My Month: August 2015

I was planning on having this published on Monday, but circumstances conspired against me and this morning I was frantically cleaning the house for our “teacher home visit”!

I’ve been wanting to do a monthly summary post for a while, so this is August 2015’s….

Miss NHM

Is growing into a wonderful little girl. She’s been very affectionate recently and I’ve been getting lots of hugs and kisses which has been awesome. She tells me all the time that she loves me which I can’t quite describe how awesome it is! Mr NHM has gone back on shift after 6 weeks off after his latest knee operation so I’ve had a lot more time with just Miss NHM and I.

We had a fab time catching up with S and K, who we met through the NHM “Shift Meet Up’s”, at the Taste Festival at the top of town. It’s been lovely to catch up with them every month and do something fun together. Being a “shift” parent can sometimes be hard because most other families are busy having “family time” on the weekends, so it’s nice to meet up with another family who “get” it.

During the past weekend I wanted to go out for a day out somewhere but Miss NHM was having none of it. She wanted to stay home and play with her toys and listen to her audio books! I didn’t feel I could argue and saying that I wanted to go out so I could write a Review for NHM didn’t really cut it! lol.

I hadn’t expected her to be quite so clear of what she wanted to do at four and a quarter years old! lol. She’s very strong willed (no idea where she gets it from <blush>) and knows what she wants which is absolutely brilliant, even if it does make it hard to parent her sometimes for this exact same reason.

I’m also very proud of how she is enjoying her books. It’s very important to me that she has a love of books like I have. Miss NHM will happily take herself off to her room for an hour so she can “read” her books or listen to an Audio book and read along at the same time. Although I was a little shocked when I told her to turn her music down so she shut the door on me!!! It really is like living with a teenager already!

We are also getting into slightly scary territory. The questions Miss NHM has started asking me are keeping me on my toes already! I hadn’t expected to be having philosophical questions with my four year old and trying to explain them. Oh and recently she’s started with “it’s boooorrrinnngg Mum!”. Not only am I not Mummy any more but I hadn’t expected the boring moaning to start just yet! lol.

What I’m reading

Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

This is quite a tough book to read as it was written over 80 years ago. However, nearly EVERY page has something of value in it. I think that’s partly why it’s tough to read, because you have to concentrate so you don’t miss anything.

The life-changing magic of tidying up – Marie Kondo

I heard about the KonMari method via one of my favourite blogs, Modern Mrs Darcy. Anne has a great post which explains the basics of the KonMari method but I wanted to read the book to understand the nuances.

It’s a fab little book. Very easy to read and I literally wanted to start “tidying up” after I finished the first chapter! I sorted my wardrobe out the next day and it looks FAB! I am so happy with the result. I had no idea how many items of clothing I was hanging onto for emotional reasons.

I asked Mr NHM to read it and even he’s read half of it and has the “tidying up” bug! lol.

What I’m listening too

These days I rarely listen to music in the car. I have put together my “car library” which has cd’s full of motivational and development cd’s. It makes my journey to work a LOT more enjoyable. I also want Miss NHM to be exposed to these cd’s as I think they will have an impact on her life. She doesn’t always ask me to switch to “bare necessities” these days ;-).

The Art of Exceptional Living – Jim Rohn

I love Jim Rohn’s cd’s. He is a great speaker and makes some very excellent points in all his lectures. The Art of Exceptional Living is a brilliant set of CD’s and I’m thoroughly enjoying listening to them.

The point of this post is because one of the ideas that he has is you should “share”. I do this anyway, via NorthHantsMum, but thought it might be nice to share some of the things I’ve been reading and listening with you, in the spirit of what Jim says.

What have you been reading or listening too recently that has improved your life?

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My Experience