Rants, Rain and Reading – My Little Loves of the Week!

There has finally been some form of a break to the heat – okay, so I would have rathered a gentle breeze rather than the monsoon that descended over the weekend, but thankfully the most of the sticky humidity has left us for the moment. It’s been an active week here; lots going on, some of it even nice things. Continuing on with the fab Little Loves linky from butwhymummywhy, this is what I have been loving this week!

This week I have…

Read

I’ve actually gotten quite a lot of reading done this week – not entirely sure how I’ve started fitting it in but think E is getting a lot better at playing independently for a few minutes at a time, and has become a total Daddy’s boy when his Dad is at home, so I’ve been able to make the most of my library subscription and my Kindle app on my phone/tablet (the phone app is fab for when I’ve only got a few minutes on the go!). I’m currently reading The Birth of the Pill: How Four Pioneers Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig, which is fascinating – it’s non-fiction, the tale of four people who changed the face of sex and liberating women – it’s making for an interesting read as it feels alien to me, born in 1991, growing up as a teenager in a society where contraception and girls being in charge of their reproductive rights were key lessons we were taught by parents and in the education system, to see this other society where if you had sex, the risk of having a baby was always there with little to stop it so sex wasn’t exactly as carefree as it could be! I’m finding it an easy read to get stuck into and am excited to continue it. This is following on from some more non-fiction I’ve been reading this week but a rather more cheery topic than the one it follows which was Flesh and Blood: Murder-Suicides that Haunt Ireland by Nicola Tallant. Equally fascinating for someone with a bit of a true crime obsession at the moment, but rather more depressing, it detailed many of the stories which I knew snippets about from the news over the years but in much more detail than I’d seen previously. It’s a sad tale, a picture of an Ireland which deeply needs to change the way it looks at mental health services, and tragedies caused by inaction in a lot of cases. In a more cheery form, I also found myself reading the 11th book in the Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot,Royal Wedding, the first adult book in the series predominantly aimed at the YA category. I grew up reading the series, fell in love with the characters and the premise and became a fan of Anne Hathaway because of the movies. I was very excited for this continuance, and I wasn’t disappointed. I became a bit of a social recluse for the day and read it in one go, such was my joy. Wonderful fluff with some great surprises along the way, kind of making me wish there is going to be another. The final grown-up installment of my reading is a wonderful short story that serves as a sequel to one of my absolute favourite YA books (are you seeing a theme here?) Good Girls Don’t by Claire Hennessy – ten years after Emily’s adventures through fifth year, she returns Home to Vote in “Good Girls Vote Yes”. Powerful and reaching into my 16 year old self all over again. There has been a lot of kids book reading too, but thats all another post.

Watched

Mad to think we actually got any watching done with all of that reading, but indeed there has been. Still working our way through the third season of House of Cards. We watched both Princess Diaries movies and Toy Story 3 in one sitting the other day, because it was raining and we had popcorn. There’s been a lot of Peppa and some Baby Genius. And then there was this (and yes, I know it’s an ad, but forgetting about the product, I can so relate to the rest of it – can you?)

As I said, ignore the product placement… focus on conquering the laundry, another classic from those fabulous Whats Up Moms ladies.

Heard

As well as much crying (thank you teething), I’ve been checking out Apple Music this week and so have been listening to a LOT of Taylor Swift. Spotify just isn’t the same without her… Also have this song from John Legend stuck in my head, which is absolutely gorgeous.

 

Made

This week I made… a youtube channel. That said, there is very little content (just the video at the bottom of this post) but it is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while so you might get to see some vlogging out of me yet!

Wore

Again, nada out of the ordinary (needing to go clothes shopping) – my trusty Mama jeans from Next, a vest top and some flip flops made up most of my look this week – except for the day of the rain where it was full on pink raincoat, jeans and boots to protect from the rain!

I also wore these gorgeous Elegant Touch nails which I spoke about in my haul post here, purple glitter gel nails which made me very happy indeed. No special occasion, just a general pick me up, they are fab. Again, used with glue not the adhesive tabs for longer lasting!

 

And lastly..

Last week I said the little man had begun walking holding hands. That wasn’t enough for him; now he’s running, unaccompanied – hasn’t bothered with walking much but can’t quite keep up with his own speed. Got this gorgeous clip of him during the week.

Don’t forget the competition to win a set of ten Funky Giraffe bibs here – it closes tomorrow at midnight!

I’ve also been getting my rant on (again), this time about insensitive journalism and how it can turn one message into quite another. You can read my ramblings about Kitty Holland’s article in the Irish Times here. Let me know what you think – am I being unreasonable, or is there a need for more context in such articles for points like that to be made?

 

So those are my Little Loves of the Week, make sure to click into butwhymummywhy to check out the others involved, and let me know what you think in the comments below!