Wintery Seasons of Joy: January 2018 – Checking in on my Goals

Welcome to the last Seasons of Joy post for January.  I know I said it Friday, but can you believe how quickly it has gone.  I didn’t manage to get this post out yesterday because I was at the cinema with the rest of the family and some friends watching The Greatest Showman:

I had been wanting to see this for a while, and I can’t tell you how excited I was to go.  It really was The Greatest Show!  If you haven’t seen it, I would really (really) recommend it.  I was crying from about five minutes in.  It is fabulous!  The music (it is a musical) was so, so good.  I think I would go so far as to say it was the best film I’ve ever seen.  It’s all about living an authentic life your way, as apposed to the way society dictates.  And about dreaming and believing those dreams can come true.  Oh, and being you through and through.  To quote a line from the film ‘Nobody makes a difference by being like everyone else’ .

It has a message humanity needs to hear….yes, it really was that good!

Anyways, I thought for this post I would do a quick check in on my personal goals…

• Read a book once a week

I have managed this, although my reading has slowed down considerably now I am back teaching.  I intend to do a couple of Hygge book reviews next month.  Needless to say, I am very much enjoying these books of mine 🙂

• Write 100 words of my book

I literally completely forgot this was even one of my goals!  Ooops 🙁  So no.  I didn’t write 100 words a day.  I didn’t even write 1 word during the whole of January!

• Time with Mum

I am pleased to say I am doing so well here.  Mum and I go out once a week to a lovely Italian restaurant in our village.  We walk up, eat a gorgeous Spaghetti Pomodora, drink a diet coke and walk home again, chatting the whole way 🙂  I can’t tell you how much spending this time with my mum means to me.  We are so close, and it is utterly lovely to spend a few uninterrupted hours with her each week.

• Lose weight

I am very excited to say I have lost 13Ibs so far with Slimming World.  I absolutely can’t see or feel it, but it has apparently gone from my body 🙂  Yay me!

I still struggle to control my chocolate intake at night, but the rest of the time I find it fairly easy.  Gary has joined me, and it has become our weekly date night 😉

So what else have I been up to this week?  Gary and I had the morning together yesterday passing some lovely time shopping the charity shops.  I do so enjoy this.  We managed to buy a pair of jeans for each of the older children, and a mathematical toy for the little ones.  I also managed to find a wire heart which I thought might be a creative way to hold mini photos:

It’s kinda cute, no?  It cost me one pound!  Gary also found a huge photo frame which holds eleven photos.  We just need to find the wall space to hang it:

I didn’t manage to get any photos printed this week, but I will be making sure I fill at least one of these frames in the next few days.  I did manage to complete the children’s first stoking present for Christmas next year.  I can tell you what it is but I took a tantalising photo of them wrapped….

I am half way through number two 🙂  My aim is to make 12 stocking presents by the beginning of December.  Each will be numbered and as they are similar for each child, they will be opening them one number at a time.  Oooh, I feel so virtuous!!  I am absolutely determined that next Christmas won’t be a complete surprise to me, like the one which has just past.  I have them all planned, I now just need to slowly make each one.

That’s it for this week.  Have a great Sunday everyone!  And if you get the chance, go see The Greatest Showman.  You’ll thank me, honestly 🙂