Life, love and the pursuit of a crawling baby

Monday, February 2, 2015

Facebook Free February

I can't believe it is February already. Where did January go?? I'm trying to think of all the things we got up to during the month, but I'm feeling a bit boring! What did we do?

After a quick look through my phone photos, I've a better idea of where the month went!

We attended our first Panto, Jack and the Beanstalk.

I went to She Stoops to Conquer in the Abbey, Dublin

As always, the set was amazing

The show was hilarious. Obviously, I didn't take any photos during the performance

We did a bit of baking. Frozen cupcakes, of course...

Bubbles!

Santa brought baby Sophie. Her fancy clothes were knitted by a family friend.

Beth started swimming lessons. The first one did not go well!!

We had lunch out one day after school for a treat

My little fighter. Doing great at kickboxing.

Beth is big into board games. I got her Monopoly Junior for Christmas. She would play it non-stop if I let her.

We had snow last week. We don't get much here on the east coast, but Beth enjoyed it anyway.

So, there's a few snapshots of our month. This month has started off a bit manic with me. I'm in charge of props for SONG's production of Sweeney Todd next week. There are A LOT of props for this musical. I have trawled the shops looking for 18th century items. I still don't have everything. There are painted handcuffs drying on my table at the moment and the sewing machine has been dragged out! I'll be taking loads of photos when we're up and running. I'm very excited, but also incredibly stressed!

Suppose I should explain my post title. I've been a little overwhelmed lately, with financial worries, writer's insecurities, parental inadequacies etc. I decided I needed to simplify my life. I'm not promoting a book at the moment, so I feel I can just take myself off Facebook for a month. On Saturday, I deactivated my Facebook account. I've been on it since 2007. Eight years! The first evening was fine. Yesterday, I kept picking up my phone to check out what's happening in the world and remembered, oh yeah, I can't... I thought I would feel like I was missing out on something. You know, like the feeling you got when younger and you weren't out on a Saturday night? Wondering what was going on, not wanting to miss all the gossip. BUT, I feel strangely lighter. My mind is more focussed. It was becoming an addiction. I beat cigarettes almost three years ago. I still miss them everyday, but I know I'll never go back. I don't want to be addicted to anything. It's not a good way to live your life.

Now, I'm not saying I won't go back, but I am taking this month off. I'm not off the grid completely though. I'm still on Twitter and Instagram, please feel free to follow me.

However, a problem might be that I haven't really told anyone what I've done. Some people may think I have deleted them as a friend. Hopefully, they'll read this and realise it's nothing personal ;-) or send me a text, the old fashioned way!

Here's to a Facebook Free February!

Monday, January 12, 2015

105 and counting

Today's post is number 105! I started this blog in April 2010, almost five years ago. I didn't post much at first. Not until I began to take my writing career seriously at the end of 2011. I don't post as often as I should, but I'm still here! Sometimes, I write about the everyday boring stuff. Other days, I write about things that go through my insecure writer's brain. It can be scary to put my insecurities out there, for all and sundry to read, should they want to. My fear often holds me back, so I stick to the general sides of my life.

Do you ever feel, if you were to show people what goes on in your head they might run for the hills, screaming?

At night, I think too much. Conversations, ideas, wishful thinking all clamour for attention. I imagine full lives played out from my pillow at midnight. If only I had an off switch...

Our Christmas Tree and new Christmas train

Striking a pensive pose

Christmas Morning

With Santa on Christmas day

Girl meets world

Monday, January 5, 2015

New Year, New Me?

Belated Happy New Year to all my readers! I know, I've been terrible. No posts since last October. I knew I had been bad, but not that bad!

Well, it's ok, I'm back now ;-)

To start off, I did not complete NaNoWriMo. Bad me! I got about 10k words into a new story and realised I hated my new MC. Actually, hate is probably too strong a word. I really disliked her anyway. She bugged me, she was mean and selfish. I know that's not really an excuse for not completing the challenge, but it did make everything more difficult. In the end, I gave up. Ah well, there's always NaNo 2015!

Christmas went off without a hitch. Santa came down the chimney, as expected, and brought Beth a baby doll who wees and poos (and has nappies that cost a fortune!). We went to a hotel for Christmas dinner (never again, price was extortionate for what you get). I got a few nice things and generally had a lovely relaxing holiday.

And now we're back. Early mornings. Lunch boxes. Uniforms. Blogs. Manuscripts. Routine. Reality.

Usually, every January, I put my New Year's Resolutions on this blog, but not this year. I don't think I need to 'change' anything, as such. I don't smoke, rarely drink (apart from a slight indulgence over the holidays). I have vices, of course, but nothing that warrants a big overhaul of my life. Instead, I plan to do more of what I have been doing.

In 2015, I plan to write more, read more, exercise more, save more and try to camp out more!

I also plan to do less of some things. Worry less, stress less, eat less (need to lose about a stone in weight).

By the end of the year, I would hope to have a first draft of a new book and be querying agents/publishers with my third book.

So, in brief, I'd like to do more of what I should and less of what I shouldn't. Easy peasy ;-)

Have a lovely Monday. I'm off to write!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

What are you waiting for?

When I was pregnant, I felt like I was in limbo. I gave up my job in Belfast to move home, be closer to family. I applied for jobs back home, but once the bump began to show, there was no point. No one was going to hire a pregnant woman. Of course, they'd never tell you that was the reason, but what employer would take on someone who was only going to leave in a few months anyway.

So, I spent my time reading and listening to music and feeling trapped. Some songs I listened to on a loop. One of these was Colin Hay's Waiting for my real life to begin. Have a listen... don't worry, I'll wait for you.

When I listen to this song now, I find it hard to imagine how sad I was back then, but I was terribly sad. I'd listen and just cry. Up to that point in my life, I'd never been unemployed. In fact, most of the time I had two jobs, or a college course and a job. It was very hard to be idle. It was unbelievably difficult to imagine how my life was going to change when the baby was born. But, for those months, I was just waiting.

After Beth was born, it still felt like that for a long time. I was waiting for my real life to begin, waiting for something, anything to happen. Then, it hit me. Nothing was going to change unless I did it myself. No one was going to hand me my dreams on a silver platter, some Tuesday afternoon in October. It's about three years now since I quit my day job and dove head first into writing for a living. I don't regret that decision for one minute.

The last three years were not easy. Rejection and doubt come hand in hand with being a writer. I couldn't imagine being anything else though.

I wish I could reassure that pregnant girl, sitting on the floor crying, that everything would be fine. That all she has to do is get up and start doing things for herself. No one else is going to make you happy or fulfill your dreams. That's your job and it's never too late or too early to start living the life you always wanted.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

September Shenadigans

Yikes, we're a week into October and I'm only doing my September catch up today! It was a manic month with birthdays, christenings, weddings, parties etc. Of course, one event stood out among all others. On the 18th September, my little girl turned five. On her actual birthday, we went for lunch at a restaurant, Beth picked and then on to the cinema to see Box Trolls. Great movie, like Tim Burton meets Charles Dickens. I think I enjoyed more than Beth and her Dad. Then, on the Saturday, we had a Barbie themed party for a little girl dressed as Elsa from Frozen... even though she's no longer a fan of Disney Princesses.

Our little Box Troll

I had this idea to set up a Barbie dress up area at the party. Beth wanted to call it "The Groove". Barbie clothes can be expensive, so I made these out of bargain fabrics I bought in Penney's. "The Groove" was our old three man tent and, within minutes of the party starting, the boys had commandeered it as their den. So much for that idea!

My next idea started off like this...

The next stage...

Some wrapping later

Almost there

The finished product with beautiful Elsa. The idea was a photo booth, allowing the kids to be Barbie in the box. Pinterest is great for party ideas!

Beth's bouncy castle. She didn't want anything princess-y at her Barbie party, but allowed this. Bouncy castles are possibly her most favourite things in the world.

Beth had her hair styled for the event ;) It was part of a birthday treat from her Great Aunt. Apparently, she conversed well with the hairdresser, giving her all the details of a fantastic party being thrown in her honour.

They didn't sit for the whole party, but no girl's party these days would be complete without a bit of Frozen

The goodies I prepared (more came later). The cake pops went down a treat!

She had an absolutely brilliant time and was spoiled by the guests. We also had a pinata, beaten to a pulp by twenty-one children aged 3-10. What a day!

Photo of my Mum and I at a wedding two weeks ago. Wonderful day. A humanist ceremony followed by a gorgeous meal at the Ballymascanlon Hotel

I need a new laptop! Uploading photos for this blog takes forever on this old thing.

My third book is coming along nicely. I have a plan right up to the climax and I'm somewhat on schedule to finish the first draft by the end of the month. Very excited to start NaNoWriMo and see what new characters I'll be meeting :-)

Hope your Tuesday is as sunny as mine, wherever you are!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Deadlines

What is it about deadlines that make me want to clean my house?? Devil in the Clouds is due to go to my editor on Friday. I'm doing a final read through before then and have found loads I want to change and correct. I'll be very busy for a few days.

After DITC is gone, I plan to dust off Allie's Return and finish the first draft! I'd like to have that completed before 1st November. I want November free for NaNoWriMo. I haven't a project in mind, but I'm sure I'll scare up something before then. Hopefully!!

Feeling a bit like Calvin today!

Has anyone a plan for NaNoWriMo yet?

Friday, September 5, 2014

Back to Normal

It's been over a month since my last blog post! I'm terrible, but I decided to take a break from everything and spend August having a good summer with Beth. She went into Junior Infants last week (28th Aug). So, there it is. My daughter is now (officially) part of the system. Last year, she started in pre-school within the same infant school and loved it. She was wearing a tracksuit, the jumper had the school crest. This year, she is a pinafore, shirt and tie. I love seeing her in her uniform. She looks so grown up!

Here are a few photos from our August. Next week, I'll get back to my usual posts. I'd like to do something about my dreadfully slow laptop too! Like a snail at the moment and it takes ages to transfer photos from my phone to the laptop to use on the blog. Grrr...