And so it begins.

I’ve been intending to keep a gratitude journal for so long and have never quite got round to it, so I decided that this would be a great place to do so, by celebrating ten things which have made me happy during the week on Happy Fridays. I do believe that being more mindful about the little things which bring you joy and happiness can really improve your outlook on life, and documenting them can only help that (I hope!). So here goes:

1. A family trip to G’s school show last night. She wasn’t in it, but the school always put on such fantastic performances and it’s amazing to see the amount of talent in such a relatively small school. And I always love a good musical!
2. A little project I undertook this week to transform a smallish tea tray into one that now has pride of place on the coffee table, to keep everything neat and tidy. It was pretty simple but I’m really pleased with the transformation.
3. Wearing our family ring. One of my sisters mentioned this to me this week – my Mum and all four of us daughters have the same ring, but I don’t wear mine too often, as it’s gold and I wear more silver jewellery, but I have really loved wearing it again this week. Happy memories of a fantastic mum, who passed away 9 years ago.
4. Lighter evenings! I’m loving it still being light at 6.30pm. I’m always ready for the new season when it comes around – and spring starts tomorrow, right?
5. Gardening- I spent a couple of hours this morning out in the garden, tidying up and turning over the soil, in the warm sunshine. I love how this has two benefits – it makes the garden look much better and is a pretty god work out!
6. Progress on the house. We modernised a lot of the downstairs of the house before Christmas and have decorated the children’s bedrooms, but we have had our bedroom and the dining room re-plastered this week, which means they can shortly be decorated.
7. Maths Challenge! Not my performance in it, but G was part of a small team representing her school this week at a Maths Challenge competition and they did so well, coming 7^th out of about 35 teams. Very proud moment.
8. A new nail varnish I bought earlier in the week. It’s not quite the shade I wanted but I still love it.
9. Mother’s Day – of course! I had a lovely day – beautiful cards from the children, a lovely breakfast in bed made by G (cinnamon swirl pancakes and bacon – amazing!), very thoughtful homemade gifts and a surprise lunch out at one of my favourite places, The Pear Tree Creperie. They gave all mums there that day a primula plant to take home which was a lovely touch.
10. Organisation! I do love a good, achievable “to do” list and this week’s went well, despite being much longer than usual, with various documents, payments and currencies being needed for upcoming school trips. So satisfying to tick things off!

Have a great weekend, everyone!