Meatless Monday {2020 - week 16}

So here we are: week 16 of 2020’s Meatless Mondays… 2nd week of being furloughed and getting into the swing of our routine, with walks or extended gardening everyday, along with yoga and generally (touch wood) good sleep, we are living the good life and appreciating this time as a family…

Here’s what we wore:

This week this is more what we did and what we wore in one 🙂

Me: Vest: Primark, Long Sleeve Top : GAP, Cardigan: FatFace (thrifted), Jeans: Gap, Shoes: Clarks

Boys: Long Sleeve Tops, Jumpers and Trousers: thrifted or gifted from various sources, Vests: Tescos, Shoes: Clarks

What’s in my ears:

I have been following Sara Blakely for a while now on Instagram and I find her a really inspiring person on there so thought I would look up a podcast to listen to with her in this week and this is the one I found and listened to :)…

The founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely didn’t know the first thing about the pantyhose industry (or business for that matter) when she launched her company. She had only one source to operate from: her gut. Blakely believed her invention would help millions of women, and she was right. Her passion and dedication has made her a billionaire.
Success Talks Podcast

There were some real good nuggets of advice throughout this interview which really stuck with me:

When she was growing up her Dad would ask her and her brother at the dinner table “What did you fail at this week?” and if they didn’t have anything he would almost be disappointed in that but when they did have something he would high 5 them, meaning that he managed to shift their perception from an impressionable age to not be scared of failure and in fact to embrace it as the norm. I think this is such an interesting parenting strategy and such a good attitude for life 🙂
The most important thing for personal development in her experience is to factor think time into her day, undisturbed, to just be alone with her thoughts and plan what’s next, this is something I can definitely relate to and something which I have recently implemented too with my first cuppa of the day alone in the garden, which is such an important time to me and really does set me up for the rest of the day 🙂
She got her big break when Oprah announced publicly that she loved Spanks, so she Sara has created a programme called “leg up” where she features female entrepreneurs on her feed to give them their big break too, she sees this as playing forward her Oprah moment, I just this is such a wonderful way to honour and be grateful for what happened to her in such a real way 🙂
Personal development and learning to like yourself is the greatest gift which you can give yourself – I love this and so agree.
Her life motto is “the more you experience in life the more you have to offer others”

What an interesting and inspiring lady, I am definitely going to be looking up more of her stuff going forward 🙂

Here’s my week in 4:

1. Daily Walks or Gardening: I started this off from the first week of being furloughed and we have religiously done it every day ever since and I have to say it has been a game changer. Only one of the days we have had a gardening day in exchange for a walk, every other day we have been out for at least 1 hrs walk, myself and the boys. Before this all began I knew, on my home days, that I always felt better for getting out of the house and going anywhere really with the boys, its one of those bizarre contradictions of parenthood, that before you become a parent and you are working full time you dream of days at home pottering, but the reality can feel quite trapping (for me anyway) and I end up often loosing any drive to get stuff done in the house and my mood drops and I just feel overwhelmed. This is why I go for the “if in doubt, go out” mantra. A change of scene really does work wonders. In isolation, I felt initially like this choice had been taken away from me and I could see the old patterns kicking in with my mental reaction, then I discovered daily walks, and quickly realised that this gave me that same sense of freedom and change of scene. It also is improving our fitness, giving us all fresh air and exercise and getting us to really discover our village and surrounding countryside for the first time. I hope this helps you too 🙂

2. Getting dressed like I wasn’t socially isolating: This was a thought which came out of this weeks #next90challenge video, and it made me think, and I have done it more this week and again it has made me feel more like me :), Rachel put it as “carrying on the behaviours which make you feel normal” wherever possible. These are things which I have heard time and time again in listening to entrepreneur’s podcasts and materials around the dream of working from home vs the reality and how when the novelty of it wears off how essential it is to find a routine to your day and working patterns to make the most of your time and your business whilst still having the freedom of expression of working from home and for yourself. The point is you do you, but do the best version of you you can on any given day and it will lift your mood 🙂

3. Missing seeing people in person: This has hit me again this week, it is ongoing as I’m sure it is for all of us right now, and I do struggle to grapple with the concept that we are just not in control at all of when any level of normality will come back. But when I logged on to do our weekly zoom yoga, I was thinking the whole time how nice it would be to be back in the calm of the cabin, greeting each other with huge and meaningful hugs when we arrived and talking about our weeks struggles and joys in person and practising yoga and how much a I miss that and things like that, or meeting up with friends at the cinema all are just not the same digitally, hard as you try. It is nice to communicate with my neighbours through the fence and also greet people at a distance on our walks but I do miss seeing my friends and family in person…I guess it is just a case of focussing constantly on what we are doing is 100% for the greater good and we just have to find digital work arounds where we can and focus on our nuclear families 🙂

4. Family Quiz: Talking of digital work arounds we did another family quiz on Friday on zoom and it was actually so lovely and funny to have a nice group of us all communicating and having a bit of fun, this time we started it after the kids were in bed and that worked a lot better, but we’re hoping to make it weekly going forward I did come away feeling happier and more connected 🙂

Video of the week:

Some more wisdom from the wonderful Elizabeth Gilbert this week in her TED TALK of a few years ago: Your Elusive Creative Genius:

What we ate this week…

Breakfast:

Fresh Tea with milk and honey for my first cuppa in nature in the garden, followed by a cup of water to sip on throughout the morning. Then hot cross buns all round (absolute favourite in our house) and blueberries and raspberries for me with a cup of my fave waitrose tea and blueberries, kiwi and banana and milk for the boys.

Lunch:

The boys had a snack pot for their mid-morning snack of multigrain shapes, sultanas and carrot sticks and I had a pack of cheese and onion discos. Then I did cheese and marmite baguette and fruit for the boys and falafel, pesto mayo and salad for myself. We then had a Go-ahead apple and sultana biscuit and shared a clementine on our afternoon walk up the hill and I had a cup of decaf earl grey and some matchmakers when I got home 🙂

Dinner:

For dinner Cody requested egg with his beans and toast and Ty wanted cheese, so they had something marginally different 🙂 along with some fruit for afters. I had a piece of toast to keep me going whilst I prepped and then leftover mushroom orzo and berries, matchmakers (just a couple – these are definitely my weakness right now) and a cup of rooibos tea 🙂