Month: March 2026

Life ebbs and flows and after last week’s busy week this has been much calmer. If I can get to bed by 10.30pm having done all my tasks, I take it as a win. With birthdays and Mother’s Day this week I am thankful to organised me who sorted all the presents and cards at half term and simply had to pop the parcels in the post this week.

I was so pleased to get my nails done this week, the staff of my lovely little nail salon went away to celebrate the lunar new year so it was a while since my last appointment and I was definitely needing their tlc on my nails and a nice spring colour. Pretty nails has become my treat. I’m not a ‘pretty’ person I would love to be but it’s not quite my personality but nails is something I can do.

I’m reading a lot around style this year, and have a few inspired Pinterest boards which I’m contributing to regularly. My latest read which was referenced in a previous read is a chapter book called The Thoughtful Dresser. I’m really enjoying with chapters on shopping, fabrics, shoes etc.. It is thought provoking and is inspiring more of an interest in my clothes and accessories.

Sadly this week I have been a frustrated runner. I’ve had a dull pain in my leg for a few weeks and I’ve been sensible in not doing treadmill running at the gym and last week I park walked instead of parkrun. At work I accidentally made it worse simply by stepping backwards off a minibus and my leg gave away. I was able to get an appointment with a physio at the gym and have a strained soleus diagnosed. It’s a muscle I didn’t really know but I do now! I had treatment and have exercises so fingers crossed I can be patient and restart running soon(ish) I don’t know if I’ll be able to run the half I’ve been training for but it’s actually more important to me to get out a few times a week and enjoy my weekly parkrun than ruin my leg by insisting on doing the half. I will be disappointed as I have trained well but I’m being sensible. As I wasn’t able to run and even walking the hills would be uncomfortable, I volunteered as a marshal at Saturday’s parkrun. It should have been my 200th but again I chose sense over number chasing. This may seem very mature but the pain this week has been so much that as it has now subdued I don’t want to reignite it. The parkrun morning was gorgeous, beautiful warm sunshine and the first time this year having breakfast on an outside table. It was such a lovely morning, my son is also volunteering at the moment for his DofE so breakfast was with him and our neighbours who are also parkrunners. It was a perfect way to start the weekend.

Whist we were at parkrun, Mr S was at home painting the kitchen. I love the new colour, a deep green to complement our pale green cupboards and neutral stone floor. The pop of colour is gorgeous. My contribution to the project has been shopping for new kitchen accessories and I love the new cream colourway I have chosen. The paint smell has been overpowering so my son and I have been out a lot over the weekend. I have visited a number of sports shops but also managed to negotiate with my son for a quick visit to John Lewis. We were going to the cafe but it was closed ☹️ but I managed to pick up the Neom calm rollerball. I do like these as an alternative to perfume and being able to sometimes just breathe in a little calm when things get messy.

After our disappointment in not having a John Lewis cafe break, I stopped by a drive in for a Costa to get a drink for the football training session. We have no Costa shops in our town which is full of independent coffee shops so I was surprised to see that I had a free coffee waiting for me. The only time I tend to use Costa is in hospitals or at a service station. I think my freebie was partly courtesy of our epic trip to Newcastle. The rain on the window screen in the picture is a big contrast to the sunny skies of Saturday morning. I think everyone is so ready for spring. We need the sunshine on our faces.

It’s my first fortnightly life lately of 2026, nothing happened in the first week and this second week has been crazy busy. I know if you read the self help books they advise to space out life but the reality is many dates are chosen by others (Premier League, The Literacy trust) and you have to simply get on with it…

Not much happened in week one, although there was great excitement when it stopped raining and the spring sunshine arrived. It was a temporary pause in poor weather, but was so good whilst it lasted. Saturday morning at parkrun was particularly gorgeous.

This week has been full on and football has taken starring role. On Tuesday night we went to see our local team play out a goalless draw. As it’s our bogey team it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Whilst the logistics to get my son and I together for the game were akin to a military operation we had a lovely night. It was one of those really social nights. I bumped into my children’s old primary school Head, such a wonderful man and it was so nice to catch up with him after more than 5 years. My son saw a few pals and his old school mate was doing the half time challenge on the pitch. One of my work team was also at the match so the photo is of me waving to her in the opposite stand and she sent a similar photo back too. It’s the small things which keep you amused! After our night watching football I took my son to football training in the next town on Wednesday night and today he has been playing in a tournament with mixed results although he’s very proud of the goal he scored. There’s also been lots of football on tv and there always seems to have been a match playing in the background this week. I do live in a pretty football mad household,

Thursday was World Book day. I was very organised this year sorting my costume out at half term and using Vinted to create an outfit for the Lorax. My class’ theme this year was Dr Seuss characters. I was really pleased with my Vinted finds, my yellow wig is of amazing quality and the orange broderie dress is one I’ll wear in the summer, not just for dressing up. I did need a lot of orange make up to cover my arms, legs and face. Needless to say I did this at school rather than after my early gym session. I didn’t fancy dressing up in such a public place, although it’s a very friendly gym and I’m sure everybody would have been lovely. At school, I did my face first and sent through a picture to my daughter saying it reminded me of her look circa Year 9 when fake tan was definitely a thing. She did write a funny reply back and was able to laugh at her younger self. Our team’s costumes looked great, as well as the Lorax we had the Grinch and Cindy Lou and the Cat in the Hat and Sally. Our students had all made Thing 1-9 big badges and I found a great idea on Pinterest how to do blue hair which the students enjoyed making. I think we again smashed our theme and secured our throne as queens of World Book day. I also hope the parents appreciated that their brief for the day was simply to send their child in wearing a bright t-shirt. The Dr Seuss theme did remind me of when my children were thing 1 and 2 for their World Book day and I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat to walk them to school, it’s such a happy core memory.

Despite all the busyness of the past couple of weeks I’ve managed to do a lot of reading. Maybe I’m amazed is a beautiful book about music and autism , it’s a book which will stay with me. The other two books have been short stories as part of an Amazon series. I love the work of both authors but the short story was a different style. Moriaty’s book was a little too sci fi for me but did touch and make pertinent points about AI. I really liked Jane Green’s Famous Once but thought it would have been a brilliant full length book, it was reminiscent of Daisy Jones and the Six which is one of my favourite books of the past few years.

I’m looking forward, with a tinge of sadness, to the finale of Call the Midwife tonight as its final series ends. It’s one of my favourite series as I love the social history and I’m really hoping for a happy ending for all the characters we’ve watched over the years especially Trixie!