Linda G Hill | But I Smile Anyway...

#JusJoJan 31st – Fini

31 Jan 2025 13 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Fini, Linda G Hill, Writing Prompt

“Well, hello there! It’s time for our final prompt for Just Jot it January 2025. Today’s prompt is more of a SoCS-style prompt in that it’s not an entire word. But don’t feel obligated to write a stream of consciousness/no editing allowed post. Plan away!” – From Linda!

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 31st, 2025 is “fini.” Find a word that has “fini” in it and use that as your prompt word. Have fun!

By hook or by crook, I managed to get to the end of this challenge, having taken part in each and every one, in some way. Yes, I definitely had to play catch up a couple of times, when life happened, but hey, that’s life.

Infinite possibilities for things to go a different way from what you had planned.

And boy, did they!

Still, now we are at the end of January (The longest month of the year, every year, at around 4,230 days long. No? Well, that’s what it feels like!). I’m still off sick, and have one more post to add today, rounding up reading, then we embark upon February – one of the busiest months in this family with almost all the birthdays!

My Brother-in-Law turns 50 on Monday. Then it is my MIL and Hubby Dearest on the same day, not long after. Obviously, there is February 14th, Valentine’s Day, and we have Minnie Kaur’s first feline birthday closely followed by FIL and Lil Princess on the same day, again!

She turns 17 this year, so she is eligible for a provisional licence. EEEEK! Thank goodness she’s not that interested in driving just yet, but I am sure that will happen, soon enough!

But for now, on here, I declare the 2025 #JusJoJan Challenge complete.

FINI!

https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/31/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-31st-2025/

#JusJoJan 27th – 30th – Catch up

30 Jan 2025 17 Comments

by Ritu in #1linerweds, #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Family, jusjojan25, Life, Linda G Hill, One Liner Wednesday

Hi Peeps, I’m sorry I’ve not been on here much the last week, but there was a combination of things going on.

I’ll explain soon, but let me link the words that we need to be using for the prompts…

Monday – Glamorous – Thank you, Sadje! Please visit Sadje’s blog to read her posts and say hello.

Tuesday – Confusion – Thank you, Dan! Please visit Dan’s blog to read his posts and say hello.

Wednesday – One-Liner Wednesday

Thursday – Hesitation – Thank you, Wendy! Please visit Wendy’s blog to read her posts and say hello.

So, Monday came, and it was a tough day. it was my dear, dear cousin-sister’s funeral. She was taken far too soon after a battle with cancer. It was always going to be tough, but coupled with the fact that I wasn’t feeling very well all weekend, things were tougher.

Confusion set in my mind. Do I go or not? Am I okay? Was I well enough? This is my only chance to say goodbye…

Hesitation was there, but after dosing up all weekend, I felt a bit better on Monday morning, and MIL and I headed off for a two-hour journey to where the funeral was going to be, early in the morning.

As we got closer, I felt the hot and cold sweats kicking in. My throat began to feel like I had razor blades. As I coughed, it felt like bits of my throat were leaving my body, and there was the feeling that someone had punched me in the chest.

Somehow, we got there. I searched out my parents, and the long, emotional day began… as I deteriorated. I had managed to contact the Drs surgery and by some miracle, secured a telephone appointment for just before we needed to enter the crematorium.

I got prescribed antibiotics. Just had to wait until we got home to pick them up.

Let me backtrack and tell you a little bit about my cousin. She was a beautiful soul, always calm, loved by many. She was a mother and grandma, recently. I have never seen someone accept their fate as gracefully as her. She told me, when I visited her, that she didn’t want anyone to be sad. She was lucky. She had seen so much that many never get a chance to. A happy marriage, her sons settled, meeting her two grandchildren.

Her nickname, along with several others, was Posh. Because of her style. She was always elegant. Never overstated. Glamorous is not the word. That makes me think of someone a bit ostentatious, a bit out there. No, she was that person who always looked wonderfully put together, and along with her calm demeanor, it was great way to be.

Now, back to the funeral.

Expecting around 200 mourners, the Gurdwara was actually packed with more like 400, by the end. I feel it was a testament to her and how she cared for others, that so many came out, in bad weather, to give her the most fitting send-off. And she was someone who loved to stay in touch with others. If a friend or family were visiting from overseas, she’d be there, arranging get togethers.

This felt like one of the biggest reunions, for so many of us. I met family and friends I haven’t seen for five years or more.

And I feel that wherever in her journey she was, she stopped to look down, (for there was no question that the only place for her was up) and smiled that she had managed to bring so many people together, not only to celebrate her life, but to find each other, once again.

It was around 1.30 pm when MIL and I left. I hoped the journey would be around one and a half hours. By this time, I was flagging.

Honestly, I have little recollection of the drive home, as the pains became worse. And as we reached the home stretch, an accident had happened so we were stuck in very slow traffic for over an hour. After picking up meds, dropping MIL off and picking Lil Princess up, it was around 5pm before we arrived home.

From then, to Wednesday morning, I don’t remember much of what was going on around me. I collapsed on the bed. I was fed by Lil Princess at one point, Hubby Dearest made sure she was taken to college (usually my job), and I slept, took meds, ate minimally, and slept more.

Halfway human by Weds, but still not well enough to be back at school, I tried to do some work. (Life of a teacher – you never lose the guilt of not doing what you should be, even if you are unwell.) And Lil Man appears to have caught some version of the bug, now. He’s off work, too.

And now we hit Thursday. Still coughing quite a bit, and very tired. I could get up and drop Lil Princess off. Well, I had to, because now Hubby Dearest appears to have got a strain of it, too.

Honestly, I just hope it’s not as bad as I had it, because I have never felt this incapacitated before.

And there we have it. Thank you, January. The gift that has just kept giving, and none of it has been nice stuff.

My One Liner for this week:

“Never wait to show you care.” – Ritu

#JusJoJan 26th – Jubilee

26 Jan 2025 11 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Linda G Hill

Our prompt today is courtesy of the lovely Liz. Thank you, Liz! Please be sure to visit Liz’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 26th, 2025 is “jubilee.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

There have been a couple of jubilees in my time.

Here in the UK, we celebrate a monarch reaching a certain number of years monarchy with pomp and circumstance.

I can’t say I remember them all, but I know that in 2012, in my second year at the school I still work at, we got the kids all excited about the 60th jubilee, i.e. the Diamond Jubilee. We made a throne and the children made a model of HRH the Queen, and we had a garden party on the playground!

2022 was a biggie, too. Seventy years on the throne. We celebrated The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, again with much fun with the children. And on our road, there was a street party to mark the event.

Alas, she passed away not long after, so now, we wait to see which milestones King Charles the Third chalks up against his name…

https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/26/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-26th-2025/

#JusJoJan 24 – Hobbies

24 Jan 2025 6 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Hobbies, Linda G Hill

Our prompt today comes to us from the wonderful mind of June. Thank you, June! Please be sure to visit June’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 24th, 2025 is “hobbies.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Hobbies are those things you do for fun. Activites that give you joy.

And my main hobby is reading.

I’ll be honest, it’s my only hobby, because I don’t have time to pursue others!

I’d love to take classes in photography. I’ve done online courses on calligraphy, I love baking and cooking. All could be classed as hobbies, but I don’t have the time, bar the cooking one, because, well, we do have to eat, to really get experimental!

What’s your hobby?

Daily Prompt – JusJoJan the 24th, 2025

#JusJoJan 23rd – Emphasis on SEND

23 Jan 2025 13 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Education, Emphasis, jusjojan25, Linda G Hill, news, SEN, SEND, writing

Today, our prompt is courtesy of our darling Dar. Thank you, Dar! Please be sure to visit Dar’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 23rd, 2025 is “emphasis.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Ooh, interesting word!

I don’t know if enough emphasis is on the right areas of improvement in education, right now, in the UK.

Sure, they want to overhaul SEND provision (that is the provision for children with Special Educational Needs).

That would be brilliant, and a much-needed overhaul, as the present system ain’t working, my friends. Ask me, an experienced EYFS teacher, who has seen the steady changes in expectations, provision, budget, and level of need itself.

Who knows why it is happening, but every year, over the last five years we have seen an upturn in the amount of children requiring a lot more support, joining the Reception classes. But nothing has changed to support them.

In fact, those specialist provisions for children with more complex needs are shutting, and this means those children still need the education they are entitled to, but the environments they are forced to attend aren’t suitable for them.

Overstimulation, dysregulation, insufficient staff to support individual needs, stress on both children and their families, as well as the staff who are trying to cope with the usual cohort, plus a myriad of needs that they may not actually be trained to specifically support.

And then there are those children with what would be classed as low-level need. They still need individual support, however, with the majority of staff trying to juggle the needs of the complex SEN pupils, as well as teach a whole class, they get less attention.

It’s not fair on any of us. We feel, as staff, that we are failing. The parents feel school is failing them. That child is being failed because they cannot access what they need.

So, here’s hoping the emphasis is on funding and improving the provision, so we can truly support all children.

(Oh, and while we’re at it, that National Curriculum? It needs a total overhaul! The Covid generation will never ‘catch up’. We need to meet their needs where they are, and progress from that. New, realistic targets and goals, please.)

I’m not asking for too much, am I?