Wednesday 15 March 2017

Smiles no.31 #tbcsmiles

I think everyone has found this last month a bit grim and pretty hard work, but over the last couple of days up here in Manchester the sunshine has lifted us all. Hopefully the arrival of Spring and warmth outside will make it all a bit less grey, whatever colour your sky.


The flowers begin to bloom, trees regain their green and birds chatter. Our outside world is waking up and reminding us that the world did keep turning. Time is both a gift and a thief. It moves memories further away, blurring those I don't like to remember, but stealing those I wish to keep.

It is bittersweet to watch the past get further away, but we have no choice, no control. We do however have photos and I'm realising now just how lucky I am that I started this blog. I expected to mainly post toy reviews and posts that I might look at later on to embarrass my children, but in fact without it I would have lost a lot of the last 4 years. It's amazing how much you miss when your mind is pre-occupied, blurred by time, grief and illness. You get on with each day as it comes, but somehow it mostly slips past and disappears. I am glad I have collected every smile I captured. It may give me a rose-tinted view, but I'll take that gladly.

Spring brings some of the fun stuff and the last month saw Pancake Day and World Book Day. We were awesome at both. We had costumes and pancakes anyway, so I'm counting it as a win. The boys were both very happy to dress up - a first! They went to school dressed as characters that suited their personalities perfectly. My studious quiet child was Harry Potter and my manic little turbo-boy was Willy Wonka.

There were again hundreds of #TBCSmiles photos on Instagram, including some for World Book Day and loads of birthdays this time! Happy Birthday to all of you - grown ups and children.

You can see all of the smiles by checking out the hashtag #TBCSmiles and please share yours because we love to see them. Here are a few of our favourites (click on the photo to enlarge it). Smile of the month has to be the young lad from themumreviews on the top right - has anyone ever been so pleased with a new bike?!


Thank you to all of the instagrammers and tweeters who shared their best smiles, including those featured (left to right, top to bottom).


I haven't forgotten to collect my own family's smiles. Not so many on camera this month and I'm missing a couple of people, but hopefully the Easter holidays will correct that one for next month. Thumbs up seems to have come back in fashion... old school, so much better than 'dabbing'...

The smiles are why we keep going. Every single one is the proof we can do it, and the proof that it's worth it. If you don't see yours at first, please keep looking because they are always there.


If you don't know why we collect our smiles, you can find out here...

Please let me know if you shared the #tbcsmiles hashtag accidentally and don't want your smiles shared publicly, and I'll take them down for you.

4 comments:

  1. Ah thanks for featuring my photo - and lovely smiles from you guys this month too - looking forward to seeing you at Blog On! x

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    1. You are welcome - thank you for taking part! I had 2 of yours in the last few - it's so hard to choose. I want to pick them all :) xx

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  2. Aww I love these posts. Look at their wee faces. So cute xx

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    1. I love them too, there really are some amazing smiles - not just the children, the grown ups have some lovely smiles too :) Thanks for adding yours Susan x

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