My work world is still in a major mess and I was there today for eleven hours trying to sort out the problems. I feel like a drone.

At moments like these, I feel compelled to count my blessings so I realise just how lucky I am. If I don’t do that, then I will just spend my evening maudlin and depressed and that’s not fair to DM.

So, here it is…..one of my blessings.

It’s my baby girl, Rosie. She’s so precious to me that it hurts. Somehow, no matter what happens to me in the day-time, I know that I come home at night to this little poppet, Archie and most of all, DM. The four of us have something so special together and we all get more out than we put in I think. You know, it’s that 1+1=3 thing – apart, we’re all perfectly good, perfectly normal functioning beings but together we are so much more.

Archie sits between us and the rest of the world protecting us wherever we are. In the evening in Sandhurst, he’s in the doorway making sure no harm can come to us and in Cornwall, he’s keeping sentry on the wall. He loves the three of us unquestioningly even though Rosie can be a right pain in his butt and we’re often distracted.

Rosie charges about spreading love and goodwill wherever she goes. Her little paws reaching up my body when I get home from work and the eager tongue giving me a slurpy kiss are perfect. While I have been taking this photo, she has given me a nosebleed because she jumped up to kiss me with such vigour, she hit me full on the nose!!!

DM – well, what can I say? He makes me happy, sad (because it was so late to finally come together), excited but most of all just full of love. Yep – gushy I know but it’s true. I ‘ground’ him because I’m dead practical and he lifts me to tap into my creativity, for which I am eternally grateful. Most of all though, he wraps me up in his love and that is more than I ever dared to hope for.

What do I bring to this heady mix of wonder and joy? Well, most of the time, a crabby face and lots of sighing while I’m worrying as always about stuff at work. What I do pride myself in, is looking after them all from the point of view of their feeding and their other aspects of well-being. I’m an old mother hen clucking around to make sure my brood are happy and content. I may not be a supermodel or a superwoman but I do everything with my heart and soul and I think anyone who suggests that’s not good enough can’t have any idea of what’s really important, which is where I began this…….

Last year I was feeling a bit pleased with my ingenuity and two years ago, we were bowling!