As I sit here on a very wet Saturday afternoon, it’s easy to forget the little autumn sunshine we’ve had between all the rain. It’s been another week of school, work, clubs, there is a comfort in the ordinary.

Here are my sparkles of the week.

1. Assignment 1 done ✅

I have finished my first uni assignment and submitted it two days early! This never happened when I was an undergraduate when I would pull an all nighter to get the work in on time. This time I recognised that I needed a plan to ensure that i could do my course properly without it impacting on our family life and so far it seems to be working. I’m being creative with my study, I used the 2 hour wait at the doctors to review my work and have my set texts with me to read whenever I can, so today that was at the indoor skate park. Fingers crossed for the feedback.

2. Sunny Sunday

It was so bright and sunny on Sunday morning that we quickly got onto the beach in a nearby village. It’s a wild beach with beautiful white sand but further back you can walk through heathers. We walked for a couple of hours, enjoyed a drink in the cafe and played outdoor table tennis. These are the autumn days I love the bright sunshine and some beautiful colours in nature.

3. Mum points

Little Miss has a new drinks bottle since I managed to warp her last plastic bottle! She leaves early to walk to school and as this week it’s been chilly we had an idea to use her new hot for a hot drink at break time. She loved it and I earn a few bonus points for the inspiration!

4. Muddles

Muddles was a mixed up phrase which has become our new little shout at parkrun, a muddle is a muddy puddle of which there were plenty of on today’s run. Now muddles are a little metaphor for life you can either tiptoe around or run through and as you can see from my running tights we ran through them squealing and laughing.

5. Skate Park Life!

Well with some careful planning, the boys who had been to swimming lessons and the girls who had been running managed to meet at the indoor skate park together for a couple of hours of scootering followed by lunch out. A simple but nice way to spend a wet morning.

6. Technology

I was a little bold this week and phoned my mobile phone company to negotiate a new deal as there were a couple of offers I could have taken using my student discount with rival companies. As a consequence I have a free iPhone 11 and a cheaper contract, result. The device is great, the quality of photos is stunning and I’m amazed by the face recognition. I also have finally got Chrome on my work’s laptop, and it’s made things so much easier. I love how technology is facilitating life, although I’m conscious that it’s here to help not enslave us and I recognise that it’s important to put our devices down sometimes.