Angelicscalliwags Rag #11

We’ve been enjoying the Easter holidays here at angelicscalliwags. I’m undecided about whether we head back to school next week or take the entire week off. The girls have so many social activities planned I’m not sure it will be worth going back for the small amount of spare time they have! Anyway, this is all we’ve been up to over the last week or so.

Garden Centre Date with Gary

Gary had £100 of garden centre vouchers which had been gifted to him for helping out various friends. He woke up on Saturday and decided that as we needed to take Abigail to her army cadets’ March in March fund raising walk, on the way back we’d stop off at the gorgeous garden centre. It’s a bit of a misnomer calling it a garden centre because it is so much more than that.

We had a lovely breakfast date at their restaurant, with both of us ordering an English breakfast. After that we wandered around outside, looking at and choosing some plants for our back garden. I spent a while in the gift section whilst Gary headed over to the pond section. There were some delightful bookends which were created into little book worlds. I don’t like taking photos in shops so please excuse the poor quality, but I really wanted to show Charlotte, knowing she’d love them:

I also bought myself a couple of items. The first was a water bottle. It is the first water bottle I’ve ever found with a cotton cover. My skin is super sensitive and reacts to almost everything. Cotton is such a great choice for me, I asked Gary if I could gift myself with one. He said yes 🧡 The second was a candle. I bought it to go in the kitchen, although right now it’s in my office. I LOVE candles and this one smelled so good. They are both such pretty items, don’t you think?

Abigail’s March in March

Abigail has been walking long and hard this month, trying to walk 100 miles in March. She has been taking on ‘March in March‘ to raise vital funds for life-changing mental health treatment for veterans. Combat Stress is the UK’s leading charity for veterans’ mental health. For over a century, they’ve helped former servicemen and women deal with issues like trauma, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Today, they provide support to veterans from every service and every conflict.

Her goal was to raise £150 and she managed to raise just under £235! She got a medal for her efforts:

Books Read

The First Kiss of Spring

This has been quite a slow week or so of reading. It’s not that I’ve read less necessarily but I haven’t been hooked on any of the books I’ve read, although that might be because a couple of them have been rereads. Rather unusually for me, I read a modern romance: The First Kiss of Spring by Emily March. This was okay. I definitely prefer non fiction books but this was a gentle paced book which I enjoyed.

The Life-Giving Home

The second book was a reread: The Life Giving Home by Sally Clarkson, a book I always enjoy and which always directs my focus to my family. Another reread is The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda. In my ever lasting quest to learn how to sleep, I thought a third read through this might be worth it. I think my main take away from this book is the benefit of intermittent fasting – apparently fasting over night for between 12 and 16 hours.

Keep the Doors Open

Another book I finished just today and which I thoroughly enjoyed, and had a few tears over, is Keep the Doors Open by Kristen Berry. I’ve enjoyed a few of Kristen and her husband’s books and I always appreciate their honesty regarding their own extensive adoption and fostering journeys. Keep the Doors Open is the story of a year of determining to open their doors to any child or young person who needed a place to stay. It is heart warming and heart breaking in equal measures.

Breath – The New Science of a Lost Art

And finally a book I am definitely taking my time with: Breath – The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. I’ve not finished it yet as I really am reading it in small parts here and there, when I feel like it. There are breathing exercises to do along with it and I don’t always fancy that!

To see all the books I read last year as well as those I am reading this year, head over to my Book Page

Latest YouTube Video

You all know that I now produce weekly videos for my channel, Angelicscalliwags Art, and last year I made lots of YouTube videos for Angelicscalliwags Homeschool. You’ll also know that I am not very good at making them, although you are all so lovely I know you wouldn’t ever actually say that. However, slowly, slowly I am learning. My goal is that each video is just a tiny bit better than the one before.

This week I set myself a challenge to remake one of the homeschool videos so that I could see the improvement over the past year. I’m pleased by the result and I definitely think this video is an improvement on the one before:

I’m getting there, slowly, slowly. Next week, I’ll go back to my normal arty video. In fact, I think I’m going to make one about how to make stickers at home, which might be quite useful for those of you who are still homeschooling. I would have loved to have known how to make stickers when my children were younger.

Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter 🧡