265: Fill in The Blanks Friday

(Joining with Lauren from the Little Things We Do)

1. Something I am very proud of is my cousin, like a lot of young people her age she is heading off to university in the next few weeks to study Psychology – rock on! I was telling Connect Group on Wednesday that I remember holding her the day she was born (or it was the day after she was born – I just remember she was little even in my 9 year old arms lol).

2. My favourite thing about myself is my organisational skills. Okay so if you saw this picture from my Instagram or how messy my room is at the moment you wouldn’t believe me but I can juggle three diaries and I’m pretty good at making sure we’re in the right place at the right time.

3. My favourite colour for fall is clothes wise is probably purple. Then again I don’t really dress in set colours for set seasons – I just go with what I want to wear each day (is that really boring?).

4. Something I’ve been learning lately is remember to trust in God, don’t stress about the future because he’s got the plans!

5. A book I am reading now/have read recently is “From Blah to Awe” by Jenna Lucado Bishop. I think it’s technically for teenage girls but I’m a girl and I’m in my twenties – I can still be a teen right? (When I’m not being a 26 year old Foster Mum lol)

6. My favourite Pandora Station is well, I don’t use Pandora. If I’m in the car chances are I either have a CD on or BBC Radio 2. Occasionally I flick over to BBC Radio 1 but it tends to be for the chart on a Sunday afternoon if we’re still in the car. At home I have UCB on and at work we have had BBC Radio 2 on this week at Scott Mills has been on the Breakfast show – I’m not sure if we’re going back to it next week when Nick Grimshaw takes over the Breakfast Show from Chris Moyles.

7. This weekend I will be having lunch with my friend from school who I haven’t seen properly in about a year – I’ve bumped into him in town or while he’s at work but that’s about it. I’m then helping with the Mother/Daughter event at The Fountain.

264: Be Happy!

So true right now.

So many thoughts running through my head and trying to remember to hand the stresses over to God and not worry about things.

He’s got it in hand and he’s got a plan, the new job with come when it’s supposed to, the stuff with Our Sidekick will settle and be sorted when it needs to be. He’s got a plan, not to hurt me or cause me pain but to give me a hope and a future (paraphrased Jeremiah 29:11).

It’ll happen in time, for now I’ll dance to worship songs and sing at the top of my lungs while driving to and from work.

Then when I’m focusing I listen to the music. I pray for those around me. I pray for my friends and for those I’m having a falling out with.

Standing up for what you believe in, isn’t always the easiest route, the people who think know you might turn against you because you’re standing up and saying “this is what I believe”.

263: Guest Post: Desert Island Books

Sometimes an idea starts one way and transforms into something else and this is that idea. I asked Sally-Jayne via Twitter “Which five books would you take with you to a desert island”, I don’t listen to BBC Radio 4 but there is a whole show based on the premise which records would you take with you to a desert island (Can I just take my iPod and a generator?) so I thought about books – I love reading, I know quite a lot of people who also like reading so let’s do this thing.

Which five books would I take to a desert island?

Tough one! I’m not really one for reading books again – there are so many books in the world that I haven’t read yet, that I never want to waste time reading books for a second time. So….I’d need to take five books I’ve never read that I know I would read. With only five there is no room for anything that might turn out to be a bit of a turkey.

The first one I would take is Révélation, which is the 4^th book in the Twilight series (in French). It took me a long way to plough my way through the first three because I kept putting them on one side to read something faster paced. If I took it to a desert island I would have no excuse not to get on with it!

I think my second book would be Stephen King’s 11.22.63. I’m a big fan of Stephen King, and although some of his books have turned out to be disappointing, he has written some great ones and I have been told that this is one of his best. It’s on my TBR pile and it looks quite a chunky one so it should last me a while.

I’m going to cheat with my 3^rd one and claim all of The Vampire Diaries as one book. Well, my biggest fear is having nothing to read, and you don’t want me having a panic attack now do you? I have Las Crónicas Vampiricas (in Spanish) on my shelf and I’m guessing they will be as slow-paced as Twilight so I’d need to be away from other reading material to stop myself putting them off.

After that I’d need something fast-paced again, so I’d pick up a Harlan Coben maybe. I have Miracle Cure on my TBR pile so that would do just fine.

For my last book I’d want something I could be confident would last me until I got rescued, so I think I would have to go with the OED.

To see what else I like to read, and for recommendations for books for all the family why not pay a visit to my blog?

262: To Step Out The Boat or Stay Put

I’ve been thinking about jobs, careers and things like that a lot recently. I’ve been in my current job for about four years and although it’s okay, it’s not what I want to be doing forever and eternity. I’ve polished up my CV and sent it out for a few jobs but nothing’s really happened.

I got thinking about self-employment and whether I had what it takes to be self-employed. It kind of runs in my veins with both of my Grandfathers being self-employed and my Mum and Uncle are both self-employed but at the same time do I have the motivation, direction and determination to be my own boss.

Click for Source

While I work in an office I have a level of accountability to get on with my work and not get distracted by other things. If I worked at home would I get distracted by the cleaning and things like that? Then again by being at home to work would I get more stuff done because the house would need to be tidy for me to work. Then we have the whole thing about space – do I work in the shed? It’s got electric so it would just need tidying up and during the winter I could have a fan heater on and thermal pants if required.

Then there’s things like what do I need to do to get started, do I take a week off on holiday from my day job to see if I can behave myself and do the self-employed thing, do I work and save up money to create an emergency fund of sorts to top up my earnings to cover bills if I don’t have enough (then again as sensible from an economic/business mind, does this mean I’m not trusting that God would provide for me – then that’s a whole other theological conversation to be having for another day I think!)

Then I think about technology – will my MacBook cope with being used 20+ hours a week and if I need to replace it do I go for a MacBook (with Office for Mac as that seems to be a bit of a need) or do I replace it with a Windows based laptop with Office (guess which is the preference!)

This evening after work I went to chat to my Mum and she gave me a list of things to do and ideas to come up with. Some including getting extra IT qualifications under my belt so I can show what level of skill I have when it comes to things like Excel and Word rather than just saying I’m an Advanced User. I’ve done two free courses online this evening (two x 40 minute assessments that I did in about 20 minutes total) I could apply for the certificates but it was like £15 for two hard copies – can’t they just send a PDF so I could print it myself? Oh well.

If you’re self-employed how did you end up doing that rather than working for “the man”? Would you go back to working for “the man” or would you do your best to stay self-employed?

261: Dear Monday

Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Chris, we’ve had disagreements this weekend but Saturday night’s mammoth chat unwrinkled some of them and will hopefully sort out the rest in time which is good. Thank you.

Dear Our Sidekick, we’re off to the dentist this afternoon – have you been cleaning your teeth?

Dear Colleagues, thank you for making my morning. Had it been any of you lot I would have probably done exactly the same.

Dear Lady who reversed into my car, I’m still not 100% sure how you couldn’t see my car while reversing out of your driveway – it’s mean and green you can’t miss it. Well clearly you really can’t miss it.

Dear JD, you start your new job tomorrow and I am stupidly excited for you! It’s about time too! Stupid economy meaning getting new jobs is super hard grr!

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