A Mother’s Love, Wonder Woman and Holiday Memories – #LittleLoves

Welcome back to Little Loves, and to Wellies on the School Run generally – I’ve been having a little blog break over the October holidays and I have to say it’s been lovely to spend a couple of weeks just focusing on family and spending very little time whatsoever on social media or my phone. One of the consequences of blogging is a lot of time spent online both writing your own blogs and reading other peoples’ – something I generally really enjoy doing, but that does tend to keep your mind switched to ‘on’ for a large portion of your time. During our week away I decided to have a complete break from everything so that I could be present with what we were doing without worrying about sharing photos, replying to comments, or otherwise letting outside world distractions impinge on the precious time we had together. The only things I used my phone for were taking pictures, What’s Apping our families, checking out sightseeing locations – and giving very bad directions.  We all really benefited from a digital detox and I think in future I’ll try to take a step back a bit more regularly. In the meantime though, I’m happy to be back to the blogosphere, and I can’t wait to share some of my little loves with you all again 🙂

READ

All that time not blogging while I was on holiday meant I had plenty of time to sit and chill out by the pool while the kids were playing. That meant I got to read ALL the books I had taken on holiday, and I’ll do a full round up of them in my Reading Lately post later in the month. For now, though, just to say that A Mother’s Love, the story of right-to-die advocate Brittany Maynard, is AMAZING. Brittany’s life, and subsequent death, made headlines all over the world when she chose to move state so that she could end her life peacefully after being struck down with a fatal brain tumor. In the book, her Mother, Deborah, shares their story, flicking between Brittany’s early years and the final few months of her precious daughter’s life. Their story is told so beautifully and honestly that I could barely put it down, and when I finished reading it, I felt so raw that it took me quite a while to get into anything else. It’s a story that will stay with you for a very long time and the most powerful book I’ve read in ages. Light reading it is not – a story that deserves to be heard it most definitely should be.

WATCHED

We didn’t do much watching while we were away on holiday, apart from raiding the villa’s DVD pile occasionally after sundown (Hitch, anyone? You’ve got to love a bit of 2005 Will Smith). On our return home we were shocked by how quickly the dark evenings had arrived and quickly set about scouring Amazon and Netflix for new things to enjoy. Wonder Woman appeared to fit the bill and everyone in the family really liked it. It seemed to satisfy that tricky balance of appealing to both the adults and the kids (our’s are at that awkward age where films are often too babyish or just that little bit too grown up). If you’re looking for a family film with slightly older children, I’d recommend it. (P.S. the common sense media website is fab if you’re looking for details on a movie’s suitability for your brood).

HEARD

Surprise, surprise, we didn’t do much listening – except to each other – while we were on holiday, but on the way home we did enjoy some of the playlists that come with our Amazon Music membership through Amazon Prime. We decided to save a bit of money recently and ditch our beloved Spotify 🙁  – the selection on Amazon is actually pretty good though and some of the playlists included with Prime on there are also really fab!

WORE

On holiday, I spent most of my time in shorts and a tankini – not that you’d really know it – my legs have merely gone from their usual shade of chalk white to somewhere around milk bottle (unfortunately my sun deprived Scottish skin takes a very long time to tan)!  Enter my favourite gradual self tanning product, Skinny Tan, which gives me a lovely healthy glow whenever I want it (and doesn’t contain any nasty parabens). I slapped some on as soon as I got home from holiday so I might look just a little bit like I’d been away. If only it could cover up mosquito bites it would be all round perfection. I am currently covered in the pesky things so I doubt my legs, tanned or otherwise, will be getting an airing any time soon.

MADE

I made a little highlights video of our holiday last week – I don’t think you’ll ever find me vlogging, but I do like making short movies to remember some of the special times we’ve had. They are a pain to put together but the end result is always worth it. If you have a spare 4 minutes and a cuppa feel free to have a nosy – expect lots of sunny sights and children cannonballing into the pool.

AND LASTLY

You might remember me mentioning that I was afraid of flying before my holidays and had even undertaken digital hypnosis to try to allay my fears. I’m happy to report that our holiday marked my best ever flying experience, and my anxiety levels during the run up to our holiday and the flights themselves were really very low. I even managed a trip to the toilet (get me!) and a look at some stunning scenery from the window. I’m confident I didn’t pass any nerves on to my children and most importantly, I’m now busy planning where we can get away to again next year!

That’s it for this week’s Little Loves roundup, I hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve been reading, watching, hearing, wearing and making in the space of 1000 words. If you did, I’ll see you here again in seven days or so?   Until then, I hope you have a fun filled week packed with lots of Little Loves of your own 🙂

Gx

* This post contains affiliate links which means that I will receive commission should you choose to purchase something via them. This enables me to earn a small income from the time I spend on blogging and does not in any way affect the price you pay.