Leaving it All Behind

Well, it's Sunday morning and I'm semi-determined to write my blog again. So here I am. Have set my trusty timer for 9 minutes (a practice I find frighteningly useful when I'm struggling with motivation) and I'll see what happens. Don't feel I have much to report, other than the clocks going back - which you all know about, I suppose. But I''ll try and dig deep and find a topic.

The shops seem to be full of Christmas things already and I'm wondering whether I should start my preparations. Fly Lady certainly recommends that, but I'll come back to that another time. I went to Sainsbury's and John Lewis yesterday. I had an hour on my own and was foolishly looking forward to it, thinking that solitude was solitude. But alas, solitude in Sainsbury's is not solitude. It is hideous. Why were there so many people there on a Saturday afternoon at 3.35pm? It was just a sea of trollies and me trying to navigate my way, looking for diced lamb, to try and spice up my weekly menu. Ugh. 

But rewind. Before I entered Sainsbury's I had a quick 'treat trip' to John Lewis, in search of a new coral/pink lipstick to freshen up my make-up. Oh yes. And I could not believe how many people were in there. I think there was an actual queue for trying the new Dyson hairdryer. I went to the Bobbi Brown bit and the lady apologised for the 'mess' (there was none) and said how busy it was. I agreed and asked if there were some special event. No. I said maybe it was because of Christmas and she laughed and said we were only in October and what were people thinking. Oh yes, I thought. Insanity, it is.

Anyway, my hour's solitude was not very enjoyable, but I did manage to dispose of some batteries which have been hanging around my kitchen for an age, so I felt some kind of accomplishment. And I avoided the bag of Haribo and the free samples of some weird beer, so I made some private victories, which Steven Covey talks all about in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Which I'm listening to on Audible at the moment and would highly recommend, by the way. 

So anyway, Christmas is approaching, the clocks have turned back and I feel it's time to 'lean into it', as the Americans say, and embrace the hygge. So, I've bought some fairy lights for Gracie's room and a couple of fake LED candles, which stay on for 6 hours on a timer and actually don't look that bad. I've even managed to put the batteries in one and get it up and running. I feel that the house needs to be hygged up and so have been watching some YouTube videos for ideas, which remains an ongoing addiction for me. 

On that, I'm now following 'Diane from Denmark' and I think she's great, so I'd encourage you to do the same, if you're into all that homemaking and hygge. She's living in Denmark, so she should know what she's talking about, after all. In fact, she laughs at what we think is hygge, us non-Danishers. And I like the way she dresses too (Type 1 in the Dressing Your Truth System, but that's another story), so I always find that inspiring and a bit of a nudge to 'up my game' in the dressing department, since I've become rather a frumpy Mum in the last four years. 

Will write about that next time. Turns out I was right that I don’t have too much to say this time round, but the main thing is to be writing again - right?!