life lately - a silent month

I didn't mean for the last month to be such a quiet one. I put the blog on hiatus while I was concentrating on a job application and three interviews to follow. After that Hugo's been poorly and I haven't had much time or brain capacity!

Blogging is a funny thing. I'm generally an all or nothing kind of person, doing things half arsed doesn't work for me. But to blog properly takes time, and a real investment. Not just time when you think about it, but time while you're thinking about other things, in order to be able to document it.

It's a fine balance between living life and writing about it or capturing it in film or photo. 

I'm struggling to find that balance. I see and read other beautifully crafted blogs (notably my friend Freya's who inspired me to start blogging) and I really dream of having an online space like that. But it's such a commitment! 

So for now, this will have to do! Here's a dozen highlights from the last month (and I'll try not to leave it so long next time):

1. Vegan baking! I made a second attempt at vegan choc-chip banana bread and it was definitely better than my first. I considerably reduced the quantity of cinnamon, but it was still a little powerful. I then made my mums recipe chocolate chip cookies and managed to adapt them for a vegan batch. To me the vegan ones tasted awful, but they were eaten, so can't have been too bad to someone only able to eat vegan!

2. Hugo's first girly sleepover down in St Albans with the Brooke girls. It was also his first stay somewhere other than our house or his second home at my parents. Considering he was in a house full of (not the quietest) girls he was so good! Although he was amazing, I could tell he wasn't his normal self and I think the car journey was a bit too long with not enough breaks. I've realised that while I can continue to enjoy the things I enjoyed before, I do need to consider Hugo a little more and adapt for him. If only I lived closer to the girls...

3. Typically while down south I wanted to fit in as much as possible, so I headed to a friends on the Saturday to see her new house. In hindsight, turning up slightly hungover with a baby in tow wasn't the kindest to my friend, but it was great to stop by and laze about all the same!

4. Film nights with Adi. My favourites have been In Time and Wolf of Wall Street. One of Adi's favourite things to do is plan our future lottery win. I usually refrain, but I'd make damn sure I was more wise than Jordan Belfort.

5. A walk to our friends local and a leisurely Sunday lunch by the river. I think this is pretty much my ideal Sunday - light exercise, chat, good food and drink in a pretty setting. Next Sunday anyone?

6. Late night chats with Adi. We always talk the most in bed, but quite often we'll leave it too late to go to bed to have a proper chat. While he enjoyed a few days off there was less pressure for me to get a good nights sleep, so we've enjoyed chatting about all sorts. 

7. Mid-week BBQ with some of our friends, apparently a very middle class thing to do. Our farm shop does a family BBQ deal so I ended up cooking things I wouldn't have normally. I definitely need to try some fish next time.

8. Job application and interviews. Okay, this wouldn't have fit in to the good bits of the last month if it was for securing the role and getting a really good vibe from my soon to be colleagues, more of that in another post.

9. Catching up with a friend from college, although sadly not seeing her little man as it was his nap time!

10. Introducing Hugo to my friends mum and sister. Living in different countries means it isn't very often I see her, so I thought I'd at least introduce Hugo to her family. He was on good behaviour right up until we were leaving when he peed everywhere, which made us all squeal, in turn making him cry! It sort of put an abrupt end to the afternoon!

11. Hugo having naked time on his great-grandfather. I'd so have loved for it to end up the way we feared, but miraculously he was naked for about an hour and didn't pee!

12. Hugo taking a handful of my chilli while having Sunday lunch with mum, Joe and Sophie. I decided to save my white top rather than capture the moment, but it was impressive all the same.

This takes us up to the day before Hugo got ill, which should really lead to another post.

life lately - 10 things to talk about

I've been really behind with writing this blog but I've realised just why I do it. This week I thought it had been a quiet week with not much going on. But really when I looked back I realised that I just had a couple of chilled days, that's all! Here's a list of what I've been up to, because sometimes writing is too much, but the reminder is worth it. And because I like lists of 10.

1. The week started with a bank holiday BBQ. We had a bunch of Adi's mates over for a house-warming. There were 8 couples and 10 kids between us which was quite a feat, but luckily the rain held off until everyone was well fed.

Some lessons:

- Do buy a mini-bouncy castle - our friends brought theirs over which was a huge hit and kept all of the kids occupied all afternoon

- Don't put the bbq by the back doors 

- Do sort the back door so that the step isn't so high 

- Do double and triple check that the dishwasher isn't working before hand washing all dishes 

- Don't buy enough food to feed a small army

- Do accept Sam's offer to man the BBQ 

- Do get mum to make pavlova bases 

- Don't worry about stocking up on alcohol - friends with kids don't drink as much

2. Mum and Layla came up to babysit so that me and Adi could have our first date night since Hugo was born. We went to Xscape to play adventure golf and have cocktails. It was so, so lovely! We plan to have a date night each month.

3. My good friend Eve was travelling back to London via Leeds so I finally met her boyfriend over lunch at Trinity Kitchen. We laid Hugo out on the table so that he could have a kick about and had a good catch up. Her new (or not so new) man is lovely - a good smile makes all the difference!

4. Desperate Housewives has consumed my life! It's been 10 years since I studied it for my media ALevel and I never finished all 8 series. I'm almost done - thanks to Netflix for saving the day after it was taken down from sky.

5. My Zumba DVD was put into action and I occupied Hugo with a 45 minute workout. It was the first exercise since Hugo's birth and really it had been a long time before then that I was active.

6. I re-logged on to myfitnesspal to start watching what I eat. It's going to be a slow process but it felt good to regain control.

7. I drove over to where Adi's brother was playing cricket to see his family on Saturday because we couldn't get over together this weekend. I love spending time with Thomas and I can't help but use him as a basis of what I can expect from Hugo in a couple of years time!

8. I popped in to our friends Sean and Karina as they live in the same town as the cricket. It's so good to be able to do that now and gradually see more of people. Their new garden is ace and made me want to crack on with ours!

9. Mum met me at Rothwell Table Tots sale on the way home from picking up an ebay purchase - surprise surprise! Mum bought a buggy to have at hers and we filled it with lots of bargains! 

10. I spent Sunday afternoon clearing out the shed and Adi did some weeding on the front lawn. I'm gradually re-organising the house now that we've lived here for a few months and know how the house works for us. It feels so good to declutter and give everything a home.

(26th May - 1st June)

life lately - frustrations, family and friends

When you don't work, weekends and bank holidays don't really matter, the days and weeks just roll into each other. Especially with a husband who works shifts across evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Last week was the first of the two May bank holidays and as Easter was so late this year it's come around fast. 

This bank holiday Monday was possibly the first day that I felt like a proper adult. Forget turning 18, 21, getting married, buying a house or having a baby. This bank holiday wasn't spent nursing a hangover, instead we did a skip run, (the final that we've needed to do since the move, relief!) had the car washed and invited the in-laws over. Adi's mum made a start weeding the garden which in turn got me off my arse and it felt so good to get back to home improvements. The stereotypical bank holiday for a family involves either DIY or a trip to the seaside, so achieving one of these things for some reason made me feel like we'd finally made it! 

I didn't have many plans for the week and thought I'd be on a roll with the garden, but the weather nosedived. Instead I stayed in for two days for the delivery of the wrong cotbed thanks to Argos. So next week I'll have another housebound day when they swap it - joy.

Perhaps I was easily frustrated because of Argos's incompetence, or maybe shopping with a baby, in the rain, is just stressful, but I ended up making two trips to White Rose in order to look half decent for Friday's wedding. I sorted my outfit in the end, opting to recycle an old dress that keeps ripping at the seam with a quick stitch-up and instead spending on heels and a jacket that I can wear again. I also had a couple of sneaky purchases while I was out. I can't keep wearing my beloved maternity jeans as the lack of bump doesn't hold them up, so I needed a bit of a wardrobe revival. I truly will miss my maternity jeans though and am considering a similar design for non-pregnant women, as they hide the muffin top in a way that no other jeans I've found do! Watch this space..  

The week was finished off with a wonderful wedding of one of Adi's school friends and his now wife who I'm happy to call a friend too. Despite missing Hugo more than I ever thought possible, it was a great day. As an atheist I don't usually enjoy church ceremony's, but I really liked the vicars words as they felt more about the couple rather than God. We then enjoyed a magical mystery tour to the reception venue 'Holdsworth House', along minor roads and through a private estate as the roads were gridlocked due to an accident. Thankfully it didn't delay everyone getting to the venue. Each of the speeches were particularly good, but the highlight of the day had to be the best men's speech. They created a video in the style of a news report to dish the dirt on the groom (of which there was plenty), with appearances from all of his friends and family, complete with an introduction from an itv news presenter!

We spent the weekend down in Nottingham for my brother-in-laws birthday bbq. We ended up staying at my parents so they could spend more time with Hugo and had a dossy day at theirs on Sunday before heading for tea at Adi's parents.

I love weekends of family and friends but I can already see how it's going to be difficult to fit everything and everyone in!

(w/c 5th May 2014)