Happy New Year and welcome to 2014 you lovely lot! 2014 is going to be all kinds of fabulous, I’m absolutely sure of it. Every single one of you is in line for fun, laughter, and warm, fuzzy love of the highest calibre.

2013 was a pretty good year for us. One in which we spent lots of time outdoors, continuing in our journey as a family to be outside more. We had lots of adventures, highlights being discovering bodyboarding on Fistral beach, forest school, Harry Potter Experience, Peppa Pig Land, Bristol Juggling Convention, Westonbirt Arboretum and the skate park.

It was the year that Robo Boy grew all of sudden from a preschooler into a school boy, with lankier limbs and a self awareness I hadn’t expected just yet. He discovered an interest in ‘cool clothes’, and developed some strong friendships with his peers. His sense of humour grew, and his bottom joke repertoire expanded.

Super Kid fell more deeply in love with reading and since installing a reading light on his bunk he started devouring books at a rate of two or three a week! He started attending ballet classes, and found joy in dance, taking his first exam recently and moving up into grade 1.

Wonder Girl got feisty! She learned to say no and used it frequently. She got a toy kitchen and has spent many hours making elaborate meals for us all. She learned to ‘read’ her books and is often found curled up inventing her own stories while flicking through her favourites.

Purpledad worked very very hard! Further building his electrical business and providing financial security for our family. He made a wonderful water feature for the garden using an old sink, and in doing so persuaded me to spend more time sitting outside. He also rediscovered chunky jumpers!

I found God, and now have him around at all times guiding my journey. I continued with my baking journey, perfecting the victoria sponge and developing a passion for The Great British Bake Off.

For us 2014 is hopefully going to bring change, an exciting good kind of change, that I’m not yet ready to share, but I will as soon as it’s definite. The Purple clan are standing on an edge at the moment, waiting for this to happen, excitedly planning, but having to hold fire because life takes as long as it takes. Cryptic enough for you?

I only have one resolution. Having been diagnosed with M.E/CFS last year I’ve been struggling to commit to slowing down, which is the only way forward with this condition. My moto for 2014 needs to go something like ‘slow and steady wins the not feeling like absolute crud at the end of each day prize’ . Not very catchy but it makes the point.

I’d also like to eat more healthily, stretch regularly, reduce my iPhone addiction yada yada yada. On the whole though I’m pretty darn satisfied with my life these days, and without these imperfections I wouldn’t be human, so I’ll mostly be sticking to loving me for who I am and then focussing the rest of my love on my family and close friends.

So Happy New Year again to you all, here’s to 2014 rocking our worlds!