Month: December 2017

2017 in review

Posted on by Kitty364

2017 has been a strange little year.

The husband and I (I sound like the Queen!) have made some great friends this year, whom we really cherish and have enriched our lives.

T has moved to secondary school and has a grown sense of independence, maturity and responsibility that is indicative of the young man that he is becoming yet he remains just as loving towards his sisters (provided they don’t go into his room!) as always. He still makes time for mummy cuddles. His smile melts the hearts of everyone he comes across and I am truly proud of him.

M continues to be the strong independent girl we love dearly. She takes in more responsibility, of her own accord, than perhaps she should but her kind heart and mature head wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves unconditionally and this is reflected in no better way than the care, affection and patience that she shows her younger sibling.

J lets nothing stand in her way. We are now hearing “I do it!” more frequently, as she allows her independence and confidence to grow. Pride in herself and her own achievements is another expression she pulls that I add to the list of wonderful ways in which she makes my heart sing. Her sense of humour shines through daily and is inspirational.

For some, 2017 has ended painfully and this truly breaks my heart. Words are not enough to do justice to those who need comfort and, to say that my thoughts are with those who need healing at this time, falls short of expressing the depth of feeling I have. ❤️❤️

For everyone – I wish that 2018 greets us with calm, peace and love. When the bell chimes 12, my thoughts are with you all as I wish you all a Happy New Year.

I resolve

Posted on by Kitty364

I wonder how many other people are making resolutions right now?

Here is my list:

1. Practice self care – and to track their via one little one and my blog

2. Get healthier – to track this through Fitbit , one little word and my blog.

3. To live in the moment – spend less time worrying and to recognise that happiness has been achieved.

What about you?

Get organised girl!

Posted on by Kitty364

As it is New Year’s Eve, I thought it was about time I got myself organised. I have several art projects on the go or rather, I should say, ready to be on the go. It isn’t I have been procrastinating, I just have a sense of wanting to make sure that I do the right. I have been doing a lot of research the past few days try to make sure that what I’m doing looks good. I’m even contemplating sharing what I’m doing publicly through Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook page. Ideally, I would also like to set up YouTube channel to film the things that I do. I take great enjoyment watching these videos myself and I think that I can bring something to this too. Unfortunately, I do not have a great video set up no situation at home what are usually get time to myself in order to do so. I would probably be interrupted by children quite frequently! I also think I might be a bit nervous talking on Camera because, well I suppose everyone hates hearing their voice when they hear it back but, I really hate hearing my voice back! Also would be a bit embarrassed I think which is strange considering I stand up and teach for a living!

I just feel little disorganised, too much going round in my head at this moment in time. I need to do one of my famous lists! I am currently in the bath trying to do just that but I find myself on here, dictating a post! So, time to get organised. Whilst I’m in the bath, i’m going to go on Pinterest and have a good look around and get my final layouts ideas in my head. I am then, once I got out the bath, going to think about what spreads I want in my bullet journal and list them out, so I have a greater clarity. Sounds like a plan!

A day to ourselves

Posted on by Kitty364

Mother in Law kindly had the children today so hubby and I could have some alone time. We came back home after dropping the children off to do a little tidying up and then went out into the sales!

We got ourselves a lovely coffee machine, which allows the brew to be delayed so that we can enjoy a lovely coffee first thing in the morning. I am hoping to add this into my daily routine.

After shopping, we went out to lunch together. It is not very often that we are able to eat out a lone. We went to pizza hut and enjoyed the buffet lunch. Eating out as a family of five is expensive, so we don’t get to do it very often.

Finally, we came home and watched some of the TV series Vera, which is now going to become our binge viewing.

It was lovely to have some time alone and is something that we must endeavour to try harder to do in the New Year.

So, how did I do?

Posted on by Kitty364

Last year, I made a post about what I wanted to achieve in 2017 and if you are interested, it can be found here.

For those of you who do not want to look back, the gist is below:

1. Find your theme: 2017 will be the year of peacefulness.

Don’t know whether I have achieved peace or not. I think I may not have.  I have had some incredibly stressful periods this year. Particular with school. I have spent quite a lot of time worrying. I should work on this.

 

2. Select your areas of focus: I want to be able to more readily accept the things that happen, rather than dwelling on them or thinking ‘what if…’, or ‘if only…’ I want to be able to let things go, to be calmer, less stressed and tense and generally more at peace.

Completely did not achieve this

3. Choose 12 goals and habits

  • eat more healthily – nope
  • take more exercise – nope
  • blog more often  – yes
  • spend less time working – nope!!
  • spend more time with the children – no 😦
  • be more organised at work – nope
  • manage my money better – nope
  •  stay on top of the house work – yes’ish’
  •  have a more positive relationship with the hubby – yes’ish’
  •  stay in touch with friends and family better – no
  •  be less lazy – no
  •  adopt a positive sleep / wake routine – no

 

4. Create a bucket list: I am going to need to spend more time thinking about this!

Didn’t do!

5. Monthly check-in

Think I did this!

Shit. 2017 was pretty much an epic fail. Wish I hadn’t done this now.

Looking back

Posted on by Kitty364

I think it will be useful spending the next few days in reflection.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish this year was to blog more. I have done this. This is post number 165 and last year, I published a total of 148. Whilst I am still miles away from the magic 300+ it is better than last year!

Perhaps I need to aim for 200 in 2018?

Boxing Day

Posted on by Kitty364

Boxing day felt decidedly more Christmassy when I was younger. Today has been less festive although that could be because I am still heavy with a cold.

We went out to the Christmas sales (£40 worth of Lush bath stuff for £20 – thank you very much!) and returned home to hunker down for the day. A small feast of left over meat, some pickled onions, sausage rolls etc. gave us a lovely meal

How many more sleeps til Christmas?

Christmas day

Posted on by Kitty364

The big day is drawing to a close and I am sat with my eyes streaming – I seem to have developed a little bit of a cold.

T finally fell asleep at around 12.30am and so FC was able to arrive. Luckily, he had fetched everything with him and all was well.

I always find it difficult to sleep Christmas Eve / Christmas day night. I worry the children will wake early, I worry we’ll be broken into and I worry that the house will catch fire – all unnecessarily as, in the 11 years since we have been doing Christmas at home (as opposed to going home to parents for Christmas) we have never had an incident! I must’ve fallen asleep around 1.30 and then drifted on and off between then and around 6am. T was awake from about 6.45 and we opened stockings slightly earlier at 6.50am.

The children played in their rooms for a bot before coming downstairs and opening their presents from FC and having a spot of breakfast. Hubby then went and fetched the mother-in-law before we could begin undoing all the presents under the tree. I have to say,  FC was incredibly generous and got some excellent presents. T loved his Nintendo 3ds, M her shopkin supermall and J loved her nesting dolls – they even came to Christmas day lunch with us.

We ate out for Christmas day and it was so lovely to not have to worry about cooking food. We went to a place called Woodfield Farm, which is where we went last year. It was not as good as it was last year – we have drinks to welcome us on arrival last year and the place was beautifully decorated – favours on every place setting. Not this year. This year, the place was absolutely crammed – shoving people in so it was squished, too warm and the children’s meals came out at a different time to the mains. We did get a free round of drinks because of that but it was disappointing and something we’d be put off for next year.

All in all, we have had a lovely day. It has been lovely spending time with the family and watching the children play with their toys.

I hope everyone had a lovely day! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

Posted on by Kitty364

And so, here it is. The day I have been eagerly awaiting since probably September. Well, alright, since last boxing day!

To be honest, the day has gone according to plan in that we have done everything I had hoped to, but I have a sense of unease about everything – not feeling 100% certain where everything is.

I have been gearing up for this for months and all of a sudden, I don’t feel so Christmassy. I don’t know what is wrong. Perhaps it is because we have broken up to late from school, I don’t know. I always, always get excited for Christmas months in advance so I know I haven’t ‘Christmased’ out.

Anyhow – we wait for Father Christmas to deliver his gifts 🙂