Five Things I Learned This Week
Hello!
Welcome to my ‘Five Things I Learned This Week’ page. This series of weekly blog posts was initially dreamed up after a glass, or 3 of prosecco with my sidekick, Stu Chandler. It was during one of our ‘end of the week, let’s pretend we’re discussing work’ drinks evenings where I was whinging that I missed blogging but wasn’t committed enough to do anything about it. Stu suggested that rather than write about techie stuff or digital marketing (don’t worry, I still do that too), I should write about my crazy life as apparently people find the trials and tribulations of my household amusing.
So this part of the site is all about my crazy family. I’m in my *ahem* mid 30s and am a single mum to 2 boys (who are 8 & 4), I have a long suffering partner who comes complete with a beautiful daughter so I’m not too outnumbered at home, and a crazy dog, Stitch who, due to a misunderstanding in a pub playground, spent a short time in police custody this year. I live and work from my not-as-tidy-as-I’d-like-it house in south west London. Life is a combination of parenting, work and trying to avoid being signed up to school bake sales.
I publish 5 Things every Friday so grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine and enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of my week. If you’d like my blog posts dropped into your inbox please sign up to my mailing list. I promise not to pass your details onto anyone, even if they offered me huge sums of money for it.
Best wishes,
Holly
Me and the long suffering partner after surviving a trip to Ikea.
With the mastermind, Stu Chandler.
Five Things I Learned This Year – Self belief is the way forward
People are more resilient than you think This year has been a challenging one. Not just for me and my family but for so many of us. The beginning of this year was one of the toughest I can remember and things happened that I couldn’t possibly have imagined would. I can’t [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – You can change your mind at any time
Never leave a child alone to clean a fish tank The problem with children is that they like to amass pets to pet and stare at in moments of boredom and insecurity but no-one wants to deal with what comes out the other end. Enter Holly. The person who loves and cares [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Adulthood means doing Christmas your way
Going to a meal without my partner means being sat at the kids table Last weekend was a big birthday for my Dad and rather than have a party he chose dinner with his kids and grandkids. Thing is, when you’re a father to 5, most of us have partners and many [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Annual passes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be
Saying no to consumerism is such a relief Christmas has always been a stressful time of year. Especially coming from a large, blended family and now having a blended family of my own. There are so many plans to make, presents to buy, people to consider that the whole meaning of [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Don’t take the dog to yoga
When going to a yoga class…. leave the dog behind Everyone knows that dogs are mans best friend and research has said that dog owners are happier, experience less stress and are more relaxed than non-dog owners. To be honest I could live life a little more separately from Stitch but [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – I’m really good at keeping in touch
A small change can make a big difference It’s best to get one thing straight first - even though I’m a techie and we have a fair few gadgets at home we are far from being a high tech household (one look at my partner’s antiquated laptop will confirm this). At [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Life is full of mistakes, learn from them
Life is full of mistakes, learn from them Mistakes can be so annoying. It’s usually straight after you’ve made it that it becomes obvious how you could have avoided it. Some have greater consequences than others and as adults we often berate ourselves over and over again for it. [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Progression means change
Don’t start clearing the loft on a Friday night I’m big on clearing out the house. A while ago my friend Stu and I nicknamed it ‘project zero’ the idea is that we really don’t need that much to live happy, fulfilling lives and most of us are just surrounded by clutter. [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Comfort Zones are Rubbish
Our pets are a reflection of us We’ve all seen the memes of people who look like their pets and they’re frikken funny. I’ve never really thought about how our pets are a reflection of us. Until now. Last week we moved my partner’s cat back into our house after 5 months [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Some things take a leap of faith
Some things take a leap of faith Most of the time I feel like I’m winging it - life, work, parenting, you name it, I’m doing the best I can and am always nicely surprised when there’s a positive result. On many occasions life decisions are taking an (almost) blind leap of [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – Working from home isn’t the easy option
When a child makes food no-one is allowed to eat that food Last week my son decided for part of his Home Learning project to make a castle out of a cake. A very tense hour was had while the Swiss rolls were decorated and stacked but late on Thursday night we [...]
Five Things I Learned This Week – People can change your perceptions of things
There is such a thing as too busy My Friday posts on Facebook often start with ‘Wow! What a week!’ because each week feels so busy. All weeks have paled into comparison to this last week. Seriously. I started the week feeling completely overwhelmed and decided the only sensible decision was to [...]