8 Things That Happened Since We Last Spoke | 10.01.21
It’s been a while since I did one of these (8 months to be precise) and I always enjoying writing them, enjoy reading them on other people’s blogs and find them a good way of getting back into the swing of things again. Yes, I am of course professing to want to work on my blog more this year and maybe I will, I truly do love it but also, many I won’t cos let’s be honest - there’s a lot going on right now.
I did a 6 month diary of lockdown 1 which I intend to go back and complete for the last 6 months if my head can take it and I did a summary of the year that will go down in history and I had a birthday - all of which you can catch up with.
But to kick us off, here’s 8 things that have happened since we last sat down with a brew for a chat together….
1 | TWO NEW ADDITIONS
Back in the autumn on a whim two new babies joined us on the farm and they’ve been a hit since the moment they arrived. Our last set of piglets were two brothers called The Two Ronnie’s so it was fate when these sisters arrived and my father in law and I both separately decided to name them French and Saunders.
As is pandemic life, like most babies of 2020 they had to be introduced to the family over FaceTime much to my niece’s delight and they have since turned from shy sweet newborns to two boisterous toddlers. To keep an eye on them in the cold the twins moved from our fields to the orchard by our house just before Christmas and had free run of the gardens, the driveway and even the house and they promptly trashed it all.
2 | A CHRISTMAS BUBBLE
Christmas 2020 was understandably fraught for most families and mine was no exception. From the internal battle about what was safe and who was at risk of what to the actual logistics and the endless government change in guidance, Christmas 2020 was a stinker from the start - not least because the oven broke so a turkey roast was last minute relegated to the freezer and chips was the order of the day!
Like most people we had pinned a lot of our hopes of some normality on the festive period and as it approached and it was in no way normal I think the toll of the year hit us (or definitely me at least) big time. In the end my husband and I decided to bubble with each of our families so whilst we spent our first married Christmas apart, I managed to spend it with my nieces who I’d seen once since October and was heading into another long stretch without them.
3 | SWIFTY OBSESSION
When Taylor Swift dropped not one but two surprise albums in 2020 I, like most women my age seemingly, rekindled my teenage obsession with her. I feel like Taylor’s music has evolved exactly at the right time I needed it to (like those of you who grew up the same sort’ve age as Hazza P, you know that feeling they do the same as you) and I didn’t know I needed ethereal cottage core vibes until it hit my Spotify playlist.
My favs are Cardigan, Champagne Problems and No Body No Crime and my whole heart aches during some of them as I feel the familiar feeling of teenage heartbreak and first loves all over again. Truly iconic.
4 | DESKBOUND
I don’t think back in March/April of 2020 I expected to still be in my job in January 2021 but here I find myself, working from home but working bloody hard to make it a success. My job and the company I work for are not the only ones to have been rocked by the pandemic but we’ve clung on and I have fought tooth and nail to save my role - and worked a LOT of overtime to do so.
The new year has seen a new bout of flexi furlough and instead of being stressed about the impact and the financial strain I am trying to embrace the flexibility and use it to my advantage. I am only allowed into the office once or twice a week on my own so when I am at my desk at home I am banishing early mornings and taking myself outside for a slow start to the day and a proper lunch hour with my husband.
5 | STAY AT HOME. AGAIN.
I think I am now on official lockdown number 4 and number 7 of my circumstantial isolations and it weirdly feels simultaneously harder and easier every single time. This time around I am trying consolidate everything I have learned from the past few including embracing the ability to sit in front of the tv for any given task.
Christmas TV came through this year I think despite the restrictions they must have faced and we’ve watched a lot of it. My favourites if you haven’t seen them yet are the Crown (of course), the panto for Comic Relief, Staged season 1 & 2 and the documentaries on iPlayer about the rise of 21st celebrities.
6 | WANDERINGS
Undoubtedly one of the biggest things to come out of the last year was the acknowledgement that for me, almost anything can be solved by some fresh air and the winter air hasn’t stopped me. I try and get out once a day and over the Christmas holidays Jos and I went on a lot of big walks - something which I have continued even though he’s now working all daylight hours.
I know I am incredibly fortunate to live where I live with hours of safe walks in the forest, the country lanes and round the lake outside my front gate and I truly appreciate every second of it. I take at least one photo on my daily walks even though I have been walking these routes for 10 and a half years because it’s one of the most beautiful places and every day is different. I pop on my wellies before work and ring my Mum and she walks round her village and it’s ** almost ** like being there together.
7 | NEW YEAR NEW MILESTONES
For the first time in 5 years I have not got a bullet journal for the new year and for someone who based half her following on bujo content, I feel like a fraud. Truth is I didn’t use it all that much in the lockdown and my lime green 2020 one is still half empty, whereas my phone was FULL of daily tasks and reminders of things I needed to do.
After my apps kept failing and crashing I decided to go back to traditional pen to paper for 2021 but in the form of a traditional week to view diary and my bullet journal is kept for long form lists and content and hopefully a packing list or two if we can get away from home this year.
I did however flip over 1 million all time page views on this blog, a stat I didn’t think I’d hit when I stopped blogging as regularly and whilst some of last year’s success was my wedding month, my viral bullet journal content always does the rounds on Pinterest toward the new year and that pushed me over the edge.
8 | A YEAR OF GOOD INTENTIONS
Forget the new year new me mentality because we all know it’s generally bullshit and if the last 365 days have taught us anything, a curveball is already around the corner. That being said, I did end the last year full of good intentions for the next week and I am determined to carve them into habit for the next 365.
I took two weeks off social media during my Christmas break after having a mini panic attack from too much news consumption and it forced me to rethink my relationship with the constant rolling news, social media and time on the internet and I know I am not the only one. It’s not only a product of our age, our habits and our way of life but also the fact I have built a following and a 'business’ around my time online so deciding it’s not all that healthy but needs to be maintained has been a funny balance.
10 days into the year and 3 weeks into my break I am back posting daily on Instagram but am full of commitment to myself to make that healthier. Gone are the breaking news alerts and muted are the Whatsapp chats that are scaremongering. Facebook and Twitter apps have been off my phone since the first time it happened in April last year but now Instagram, BBC news and Messenger are locked on my phone during working hours and I have time limits set for how much I consume in a day.
Scrolling on my phone is banned during evenings when I am sat on the sofa with my husband and I am reading a chapter of my book before bed every night instead of checking in on the days content - most of which I have normally already seen because I sit on it all day every day. It’s not groundbreaking but it’s working for now.
Let’s not leave it so long till the next time we chat shall we?