People regularly ask me how I cope with two children, two dogs, a husband on crutches, freelance work and my blog. And the answer is that I have to cope – there is no other option. But the way I look at it, I’m getting all the difficult times out of the way now, and everything is going to start getting easier at the same time.

In September, Libby will be starting school. Lia will be at nursery one morning a week, and with my mum one morning a week. She should still be sleeping in the afternoons, although I’ll have to get her down for a nap a little bit earlier. Libby’s school is a 20 minute drive from home, so the school run will take a good chunk out of my day. But despite that, I should find that I have a bit more time to work.

By this time next year, we’ll be facing the prospect of Lia being at nursery every afternoon when her free place kicks in. Hopefully by then, my husband will be well on the road to recovery, and Bubbles will have calmed down and be well past the puppy stage. And I know that in time, Bubbles will be a brilliant dog.

Financially, we’re not where we should be since my husband’s accident. I went through a really difficult time of ending up working until 3 am every day just to make ends meet – working after I’d finished everything else I needed to do around the house. But I still wasn’t managing to earn enough to keep us in a good financial position due to time constraints. And with the extra time on my hands in September, should come a bit of financial stability.

So for now, the light at the end of the tunnel is quite a long way away. But I can see it. There is a little glimmer of hope in the distance, and I’m clinging to it with both hands. And in the meantime I’m enjoying the children’s childhoods. Never again will they need me, love me and constantly want to be with me in quite the same way. And I know that however difficult things are now, I will look back on them fondly.

Last weekend, the girls insisted on camping in their Izabela Peters teepee overnight. They didn’t end up getting a huge amount of sleep, and I put Lia back into her cot in the early hours of the morning. But they had a fabulous time together, and it was a big adventure of the sort that only a two year old and a four year old can have. Our Thursday Photo #114 is from that evening, they were so excited and it’s such a lovely memory to look back on.

Our Thursday Photo #114