Smoke and Fire - A Year On.

Timehop is great! It reminds you of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. When my Timehop popped up the other day I was reminded that this time last year was pretty damn crap. Not only were we having medical appointment after appointment for Elarna and her neck (which then led on to an operation) but had the fire in our house. If you have no idea what fire I'm going on about have a little read of my 'smoke and fire' post which will explain everything. It really is hard to believe this was a year ago, still to this day I am quite traumatised by it and I don't think I'll ever get over my fire paranoia I have to say. 

We lost alot of stuff you know. Of course this was all immaterial as most of it was replaceable but it is still not nice knowing what happened and just how bad it could have been if I hadn't shut the door..... Of course after the fire we decided to redecorate most of the house and replace many curtains and *blinds to try and breathe some new life into the house and take away the smoky smell which did wonders but it's taken us a long time to get the house back to what it should be. Although, you would never know what happened in the room if you went in now, but there are still reminders. The charred books we managed to salvage, the games singed on the sides, my babies red books, pages still charcoal covered, the birth certificates and baby scans that we so very nearly lost still  all with the scent of smoke. It acts as a constant reminder. So as we have reached the one year anniversary I felt it would be great to write a post about how the fire has made me think differently about things and what I have changed on a day to day basis. Please read on!

• First and foremost and probably THE most important thing that I hope you can take away with you today is to check your smoke alarms. NO excuses. Without ours things may have been very, very different this year. So please, get up, stop whatever you are doing and go and check your smoke alarms. I regularly check ours, my husband will confirm......usually around teatime so I know they work well! However, in all seriousness I urge you to make sure your alarm works and has functioning batteries. It could save your life. 

• Whenever I use something electric once finished I often check two or three times that it is actually off. It is probably a little obsessive but I need to know it's off. If we're going away for the weekend I also make sure most electric things are switched on via the plug which I didn't do before. It is so easy to forget to switch things off and considering it's as simple as switching a button I find I make it a habit now so I remember. 

• Everyday I remember the way I felt when I discovered the fire. The shock, the shaking and disbelief. Not just me, it's clearly affected Elarna as every time she hears the smoke alarm or anything similar she shakes, runs to one of us for a cuddle and quite often cries. Poor little love. For these reasons I find I try and see a positive in each day no matter how rubbish the day. If that fails a smile from the kids often reminds me how lucky we are.

• Make memories. I bang on about this alot but I want to fill my kids heads with good memories, although we talk about the fire we try not to dwell on it. I instead try and arrange lots of things for the kids to look forward to like holidays, days out and experience's. 

• I try not to be too anxious about things but I do think it has made me more of a worrier and affected my anxiety levels. I worried lots before but I do more so now, for example if I leave the house I constantly question did I turn off my straighteners, lock the door, turn the oven off etc, etc. I can't really help that but at least it makes me more aware of things I guess.

• Overall, it's just made me so much more appreciative about the simple things in life. The sun, health, happiness, what we have and on a day to day basis simple things like being able to provide for our children and have things like fresh water, food and being able to give them with the life they have.

As mentioned above, if you take anything anyway from this post then please check your smoke alarms! You just never can predict the future so take each day as it comes and cherish the moment.