A Change of Scenery

A year ago my Father-in-law married a Turkish lady. And when I say lady, I mean lady in every sense. She is lovely and gentle, so good with the children. She looks after any stray dog or cat that she can (and there are thousands in Turkey). She is beautiful inside and out.

So we went to Turkey to visit last week.
I'm not going to bore you with the typical holiday details or give you a blow by blow of what we did. I think I'd like to just reflect on the children. They were so resilient. I couldn't handle the travelling. I'm waiting for an appointment to see a specialist as I suspect I have fibromyalgia and the driving to Gatwick and the flight took it out of me. But the children were raring to go. They handled the plane so well and anyone who knows DD will understand why I was worried. I though she could react really badly and freak out. But she didn't - she loved it. She was so excited on take-off and landing. DS took it all in his stride.

Before we left temperatures at home began to rise and it was about 31°. By the time we left Turkey it had steadily risen each day hitting 43° on the last day. There were times this was too much for DS and we have learnt our lesson regarding taking water with us on each outing. Please don't judge us too harshly - we haven't been abroad for years and never with our children. It was a steep learning curve.

I'm just in awe of them. They have such a positive outlook and approached every experience with a good attitude which I think we lose as we get older. They haven't had bad experiences so have nothing to fear. They have never lost their luggage, got lost, had sunburn or run out of money.
I spend my life worrying and it really does get in the way of fully embracing and enjoying experiences. Having an enjoyable and relaxing holiday aside I think what I have taken away from this week is to learn to relax, focus on what is important and always try to be better - like my stray dog saving new Mummy-in-law.