It’s been 7 weeks since I had my first proper day of “staying at home”. Approximately 50 days. Most of those days in lockdown. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do much of my freelance work, and that I’d be spending most of my time entertaining a nearly 3-year-old, I started off thinking up…
So everyone is staying at home. We have been for a while. I may or may not decide to write about the actual lockdown in this blog, but I couldn’t write a new post after all this time without at least mentioning our current situation. Anyway, so I decided at the end of last year…
I have lots of random ideas. I write them down and sometimes I take action on them. I’ve noticed that taking action is the best way to figure out whether the idea is worth pursuing. I’ve done this many times over the last 9 years or so, starting small projects or offering a service to…
Today I’m feeling grateful. I’m grateful to be alive. I may want to lose some weight, eat more healthily and exercise more often, but I’m well. I have a lovely husband and an amazing curious daughter. I still have both my parents, and my sister and niece are nearby. I have friends locally and all…
As I continue with my journey through motherhood, I come to new stages. First there was the scary intensity of the early days, then it calmed down but wasn’t always that exciting until my daughter started moving…… Then after a year away from work I started back, freelancing, and she started at nursery. And now,…
It all feels disjointed and there’s too much going on. My paid work sometimes bears no resemblance to the things I like doing. I run out of time for me every week. I never get round to certain important tasks. Until they become urgent. Or until they don’t so they just lurk in my brain.…
I’ve been writing regularly again for a while now, diverse topics, whatever has sprung into my brain at the time. But at the moment I’m not sure why I’m doing it. I suspect I know why it’s not working for me. Maybe it’s because I have a cold and am grumpy. Maybe it’s because writing…
I never really spent time watching children until I had one. But now I have a 22 month old daughter, it’s something I spend a lot of time doing. I read a description some time ago that I love – saying that small children are like little scientists. They’re investigating the physical and social worlds…
I realised that I spend quite a lot of my time these days pointing things out to a small person. Sitting in the living room, I’m made aware of just how many planes come in to land at Heathrow each day, as I point many of them out to her. Wandering around the local area…
I am increasingly feeling that life is too complicated and full of superfluous information and activity. We create work for ourselves, and we put pressure on ourselves to keep up with what’s going on outside our own lives. Our minds are often elsewhere, planning the next thing, worrying about problems that sometimes aren’t even within…
I’ve been having a day of ideas. On a day when I haven’t had time to develop any of them, because I had a lot of paid work to do. In the shower, one came to me. It was a variation on one I’d had before and parked as I didn’t have time for it…
Since I joined Facebook in 2006/2007 (can’t remember which), thinking it was a nice way to share photos with my Rotaract friends, social media has become a big part of many people’s everyday life. I joined LinkedIn when I was made redundant in 2009, and I joined Twitter in 2010 to share my blog posts…
I’ve been a bit stop-start on my blog over the last few years, blogging less when I have had less spare time. But whatever else I do with my daily life, I am a writer as well. I rediscovered that back in 2012, writing every day as part of a 30 Day Challenge. And ever…
So what has inspired or interested me this last week? What things have I wondered about? Friendship has cropped up a few times this week. Seeing an old friend I’d not seen in a while, hearing news of other friends and acquaintances through social media and mutual acquaintances. Sorting through some old letters and coming…
All blog posts start with a blank page. And somehow get filled with thoughts. The blank page is a bit daunting if you don’t feel as if you’re in a creative mood. But I find just starting to type something, anything, often loosens up the brain cells. I’m trying to get back into blogging regularly,…
So here I am again. I decided to take up a blog challenge to write something for International Women’s Day (IWD), but wasn’t sure I’d have time. And then the day before IWD I had a conversation which led to me committing to write stuff again, just in a small way for now. So this…
It’s been a week or so of lurgy. That horrid cold that just won’t go away. Turns out it’s all over the place, from Cambridge to California to Qatar, according to my Facebook friends. Anyway, there are always a few glimmers of loveliness in a week. Here are this week’s ones… Toddler antics – putting…
I’ve been feeling a bit out of sorts this week. Then while looking back through some blog posts I remembered that I went through a phase of writing weekly gratitude posts. So I thought I would try that, to focus on the good things that have been going on. I had birthday wishes this week…
I’ve been printing and sorting out my Instagram photos, and I’ve come across a few distinct themes.
Happy New Year! It’s been a while hasn’t it? I’ve been settling into freelance life again, along with the juggling of childcare and household management. And it’s been busy. And challenging. I was planning to send the occasional email to my mailing list, but Mailchimp defeated me. For now. I was planning to do some…
