Life lately

This wasn’t going to be the post I wrote today but then I started to write another post and I just wasn’t feeling it. Blogger problems.

I’m going through a blogger dip at the moment. A “lull” if you will. I know the signs – in five years of blogging I’ve been here before. The first sign is that everything on the internet really winds me up. The second sign is that places I’ve usually gone to for inspiration online – blogs I love, Instagrammers I admire etc etc – just leave me a bit cold. Rather than inspiring me they leave me twitchy, slightly irritated even. It’s like that feeling you get after you’ve been to the hairdressers when you get hair down your top and you’re a bit itchy and need a shower. You know?

When I’m feeling like this it’s usually a sign that I’m suffering burn out, or haven’t spent enough time just enjoying life generally. I lose sight of the things that matter and get hung up on stupid stuff like Instagram likes or what-not. I mean, no one’s going to lie on their death bed fretting that their Instagram feed wasn’t co-ordinated enough or that the mum down the road had more followers or likes than they did, are they?! It’s stupid stuff that, in the whole scheme of things and the big wide world, really doesn’t matter. I lose sight of that sometimes. Again, blogger problems. 

This post is not meant to be a downer. I’m not about to give up blogging in a puff of dramatic smoke, slamming the door on my way out shouting SCREW YOU INTERNET! Nah, I’m not over blogging. Deep down, I still love it, even if I’m not currently on board with Snapchat.

This little place on the internet has been one I’ve always come back to, it’s stuffed to the brim with happy memories and real life thoughts about things that I’ve cared enough to write about at one time or another. That’s not going to change.

So, this has been my life lately…

Planning

I’m about to be one of those really annoying people who teases some kind of secret but won’t spill. But the biggest thing in my life right now is planning something that’s happening next month. It’s potentially going to be one of the most scary and rewarding things I’ve ever done and, I hope, will remind me why I started blogging in the first place. More on this to follow, hopefully.

Mumming

The girls are at a wonderful stage right now. Baby Girl is starting to say a few words (“ball” “look” “bye bye” and “gone” are her current faves) and Frog keeps coming out with hilarious anecdotes and opinions that make me laugh out loud (“So mum, I’ve decided that [insert boy’s name here] is my BFF but when I said to him ‘How about a kiss?’ he said ‘I don’t think so’ so maybe he’s not my BFF after all. Oh – and I’ve decided I’m leaving home and I’m going to buy my own house. I can afford it can’t I? I mean, I’ve got a hundred quid!” etc).

On Friday night the NLM had a night out at the pub so I treated Frog to her first ever girl’s night in. She turns six at the end of June, so she reckons she’s now old enough to stay up late, wear make-up and date Justin Bieber. We got into our pyjamas, ate pizza in front of Kung Fu Panda on the TV, painted our nails and chatted about all sorts of crazy things that my almost-six year old thinks about on a daily basis. It was cute and, as much as I like my Friday night wine time, it was lovely to hang out with my biggest girl, just the two of us for a change.

Wearing

I’ve been on the hunt for some new summer clothes recently and found a lovely new black denim pinafore dress (New Look) that I’ve been pretty much living in, alternating between that and my red culottes from Zara. The Birkenstocks and Saltwaters are also back out. It’s not reliable enough to ditch the coat though (which, by the way, was an eBay find a few months ago – a brand new M&S coat bagged for the princely sum of £2.41 on eBay – win!).

Visiting

Last weekend the NLM and my dad were busy doing the last bits of DIY in our epic bedroom renovation, so me and my mum took the girls to a local village for the May Day celebrations. It was one of those events that I can imagine tourists going cuckoo over, as it was all so quintessentially English. Cream teas, dancing round the maypole, a brass band, Morris dancers, the lot. The sun shone and we had a barbecue when we got home later that evening. Perfect.

And mixed in with all of the above, we’ve been really busy around the house. Outside in the garden we’ve dug and hauled boulders and seeded to make our lawn bigger, create a new vegetable patch at the back of the garden and a herb bed by our patio. It’s so much more kid-friendly now and I love looking out of my office window onto our outside space. Inside, we’ve been busy with our bedroom makeover (SO nearly finished!) and other little jobs around the house – including a cute new Instagram rainbow wall. The next big thing will be the kitchen!

I should probably leave it there as this post has already turned into the longest one known to man.

So, tell me, what have you been up to lately?