This time last week we were making willow sashes for my sister in laws upcoming wedding and filling hundreds of glass bottles with greenery and water! We were out in the garden all day with the toddlers playing, whilst we put the world to rights and caught some sun rays – all whilst looking forward to the fun times ahead. It is crazy that just week on, the wedding has happened and we are left with lots of videos, pictures and fun memories in its place. I am sat here listening to the rain beating down on the conservatory roof feeling far too cold for May, but thankful for what was a fabulous weekend with family.
Life lately has felt busy and I haven’t been sleeping very well either, with trying to work on my business idea (which is yet to get off the ground) and get everything in place. It hasn’t as yet been anywhere near as popular as I had hoped, but at the same time it hasn’t even been that long that word has been out about it. Time will tell, but I am okay with however it turns out, it isn’t a massive loss if I have to end up putting it to bed!
Life has also been very loved up this month with both the wedding and 10 years since we got engaged! As a result, the month has brought me joy and made me feel so blessed and happy despite the difficulties and inability to sometimes find the right balance. This is the month that Nathan and I got engaged and will always feel special. especially as this May felt like a bit of a milestone too, with it being a whole 10 years since that wonderful afternoon he asked me on the beach here in East Yorkshire to be his wife – his one and only forever! It was an absolute dream come true!
Reflecting on a whole decade together reminds you how far you have come and all of the lovely things you have shared in those years too. We have spent a lot of our time together recently reaffirming what we love about one another and planning a little kid free trip in October for our 10 year wedding anniversary! I sometimes look back on our beach engagement and Autumn wedding, and wish we had done things a little differently (don’t we all?). One regret is that we didn’t have more beach vibes in the wedding (it is my fave after all) – it would have been so nice to have a beachy wedding and have pics at the beach. There are some beautiful and affordable beach wedding dresses that would have probably suited me better too and it would have been so much more us (not to mention romantic also). We even sometimes chat about how nice it would have been to maybe marry abroad with just our families round us- small, beachy and intimate!
Weddings definitely make you thing about yours and what you might have done differently or would have liked to have had, but I guess the most important thing is that we made that commitment, it was a lovely special day and we are now loving life together!
These last few weeks though have been very much about weddings and my after school cub. Last week I did my paediatric first aid and this week was super busy (and saw many late nights) as we all pulled together to give my sister in law and new brother in law the wedding they envisioned. It was wonderful to get to know his family over this past weekend and discover new friendships and inside jokes. I feel so happy for May and all of the things I have accomplished and being apart of. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and filled with a lot of affection and love, which is so lovely and inspiring. There is nothing like a wedding to again feel grateful for your spouse and the life you share. We had so much fun and loved to be able to see my dear sister in law and her new husband marry!
Love is certainly in the air right now and it has been wonderful to reflect on love, marriage and what all of these things mean to us too.
Loving
This month I am loving Mr Smith (obvs)! I am also loving that car boot season has started again and that I was able to go the other week with friends and enjoy a sunny day scavenging at the coast.
I am loving ice cream fridays return at school and my new £2.50 mascara from Primark – I bought it on a whim, but its super volume and makes my lashes look fab! And, last but not least, I am loving that my gross cold sore has almost disappeared!
Watching
I have spent far too much time watching Gossip Girl these last few weeks, but I finally finished it last week! I really really liked it and only wish I had seen it when I was younger. By the end I found myself crushing on Chuck Bass and wanting more than ever to take a trip to NYC!
This month we saw Thriller Live when it was up here in Yorkshire, and my oh my it was epic! We had a fab night out together and absolutely loved watching it and dancing along by the end too. It has made me want to plan an MJ themed party for Nath’s 40th next year – he seems up for it too, so cannot wait to be rocking out to those classics!
We have also watched Good Sam and Elizabethtown on Netflix – they were okay – I have seen Elizabethtown before when it first came out, but still found it pretty funny and touching.
Reading
My reading habits are absolutely naff as always, but after finding “The Unmumsy Mum” in the charity shop for £1 last week in Hull, this is what I am reading right now (albeit very slowly). I am already enjoying the realness of it and the lightness too – it is super easy to read and relate to. I much prefer real life/non fiction reading lists, so if you have anything I need on my radar, I would love to hear it.
Listening to
My ears hurt a lot from listening to Ethan practise his trumpet – he is doing well though. But I am enjoying hearing him play his keyboard whilst Alice sings “Mary had a little lamb”! It is so adorable!
I have also been listening to a lot of Michael Jackson since seeing Thriller Live and Usher Yeah since hearing it on the radio recently. At the wedding on Saturday I loved all of the latino influence in the music, it was fab to listen to and also shake our booties to!
Bought
May has been very much about buying accessories. I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that they bring a whole new vibe to an old look for very little expense, but also because I wanted headbands and new sunglasses too for the Summer. This month I have bought scrunchies, headbands, earrings and sunglasses – mostly from primark (You can read about them here) and some earrings from accessorize too.
I also called into a local charity shop a couple of weeks ago and came away with a fab new to me ASOS shirt (pictured) as well as a cool striped Tshirt and white lace/crochet number for the summer too. I spent a total of about £8 on me and another 5 or 6 on Alice (which included a gorgeous ZARA coat) and remembered how much I love charity shops!
Finally, and technically not bought, but I did obtain through a blogging collaboration these lovely tourist sandals in rose gold and tan from Hotter shoes. I have worn them a lot these last couple of weeks and am really pleased about them… super comfy and lovely with lots of my outfits!
Visited
This month we had a country walk with family and visited an old abbey ruin here in East Yorkshire which was a lovely little adventure. And, I visited Manchester with some fellow bloggers for “Blog on” – a northern blogging conference. it was a good opp to see online friends and network!
I cannot believe we are almost half way through 2019 and almost at the end of my first year of my level 4 Counselling Diploma. In a few weeks time I will mum to a 7 and 3 year old, and not too far off having a 9 year old too – it blows my mind! We have a holiday in France on the horizon and only 1 half term of school – seriously nuts! But, Until then, I have one more assignment to do over the next 2 weeks and then I will have completed my first year of my level 4 Counselling Diploma too – what an achievement!
If I am honest, I haven’t been 100% happy on this course and it has tested me in so many ways. I knew it would, you cannot study counselling and not change, but part of my issue is a lot to do with not wholeheartedly believing in this particular approach to therapy which is hard. But, since seeing it as a stepping stone and foundation to where i want to be, as oppose to the way I must do things, it has been a little easier. I am glad though to have endured it and grown, and generally to have got this far – passing all of my assignments first time.
I am learning in life that sometimes we have to do hard things in order to get to where we really want to be. But in the process we become more humble and wise, and more open minded (I hope). I also realise that achieving goals is a lot like walk up a hill or staircase, and that those first few or middle steps, look nothing like the destination of final view. We cannot give up on something or judge it when we are still in the process of achieving it. Obviously it isn’t exactly how we want it, but it is with time and progress that we begin to see a wider view and where we can be with these first few steps – however hard they are.
I am living in hope that these steps with be worth it, and the journey will guide me to a greater future and help me move to where I eventually want to be.
