. The last post I wrote was just after Newday and I was in a post-camp mope so was feeling unhappy already and writing that post and being so unimpressed by it made me not want to write for a while, so I took a break. In that break a lot has happened, a lot of stuff that I probably should have documented, like starting at college, Joel leaving, our first Christmas without Mum and Grandma passing away. So much has happened and I don't think I've really paused to notice that, I think I'm only just realising it now while I'm writing this. I mean, just the end of the summer alone was packed with so many things, like making so many new friends at Cefn Lea and then reuniting with them at the Gathering. Life has gotten so much smoother here in Liverpool after living here for a year, I mean I think I actually know my way around town now! So my plan now is to start writing on here again, hopefully monthly again, because even if nobody else read it, at least I'm documenting my history, the precious moments in my life that I may not even realise are happening. I'm going to try and be more real, add more depth to what I'm writing, instead of just explaining a picture, but for now, here are some things that you will have missed from the months that we've been apart.

August:
We had our first family without all of us there, which was very weird but it was really fun too, I felt very soppy when looking over the photos just now.

We were joined by Jake though when we drove down to Wales for a week away at Cefn Lea where we had loads of fun doing things like lazer tag, and singing praises on a hilltop tennis court. We made so many new friends for life. 

September:

I started college here in Liverpool. I was really scared that I wasn't going to make any friends because I always seem to have ready-made friends, but by the second day I'd pretty much been chosen to be part of a friendship group, and even as that has changed and morphed since then, I still have some good friends which I am so thankful for.

Our lovely Grandma had her last birthday here with us, her and Granny came over and we celebrated together.

Joel left us to go to Yeovil for a worship internship at the Elim church there. He's currently going on tour with their band, Southville after the release of their first album Freedom's Tree. He's going back and forth around the country, playing in the band. I believe he's hoping to stay there permanently after this year which would be really cool for him but a bit sad for us because he'll be the first one to leave us. How weird!

October:

October is always a bit of a slow month. It was Joel's birthday but we didn't get to celebrate it with him because of him being in Yeovil and everything, but we did get to see him at The Gathering, where we got to meet up with a lot of our old friends. There was silent disco, which was really fun and I got to experience my first face glitter and I felt like a mermaid. I would totally be up for living like that permanently! 

November:

Apart from the most annoying bus strikes ever, Ellie's birthday, and lots of college, not a lot happened in November. Well, except me getting excited for Christmas obviously! 

December:

December was a weird month in 2017 because Mum wasn't around for a lot of it because she had to be back and forth to Crewe a lot more than usual to care for Grandma. Every moment we had with Mum was precious, especially as it was so hard on her so we wanted to make it feel as special as possible when she was home, so we played games and put up the tree when she was home because that's always her (and my!) job at Christmas. A couple of weeks before Christmas we headed down to Grandma's flat in Crewe to spend a mini Christmas with her, and for us kids, say our final goodbyes. It was really good to spend that time with her and I'm glad for that last event in her life for her to join with us.

 It also felt really weird because I finished college so close to Christmas. Most people are probably used that, but not me, I love having a week before Christmas to do baking and get ready for all the festivities, but instead I had to still go to college and do work (ugh! 😂) 

Us girls all got our hair chopped! I'd been getting irritated with my long hair for a long time, so I grabbed a chance I had when Mum was home and asked her to cut it. I loved it then, and I love it now! It is so nice to have manageable hair! 

I made my first proper cake for someone! By that I mean a cake that I didn't make for college that someone has actually requested me to make. I was kind of bricking it because she'd asked me for quite a difficult design, but I gave it my best and was pretty proud of the end result. I hope it tasted good!

When Joel left he told us that he wasn't going to be back for Christmas, which we were all mad about because, who doesn't want all their family back at Christmas? So months I'd been complaining at him, and sending him messages about how mad I was that he wasn't coming home. But while I was in the middle of making this cake our Grandparents arrive and Stitch comes into the kitchen saying that Joel is back. The girls and I just look at each other, not sure whether to believe him or not. It takes us a couple of seconds to go out to the hall and actually check, that he was, in fact there. You should know that my first words to my brother were "YOU BIG CHEAT!" It was a great suprise, one that he would not have been able to pull of if he was actually face to face with us because he's a terrible liar. 

We continued Christmas with our usual festivities. Mum spent Christmas day at Grandma's because they knew that she wasn't going to last much longer. She wasn't alone though because Granny was there with her, and her cousin and his dad. They had a mini Christmas together and then when we opened presents we Skyped mum so that she could join in with us. On Boxing day we traveled down to Hinckley to celebrate with our aunts, uncles, cousins and Grandparents. It was a day filled with fun, games and food as usual. That evening though we found out that Grandma had sadly passed that day. It was hard but we know that God has her now, she's no longer in pain, and she's dancing in heaven.

January:

January brought the start of a new year but at the beginning it didn't really feel like a new start. For most of it Mum was sorting out Grandma's stuff so she was still away for the weekends. I was back at college where we made a lot (I mean a lot) of pastry! In reality, it just felt like a normal month. We had a Passover meal at church (I know, really early, but we had a guest speaker so you take the chance you get right?) and got back into the swing of things again.

February so far:

The days are getting brighter (even if it's still deciding to snow occasionally) and there are flowers budding here and there and I feel like we're coming out of our winter rut. I turned 17 last week which is slightly scary for me, especially as my best friend that I have known since we were 2 is buying herself a car and is beginning to learn to drive. I feel so old! 

We went to go and see Rend Collective on the 4th and they were so good, but my word was it hot in there! If you've ever been into the O2 Academy in Liverpool you'll know that it's basically a brick box and with that many people in it with air con that was apparently there but was very ineffective. It was an incredible night, and honestly if you haven't heard these guys you so should. On one of the songs the woman was playing the accordion and the xylophone at the same time, I was very impressed. I'm lying to you about the heat though, on the bands Instagram after the first week of their tour, they posted this, "And thanks for dancing so hard that sweat dropped from the ceiling of the O2 in Liverpool...it was pretty gross but also kind of impressive!"

For my birthday, me and Mum went shopping which was really good, it meant me and Mum could have some "grown up girl bonding time" (name that movie!) and I could buy some much needed clothing!

I leave you with my 3 new favourite outfits! Happy 2018, and thank you for reading. See you next month!