What happened to November?

November was a bit of a mad month for us with lots going on but not much achieved!

We had a 'family event', for want of a better phrase, which we expected to take up a chunk of the month so I have been busy making sure I had as much preparation done for Christmas in case events overtook us.

To explain, our grandson Samuel, who has just had his 8th birthday, was due to have heart surgery. This is something we've known would need to be done since he was born but it still took us by surprise and although we've known for the past year that it was likely to happen this year it wasn't any easier when the time arrived.

My husband and I went up to Northampton so we could look after his sister and keep life as normal as possible for her while Samuel went to London with his Mum and Dad.   In the middle of the month they went off and we settled in Northampton armed with timetables and maps of places to go that our daughter had prepared for us.   Sadly, the next day Samuel's operation was cancelled due to an emergency operation which took longer than expected.   His operation was rebooked for two weeks later and yet again, having done all the travelling as before, it was yet again cancelled because of lack of staff.   We still wait to hear the next date.

As you can imagine, all this is more than upsetting for all the family.  Samuel seems to take it all in his stride but as time goes on he is affected more by the condition and is tired most of the time.   The rest of us rant and rage with very little effect and feel very distrusting of the system that can let this happen.

As a result of this, I felt I have not had a particularly productive month but when I came to do a round up for Instagram at the end of November, I was surprised at just how much I had done so I do some update post over the next few days.