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You are here: Home / PLAY / Life lately

Life lately

May 12, 2016 by Molly 5 Comments

Toddler sandpit

This wasn’t going to be the post I wrote today but then I started to write another post and I just wasn’t feeling it. Blogger problems.

I’m going through a blogger dip at the moment. A “lull” if you will. I know the signs – in five years of blogging I’ve been here before. The first sign is that everything on the internet really winds me up. The second sign is that places I’ve usually gone to for inspiration online – blogs I love, Instagrammers I admire etc etc – just leave me a bit cold. Rather than inspiring me they leave me twitchy, slightly irritated even. It’s like that feeling you get after you’ve been to the hairdressers when you get hair down your top and you’re a bit itchy and need a shower. You know?

When I’m feeling like this it’s usually a sign that I’m suffering burn out, or haven’t spent enough time just enjoying life generally. I lose sight of the things that matter and get hung up on stupid stuff like Instagram likes or what-not. I mean, no one’s going to lie on their death bed fretting that their Instagram feed wasn’t co-ordinated enough or that the mum down the road had more followers or likes than they did, are they?! It’s stupid stuff that, in the whole scheme of things and the big wide world, really doesn’t matter. I lose sight of that sometimes. Again, blogger problems. 

This post is not meant to be a downer. I’m not about to give up blogging in a puff of dramatic smoke, slamming the door on my way out shouting SCREW YOU INTERNET! Nah, I’m not over blogging. Deep down, I still love it, even if I’m not currently on board with Snapchat.

This little place on the internet has been one I’ve always come back to, it’s stuffed to the brim with happy memories and real life thoughts about things that I’ve cared enough to write about at one time or another. That’s not going to change.

So, this has been my life lately…

Planning

Cup of tea

I’m about to be one of those really annoying people who teases some kind of secret but won’t spill. But the biggest thing in my life right now is planning something that’s happening next month. It’s potentially going to be one of the most scary and rewarding things I’ve ever done and, I hope, will remind me why I started blogging in the first place. More on this to follow, hopefully.

Mumming

Daughters

The girls are at a wonderful stage right now. Baby Girl is starting to say a few words (“ball” “look” “bye bye” and “gone” are her current faves) and Frog keeps coming out with hilarious anecdotes and opinions that make me laugh out loud (“So mum, I’ve decided that [insert boy’s name here] is my BFF but when I said to him ‘How about a kiss?’ he said ‘I don’t think so’ so maybe he’s not my BFF after all. Oh – and I’ve decided I’m leaving home and I’m going to buy my own house. I can afford it can’t I? I mean, I’ve got a hundred quid!” etc).

On Friday night the NLM had a night out at the pub so I treated Frog to her first ever girl’s night in. She turns six at the end of June, so she reckons she’s now old enough to stay up late, wear make-up and date Justin Bieber. We got into our pyjamas, ate pizza in front of Kung Fu Panda on the TV, painted our nails and chatted about all sorts of crazy things that my almost-six year old thinks about on a daily basis. It was cute and, as much as I like my Friday night wine time, it was lovely to hang out with my biggest girl, just the two of us for a change.

Wearing

Day trip to Darmouth

I’ve been on the hunt for some new summer clothes recently and found a lovely new black denim pinafore dress (New Look) that I’ve been pretty much living in, alternating between that and my red culottes from Zara. The Birkenstocks and Saltwaters are also back out. It’s not reliable enough to ditch the coat though (which, by the way, was an eBay find a few months ago – a brand new M&S coat bagged for the princely sum of £2.41 on eBay – win!).

Visiting

 

May Day

Last weekend the NLM and my dad were busy doing the last bits of DIY in our epic bedroom renovation, so me and my mum took the girls to a local village for the May Day celebrations. It was one of those events that I can imagine tourists going cuckoo over, as it was all so quintessentially English. Cream teas, dancing round the maypole, a brass band, Morris dancers, the lot. The sun shone and we had a barbecue when we got home later that evening. Perfect.

And mixed in with all of the above, we’ve been really busy around the house. Outside in the garden we’ve dug and hauled boulders and seeded to make our lawn bigger, create a new vegetable patch at the back of the garden and a herb bed by our patio. It’s so much more kid-friendly now and I love looking out of my office window onto our outside space. Inside, we’ve been busy with our bedroom makeover (SO nearly finished!) and other little jobs around the house – including a cute new Instagram rainbow wall. The next big thing will be the kitchen!

I should probably leave it there as this post has already turned into the longest one known to man.

So, tell me, what have you been up to lately?

Filed Under: PLAY Tagged With: being a mum, Blogging, country life, family life

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Comments

  1. Donna says

    May 12, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    The best thing about this whole post was the use of the word ‘Mumming’. I’ve decided I’m going to use it myself, great word! x

    Reply
  2. Emily says

    May 12, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    Love this post and especially the snippets from your 6yo. Btw, you’d be fab at snapchat #justsayin’

    Reply
  3. Anna International says

    May 12, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    Sounds super busy but lovely Molly! Frog is obviously a smart little lady!

    What I’ve been up to is mainly masses of DIY, wedding planning and loads of freelance editing to pay for both these things. We did squeeze in a lovely weekend on the Suffolk coast for a friend’s wedding though, and today we are off on an epic round the country drive before heading to France on Saturday to buy more wine than I could ever imagine being able to drink (really! And that’s saying something!) for the wedding. And I think someone mentioned free samples?! 🙂 x

    Reply
  4. Kate says

    May 12, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    I have a *TOP SECRET* Project for The Winchettes that I’m busting to tell the world about, but can’t really because then it won’t be an awesome secret……*sigh*……
    So that & drinking ridiculous amounts of coffee are basically my life right now!

    Reply
    • Molly says

      May 13, 2016 at 8:21 am

      Exciting! Can’t wait to hear more. x

      Reply

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Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

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Hello. How are you? . I’ve noticed something th Hello. How are you? 
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I’ve noticed something this lockdown that feels different to first time... the sense of people being more disconnected than ever, more divided, more isolated. 
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Maybe it’s because we’re all on our last nerve now - the loss, sacrifice and stress is amplified that bit more. 
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And we’re so deep in it, often confined in our thoughts at home, our only connection with the outside world via a screen, that it becomes harder to appreciate our differences in circumstances. 
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We forget that we are all just humans muddling through a global pandemic, trying to come out of it alive, with our minds intact and hopefully our jobs too. 
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We’re angry, sad, frustrated, scared. And in the absence of those regular social connections we need a place to direct those feelings. The social media platforms and comments sections on news sites have never been so busy. 
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Except it’s not just faceless people on the internet that we’re upset with anymore. It’s our neighbours, family and friends. 
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Dr Vivek Murthy wrote about the importance of social connections and community in his book Together, pointing out that loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 
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We are sociable creatures. We need community not just to thrive but to survive. 
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So check in with your friends today. Maybe even send them a voice note. Don’t assume you know how they’re doing based on their latest Facebook post. We need to get through this together, not apart ❤️
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[Image description: Molly is looking at the camera, smiling in a tired, resigned sort of way. She’s outside and is wearing a fantastic hat that her husband says looks like a tea cosy.]
✨Art from @emilycoxhead gorgeous book You Are In ✨Art from @emilycoxhead gorgeous book You Are Incredible Just As You Are✨
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A reminder that loving every bit of ourselves isn’t just about embracing all the parts on the outside, but also about accepting - and maybe even celebrating - the bits on the inside too. 
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I’ll go first: I am a worrier and have a tendency to think deeply on things. If we’ve ever had a disagreement - be it an exchange on Twitter in 2018 or a row in the playground in 1992 you bet I’ve stored that away in my brain ready to ruminate on in the depths of a night when I can’t sleep. 
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But in the spirit of loving every bit of ourselves I say that rather than looking at these parts of ourselves as “flaws”, we choose instead to view them with loving kindness and a heavy dose of self-compassion. 
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I worry because I am sensitive, and I care. This sometimes means I’m more vulnerable to allowing others’ opinions of me have too much power... but it also means I feel remorse when I make mistakes and try my very best to learn from them. 
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And this also means I work hard in everything I do because I genuinely care about doing a good job. Meanwhile, my tendency to think deeply on stuff means I’m able to see the nuance in things and appreciate other perspectives, because as I grasp for an answer I often find two things can be true at the same time. 
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These are not traits I would view as “pathetic” or “needy” or “indecisive” in my kids and I would never tell them to “just get over it”, so I’m trying to remember this for myself too.
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Tell me, what parts of the inner you are you working on learning to love? 
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[Image description: A double page spread from Emily Coxhead’s book You Are Incredible. It’s a yellow page with a red heart and white writing which reads “Here’s to loving every bit of you.”]
Let’s talk joyful movement and.... PRIVILEGE! A Let’s talk joyful movement and.... PRIVILEGE! A nice juicy subject for a Thursday evening 😅
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I absolutely love to see the narrative shift (albeit ever so slightly) to the intrinsic benefits of movement. The focus on intuitive movement and moving our bodies for how it makes us FEEL over how it makes us LOOK brings me huge happiness. 
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BUT... even when we take movement away from a diet culture context, I still think there’s often a lack of acknowledgment of the many barriers preventing people engaging in movement in the first place (hot tip: it’s not “just cos they’re lazy” 🙄). 
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When it comes to my own family - here are some of the privileges we live with which make movement easier for us: 
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✨ We live in an area with access to lots of safe green spaces to play and walk.
✨ We can afford to pay for a gym membership, and extra curricular activities for the kids like gymnastics, Street Dance and swimming.
✨ We have access to the technology needed to take part in online classes over lockdown.
✨ We are non-disabled so experience no physical access issues preventing us from joining in with these activities. 
✨ Our work schedule allows us to get out together during daylight hours. 
✨ None of us lives with a mental health condition which might make getting outside / engaging in movement really hard or even impossible.
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Kids access to movement is not equal so if we really care about encouraging more children to move then, as a nation, we need to level the playing field (pun intended). 
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Some accounts which often discuss movement and privilege: @thephitcoach @amysnellingpt @theaishanash ❤️
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[Image description: Molly and her two daughters standing on top of a hill smiling, with their arms in the air.]
It’s pretty well accepted that certain “fad di It’s pretty well accepted that certain “fad diets” are not the one. But if our definition of diet culture stops there, and we fail to see how diet culture IS fatphobic in its very nature - and that it absolutely depends on a collective cultural fear and vilification of fatness then we’ll never get anywhere with tearing it down.
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Dressing up fatphobia as “health concern”, or “tough love” or “helping people” is just a fluffy way of saying you don’t acknowledge the huge complexity around health, or the many factors that impact weight, or the research showing the harmful (and unhealthy) impact of weight stigma, or the evidence into the long term effectiveness of diets and intentional weight loss. 
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And essentially, those who assert that health only looks one way, and that people have a moral responsibility to prove their health via the shape of their body and not be a “drain on society”, are saying that only people with their version of a “healthy body” are worthy of respect, equality, dignity.
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Children pick up on these messages and learn from an early age that “fat = bad”, and to see some bodies as better, and more deserving of love and respect than others. This could be why we’re seeing a rising number of pre-teens with eating disorders and mental health issues associated with poor body image. 
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Yes we need to lose the fad diets. But we also need to lose the deeper prejudices and anti-fat biases that make them profitable in the first place, otherwise they’ll just continue to show up in different ways, coming in ever more aggressive and insidious ways for our kids.
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(Image description: A yellow slide with multicolour shapes and a screenshot of a tweet overlaid which reads “FYI you can’t be simultaneously anti-diet culture and pro fatphobia. (And yes, fatphobia includes continuously asking “But what about health?” and not listening to the answer...)
You might have missed this in the news over Christ You might have missed this in the news over Christmas. It didn’t get nearly the same amount of coverage as all the diet-related features that are everywhere right now. It was hidden away behind the before and after “amazing weight loss” stories, celeb diet plans and “o*esity causes covid” headlines. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking or heartbreaking. 
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I believe there’s a link between the rise in children being diagnosed with eating disorders and the rise in children suffering poor body image. These issues are fallout from a culture that idolises thinness, vilifies fatness and continually promotes one, narrow, over-simplified version of health. 
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Diet culture is coming increasingly aggressively for children, and the pandemic with the huge mental health toll it’s taken has not helped one bit. We already knew the number of pre-teens diagnosed with anorexia in the last decade had doubled, and it seems the figures are rising even higher. We need change. Fast. 
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Check out the Body Happy Kids resources, workshops and Masterclass and the #FreeFromDiets campaign in my bio, if you want to help change the culture our kids are growing up in. They deserve better.
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[Image description: a section from a news article about rising numbers of children suffering with eating disorders. Full text can be found in Alt Text.]
I’ve been looking a lot at old photos lately. Th I’ve been looking a lot at old photos lately. This pic is from summer 2018, when I could hug my mum and travel abroad on holiday. If I close my eyes I can almost feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, smell the salty sea air and hear the laughter of other families playing on the beach. Holding on to these memories and the hope that the hugs, sunshine and bikinis will come again one day. In the meantime it’s video calls, trackie bottoms and WhatsApp. ❄️☀️ 
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[Image description: Molly and her mum standing on a beach in France, in 2018. They are both wearing brightly coloured bikinis, hugging and smiling. It’s a hot sunny day and the sky is blue.]
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