I find that I need to ease quietly into January, the way you might tentatively slip into a cold swimming pool – I’m not a fan of diving in head first and getting the shock over with. It’s probably a good thing that I prefer to start slowly as January almost never goes according to plan and it always takes two to three weeks for us all to settle back into the rhythm of school and work.
Two out of my three girls found the return to school very hard and my work has been exceptionally busy – balancing the two has been a challenge and it ended up being a bit of a tricky start to the year one way or another. I’ve felt a bit like January has lasted 794 days whilst also simultaneously not quite being able to believe that we’re already a whole month into 2022.
There have been some absolutely beautiful frosty, blue sky, sunshine-y days and some stunning sunrises and sunsets though – my favourite kind of winter weather. There’s always something good in the midst of the more difficult stuff if you choose to look for it.
Here are all the little things I’ve been loving lately throughout January…
January sunset
READ
A Girl Made Of Air: by Nydia Hetherington. I finally finished this early on in January after starting it last month. I have to admit, I didn’t love it as much as I think I wanted to, though perhaps that’s down to me reading it in short snatches rather than giving myself the chance to immerse myself fully in it. I found it a little confusing as it hopped back and forth between timelines a little bit which my already busy brain finds quite hard to process, so again, that’s more a reflection of me than the book. It was beautifully descriptive throughout and the final third of the book really drew me in and kept me captivated.
Christmas book haul: I am ridiculously excited to work my way through my Christmas book haul over the next few months! Some are fiction, some are non-fiction and I’m already finding it hard to choose which one to read first. In addition, I’ve been lucky enough to win some books in competitions on Instagram recently, so I’ve added those to the stack as well. Also, look how colour co-ordinated they all are! That was completely unplanned but I really love how they all look together. It’s little things like that which make me smile even more 🙂
My Christmas book haul – I’m so excited to dive into all of these beautiful books!
Atlas Of The Heart: by Brene Brown. I decided to read ‘Atlas Of The Heart’ first, mostly because I’ve been eagerly anticipating it’s release ever since she first announced it. I love all of Brene Brown’s books – they are stuffed full of wisdom and science and heart. I often refer back to them for myself and I regularly direct my therapy clients towards them too.
After scanning through the contents page I already knew it would be a book that I would dive back into time and time again. The introduction gave me goosebumps and is already littered with underlined paragraphs and turned down page corners. By the end of the first chapter my mind was blown with new perspectives. If the rest of the book follows suit I already know it’s going to be a life-changer.
‘Atlas Of The Heart’ by Brene Brown
WATCHED
The Matrix Resurrections: Somehow the husband and I managed to sneak in a cheeky little Sunday afternoon date at the start of the month (thank you to Granddad for looking after the girls for us) – a belated birthday outing from December. It is SO rare that we get to go out by ourselves like this and it was exactly what we needed.
I have been looking forward to seeing this for months. The original trilogy of films were all released at quite significant points throughout my life and they’ve been favourite movies of mine ever since. They contain so many layers of meaning and are incredibly relevant to society and our world today. I knew it would either be awesome or a complete flop and I had high hopes for the former. Thankfully it was absolutely brilliant! I thought the ways that references and footage from the original films were interwoven throughout the movie were immensely clever and I loved the deliberately tongue in cheek moments too. It was left open-ended so there is potential for another film. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Masked Singer: When we were in Scotland last May for half term, we got very into watching ‘The Masked Dancer’. Every evening all five of us squished onto the sofa to try and guess who each character was. When ‘The Masked Singer’ returned to TV screens earlier this month, I knew we’d end up watching it, even though it’s already had a couple of seasons that we hadn’t watched. Ella joined us on the sofa from the beginning and Mimi & Lola have started quietly sidling into the lounge whenever it’s on and watching with us too. I really love having something we can all watch together that’s a bit of light-hearted entertainment – it’s exactly how I imagined life with teens to be.
HEARD
Ed Sheeran’s album: I have a habit of listening to the same album over and over and over for months on end until I know every word off by heart. Currently that album is Ed Sheeran’s ‘=’ which I was given for Christmas – it’s been on repeat in the car (yes, my car is old enough to still have a CD player!) since the end of December. I love almost every song on it and my favourites (on top of ‘Shivers’ and ‘Bad Habits’) are ‘Collide’ and ‘First Times’.
MADE
Intention: Every year I choose a word or phrase that represents how I want to live my life and who I want to be over the next twelve months and make it my intention for the year. I actually decided on what it was going to be several months ago: 2022 is going to be my year of no regrets. I’m already curious to see how it plays out!
Travel Vlogs: Somehow, in between being incredibly busy with work this month and my girls various needs, I’ve managed to make two vlogs of our adventures from last year. The first one is of our time staying at Cameron Lodges at Loch Lomond back in June – it’s only six months later than planned! I love making them so much, even though they take me days and days to put together. I’d honestly rather sit and re-watch all of our travel vlogs than watch TV. Reliving all the memories we made during our time away together just fills me with happiness.
The second vlog I made was of our trip to Bude in October half term. It feels like forever ago already and we’re counting down the days until we’re back with our feet on our favourite Cornish beach.
WORE
I wore the same winter uniform I always wear – black jeans, black jumper or hoodie, black boots and my beloved duvet coat. I’m definitely dreaming of spring and summer though!
AND FINALLY…
Lola’s 12th birthday: My littlest baby turned twelve at the start of the month. TWELVE! She was so excited, bless her. I try and do a loose theme for each girl’s birthday and for Lola I chose pastel rainbows as that’s how she wants her bedroom to be decorated. I spotted a DIY balloon arch in a local shop whilst we were on holiday in Bude back in October and hid it away until her birthday. She absolutely loved it – the joy on her face when she came downstairs in the morning on her birthday and saw it was worth every single ounce of air we used blowing up all sixty balloons. I even managed to find pastel rainbow wrapping paper and a matching cake as well. She seems to have grown up overnight and I can’t help but think that this time next year I’ll have three teenagers..
Lola opening her presents on her birthday – I can’t get over how grown up she looks in this photo
Mini-Christmases: Lola’s birthday was made even more special because Sophie and her boyfriend Jack were here for the weekend for their belated mini-Christmas with us. My Mum and Stepdad came up the day afterwards for their mini-Christmas with us as well so it was a whirlwind few days full of presents and food and fun. After all the disappointments of the previous year, it certainly made up for it.
Christmas #3!
2021 Year In Numbers: Since 2017 I’ve been writing a round-up of our year in numbers. I love putting it together, seeing how many trips we’ve had, how many photos I’ve taken, how many sunsets I’ve watched and more… You can find the link to 2021’s ‘Year In Numbers’ posts here.
Vaccinated: I had my booster jab and all three girls had their first doses of the Covid vaccine this month. With international travel becoming more of a reasonably realistic possibility this year and vaccines being a requirement to travel to some places (and making it easier to travel to others), plus of course wanting the girls to be as protected as possible, it seemed important to get them done. Once Lola turned 12 I booked them all in. They all had sore arms and headaches for a few days but hopefully it’ll be worth it the long run.
The first chapter of a brand new year is already at a close and I’m looking forward to the light returning and the promise of spring which is currently hovering just out of reach over the horizon.
I hope that you found plenty of little things to love throughout January and that 2022 has started off in the very best of ways for you. If it’s been less than ideal (for Covid or any other reason) then I hope February is kind to you and that things get better soon.
Stay well x
(Joining in with Sincerely Anna and #LittleLoves)
