April 18, 2018 at 2:35 pm by Angela
A few weeks ago, we were blessed with the arrival of the youngest member of our family – Little Z. After my birth with Little H didn’t go as I’d hoped, I spent more time mentally preparing for the birth of our second child. The outcome: an experience worlds apart from my first labour. An experience I am keen to document before it fades from my memory. Unlike Little H’s birth where for a long time I felt like I’d failed both myself and Little H, this time everything went as well as I could have hoped.
January 30, 2018 at 11:35 am by Angela
So today marks the start of my final week of work before Maternity Leave round 2. In fact, today is my last day in the office. My last commute. The last time I will see many of my colleagues for over a year. Thatβs a long time! But I am so ready to stop. I am ready for a physical break (Little H will still be at nursery 3 days / week – whoop!) and to start mentally preparing myself for what is to come. I am ready to have some time which is just mine for (theoretically) a few weeks before I surrender myself to another small human for a while.
June 27, 2017 at 2:40 pm by Angela
This weekend just gone has been tough. No, more than tough – emotionally draining. It’s not all been bad but it’s been dominated by one thing: Little H has been ill. She’s not just had a cough and sniffle which we all know babies and toddlers seem to get every other day. No, she’s been the raging fever, won’t eat or drink, crying inconsolably type of ill. It started on Thursday afternoon at nursery. I got The Call on the train home – her temperature was going up. I was on edge the entire journey, hopeful it wouldn’t be as bad as they made it sound on the phone. When I arrived to a teary, snotty, t-shirt-less mess it was clear it was worse…
June 26, 2017 at 8:54 pm by Angela
I have kept a Gratitude Journal since the start of 2016. Over that year it made a MASSIVE difference to my mental attitude; I now more naturally see the positive in things. My blog is a place to share thoughts and opinions. But more than that, it’s a place I record life so I can look back in the future and remember how things were. Whilst I will always have my private journals, I also decided to take a leaf out the books of other bloggers and create a monthly gratitude feature. Here’s what I am grateful for this month:
June 21, 2017 at 9:42 pm by Angela
Woah, where on earth have these temperatures come from? A few weeks ago we seemed to only just get mild spring mornings then suddenly late last week it was as if the British Isles had been relocated to the tropics! Now I do enjoy a bit of good weather, but I can tell you that since the weekend we’ve been struggling with the heat in Casa Watling. That said, we were determined to not let that stop us from having a fun weekend which we did indeed! We didn’t do anything fancy though – we just took pleasure out of the ordinary and it was such a lovely couple of days.
May 11, 2017 at 10:19 pm by Angela
The last few days everything that has happened over the last month suddenly hit me. The turbulant times at work, some stresses at home and, on top of that, some random virus (giving me stomach cramps, diziness and headaches) saw me smash into an emotional and physical brick wall. I wasn’t motivated to do anything more than the mundane at work. I ticked off all the core chores at home but nothing more. I skipped any exercise plans and then abandoned planning all together. And, most unusually, I lost any inclination to blog. To read. To tweet. To Instagram. To even go on my computer and pretend.
April 15, 2017 at 7:30 am by Angela
Welcome to my monthly feature in which I share some of my favourite online articles for the month. I read a lot of blog posts and articles online and whilst I share a lot of them through tweets, it’s easy to miss them and hard to come back to them at another time. This is a list of my top ten reads for the month, a mixture of formal news articles and blog posts. Enjoy!
March 22, 2017 at 6:25 am by Angela
It’s February 2016 and I’ve been back at work after Maternity Leave for about three weeks. One of the female managers who I don’t really know asks me how I’m getting on. I’m honest and say it’s good to be back but it’s a bit of a shock to the system and I’m still finding my way. She nods empathetically and then says to me “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t have it all. You can. I’ve never met any group of people more productive than working mothers.”. It was meant with a helpful and supportive sentiment and it was a positive thing to hear. However, I’m not sure if it was necessarily the right thing for me to here. You see, in the last 14 months I have pondered a lot on life and balance. And on that phrase that gets thrown at all new mothers:
“You can have it all.”
March 18, 2017 at 7:30 am by Angela
I have kept a Gratitude Journal since the start of 2016. Over that year it made a MASSIVE difference to my mental attitude; I now more naturally see the positive in things. My blog is a place to share thoughts and opinions. But more than that, it’s a place I record life so I can look back in the future and remember how things were. Whilst I will always have my private journals, I also decided to take a leaf out the books of other bloggers and create a monthly gratitude feature.
This month has been another challenging one with yet more illness and various breakages costing us money (including the microwave, the handheld hoover and, worst of all, the 16 month old BOILER, argh!). So focusing on the little things really has been necessary. Here’s what I am grateful for this month:
March 13, 2017 at 6:15 am by Angela
Day 0
Little H is splashing around in the bath after a busy day at nursery. I come in to get her out and my Mum-Senses are immediately drawn to some spots on her shoulders, lower tummy and back. Much to her annoyance I proceed to examine them. I’ve convinced myself Little H has chicken pox on several occasions that turned out to be nothing. This time though, my instincts tell me this was the real deal. Without a doubt the spots are blistery. There just aren’t many of them which leaves me doubting myself.
Bedtime complete and Little H all tucked up, I consult the trusty NHS site. The pictures of chicken pox look exactly like what I had seen. That night I can’t settle to sleep and feel really anxious. I have a strong feeling I’ll be staying at home in the morning. But knowing I’ll have to get up and get ready like normal before I can get Little H up to confirm one-way or the other makes me bizarrely unsettled!
