Things To Keep Me Sane (May Edition)

 

Life has been stressful lately. There’s been a lot going on, and I’m struggling to keep up, especially with tiny man properly on the move now. I am however resolutely refusing to let it get me down, and with the help of some sanity aids I’m getting there slowly but surely. It’s the start of Summer, not that you’d know it from the weather, so hopefully these are things that will continue to bring me peace in myself (or a five minute interlude from life) for the next few months.

Drinking

Not wine, but green tea. My old self is looking at me, mocking. Now, it’s not the proper stuff, I really don’t have the stomach for that, but my current favourite is Salted Caramel Green Tea from Twinings – it’s less salted and more caramel, but the smell is absolutely divine, and the taste covers up the green tea sharp taste – these were on offer in Tesco a while back and I’m properly converted now! It’s not fully replacing my Nespresso habit; not while sleep is a rare commodity here anyway, but it’s a start!

 

Reading

Unlike other months, I’ve actually got a couple of books on the go at the moment – recently I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction, especially true Irish Crime and that kind of thing, a bit of a fascination of mine. However my favourite of the last while is one from the last few nights – Rory O Neill (Panti)’s memoir “Woman in the Making” – I downloaded it on my kindle app at 6pm Friday evening, and it was done and all by midday Saturday, such was my intrigue. Absolutely fascinating and very topical read, it has an unfiltered feel to it which is lovely, it seems very honest. From reading it I want to go and have a cup of coffee and a chat with him, I definitely recommend it. You can get a copy/download it here.

Blogwise; I laughed myself silly at At The Clothesline’s post this week “The Time I Gave My Husband a Head Wound” – then read it out, with much difficulty due to the giggles, to himself, who reacted the same way. Brilliant.   I also compiled another list of must-read posts for the Irish Parenting Bloggers; you can check that out here.

Watching

As well as far too much Fireman Sam (damn that catchy theme tune!), and a number of other Netflix lovelies, it seems to be finale season on most of the other shows I watch, so there has been lots of catching up on those. Grey’s Anatomy has drawn out the feels once more; we’ve finally caught up with the Good Wife, and Criminal Minds didn’t impress as much as other finales have. There’s also been a lot of political debate programming on my radar with the marriage equality referendum coming up; so I’ve spent many evenings shouting at the laptop screen watching it live on RTE player (Vincent Brown is banned as it is far too late to be raising my blood pressure, so Prime Time is about the most I can manage).

Politics aside, I’ve also discovered two really lovely Irish Youtubers, Bribry and Candysomething, who also share a channel, “The Life of BriBry” – he’s a fantastic musician, her channel is all about wonderful books, and their joint channel is about their lives; including the most lovely wedding video I’ve seen yet.

 

Eating

TOO MUCH. Have finally tried banana pancakes, which I will put up a post about during the week. Yum.

Listening To

In an attempt to get the Fireman Sam theme tune out of my head, there has been a lot of Beatles music – it’s the best to lull E to sleep – as well as songs from soundtracks, in particular the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. The song I’m singing along to most this week is “I will”, a classic from the Beatles; if you don’t know it already, you really should check it out. One of my favourite songs in the whole wide world, so simple, so pretty, so still relevant almost fifty years after its release in 1968.

 

Playing

Sudoku. Always Sudoku, I’ve become a little bit obsessed with the app on my phone lately. It’s going to help keep my brain occupied and prevent me from losing my mind. Hopefully.

Doing

As of last Friday, the Song and Story time sessions are back on for 6 weeks in Cork City Library on a Friday morning, which has been fab – E gets his dance on, I get to meet other mothers, some of whom I know from other toddler groups, and I generally leave with a rather tired toddler ready for his nap, with Mammy ready to enjoy her coffee after. Win win really. It’s great to have him doing something enjoyable with other kids where I can watch him have so much fun.

 

So that’s my list so far of things keeping me from going nutty! What kind of things have been keeping you sane lately? Let me know in the comments, I need all the help I can get!