Category: Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday

My Year So Far!

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I should have started recording episodes for the podcast by now but I am still trying to get my microphone set up again so I thought I would share a few photos from the last week and a half since the start of 2021.

This is the cover to this years journal, the last year I had a rose gold glittery one and given how the year went I decided on this one this year that is a little plainer with a classic feel to the floral enhancement. Let’s hope this year I get to write about a couple of signings.

This has been my life for most of this year so far, either mud or the ground is frozen and every hoof print filled with ice.

Sunday the 3rd we brought Preeya out of the field for the first time, she handled it really well, she is almost as big as mummy now can’t believe she is only nine months old.

Monday I headed to my daughters, I thought I would share these with you so you understand why I usually take photos with my head to one side, if you look at the first photo you can see I have a fat and thin side to my face. Other people can tell you it doesn’t look as bad as you think it looks but one you have it in your head no one will tell you otherwise.

Tuesday saw me back at work, we have these t-shirts, we play messages over the tannoy but guess what people are still not staying back, I get not everyone believes there is a virus, I am not getting into that but even if you don’t believe does it really hurt you to keep your distance from people, I want my life back, I want to see my family and friends, that can only happen if people apply common sense.

Wednesday morning just who ended up sat in the mud while dragging straw down the field to where the horses stand to have their hay. Maybe I should buy waders rather than wellies!!

Thursday morning I was debating what I could share and I thought I would show you the odd random item from my house that I love, this is my dream catcher that hangs above my bed. I normally remember my dream and it is very rare I have a bad one, I have had this for years but lately it is beginning to lose the odd feather.

Coming home from work Friday night it started snowing but it is hard to catch the snow on your mobile camera lol,

I was thankful to have my hat with me though as it was cold.

Saturday we had snow but not enough to really slow the pace of life, helped my friend take two of her horses out for their feet trimming and for a quick walk round the block as the roads were clear.

Saturday night lockdown style and the only affection I was getting was a nose rub from the cat. 

Hope you all are staying safe and making the most of each day in any way you can. 

Lazy Sunday #49 – Only a day late
Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday #49 – Only a day late

paulaacton2 Comments

I have been lazy this week, I fully admit it, I sit here looking at the screen knowing that I have done nothing for NaNoWriMo and I don’t even want to look at what I would need to do to ‘win’ I know it will be over 3k a day, technically doable but whether I do or not remains to be seen.

I don’t even really have an excuse, I did have a funeral to attend last week but that does not account for the other six days I was unproductive I think sometimes the problem with me is I get distracted with other things and then have trouble bringing my focus back. However, there are certain things going on that have meant that I need to drag my focus back. I hope to be telling you more as time goes on and will be doing a post later this week with an update about the Read and Relax news I gave you the other week plus news of some exciting giveaways that will be going on soon.

I have finally received a date for the monsters autism testing and I am relieved yet worried at the same time. Everyone who ever comes into contact with the monster agrees he is on the spectrum, he is high functioning so most of the time things are pretty normal as far as we are concerned, we are used to his quirks and knowing how to deal with certain situations has become something we do without giving it a second thought. He struggles with the social aspects of life though and in eighteen months he will go to high school, a move which is filled with stress for ‘normal’ kids without extra pressures fo not fitting in. Part of me actually hopes high school might allow him to interact with kids more like himself, he hates sport, he takes after his mum and sister and is a little geek, I am hoping that once he is at high school he can find clubs and friends that will embrace the nerdiness and he can find clubs where he can play chess rather than football. That said at the minute he is doing fencing at school and is enjoying it though he is quick to correct anyone that refers to the foil as a sword. In my heart I hate the fact we are looking to apply a label to him, a diagnosis which says ‘I am this’ but on the other hand I want him to have the best chance in life and this means being able to make sure he gets all the help he needs and that we get to know the best ways to help him. We have been warned we may not get a diagnosis despite the three year wait for testing and the general consensus, we may be told yes he is on the spectrum but that is as much as we can say, we have even been told that his difficulties may be the result of the meningitis he suffered as a baby and there is no way to know that, the fact is that any results we get either point us in the right direction or rule out an extra possibility, I work on the principle the more information we have the closer we get to helping him.

What I do know is that I want to make a career of writing mainly because I love it and it is what I want to do, but there is also an added incentive that I could work from home and be there more to support him as things get harder for him. Right all that said I need to go attempt to make a didn’t in my NaNo word count, wish me luck lol

 

Lazy Sunday #48
Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday #48

paulaacton1 Comment

Afternoon, you wonderful people.

I am sat here at my desk right now coffee in hand attempting to defrost.

You know I had to get the selfie from Snapchat after all we all love unicorns. Today has been a busy day, I went down to my daughters to bleach her hair ready to attempt a colour tomorrow then when we left there the monster and I headed to a local park Pokemon hunting. First, let me say that the reason he is only just on the Pokemon Go app is that it was not available for my Windows phone so the minute I got a new android phone it was one of the first things he asked me to do. Secondly, let me point out that while this may be a fun thing to do in the Summer chasing imaginary creatures round a park in the cold is not so much fun. My journeys to work and back now involve my being logged into the game to get distance to hatch eggs and to spin discs every time I pass certain buildings to get him balls to catch these creatures with, I don’t really mind that much because it is not as if I have to go out of my way but it is annoying that it is a drain on my battery and I can’t listen to my podcasts at the same time. The good thing is of course that it gets kids outside and exercising and in our case, by default, it means more exercise for me especially on a Sunday when I am prone to be a little sedate. It is also something we can do together though I can only name a handful of the creatures we have caught.

 

It is now evening I am afraid I got distracted chatting to a friend. My #NanoWriMo stats have not changed since last week, a combination of overtime and illness on top of normal work had a detrimental effect on my focus and I now need to write around 2.5k a day to hit target. It is still possible, I have a week off work at the end of the month so I can make up some words there hopefully.

I have quite a few different things going on in my head at the minute to deal with as well as writing so I am struggling to keep my focus on sitting and getting the right thoughts down. Right now writing wise things are going well, but I think sometimes when one aspect of your life is improving it does make you look at other areas that maybe are not doing quite as well, there are aspects of my life I would like to change but for now they will have to wait, I have far too much going on in other areas that I am excited about.

Lazy Sunday #47
Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday #47

paulaacton1 Comment

Hello, been a while since we sat and had a chat like this but got to be honest things have been crazy here the last month. First, I had an amazing weekend at #Darker in Peterborough, which I have told you all about, then we had a two week delay awaiting the delivery of my grandson, he certainly made hard work of coming into the world. Family, obviously, came first for the next couple of weeks trying to help out my daughter and her partner as much as possible.

We arrive at the first of November and I start #NanoWriMo. I write for one day, yes, you heard me right, one day, before my grandson caused more drama and had a day in hospital. I am not going to go into details too much but let’s just say that a swollen head is enough to give parents and grandparents alike near nervous breakdowns.

So today I take up my #NanoWriMo baton once more and need to play catch up so here are my current stats…

Words written – 1667

Words that should be written by the end of today – 8,335

Words in deficit – 6668

Number of words needed daily to finish on target  – 1880

As you can see not a total disaster as such yet, I am going to update you twice a week, once on a Wednesday, from a purely writing standpoint, and this post on a Sunday, about the actual issues or benefits of fitting this into everyday life. I had signed up for #NanoWriMo once before, but then other things got in the way and I never even started, as I have been struggling to get back into work mode I thought this year was the perfect time to give it a go as a means to getting back to daily writing. I can already see certain days will be easier than others for me, I am probably better off on days where I can work during the day rather than evenings. I have realised if I come home tired that I find it harder to write, and if I am foolish enough to have a bath to unwind after a stressful day, well I can write off any writing at all for that evening, because the most stressful thing I am likely to do is turn the page of a book or hit play on the remote control.

The one piece of advice I would give anyone doing Nano is, don’t get too hung up comparing the number of words you have written to anyone elses. I know people who post their word counts every day, people who hit the target well before anyone else, the thing is everyone works at their own pace. I could sit and type out the menu for our local chinese over and over again and hit a word count target, the fact is, that does not make a book. You aim to hit the targets to help yourself become more productive in terms of writing daily and  to improve your own writing habits but the thing that really matters is the quality of the story you are telling. The grammar etc, yes that will all be sorted in the editing but while people can generally overlook a stray comma or two, they will not forgive a weak plot or storyline. Focus on your own story and though of course we all look at others word counts (let’s face it I just shared mine) the thing is to remember that as long as you are doing the bet you can working in your life then you don’t need to worry about anything else.

Are you doing #NanoWriMo this year? How do you feel seeing the word counts posted all over social media?

Lazy Sunday #46
Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday #46

paulaacton3 Comments

I have decided that this series is going to undergo a little alteration, I will still share the odd post I have read during the week, but for the main part, this will be a quick fun personal catch up. That said let me explain my absence, it was due to a few reasons, first summer holidays here in the UK so of course I wanted to spend a little more time with the monster, he taught me to play his Xbox one Lego Dimensions game and I kicked his butt playing LOTR Risk, sounds like a fair exchange right? Then had a little drama with my dad ending up in hospital, I am sure my parents are allergic to summer as last year it was my mum who spent the best part of August in hospital.

Then my son accidentally shut the cats in the living room together when we went out, we returned to a scene out of a cartoon chase, you know when Tom chases Jerry,  result two dead cacti, a broken router and a couple of hours cleaning to do. I guess the main thing to be thankful for was the fight took place at the far side of the room away from the guinea pig cage so at least there was no blood and fur to clean up.

So I am back now, I have a hectic month getting ready for Darker next month, I have had to accept the third part of the trilogy is not going to be ready before then, but right now I am focusing on one task at a time, so today I am writing blog posts ready for the rest of the week. I have a mason coming on Tuesday to fix my fireplace so fingers crossed I will have a fire again before Winter hits, even though I have central heating there are some days you still need a fire to curl up in front of. The monster also starts back at school Tuesday, which I am looking forward to more than him, but it does mean I can get back to my normal routines, it also means I will get back to getting a little exercise and I really need it, while Spanx may save me for Darker I am not sure they will help for the next event lol.

Rght I am going to get off and get some work done starting with a book review for tomorrow.

Lazy Sunday #45 & Vlog Time #105 – Swag Tales
8. Vlog Time · Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday #45 & Vlog Time #105 – Swag Tales

paulaacton8 Comments

I am late once again , a whole day this time and you will notice that the Vlog is also a couple of days late, if you follow me on other social media you might have spotted me in Leeds a few times over the last week or so, this was as my dad was in hospital there which has of course meant you have not heard from me. He is home now and hopefully will manage to stay there, but, you never know these parents are as hard to keep an eye on as toddlers, always up to mischief the minute you turn your eyes away from them.

I just finished watching Season our of Game of Thrones, I wish I had started it earlier so I could have got involved more in discussions about it as it went along but I am determined to be completely up to date ready for the final season so I don’t have to quick scroll past posts on FB, as it stands at the minute I am supporting the Mother of Dragons of course lol. So let’s get on with what we are here for…blogs!

  1. First up is a blog I have been following for quite a while and love, having a son a similar age I can relate to a lot of the things she posts, love her lego hacks here though I just generally avoid lego lol but we also love playing board games and the monster is a monopoly master http://www.chiswickmum.com/2017/07/29/lego_hacks/
  2. Next up is one that hits close to home because I remember with my grandma there were times where it felt like the woman I had known had left before her body left but at others she wuld tell me stories of her childhood, though she was never quite sure who I was at times, she knew I was related she just lost track of how https://jmgoyder.com/2017/07/29/a-person-with-dementia-is-not-a-person-who-is-dead-and-gone/
  3. The next two posts are related, both deal with how a story comes to life, this post by the lovely Stephanie discusses how her novel came to life for her https://stephanie-hurt.com/2017/07/29/when-you-dream/
  4. The last one shows more of the process, how an idea comes to you but then you are left with the question of what that idea should be turned into