As the sun set over the village last night, I looked out and thought about how it is both refreshing and wonderful that we are ending May with blue skies and sunshine (and with a bank holiday too), I am so British chatting about the weather, but these last few days have been absolute beauts and I really hope it stays around for the foreseeable. Yesterday was spent grafting in the garden as a family as we endeavoured to remove a rotting decking and make the garden more use-able going forward. We are, I would say, about a third of the way there with our makeover and I am looking forward to when it’s all done (and hopefully achieving a balance of play for the kids and chill for adults) so we can have a great summer in it – playing, eating and hanging round the soon to be fire pit!
The garden has not been the only little project we have worked on in May – operation “organise the girls room” saw us cruising over to Leeds one Friday for a mega quick trip to Ikea for some better storage for their clothes. It was very spontaneous and nice to do it with Nath as he had a day off! I suppose you could say we are well and truly in that “Spring cleaning” mode and working on a few overdue home/Garden projects is exciting. We have also put feelers out to get some quotes for a long awaited extension, so we will see what comes of that.
As you can see life lately has in some ways been more busy and focused on organising things. I would say at times this last month it has also felt a little dull too with day after day of wet and grey weather! For a little while it was really getting to me, as I longed for current sunny vibes and warmer weather. But, it hasn’t stopped me getting out with friends old and new, for lunch dates with babes and walks around the village with prams! I have being making a big effort this month to get to know new people and hang out with more baby mum friends – it has been great to get to know new people and chat in parks and farm shop grounds over cake – I hope these connection develop into new friendships!
Loving – I am obviously loving the current sunshine, but this month I am also loving that thanks to Oscar developing a bit more of a routine, I am getting more frequent chunks of sleep at night. I am not the best with lack of sleep, so I am sure everyone else is grateful too!
I am also loving Vinted; selling stuff I no longer wear and grabbing bargains of new to me items I hope to spruce my wardrobe up with. I have some lovely things that cost very little!
Watching – Most recently I have been watching Sewing bee (which has made me want to crack my sewing machine out and do my own transformation challenges) has anyone else? I forgot how much I liked it and plan on watching the last series too that I obviously missed. I am continuing to watch Call The Midwife each week (always love it) and also enjoyed watching Marriage or Mortgage on Netflix too – all these are great to watch in snippets whilst feeding.
As a couple we are watching Designated Survivor, which is one we obviously missed too when it was big, but we are really into it now and love it! We are about 11 episodes in and can’t wait to see how it unfolds
Listening to – At the moment I am quite into podcasts. I like that whilst I am walking to school or to meet people, or whilst sorting laundry etc I can be learning things too by listening to a podcast. I currently listen to a weekly one from church and then one about parenting called “Wildlings” – both are enriching to me in different ways and I am enjoying using my brain a little more and pondering on the things they chat about. I find it also gives me more to discuss with others in conversation, because lets face it, when your at home with a baby there is only so much chat one can offer on sleep, feeding and development!
Music wise I am listening to pretty much the same mix of stuff I usually listen to – anything from Greenday, The Score and UB40 to TLC and Cheese! We really love a song my sister in law had at her wedding by Kodaline “The One”; we watched their video with them a couple of weeks and absolutely love it!
Bought – May has been quite a big spend month buying stuff for the home, gifts for Megs upcoming birthday and few clothing pieces for both myself and the kiddos! For me I have bought a french connection blouse from a charity shop (£3) another blouse from vinted for £1.50 (useful for feeding a baby – obvs) and then a couple of more casual dresses too. I will do a post soon to show you them. For the home its been a lovely plant from Morrison’s for £15 and a basket for £4 from B&M to pop it, as well as a hanging unit for the girls and gravel etc for the garden!
Visited – We have visited Leeds briefly to go to Ikea, the coast for walks and Hull for a family cinema trip and museum. This half term we have plans to go further afield, but that will be dependent on project Garden! I also visited a vegan kebab shop with my friend; I am really branching out and making a massive effort to eat more plant based. I don’t know if I can 100% but so far I have enjoyed trying plant based alternatives.
Life is good and May had some lovely moments, I am glad it saw things reopening as it has made a big difference to some aspects of life! I am really excited for June now as we have lots of family celebrations and Megsies 9th Birthday. I have also signed up to SANDS 100k in June so will be walking 100k through June to raise money for them. It is a challenge I am looking forward to conquering with Oscar and will give me something else to do whilst being “at home”! We are hoping to have some beach days too, more time with family and visit some new places as things are now open!
This month I am grateful for:
*A sunny end to the month
*Meeting new friends
*Lunch dates and walks with mum friends
*More Sleep
*A family cinema trip and day out
*Living close to the coast – we have really embraced the sun and been on the beach!
*Seeing my nephew get baptised
