Happy New Year!
Fresh starts and new beginnings
Hello! Warmest hello and happy new year to you dear reader.
Thank you for your patience during my substack-ing hiatus last year; my inspo had dried up and every time I went to write something it was rubbish and the opposite of fully shaped and really quite half hearted. So I decided to press pause and give everyone a break, myself included.
And now here we are, on the seventh day of the new year. And I feel ready again! And motivated! And excited! And I hope you do too.
When the school term ended in December, I went off the socials and haven’t yet returned - mainly because I don’t like having the phone constantly in my hand while the boys are on hols and really I want to be able to look them in the eye when I shout at them for all the fighting bickering teasing squabbling. So I haven’t been back on as yet and I think I will do a few more weeks as it’s been nice for me, not comparing our Christmas Tree with everyone else’s (why is everyone else’s tree so beautiful?!)
While I’ve been off the Insta I’ve had a bit of time to start a new diary and actually plan out the year, having listened to this podcast ep by Laura Higgins (she’s good this gal, I think of her as one of my buziness besties in a I haven’t ever met you way) - and when she explained how helpful it is to be the Boss of Your Calendar and put in all the things that happen annually so you don’t get a shock when someone is suddenly turning twelve, it made sense to me. I started with school terms as that’s what structures my life, and then added all the family birthdays and events, any travel bits, etc etc and I really love looking at it and how it makes me feel! Organised!!!!!!!!!
This Laura Hig also had a 2024 Gratitude and Goals Reset plan which I listened to and rather liked, having not done any sort of looking back analysis of any year in the past decade. She had six themes; Business Wins, Personal Growth, Relationships, Fun Moments, Lessons from Challenges and Looking Forward. It was fun to have a reminisce and look back at photos and see what an interesting year it had been, full of all the things but ultimately brimming with learning and love.
And now here we are, at the beginning of a brand new year. The pencils are fresh, the diary pages are blank and we are all still full of hope.
Let’s hold onto that for as long as poss.
Thank you dear reader, for subscribing to my Substack.
Consumption Corner
“Table for Two” by Amor Towles
I love Amor, love his writing and his characters and when I saw this on the library shelf I was thrilled. This is six short stories and a novella and I loved every word. The short stories are all set in New York and the novella is set in LA. He’s got quite an old fashioned style, it’s a yesteryear feeling in a great way even when the story is contemporary. Perfect summer holiday reading.
PS: If you’ve made it this far, bravo LOL! I wanted to let you know that I’ve designed a group mentoring program for creative, freelancing mums and it starts in early February. You are the first to hear about it so as a little happy new year from me to you, here’s an early bird discount to join.
Use EARLYBIRD2025 here (valid until 11th Jan 2025).
And we're so glad to have you back <3
(Also in love with Laura's 2024 recap)