What I've been up to lately

I feel as though I have a lot going on at the moment! Life feels very busy, and we are living in upheaval at the moment which I find quite stressful. But I can't complain as we were able to enjoy an amazing holiday in Florida over half term, and the work on our house is very close to being finished.

So here are some of the things that I've been up to lately:

Reading

I didn't read nearly as much as I expected to on holiday - we had full on days and I was too exhausted in the evening to manage more than a few pages. I enjoyed The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams and The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up by Laura Pearson, I think they were both Amazon Prime Library books. Both well written, entertaining, and easy to pick up and put down.

Eating

After a couple of weeks in the US eating junk food and snacking I've been enjoying the return to my usual reasonably healthy diet. It amazes me that you can buy the same brands of food in the US and yet they are so much more unhealthy - I notice the Pringles and cookies in particular! For the first few days everything tastes so much saltier or sweeter, but then you just get used to it. We don't have much of a kitchen at the moment which does make things a little more tricky, but I'm doing my best to work around it and I know that it's only temporary.

Shopping

I didn't do too much shopping while we were away, but I did get a few bits. I got a nice Gap hoodie in the outlet store and a new planner for next year, along with some pretty stickers and post it notes. (I can't resist buying stickers!) I also treated myself to a couple of sets of Disney jigsaws, one at horrifying full price in the main store, and one from the outlet store that was a more reasonable price.

Watching

I don't watch a lot of television, but I did entertain myself on the flight with some favourites. I re-watched Bridget Jones's Diary which I've seen so many times and still enjoy. I saw yesterday that the latest book has been filmed although I'm not sure about it, I didn't enjoy the book at all! I also re-watched the first two series of Staged which was perfect for binge watching on a plane, nice short episodes and not too much to concentrate on. I didn't get to the third series, which I didn't even know existed, so I'll have to catch up on iPlayer.

Listening to

At the moment I'm loving the Lazy Genius podcast, each episode is almost exactly the same length of one of my four daily car journeys and there's quite a lot of repetition which is important for me as I often zone out while I'm concentrating on the drive. Last week the music in the car was Disney, Disney, Disney so it's nice to have a change!

Crafting

Oh dear, my crafting has completely fallen by the wayside over the last couple of months. We are having a major extension built and the house is feeling very chaotic with things in boxes and piled up all over the place. I've mainly been expressing my creativity by accessorising my bullet journal and main journal with stickers and washi tape.

Planning

My son is currently in the process of visiting and applying for sixth form colleges. We are very lucky to live in an area which is surrounded by several amazing colleges, but this is making the decision much more difficult! He's pretty set on what he wants to study, and luckily he can apply for several and doesn't need to make final decisions until the new year.

I'm also trying to get organised for Christmas, although I've not got very far yet. I usually wait for Black Friday before starting the main shopping, just in case anything that I'm after goes on sale, but I need to get some lists and ideas together.

I also need to think about organising my new kitchen. We've bought all the appliances now, including a bonus bread maker which I'm excited to have a go with, and I need to think about how I'm going to arrange everything. We will also need to buy some bits of furniture and also a new set of saucepans as I'll be having an induction hob and my current pans won't work.

So I'm hoping for a nice, calm Christmas!