Month: November 2017

Be happy, it drives people crazy.

~ Fridgesays ~ 23 Comments

Anon

Despite the fact it’s still November consumerism seems to be taking hold of the nation/globe following Black Friday…the Friday sale that lasts a fortnight. Christmas chatter has taken over many blog posts and is the topic of conversation in our staffroom. Panic sweeps the nation. And I stay firm. I will not get swept into a frenzy on what I’m doing, got to do or who I haven’t bought for (the answer is nobody yet). There is plenty of time. However, I adore Christmas and refuse for it to become a burden. I stand firm in a smile. When asked how I feel about ‘all the catering’ I reply with a smile and say it’s an honour to have family to feed. I am not a saint but I know one thing to be true. Being happy really does drive other people  nuts. “Ohhh I don’t know how you can be so relaxed, I ordered the Turkey in June” hehe…yup and I was busy enjoying the start of summer.

It also means that for the people I dislike, hate and wish would disappear I increase my sparkle, smiles and graces – why? Because it pisses them off and reflects the stress and chaos back at them. I will not absorb negativity from them. It’s my super power and a skill that you should consider as a New Years resolution – forget weight loss, make 2018 the year you choose to be happy.

I choose happy because it makes me happy, it makes others happy and it’s contagious.

Christmas Day will come and go whether I stress or not. The dust will gather again from the moment I flick the duster, the bills will get paid and all those tasks on the ‘to do list’ will eventually be over taken with other tasks and thousands of other ‘to do lists’ but for now I am blissfully happy drinking a hot cup of tea after an intense yoga session, and for now and for always ‘I choose happy’ (and tea) (same thing)

Have you ever picked positivity as a power to piss others off?

The Saturday Sesh #14

~ Fridgesays ~ 3 Comments

I’ve noticed that this linky introduction has also become a reflection on my week. This week was tough as we didn’t have water (Kitchen is being renovated)  and cooking facilities were non existent. I have to say through the chaos came so many blessing’s – we really do take ‘gadgets and gizmos of plenty’ (couldn’t help pop a Little Mermaid quote there) for granted and it did mean we needed to plan things a little better. We were also blessed with awesome friends and family who reloaded our drinking water bottle for us, did endless loads of washing, washing up and my Mum cooked us a chicken to feed us for a couple of days, plus some cakes (just because), it really made me appreciate our tribe. My school also had its Winter Fayre which means one thing – it Christmas in a months time people, time to start making plans and creating memories.

As I stated previously, I am feeling very blessed to have such an awesome tribe. This week I’ve decided to break the rules and make my featured blogger my cohost – I’m not sure this is politically correct, morally ethical and I certainly haven’t told her my plans (sorry hun), but I asked Hayley to join me on this mission because I adore her ethics, her political views and her moral compass… plus anyone who teaches teenagers, has twins under three and a primary school aged child and blogs with no sleep is a legend. I adore her and have enjoyed making a new friend for life this year (nope, you’re stuck with me), I loved this post all about her passion for Mindfulness and believe her message deserves recognition. Please also check out her page to see who Hayley has picked as her featured blogger. That said, there were some lovely posts this week and The Rhyming Mum never lets me down, I adored find or fakes frank and honest post on her new journey. Well worth a read if you can make time.

Anyway, time to link up for week 14, below are the RULES, please be kind – its really unpleasant when we need to remind people to comment, badge up and generally follow linky etiquette.

  • Link up You can link up to 2 posts, old or new
  • Grab a badge Please do add #thesatsesh badge. You can do this by copying and pasting the badge code into the text/HTML area of your post within your publishing platform and its located in my side bar for your ease.
  • Tweet Share your posts on Twitter using the linky hashtag #thesatsesh and tag us in for retweets @fridgesays @mummy_mindful. Follow us if you don’t already please.
  • Comment sit back, relax (its the weekend after all). Please use #thesatsesh and in usual linky etiquette comment on each of the hosts posts, mine and Hayleys, the post before and after yours. If you comment on more, that would be wonderful but FOUR is more than enough
  • Following the rules means you may qualify for our featured blogger announced weekly, plus this linky is run by school teachers so detention for anyone that doesn’t. 

OPTIONAL EXTRA: Come and play in our IG community by using #thesatsesh for photos of your weekend or perhaps connected to a post you’ve linked. Follow us on Instagram @fridgesays and @mission_mindfulness_blog and we will keep up to date and follow you back.

Click the blue badge below and you are on your way 🙂 Have a lovely week

Example is leadership #2 Davina McCall

~ Fridgesays ~ 21 Comments

As we move on with my series, please recap by Clicking for an introduction  to understand what this series is and why I’ve chosen to create it.

I feel a little behind when introducing this UK star, as the BBC did a ‘who do you think you are?’ programme on her (the TV series look into the ancestry of famous peeps), however I have always adored her and even more so since listening to her on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 recently, I actually listened to the podcast version and would totally recommend Davina’s.

Davina McCall was born in 1967 and I have to sit down whilst writing that this means she is half a century, she could give most twenty somethings a run for their money.

 

Davina was the first Big Brother presenter when it first aired in 2001, I was a fan of the first few series but mainly I tuned in to see DM. I also loved her on a show called ‘street mate’ where she would hook couples together on the street. I loved her sense of humour, her presenting skills are in my opinion superior and frankly she has always rocked her locks.

But that isn’t why she has made it into this series, nor is it her traumatic and toxic childhood, or her own battle with narcotics. Don’t get me wrong, these aspects intrigue me (we all like a happy ending) but its her own self doubt and ability to over come it that really makes her sparkle for me. In February 2014, Davina undertook a challenge called ‘Davina – Beyond Breaking Point’,  she also recorded a documentary during seven days of either running, swimming or cycling across the UK to raise money for the UK charity Sports relief. In my initial post I mentioned my distaste for humans, but for me Mrs M seems to epically rock ‘fragile vulnerability’ that consumes so many people. She has complete self doubt, prepares and does it anyway….as an onlooker, it would appear to me that she seems to thrives off of anxiety and I think she often surprises herself with her capabilities, and I like that level of sincerity. I’m not a DVD fitness fan – but I’d buy hers just to watch her smile and seriously, her abdominals are awesome. Not bad for a woman who has battled many dark corners of life.

Her ability to test her body, be a Mum and also have a clear sense of who she is makes her a national treasure. She is relatable and I imagine living with her is much like the Green day track: walking contradiction, she is both weak and strong, sensitive and blunt, fierce and fragile, focused and usually turns up late. Some how though, she gets the balance just right and it works. 

The Saturday Sesh #13

~ Fridgesays ~ Leave a comment

img_2899Welcome to week 13 of #thesatsesh and despite my kitchen becoming mainly brick dust, working more than a zillion hours this week (and a school trip this Saturday 🙂 the week picked up, mainly thanks to my son getting a fabulous award in his celebration assembly. We were invited to attend this morning and I was lucky that my employer found cover for me at a moments notice, so I could be the proud Mamma as my son collected his certificate and shook the hands of his Headmistress. It always surprises me how emotional I am when it comes to his achievements –  I just melt, which is odd for me as usually I’m extremely non-sentimental and ultimately lack any emotional response to most situations.

As always this week Hayley has picked her featured blogger so you can click the link and check out her choice, but not before reading about mine. Week 12 was competitive and I had many options – I went for Kel’s post from School Shop Run who wrote about the price tag thats attached to Christmas adverts. I have say it isn’t something that I have ever thought about, and I am a lover of John Lewis at Home…the shopping aisles are like a little bit of home style heaven…but then Kel but a spin on the ‘cost of Christmas’ and I have say it made me think about where I shop and how we respond to Christmas advertising… the challenge to be no.1 is verging on desperate and perhaps monetising Christmas takes something from the true message of the festival? I’m not sure I’ve fully made my mind up on the dilemma but I totally recommend clicking the link above and reading this bloggers review, she has a unique way of breaking down issues and Kel from School shop Run is someone I’ll look forward to reading again.

If you are joining us for week thirteen, please follow the rules, Hayley and myself will be approaching blogger that rule break, it really isn’t okay to link and run…commenting is essential and badging up is good linky practice. If you have joined us and haven’t received the comments you should have, please let us know.

 RULES:

  • Link up You can link up to 2 posts, old or new
  • Grab a badge Please do add #thesatsesh badge. You can do this by copying and pasting the badge code into the text/HTML area of your post within your publishing platform and its located in my side bar for your ease.
  • Tweet Share your posts on Twitter using the linky hashtag #thesatsesh and tag us in for retweets @fridgesays @mummy_mindful. Follow us if you don’t already please.
  • Comment sit back, relax (its the weekend after all). Please use #thesatsesh and in usual linky etiquette comment on each of the hosts posts, mine and Hayleys, the post before and after yours. If you comment on more, that would be wonderful but FOUR is more than enough
  • Following the rules means you may qualify for our featured blogger announced weekly, plus this linky is run by school teachers so detention for anyone that doesn’t. 

OPTIONAL EXTRA: Come and play in our IG community by using #thesatsesh for photos of your weekend or perhaps connected to a post you’ve linked. Follow us on Instagram @fridgesays and @mission_mindfulness_blog and we will keep up to date and follow you back.

Click the blue box to link and share #thesatsesh love 🙂

Never be a prisoner of your past, it was just a lesson not a life sentence

~ Fridgesays ~ 32 Comments

I’m not sure who this quote is by, but it seems to have a Hindu / Urdu meaning and this just makes it even cooler for me. 

We blame ourselves for past behaviours, but actually no matter how poorly we behaved, we did it in the moment with little thought of the repercussions. Many of the things we do as humans are often unkind (seriously take a look at the rate we are destroying planet earth) and yet we are also unaware of the how our behaviour both positive and negative can have on others. I once saw a girl in my school and asked if she was ok. I wasn’t particularly worried about her, but she didn’t look herself, it was a thirty second conversation. Several days later I found out through her form tutor that she had opened up about our brief conversation, until I had noticed she had felt totally unloved and disregarded…this time my words healed. I had no idea. 

I also can remember a time I allowed a man in my life to make me feel small, insignificant and he totally discounted my feelings and my heart. Luckily I later realised he wasn’t worthy of my time, love or energy. Sadly, he was probably reflecting his own faults on me and I allowed this. He had no idea. 

What’s my point? It’s that we totally underestimate the power of words, actions and our daily vibrations that we put out to the world, not just negative but also positive. We harber events in our lives and hold on to them for too long. Turning our minds in to lost property boxes full of ‘could have, should have’ regrets and empty promises. 

Life really is a journey and one that we are so blessed to take. Some of us experience horrendous things that others couldn’t imagine…but that doesn’t make us hideous, it was just events of that moment in time, lessons not life sentences.So how do we stop this cycle of hurt? unlike a prison sentence we learn from them.

  •  I will never let a man or woman make me feel anything other than fabulous. 
  • I will never underestimate the power of asking someone if they are ok 
  • I will always take the time to listen to their responses – this is living and inturn enhances our positive vibration. 

Each day as I work towards being kinder to my family and friends I also need to be kinder to me. Perhaps I didn’t react the way I’d liked in any given situation the day before, may be I wasn’t the best me I could be. This isn’t a life sentence. This is me and all I am required to do is live better each day and not repeat the same mistakes once I’ve recognised them, which sounds easier than actioned, So be kind to you today and let the past go, it might just be your ‘get out of jail free card’ to a better quality of life.  

The Saturday Sesh #12

~ Fridgesays ~ 2 Comments

Welcome to another link up with #thesatsesh crew. I have to say this week was slightly gentler on my soul, but sadly my heart was cracked with a close family bereavement. However, one blessing that grief does give you is the privilege of knowing that person. She was a huge character in our family and although she will be dearly missed, I know this means she was dearly treasured and loved…thats a good life.

My featured blogger for this week is Mac from reflections from me click the link and read all about her dilemma of putting her children lives on social media. As a online writer and in my day job working with vulnerable children and child protection, this is an issue close to my heart. Like Mac, I too have come to my own conclusion. I’m not sure there is an answer for all, but for each blog ‘style’ and personality behind the blog I think we all draw conclusions that are right for us. Hayley from Mission Mindfulness has also picked a featured blogger and its a seriously good choice. *Mac, please grab a featured blogger badge from my sidebar, we loved your post….and for everyone else lets click the blue badge at the bottom of this post to link and love 🙂 Thanks to all of our regular bloggers for returning, you are never taken for granted.

RULES:

  • Link up You can link up to 2 posts, old or new
  • Grab a badge Please do add #thesatsesh badge. You can do this by copying and pasting the badge code into the text/HTML area of your post within your publishing platform and its located in my side bar for your ease. Also you will n
  • Tweet Share your posts on Twitter using the linky hashtag #thesatsesh and tag us in for retweets @fridgesays @mummy_mindful. Follow us if you don’t already please.
  • Comment sit back, relax (its the weekend after all). Please use #thesatsesh and in usual linky etiquette comment on each of the hosts posts, mine and Hayleys, the post before and after yours. If you comment on more, that would be wonderful but FOUR is more than enough
  • Following the rules means you may qualify for our featured blogger announced weekly, plus this linky is run by school teachers so detention for anyone that doesn’t. 

OPTIONAL EXTRA: Come and play in our IG community by using #thesatsesh for photos of your weekend or perhaps connected to a post you’ve linked. Follow us on Instagram @fridgesays and @mission_mindfulness_blog and we will keep up to date and follow you back.

Example is Leadership #1 The old man at the bus stop

~ Fridgesays ~ 29 Comments

A new series with an Introduction to click and read which will hopefully clarify why I am writing about my role models.

I probably should begin with a superstar or a more relatable character, I should also probably have picked someone in my own life who’s name I can recall…alas I have always been a limited edition crayon in the box and have decided to pick The man at the bus stop.

It was around 1998-1999 and I was studying for my A levels, I usually caught a lift with a friend of mine who was on similar courses to me, however as luck would have it there were a couple of occasions when our timetables didn’t synchronise and I would have to get the bus alone. The late nineties were also a time when the walkman was dead, the iPod not yet invented and the mobile phone was a brick…so I usually had on me my CD player for company (for some reason electric devices make us humans feel less alone?), now the CD player for your ‘on the go’ listening needs was, well also crap and you had to hold the player flat so the CD could spin around without skipping. At the bus stop was an old man and he made a joke about my CD player and the fact that it was frustrating me. Raised well, I promptly placed the crap device in my ‘record bag’ (oh the irony) and chatted to him. He explained that he was getting the same bus as me, as on a Thursday he always went to the local day centre. He gets fed for a fiver and basically loves attention from all the ladies. He lived in the elderly peoples home opposite the bus stop and over the coming weeks I would look forward to our chats. At the time I did know his name and he would greet me with “Good morning, I love Lucy” a reference to a black and white American sitcom that I vaguely knew of. We would jump on the bus together and he would chat about what he had been up to and which ‘young’ lady he was hoping to sit next to that day at the day centre. It was during these chats that he would often apologise that he wouldn’t be at the bus stop because of one commitment or another, often it was due to travel – he loved cruises and would come back a week or so later with a tan to die for and tell me about all the ladies he had danced with, the cuisine he had tasted (always better than the food in the retirement home) and the places he had seen. He was a gentleman and a dapper dresser, he was in his late eighties and he taught me a valuable lesson, to never stop living or dancing. In contrast he would also tell me about all the ‘dead’ people that he had left behind in his care home, I wouldn’t always know how to react and he would make me laugh by saying something like ‘don’t worry they will still be asleep in the same chair when I get home”. I promised him that I would keep dancing and its a promise that I will keep until I’m as young as him.

He was also the first man to give me a regret, one that I have been able to let go of as I know he wouldn’t of minded.

The Birthday Bash

He invited me to his 90th birthday party and I didn’t go. I didn’t go because I was seventeen and too cool for my own good, I didn’t go because I thought my friends would think I was weird….I wish I had gone.

A few weeks after his ninetieth birthday he wasn’t at the bus stop. Nor the next week, I knew he wasn’t on a cruise as he would of told me and so I remember vividly speaking to my Mum about it. She advised that I pop into the home and ask if he was ill etc. I knew from our bus jaunts that he was widowed and didn’t have any children / family. I 100% planned to take my Mums advice – seriously if that woman says ‘take a coat’ you know a tsunami is going to hit London, however on the morning that I had planned to ‘pop over’ I noticed his window had altered. The once beige curtains were floral and a vase sat in the centre of the window sill. I didn’t need to ask.

I will always smile when I see a man in freshly polished brogues and I will never forget the wisdom and life he maintained until our last stop together.

 

 

 

The Saturday Sesh #11

~ Fridgesays ~ 2 Comments

This week I’m feeling victorious, its been a non stop week of surprises that weren’t exactly about candy BUT I survived. It was the first week back after half term and by the end of day one, feeling refreshed and revived – the call came, OFSTED were coming to play. If you’ve never experienced her majesties inspection then imagine the Queen its popping around herself and you are almost there, you dust in places you didn’t know dust could get into and the Queen then comments on all of the dust that you’ve missed, rejects your sandwiches and lets her Corgi’s pooh on your lawn. Its horrendous. This was followed by trick or treating, a bombardment of requests from my sons school (in preparation for the Christmas Fair) and yesterday I worked until 7pm because it was year eleven parents evening… Id like to say I came home to rest, but this weekend we are ripping the kitchen out, so with a deep breath I am keeping my head down and praying to have a dream kitchen ASAP. (phew)

This week the cheeky Hayley was talking about picking two featured bloggers, feel free to click to her site to see who her heart was torn between. During planning, marking and trying to run a home I did enjoy reading week ten’s posts. Its a pleasant distraction and therefore its no surprise that my featured blogger was Eva at Captain Bob Cat , if you click the link you can also read her ten top tips for flying with small children. Her post instantly took me back to Summer and our family vacation – I have to say buying J a Trunki was my life saver and defo top tip. He loved it in the airport, it wasn’t too huge on the plane and then he used it as a ride on toy around our hotel room whilst we were away. I love posts that make me think of fond memories and dream about creating more…do you have any Summer plan’s for 2018 up you sleeve? If so, and you are traveling with little people check out Eva’s post – seriously, her vibe is eco friendly and super cool. Its a lovely blog and she writes with honesty and integrity.

Okay now the RULES for this weeks linky, remember to share the linky with other talented bloggers 🙂

  • Link up You can link up to 2 posts, old or new
  • Grab a badge Please do add #thesatsesh badge. You can do this by copying and pasting the badge code into the text/HTML area of your post within your publishing platform and its located in my side bar for your ease.
  • Tweet Share your posts on Twitter using the linky hashtag #thesatsesh and tag us in for retweets @fridgesays @mummy_mindful. Follow us if you don’t already please.
  • Comment sit back, relax (its the weekend after all). Please use #thesatsesh and in usual linky etiquette comment on each of the hosts posts, mine and Hayleys, the post before and after yours. If you comment on more, that would be wonderful but FOUR is more than enough
  • Following the rules means you may qualify for our featured blogger announced weekly, plus this linky is run by school teachers so detention for anyone that doesn’t. 

OPTIONAL EXTRA: Come and play in our IG community by using #thesatsesh for photos of your weekend or perhaps connected to a post you’ve linked. Follow us on Instagram @fridgesays and @mission_mindfulness_blog and we will keep up to date and follow you back.

Now hit the blue box below and link up!