Tag: personal

Final half term contemplations…

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Ello, ello, ello

So for those of you who are new around here, hi, I’m Steph, an NQT in a gorgeous little primary school in Newcastle. I love my job, I love where I work, I have the best colleagues in the world. My road to teaching hasn’t been conventional, but I got there in the end. I was a TA for 4 years, then I became a HLTA, then I realised that yes in fact teaching was the thing that I wanted to do for the rest of time, so I got my degree (as well as working full time) and then, last year, I finally qualified. So this year has been my NQT year. I work with a brilliant bunch of kids who make me laugh EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Now that we’re at my final half term, I’m just gonna share some musings, some thoughts, some questions, some wonderings about my final half term and maybe, just maybe, what I would like the future to hold.

  • Teaching is completely and utterly for me.
    It’s hard, it’s really exhausting at times and there’s more things to think about than brain space sometimes, but it’s the only thing I want to be doing for the rest of time (cause let’s be real, I’m going to be working until I’m 100). I invite anyone who thinks my job is “easy” to come and join me for a day or two… then you’ll see.
  • The politics of teaching is just ridiculous at times.
    I try not to get involved in the politics of teaching, but there is more of it than I realiased and that’s not fun. I get it, I get it, but man, I came into teaching to be a teacher, not a politician.
  • I do this job because I love it, but yes the holidays are great.
    People are ALWAYS commenting on this… and yes I can’t get away from the fact that the amount of holidays I get is wonderful (I would never deny this) but equally half terms are NEEDED.
  • I want to enjoy teaching for a while.
    People ask me (quite regularly) about going into management and senior leadership and while that’s not something I don’t want, I didn’t qualify just so I could be on someone’s SLT. It would be great to find myself with the responsibility of being a leader one day, but not just yet. I wanna actually master this craft before I try my hand at something else. One day I would like to see myself as a leader, but at the minute I don’t see headship in my future.
  • The subjects I thought would be the scariest haven’t been.
    I was DREADING teaching PE, absolutely dreading it, but actually, it’s become one of my favourite things to teach. Is it the thing I’m best at teaching? Gosh no, but it’s just so FUN. I’ve HAD to open my eyes and upskill myself and that’s been great.
  • Twitter is a wonderful platform for teachers.
    Do I feel like an imposter at times? Yes.
    Do I think why do these people care about what I think at times? Yes.
    Do I sometimes worry that my voice isn’t needed? Yes.
    But let me tell you, twitter teachers are the best, most caring and giving people you can come across. Find yourself a bunch of teachers who make you laugh, challenge you professionally and who support you and you’re laughing. I’m so very lucky that I found my tweacher friends quite quickly and they’re the best bunch ever.
  • Don’t be scared to get involved in conversations and attend events.
    There are so many conversations happening all the time and if you’re passionate about something then join in. People will challenge what you think and people will support what you think – if you’ve got the gusto to go out there and talk about something you’re passionate about do it. Yes there’ll be people who say things to antagonise you, but you choose the conversations you join in and the people you surround yourself with. There are SO SO many teaching events to get along to so get yourself out there and do it (it’s terrifying, but it’s worth it). Look up #BrewEd – there’s bound to be one near you happening.
  • Some lessons won’t go to plan and that’s life.
    I beat myself up SO SO MUCH about this and slowly, I’m realising that I’m human and bad lessons happen. It doesn’t make me a bad teacher, it just means I need to take a step back and think about why it didn’t go as well as I thought. I never did quite understand the whole “doing reflections” thing from my SCITT, but now it’s something I do without even realising (rarely are they written down, but it’s all in my head and it’s all useful)
  • It’s not a bad thing to ask for help.
    Asking for help is such an important tool. I encourage my kids to do it ALL THE BLOODY TIME but I’m so bad at it because I see it as a weakness (isn’t that mad?!) but I’ve got better. I’m still not great at it, but I’m getting there.
  • Ask all of the questions, even if you think they’re stupid questions
    THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A STUPID QUESTION. Say it again. Ask it again because you might not get the chance to ask it again.
  • Stick to your guns about something
    If you believe in something, or you think something isn’t right, then stick with your gut. I’ve had to do this a few times this year and I’ve been right every time. If there’s one thing I believe in in this job it’s that teachers know their kids. If something’s not right with your job, your workload, you, one of your kids, talk to someone about it. People are generally ridiculously supportive.

I have a load more to say but I’ve already rattled on for 1000 words (sorry guys).

I’ve loved my NQT year with all of my heart. It’s been exhausting, incredible, moving, frustrating, emotional and so many other words. I know this is just the first step up a VERY BLOODY LONG staircase, but it’s the only staircase I wanna climb. 

Thanks for sticking with me. If you’ve got any questions or anything you wanna say, please just let me know. I’m a bit inconsistent with my teacher posts, but I think it’s something I’d like to do more of.

You’re all amazing. Let’s have a brilliant final summer half term! 

S x

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands…

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*clap clap*

Todrick Hall songs. Talking about old TV shows. Spending the day on the beach with my kids. The sunshine. Old photographs. Cringing at some memories. Starbucks Sundays. Making plans with friends. Making plans with myself. Being ok by myself. Texting new people. Texting old faves. Witchy Trio laughs. Being so proud of friends. Knowing I have the most considerate best friends in the world. The excitement about having a new member of the family soon. Half term. Taking time to look after myself. Reading books. Buying new books. Drag Race. Miss Vanjie. Tidying. Finally finding something in the supermarket I’ve been looking for for weeks. Twitter teacher friends. Time. Space. Exciting plans. Going to London to celebrate excellent books. Knowing there’s only 6 weeks of being an NQT life. The things that are coming in the future. Being slightly terrified, but knowing it’s all good. My goddaughters. Having a cry. The seaside. Supportive friends. Picking up whatever books I want and reading them. My kids EMBRACING our ‘Mystery book’. My kids loving books in all of their guises. Excitement for YALC. Basically, all of the bookish things. Always books. 

 

May bujo

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HELLO THERE. 

How are we all doing today? I’m here to share with you my May bullet journal. I apologise for it taking so long to get this posted… today we shall fix that! 

So I asked the people of Twitter what they wanted my bullet journal colour to be and with a resounding 48% of the vote, orange won!

twitter bujo colour

So May was to be the month of ORANGE bullet journal colouring! 

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My monthly page is a lovely sunshine. Yknow summer and all that! 

Then we have a quote page and the monthly overview page. I love this quote because I think it’s something we should all take into consideration. I’m really loving using the Zebra midliners to “highlight” things too. I have 8 different colours and they make me so happy. The monthly overview page is slowly becoming more and more useful, but as you can see it’s still quite plain… I need to have a play around with it to make sure that it’s the best it can be!

Next up is my bookish double spread: book post and books read. This is a spread that I’m constantly playing with. I am getting much better at tracking my book post (left page). I have a key to tell me what I’ve acknowledged (tweeted/grammed), read and blogged. I find it really helpful. When I’d taken these pictures, I’d read 3 books… since then I’ve added 2 more books. The stars system is ultimately flawed, but for my own personal consumption it’s helpful. 

Over the page we have my mood tracker and another quote page. I saw this orange idea while I was browsing the interwebs and I decided I needed it. It’s not perfect but I think it’s well cute. I’ve stripped down the amount of moods I’m tracking this month to just 4. I really can’t get the grasp on which moods I need to track (ha!), but these 4 are working this month. On the other page (right), I’ve actually started to fill it in with things that I’d do (or at least try) if I wasn’t so afraid. It’s quite eyeopening to be honest and I would encourage everyone to do it.

As May is the month of Mental Health Awareness Week, I changed this page (left) to be a MH page. I’ve been filling it all month with things that make me smile/things to do when I’m feeling a bit down. It’s quite lovely to see the sheer range of things in my life that make me smile/feel better when I’m feeling a bit fragile. The other side (right) is my trusty gratitude page, filled with all of the things I’m grateful for. 

Last up is my weekly spreads. Again, I’ve changed these from last month and I’m already loving it a lot more. It’s very simple/minimalist, but it functions perfectly as I need it to. There’s space for me to see what I’m up to this week (on the left) and then my inevitable to do lists (right). According to these pictures, my to do lists weren’t very long… but they most definitely are MUCH longer than this! 

And that’s it! That’s my May bujo. I hope you enjoyed this! If you have any questions or comments, let me know. I’d love to know what you think. Send me links to your bujo posts because I’m nebby and want to see them!

S x 

 

BOOK BLOG: Bethany Rutter

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No Big Deal: a book that means a very big deal!

21eba24b-9c6a-4906-86d0-bf42bfc98cae(gorgeous proof copy sent to me from the publishers… see final cover further down)

“Meet Emily Daly, a stylish, cute, intelligent and hilarious seventeen-year-old about to start her last year at school. Emily is also fat. She likes herself and her body. When she meets Joe at a house party, he instantly becomes The Crush of Her Life. Everything changes. At first he seems perfect. But as they spend more time together, doubts start to creep in.

With her mum trying new fad diets every week, and increasing pressure to change, Emily faces a constant battle to stay strong, be her true self and not change for anyone.”

No Big Deal tells the story of Emily (gorgeous, brilliant, wonderful), a teenager who is going through it all. She’s a girl who the world judges based on one thing: her weight. Emily doesn’t see her weight as a problem, but the rest of the world does. The rest of the world expects her to change because of who she is. Emily has this brilliantly unfaltering confidence in herself, but as you go through the book, as friendships fall apart, as boys come into the picture, as society wears her down, this unrelenting confidence risks changing forever.

I loved this book. Like hands down loved it.

Emily is an absolutely astounding MC. She’s stylish, she’s hilarious. Her perspective is absolutely mint. I laughed A LOT at some of the things she gets into because I’ve been there. Getting stuck in a dress in Topshop? God, I know that feeling so much. Doubted your worthiness because of your weight? Yep. Been there. I loved that she bossed life and was stylish and cool and brilliant. Her weight wasn’t the thing that defined her. She showed that it doesn’t need to. She had interests. She was a ROUNDED character. 

For so long, the fat character was the funny friend, or the one who never got the boy, but in this book, that’s not the case. This book shows that it doesn’t matter what size you are, you matter and that your story isn’t dependent on your weight. Your story is important: even if society doesn’t think so.

I’ve struggled to write this review, not because I didn’t love this book (because trust me, I loved this book an awful lot), but because every time I come to write this review it turns into something about my life… and y’all don’t need that.

This book is brilliant. It’s funny, it made me cry, it made me think, it made me want to shout: so many emotions. It’s interesting. It has a refreshing voice. It’s written in a brilliantly readable way. I’d love to think that Bethany Rutter will be around for MANY MANY BOOKS introducing us to a whole range of characters who are as badass, brilliant and body positive as Emily. This book, its character, its story is going to hit a chord with so many people. Whether you’re the fat friend or not, it’s going to matter. It’s so much more than a story about a fat girl: it’s a story about the importance of loving yourself and how much of a BLOODY HARDSHIP that can be at times. 

I think this book hit a note with me because I WAS Emily. I am Emily now. I’m on that journey of self acceptance, of loving myself for whoever and whatever I am that day. I’ve been there. I’ve doubted every single thing in my life because of the status of my weight. It’s just a thing.

PLUS. Look at this cover man. I proper love it. I can’t wait to have a finished copy in my midst. It’s going to have pride of place on my “favourites shelf”.

No Big Deal

My Goodreads review:

If I could swear, I would. This book is exceptional. I am/was Emily and there’s nothing more important that seeing yourself in a book. I hope every young girl gets a chance to read it. Loving yourself is SO IMPORTANT. This book made me laugh, cry and want to shout. Just bloody marvellous.

And because I loved it so much, I made a mood board. To me, this moodboard represents so much of what the book talks about. Style, fierce, brilliant women, loving yourself, owning life.

NBD mood board

Thank you so so much to Bethany and the brilliant humans of Macmillan Books/MyKindaBook for getting me a proof copy. I GENUINELY think this book is going to hit a chord with so many people.

Have you read No Big Deal?
Can you name another book that has a fully-realised fat MC?
Who is your favourite body positive person?

Talk to me! 

S x 

Be kind to yourself: you’re doing a great job

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Hi there friends!

I’m not really sure where this post will end up going, so please bear with me. May is #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth and I think it’s important to put the spotlight on MH. It’s not a taboo subject. It’s not something that should be silenced. It’s something that should be talked about. We all endure and cope differently and each and every experience is valid. The more we talk about this, the better it will be for everyone.

Every week this month I’m going to post another little mental health type post. You don’t have to read it if that’s not your thing, but if it is I’d love to know your thoughts on whatever it is I’ve posted about. The posts each week may be what I do when I’m feeling like I’m spiralling, some books I might recommend or anything. I’d love your suggestions on what you’d like to see me talk about. 

One of the posts will be centred around body positivity – why it’s important, what it means to me, how we can be more body positive etc. This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 will take place from Monday 13 to Sunday 19 May 2019 and the theme for 2019 is Body Image – how we think and feel about our bodies.

Today I’m going to just spend a few words talking about perception. How we perceive others and how that can in fact be SO INCREDIBLY different to how we perceive ourselves.

Something I do is asking people to describe me, keeping their positive words (in my phone, my bujo, my brain) for when I don’t have any for myself. Now some people may think ‘well that’s awfully self-centred of you’, but sometimes you need someone else’s words of positivity when you have none yourself.

If you ask people to describe me in a word, you will more than likely get the following words:

  • funny
  • loud
  • bubbly
  • confident
  • friendly
  • affectionate

And I think those are words that I would use to describe me from time to time. There’s also a whole chunk of words, which aren’t as positive, that I would use to describe myself. I am, at times, my VERY OWN WORST CRITIC.

It’s SO EASY to fall into a hole of “you’ve not done this, you’ve not done that, that could have been better, you’re not this, you’re not that, that person is doing this and you’re not”. It’s so easy. It’s so easy to listen to the negative things that people have said about you, rather than the equal amount of positive things. It’s so easy to only think negative things about yourself, rather than tell yourself positive things.

I’m particularly bad at being kind to myself some times. And some times I need reminders that I am enough. I am kind. I am friendly. I am funny. I am good at my job. These reminders need to come from me. It’s lovely when other people tell me them, but it doesn’t make as big a difference until I start to believe them.

I’m a BIG LOVER of quotes (and mood boards as readers of this blog will attest to), so I’ve put together a moodboard of quotes that have hit a chord with me as I’ve been scrolling recently. We all deal with our mental health struggles in different ways, and each and every voice is valid – for me, these help to show me that I’m not alone. They help me to see that OTHER people have felt the way I feel. 

MH month

Thanks for stopping by today. If you ever need to talk, or just want a hug (virtual, or real), my inbox/twitter is always open.

Love, Steph xx

There’s nothing quite like a good cup of tea…

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If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you will know that I am a massive fan of treating myself to a breakfast ever now and again.

In Newcastle, we are spoiled for choice of places to go… but I will ALWAYS go back to the same place. And I recommend that you guys start going too:

Quilliam Brothers Teahouse

img_5374(Look at that cute little tea cup man, and my own pot of tea!)

For those of you who have no idea what Quilliam’s is, it’s a teahouse in the centre of Newcastle and it’s just majestic. When you go in you are handed a menu, but it’s no ordinary menu… it’s a tea menu. There are tens of choices you can choose from (I literally have only breakfast tea, or lately I’ve been having a vanilla black tea which is delicious) and there are teas for ALL tastes. The first time I went I had NO idea what I was doing/wanted, and the staff were MORE THAN HAPPY to recommend and help me make a decision. You get a cute little Quilliams tea cup and your own pot of tea (for someone who was a newbie like me, this was a PROPER revelation… not only was I able to choose from 10s of teas, but I got my own pot of tea!)

Now, I mostly go to Quilliams for breakfast (those of you who follow me on Instagram will see that mostly!) and, as the pictures above show, the breakfast is something that is well worth grabbing. You can get a whole host of different breakfasts: eggs, pancakes, granola, sandwiches, full English. There’s options for those who are gluten free and dairy free too! Just ask the people who work there and they’ll be happy to help. I always get the Eggs Claremont (poached eggs on toast with sausages) without hollandaise sauce. I would recommend this 100%. Everything that comes out looks and smells delicious… I’m just a stick with what you know kind of gal ha! 

Quilliams doesn’t just do breakfast though… 

There’s a MASSIVE range of cakes and treats you can get as snacks! Pictured above is the mini egg brownie, chocolate banana bread and orange cake (gluten free). Recently some friends and I went and we all have pretty different tastes in life, but we all managed to find something to eat AND ENJOY. We all had some food, some cake and some tea. It was a majestic day. The other picture shows the nachos they do on a night time and man… they’re just DELICIOUS. 

If you’re in Newcastle, or ever in the North East, I would completely recommend visiting Quilliams. It’s one of my favourite places to eat and just have a little me time. The vibe is really chill and the staff are always more than happy to help! 

Check out their website here where you’ll find more information about their menu, where they are and other essential information! 

What’s your go to breakfast food?
Do you have one place you ALWAYS go for a little treat?
Can you recommend somewhere for me to go and try out in Newcastle?

I can’t wait to hear what you all think! This wasn’t quite books… but Quilliams is another love in my life! 

S x 

 

Half term happy post

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Happy Monday! Despite the fact I’m back to work today (we only had one week for Easter holidays), I thought I’d post one of my favourite posts: a happy post! I’m going to list all of my happy things from half term! 

Reading every single day. Sleeping in until I wanted to wake up. Having an alarm set for a good reason. Seeing my twiglets. Doing some tidying. Running. Wagamamas with my fave. Finally getting my ass back to the gym. Going to see people that I love most. Bullet journaling. Cute Snapchat filters. My book bitchez. Quilliams for me. Quilliams with my friends. Just having time to breathe. Looking forward to going back to work. Relaxing and not needing to worry. That feeling of waking up and being able to go back to sleep. Accidental naps. Exciting opportunities with teachers I properly admire. Sunshine and walks. Spending time just wandering because I have time. Texts from friends. Texts from colleagues. Texts from teacher friends. Book post. Laughing. Laughing so much you cry. Not feeling pressured to write blog posts. Starbucks and reading. Banana bread. Light mornings. Light nights. New trainers. New lipstick. Picking up books and devouring them in a matter of hours. Falling in love with characters and worlds. That feeling of tiredness before you crawl into bed. Bookish events with my faves. A bottle of Rekorderlig. Hugs from the twiglets. Texts from my brother. Books. Always books. 

What are your half term wins?
How do you enjoy spending your half term holidays? 

Talk to me! 

S x 

April bujo

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Well hello there!

How are you today? 

Today, I’m here to show you April bullet journal set up! 

I’ll be honest… I went off the boil a bit in March – I had a weekend away in London and it just totally knocked me off kilter, so I stopped updating. However, I’ve got back on the bujo bus and I’ve done my bujo for April and I quite love it! As usual, I scoured google images for inspiration and magpie’d some ideas, adapted others and then came up with my own! 

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This is my title page (yes, I know. It bothers me that the a isn’t a capital, but it just didn’t look as nice with a capital letter… I’ll deal with it ha!) The example I saw and used as my inspiration just had black fletchings, but I decided to make mine green to match my green theme going this month! 

Next up, we have a quote page (we all know I love a good quote page) and then the monthly calendar (which now looks very different – I coloured in holidays and such like!) I really like starting the monthly bullet journal off with the monthly calendar – I can write important dates on and such like! April is a considerably quieter month than March though!

Over the page, we have my little mood tracker and my grateful page. I found this little cup and leaf dude while I was looking at examples of mood trackers and I just thought he was ADORABLE. I matched my quote to the theme of plants too. In terms of colours, I went back to using different colours this month (last month I used shades of blue and I found it a bit of a pain in the arse tbh). I realise it would’ve looked better with just shades of green, but hey ho! The other page is just a very simplistic grateful page… a line a day with a little quote!

The next double spread you come across is my bookish double spread – book post and books I’ve read this month page! On the left hand page is my book post – I’m still playing around with this page because I’m not sure how I best make this work. I’ve tried a few different ways to catalogue them and I’m just yet to find one that I love using. On the right, you’ll find the books I’ve read this month. By the time I remembered to take pictures, I had read 3 books! The yellow highlighter shows me a MG book: the green highliter shows YA books read. As it’s half term, I’m aiming for a good chunk of reading this month! I try to alternate between MG books and YA books. 

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The last double spreads are my weekly spreads. This week was half term… hence the blankness. I’ve got a “next week” and the blank space beside it is for a “to do list”. I’ve got rid of my daily mood tracker but I’m doing it within my days. I get 3 smily faces – one for morning, one for afternoon, one for night time – and I just draw them in the daily box somewhere. It’s interesting to watch the patterns form! 

And that’s it! April in bujo! 

Do you like a colour scheme?
What are your must have bujo pages?
Which of your pages are your fave?

Talk to me! I’ll happily talk bujo all day! 

S x 

Would you rather…? bookish tag!

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Well hello there Tuesday! How are you my love?

Today I’m taking on the Would you rather… bookish tag! I was tagged by my lovely friend Charlotte (yes, nominated best newcomer Charlotte! so proud) to take on her 8 questions. If you fancy checking out her post, you’ll find it here!

The way it works is I’ll answer Charlotte’s WYR questions, then I’ll come up with my own and then tag some people to do it! I hope you enjoy! Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Even if I don’t tag you, you are MORE THAN WELCOME to join in!

LET’S GO.

Would you rather only read standalones or only read series?

This isn’t really a question in my life. I dig a standalone, but my gosh, I LIVE FOR a series. I’m all about getting emotionally involved, falling for the hero, watching the villain wreak havoc over multiple books and FEELING ALL THE EMOTIONS. So series. (If Sara Barnard however started writing series, I’m not sure my poor little heart could take it!)

Would you rather only read contemporary or only read fantasy?

WOAH THERE CHARLOTTE. That’s like asking me to choose between Mel and Sara. THAT’S NOT OK. I’m just going to ignore this questions because RUDE. (But fantasy, let’s be real)

Would you rather drop your favourite book in the bath, or have it fall into a shredder?

I don’t know why this answer, but it was my gut reaction: shredder. I guess I could use the shredded pieces as something cute afterwards (and I’d go out and buy a new copy of the book regardless!)

Would you rather read a book that ended on a cliffhanger or one that broke your heart?

I do not live for a cliffhanger… so a book that will break my heart EVERY SINGLE TIME THANKS.

Would you rather have every book you read spoiled or never get to know how any book you read ends?

Just like the cliffhanger question, I love when a book gives me some closure in life, so I’d rather have spoilers ALL OVER MY LIFE. I’m quite a fan of spoilers actually – I openly embrace them (mostly: there are times when I DO NOT appreciate them)

Would you rather your book was missing the first and last page, or a random page in the middle?

A random page. I need my closure thanks.

Would you rather be stuck on an island with no book to read, or stuck in a library where you couldn’t read any of the books?

What are the rules behind “couldn’t read” the books? Am I not allowed to? Am I not able to? Are they too high for me to reach? Charlotte, I need clarification for this question… because my answer will change depending on the rules.

Would you rather have your best friend hate your favourite book or your worst enemy love it?

I would forgive my best friend for hating a book I love. Although all of my best friends have WONDERFUL TASTE so we’re alrite there!

My questions:

  1. Would you rather be best friends with your favourite character or your favourite author?
  2. Would you rather have lunch with the villain or the hero in the last book you read?
  3. Would you rather only read books by men or women?
  4. Would you rather recommend a book that everyone ends up hating or hate a book everyone keeps recommending to you?
  5. Would you rather only buy plain book covers or movie tie in covers of books?
  6. Would you rather only own hardbacks or ebooks?
  7. Would you rather have a main character named after you or a book dedicated to you?
  8. Would you rather have to annotate every book you read or have to fold the pages of every book you read?

I tag Cora, Aoife and Andrew.

S x

Let’s get real for a minute…

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Last week was a tough one. I’m not going to lie. It wasn’t BAD particularly. I was just exhausted. I’ve been on the go for a while now with no weekends off in the middle. It was a long work week too. I’m super grateful that I get all these amazing opportunities, but they take their toll eventually… and this week was evidently when they started to take their toll.

I knew that it was going to be a tiring week, so what I decided to do was to write a blog post, little by little, day by day, thinking about the things that make me smile, make me feel better or make me feel calm. What came of it is this blog post. It gave me something to think about at night when I was just exhausted. Some of the days I wrote a lot of words, some of the days I wrote two or three and that was OK. Some days I wrote words on a morning, some days I wrote at lunchtime as I sat at the table in the staff room, some days I wrote at the computer or in bed. But every day I managed to find something that was positive.

 The things that make me happiest:

  • Texts from friends;
  • Drag Race – in particular the Snatch Game episodes;
  • Laughing with my children;
  • Reading blog posts;
  • Listening to the same songs 100s of times;
  • Being in bed early;
  • My brother;
  • Reading books – whether it’s 10 pages or 50;
  • My mam;
  • Knowing I’m doing something I want to do for the rest of forever;
  • Parents Evening – might be exhausting, but so lush to talk to parents and the kids;
  • Knowing other people are equally exhausted;
  • Looking forward to the holidays;
  • People saying lovely things about me;
  • My kids not being scared to be honest with me;
  • Oreos;
  • Waking up after a great night’s sleep;
  • Just ignoring texts occasionally;
  • Having friends who understand that you’re not really ignoring you, but you just need space;
  • Watching SimplyNailogical videos on Youtube;
  • Pictures of cats;
  • Making time to just look after myself;
  • Allowing myself to have a cry;
  • Putting on my pyjamas;
  • Book post;
  • Post from friends;
  • Quilliams for breakfast;
  • Sunshine!!!!

I think it’s so important that we find time to look after ourselves. I’m not always great at it. Do you have any tips for how to get better, especially when I’m grumpy and exhausted? What are your favourite self care things to do?

S x