What Not To Worry About #10

Happy Monday folks! I hope you had a slow weekend filled with lots of tea and a fair bit of cosying underneath plenty of blankets. It was a wet one in these parts but we made the most of it with an impromptu road trip up the Glens of Antrim that ended with a night of games with friends in Portrush. It's the unexpected nights that can be some of the best especially in the middle of winter and we fell in to bed at 1am wrecked and happy. Sunday was a much slower affair and which was mostly spent mooching about the house in slippers covered in flour. I went full Mary Berry and baked scones, wheaten bread AND protein balls. AND made a batch of soup. AND made some jambalaya. Serious housewife skillz. We then had some friends round to try and offload as many baked good as possible before I hopped in the bath to wind down an already pretty peachy Sunday. I've picked up the 'What Not To Worry About' series for 2017 and have chosen a few things I am choosing to let go of this week. Here goes... Buying the most beautiful diary for 2017 and then only using it until February Oh how I love to flip through the pages of beautiful diaries in Paperchase. I stand in the aisle for an age, convincing myself that spending a small fortune on blank pages will mean a future so organised and seamless that I will be sure to have my shit together by the end of the year. I start off with great intentions; I write weekly goal lists, monitor my daily intake of Haribo and remind myself of the things I was supposed to do yesterday. The thing is, I forget about the bloody thing after a month and it lies in my beside table drawer until the end of the year when I clearly do not have my shit together. Some people are fabulous planners and there’s people like me who try to be fabulous planners but will forever rely on scribbles on hands or on the memories of others. I try not to feel bad about it and instead I carry around a notebook that I can scrawl on instead of guiltily throwing away a beautiful diary that can’t even be re-used the next year. Attempting to de-clutter for the New Year but spend hours cross-legged reminiscing over old photo albums and laughing at your terrible fashion choices It is a known fact that when you begin to clear out old paperwork, unused body products you got for Christmas 5 years ago or trying (and failing) to create a capsule wardrobe for the thousandth time, you are instantly drawn to old photo albums that you “completely forgot about” since the last annual clear out. You will call out to everyone in your house to come and see how ridiculous you looked in your Tammy Girl halter top that you wore to your first disco and which you expertly coordinated with your Collection 2000 lilac eye shadow. You will take lots of photos of your phone to send to your mates or for a #tbt Insta upload. After a few hours of this you will realise that you have ran out of time to throw anything away and everything will be shoved back to their original pile until next year’s attempt. REALISING PEOPLE BORN IN 2000 CAN DRIVE THIS YEAR!!!! Eh, what? Sure the Millennium was only the other year was it not?!! I remember it well of course since it was the year I played one of the lead roles in my P7 school play that was to be my farewell performance. I played the Narrator and I wore a silver top hat with matching waistcoat along with crimped hair (obvs) and comb-through hair glitter. Needless to say it was a great year for the arts but when I think of anyone born in 2000 I imagine that they’re still bottle-fed. I am coming to terms with being reminded that I am getting older along with everyone else and that I am doomed to forever look on in horror at the young things wearing denim hotpants. Kids these days. Crying at children’s movies Have you seen the Irish animated movie ‘Song of the Sea’? If not then you better get on it. I watched it when I was off sick late last year and I sat on the edge of the sofa with my eyes brimming with tears throughout. The film was beautifully hand drawn with the sweetest storyline and even sweeter music (the title track is sang by my girl crush Lisa Hannigan) that pulled at my Celtic heartstrings. Of course with the goddess Macha being an important character in the film and me being from Armagh (which in Gaelic means “Macha’s Heights”), I was destined to fall in love. Please watch it when you have a moment to weep at something truly exquisite. Shaving Legs A highly unnecessary task in winter if you ask me. Now there may be some gentlemen reading who are not fond of the fuzzy leg but let me tell you when it comes to the depths of January and limbs are covered pretty much 24 hours a day then there is no point in subjecting ourselves to this godawful borefest. Don’t get me wrong, I do shave them… sometimes…like every other week or something so I’m not a complete ape underneath these skinny jeans but really we should enjoy the hairy moments while we can. And that's the line-up of useless things to give a crap about. I hope you are able to take this strategy through the week and let go of the unnecessary worries that might be weighing you down - a lighter mind is a lot easier to carry around! Have a great one! xx