Two For The Price Of One- The Mother's Day Special

When you move to a new country you probably don't think much about public holidays. I know I didn't when I first moved here to England. After all, they're part of the culture of your new found homeland. They are a celebration, and everyone loves a celebration,,, right? Well, not always as I have learned.

You see, while Father's Day is the same in the UK and in the US, Mother's Day is not. So I have not one, but two Mother's Days to get through. A bit like those special buy one get one free offers you see in the shops. Normally I love those things, but not so much this time.

Why am I even talking about this? Well because today it's Mother's Day in the UK.

It's such a bittersweet day for me.

• Two years ago I was happily pregnant with my Son. My head was filled with the dreams of all the Mother's Days we would spend together. 
• Last year I spent the day without him in my arms. It was not at all the day I had imagined a year before. 
• This year I am pregnant again, and yet still grieving my son. My head is filled both with the dreams of all the Mother's Days I will (hopefully) spend with Frostina, and all the sadness of the ones I won't be spending with my Son.

The Hubby has an interesting strategy for dealing with the whole two for the price of one Mother's Day dilemma. He insists that today isn't the real day because we're from America. Since US Mother's Day is in May, that's when we should be celebrating (or not celebrating) it. I don't know if this will really work for him, but I know it doesn't fly with me. After six years of living over here, I'm pretty immersed in the British culture, public holidays and all.

Today I will lay low and probably not leave the house. Thus reducing the chances that I will run into all the happy Mothers spending the day with their living children. I'm not sure I'm ready for all that just yet. Part of me thinks that being pregnant again should make this day easier. The other part of me realizes that it probably won't. So I won't be taking any chances.

I'll just hunker down and wait for this day to be over. And then, lucky me, I get to do it all over again in May. Ahhh, the fabulous life of an expat! 

To all the British Baby Loss Mums out there, I wish you a gentle Mother's Day. I'd like to think that our babies are smiling down on us from above.

Photo courtesy of CarlyMarie

Silent Sunday

Me vs The Bathtub

Hubby and I decided we needed a lazy Sunday. We slept late, ate a huge fry-up breakfast, and stayed in our pajamas. In the afternoon I fancied a nice long bath with a cup of tea. I made myself a nice cup of Earl Gray tea with Elderflower (one of my favorites) and went upstairs to fill the bath.

*It's not been an easy weekend. We got the final post mortem results yesterday and I'm still processing the outcome. I'm not ready to share all that just yet but I'm sure I will be in a few days.

The water filled the bath, I could smell the fragrant bubble bath I had chosen with care. I dipped my toe in, ahhh it was the perfect temperature. As I was turning off the water, the cold water handle broke off in my hand. Rats!! I screamed loudly (well Rats was not actually the word I used but  you get the picture). Cold water was slowly continuing to run into the bath and I could not get the tap shut.

So there I am, naked with a cup of tea in one hand and the cold water handle in the other. I now make the mad dash downstairs to find some kind of tool to get the tap to turn off completely. My not handy around the house husband looks up from the computer and smilingly asks me why I'm running around the house naked. His not so subtle hopes are quickly dashed by my string of profanities about the water running upstairs and the broken tap.

It takes me about 10 minutes and several different tools to finally get the water to shut off. In the end it was a hammer that did the trick. I guess when all else fails, brute force is the way to go.

I finally got to take my bath, but it's not exactly how I'd imagined it. The water was slightly colder than I like it and so was my cup of tea. I was out of breath and anxious from my foray into indoor plumbing. But there were still bubbles and after I added more hot water (luckily that tap was still working). It was almost as relaxing as I had wanted it to be. In the battle of the bathtub vs me... I came out the winner.