SFTW: Bourbon, Lego and getting shit done

Happy weekend! As Rose mentioned, I spent last weekend in Manchester, catching up with my family and obviously having some quality friend time with her (and she took the lovely picture of me and Thomas below). This is the first time I’ve ventured to Manchester since Thomas was about six weeks old, and the journey home put me off travelling alone with the two of them for a while. I did make the mistake of taking the train back to London at about 5pm (the witching hour for the kids, and rush hour for everybody else…) so I was asking for it really. However, I did come over all Pinterest-mummy and put together a Lego play kits for the train in advance of our journey. To be fair, I completely copied the idea from this blog post, but I still felt very smug as George happily played with it all the way to Manchester.

Here’s what else I’ve been thinking about this week:

1. Rose’s post on reading more books really struck a chord and I realised that I miss the pleasure of getting into a good book (even if it is only Twilight). Most evenings, Pete and I sit at our laptops or argue about what to watch on TV, so maybe I should be reading a book instead? I also loved the tips in this article on how to read 100 books in a year.
2. This time last year I wrote about doing the Couch to 5k plan and I finished by saying that I wanted to do 10k. Well… a certain baby bump got in the way and I barely ran at all last year. Now, I really want to get back on the case, so I’ve signed up to the  Kingston Breakfast Run in April. I’m doing the eight-mile run, which is about 13km. I really liked these tips on how to run a 10k, and I think I might use this training calendar as well. It’s funny, I wouldn’t say that I like running in the same way I do yoga – in fact, I don’t really enjoy it all – but I know it will feel so good to actually complete 13km!
3. Still in the spirit of ‘New Year, new me’, I recommend this article on becoming more productive and getting shit done. I’ve bought this lovely notepad to help me in my quest. I love that there’s space to tick off how many glasses of water you’ve drank that day and also to list nice things to do for yourself that day. (Credit to The Spike for tipping me off.)
   
4. If you’re trying to get more productive or just create a bit more headspace for yourself, then you’ll probably appreciate Emma’s post on removing social media apps from her phone. Yes, it’s seemingly trivial, but when I think about it, any second of down time I have is spent scrolling through Instagram or checking Bloglovin’. Maybe deleting the apps will give stop me feeling like I have no time to even think? Maybe.
5. I’m currently obsessed with anything with bourbon in it, and am raring to make this sweet potato cheesecake with bourbon whipped cream, and this dark chocolate chip bourbon cherry ice cream. Of course, all January I took a break from sweet treats, so while waiting for February to begin I’ve been drinking these maple and bourbon sours.
6. I had one of those ‘thank God it’s not me’ moments when I read this post from Steph of Don’t Buy Her Flowers about how our partners often get the worst of us, especially once we’ve had kids. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately – how to navigate the years with small children and come out intact the other side – and it was comforting to know that other people are going through the same thing! I went down a rabbit hole of reading her excellent blog and particularly loved her post on public meltdowns – I agree that there’s nothing like being in public to make you feel like a terrible parent.
7. Finally, did you see this post on shared kids’ rooms on Cup of Jo? I loved the picture of the two brothers sharing a double bed. We’re planning on Thomas and George sharing a room, and I’m already keen to get Thomas out of our room, but I’m not sure when that will happen as he’s nowhere near sleeping through the night yet. Sigh. Any tips on making the transition?

What’s been on your mind this weekend?

P.S. If you’re looking to relax with a good book or TV show, here are our top recommendations from 2015.