Thursday 13 January 2011

Happy Birthday!!

A is now 12 years old! This is the cake we made - chocolate sponge with fudgy frosting, mmmmm.


After opening of presents we went off to the cinema this morning to see Animals United, which was ok - some funny moments. We then went into town for a bit of shopping, including a new hat for A :-) she has quite a collection of hats now, definitely a hat girl.
Altogether a lovely chilled day together. A is gearing up for some proper celebrations next weekend, when our friends arrive from Glespin. She'll be going ice skating with a couple of mates then having a sleepover with them back here. She'll also be getting her hair specially done for the occasion, with some pink streaks, very exciting!!

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Happy New Year!!!

Hello! Yes - I am still here!!!

We had a very relaxing time over xmas and new year - so relaxed I couldn't even be arsed to blog. But I am back now and don't plan to leave it so long in between posts again!

This was what we saw on our xmas day walk along the beach
And this is A glued to her beloved iPod (xmas present)

Well, the new year has brought a regime change round here. For the past few weeks I had often found myself lying awake at 3am in a state of panic. Its over a year since I became self employed, and although I've had a few pieces published I have very little money coming in. I know I can do better than this, and I know that to a large extent it is a lack of confidence holding me back.
The only answer I can come up with is to push myself more - I just have to go ahead with things, no matter how scared/uncomfortable/inadequate I feel.

I have been thinking a lot about this, and have lots of good ideas and new approaches to try, but I know that what I really need, what will make a huge difference, is structure.
I need to structure and organise my working time much better, and as a consequence of this, I need to structure and organise our HE time more too. I've been reluctant to do this before. In an ideal world - ie no money worries and being able to devote all my time to HE - learning would be much more fluid and relaxed. But back here in the real world I have to work, and as I'm fast realising - I have to work much, much harder!

Sooooo, we have discussed, drawn up plans, have some goals in sight, and are both feeling quite positive about it all. We're not moving into complete schooly-formal HE territory (that would be disastrous for us), just planning ahead what we want to cover, and on what days we will do certain things. I feel I need to stop the amount of 'drifting about' we both do, and we both need a bit more focus. Wish us luck please, we may need it!!!

And here are some random cuddling parsnips I got in my vegbox, I just thought they were too cute not to share :-)