Blogs. What is the point of a blog? I have never been able to keep a diary - it always seemed like too much of a commitment, and my day-to-day life is pretty repetitive. However, I have always kept scrapbooks - tearing things out of magazines, writing down quotes and excerpts from books and keeping mementos of special times. This is going to be the style of my blog - a virtual scrapbook of my experiences, combined with bits and bobs that have given me joy or pause for thought.
So who am I? I am a hardworking forty-something single mother, living in a university city in the East of England, who has Champagne tastes but a lemonade budget. I try to follow the maxim 'all you need is less', but I enjoy shopping, style and making my home lovely for my two girls and me. I love visiting museums and galleries, photography, the great outdoors, music, going to the gym and I read quite a lot.
The other thing my blog will focus on is mental health. After the birth of my first baby, I suffered from severe post-natal depression. This was a profoundly shocking experience, and remembering those early desperate days makes me feel sad - I missed out on enjoying my daughter's babyhood and I still grieve about that. Since then, I have wrestled with bouts of depression and anxiety, which is a big challenge as a lone parent. My ex is very supportive and our relationship is amicable, but battling through teatime and bedtime on your own when your children are bickering and you are feeling low can be extremely tough.
So I want to share what I have learnt, what lifts my spirits, the shortcuts that help me cope, what it feels like when your beautiful brain knocks you off stride - and how to get back on track again.
The other thing my blog will focus on is mental health. After the birth of my first baby, I suffered from severe post-natal depression. This was a profoundly shocking experience, and remembering those early desperate days makes me feel sad - I missed out on enjoying my daughter's babyhood and I still grieve about that. Since then, I have wrestled with bouts of depression and anxiety, which is a big challenge as a lone parent. My ex is very supportive and our relationship is amicable, but battling through teatime and bedtime on your own when your children are bickering and you are feeling low can be extremely tough.
So I want to share what I have learnt, what lifts my spirits, the shortcuts that help me cope, what it feels like when your beautiful brain knocks you off stride - and how to get back on track again.
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