Something for the weekend

SFTW: Madrid, motherhood and my newest TV obsession

February 22, 2015

Happy Sunday everyone! I’m in Madrid celebrating my father-in-law’s 60th birthday with Juan, Oscar and the rest of the family. I’ve been looking forward to staying in this hotel for ages – and it’s as lovely as I expected!

I’ve been run a bit ragged this week – a mixture of converging deadlines and having taken on a bit too much work in the first place, coupled with the demands of life in general and having to prepare for this weekend away (quite the military operation with a baby in tow). I can’t say a city break en famille is the ultimate way to relax, but it makes a change from weekends spent cleaning, taking trips to the park and sheltering from the British drizzle in coffee shops.

Something for the Weekend 21 | Everyday30.comHere’s what else I’ve been up to this week:

1. Work, work, work. I’m not complaining about this because it’s good to be in demand – and besides, I like being busy. But despite my best intentions as a newbie freelancer, work has started to take over everything else, and this week has seen several late nights and a cross husband because of it. I’ll be bearing a few of these tips on how to achieve a healthy work-life balance in mind in the coming weeks…

2. I enjoyed this post on constantly being needed as a mum – I went out to a new restaurant this week and came home late expecting to find a calm, organised house. No such luck: it was a case of rolling up my sleeves and mucking in – washing and tidying up, scraping rejected butternut squash off the walls, and helping to put away the shopping. The perils of leaving the house EVER.

3. Oscar is now the oldest boy in his nursery class – all of the peers with whom he started in 1A moved up to the next class when they started walking, whereas my son is feeling no pressure to fulfill his destiny as a biped. He’s finally started taking a few steps – but not enough to convince the carers that he’s ready to graduate. I’m not stressed, but would appreciate any advice from mums in similar situations! Google is a frightening place to find tips when it comes to babies and development…

4. I stumbled across this post on siblings and thought of my brother, who admits to having put a lot of pressure on himself in the past to get the same grades as I did at school and uni, despite us studying completely different subjects (me French; he engineering. I know!). Turns out that this is normal behaviour, and that I might even have helped him get where he is today – that is, to a much more successful place than where I’m currently sitting. You’re welcome, Rich 😉

5. I lapped up this spat between Myleene Klass and fellow mums at her daughter’s school. I am totally on Klass’s side – firstly because I assume these parents don’t need any financial boost to buy birthday presents for their kids, and that their offspring receive plenty of gifts as it is; secondly because I dislike the arrogance and chutzpah it takes to imply that everyone should spend £10 not only on your child but on everyone else’s each year (with average class sizes exceeding 30, that’s £300+ per year – or does the rule only apply to the most popular kids/parents?); but mostly because learning to accept crap presents with grace is an important life skill, and one that shouldn’t be stolen away from youngsters. She lost me with the unicorn stunt though.

6. Finally, Juan and I fell in love with Saul Goodman (aka Jimmy McGill) all over again when we started watching the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul (along with 90% of the developed world). I’m enjoying the earnest, ‘good-guy’ version of Saul who we’re meeting and I’m interested to see exactly how he got from A to B – in fact, the journey is going to have to be worth it, because we already know the destination.

P.S. On the blog this week, Rose tested budget foundations so you don’t have to, I fought the corner for fringes, and Rachel snubbed the takeaway for her favourite Friday-night dishes. Have a good weekend!

Image source

The List
Did you know we’re social?
Come find us on Twitter, Facebook and Bloglovin'

You Might Also Like

1 Comment

  • youbabymemummy@gmail.com'
    Reply You Baby Me Mummy February 26, 2015 at 9:34 pm

    Sounds like a fun week! Hooray for being in demand! Thanks for linking up to #TheList x

  • Leave a Reply