For the love of cuteness!

I woke up this morning, looked at my calendar and saw Blog post and I thought "oh no, what am I going to blog about today."

It wasn't that I didn't have anything on my "Things to blog about list" because I did. There was the beautiful bookcase my husband got me for Christmas, and a whole heap of other cute stuff I have been gathering about me of late as well as some family news.  Well, I decided in the end that I would cover it all to a degree as well as throw in some little extra tip bits along the way.


So first off, my canopy on my mobility scooter nearly came off yesterday in the terrible wind we had. I've always worried about that canopy and was scared out of my wits when it nearly took off. All it took was a gust of wind forcing it's way in beside the perspex sheet at the front and it nearly lifted the whole thing off. Well, I have had it with that thing now. I'd rather get wet than deal with the stress of it, so it's going to be sold and Speedy McNipster and I shall brave the elements alone. :)


Something I am hoping my new bag can cope with, given I did not consider waterproofness as a necessity. Hay, when I bought it I had a canopy I wasn't too afraid to use. (Really I am just using this as an excuse to move on to all the cute stuff inside my bag although the bag is indeed not waterproof yikes.)

Eshow Men's
 Casual Flapover
Canvas Cross Body Messenger Bag, Brown

 Now, due to having to use crutches sometimes. (also cute! hehe) I have t have a bag that is as none cutesie as possible, because my husband will not carry it if it can in any way be considered cute. GRRRRR!!!!

Bring on the plain boring bag tp the left.

Ok, so it's not that bad and I do still like it but it is not as bright and cheerful as I might have choose, given the choice.

So, naturally I had to make up for this lack of cuteness on the outside by filling the inside with cuteness beyond measure.

Filofax time YAY!!!!

Yes, I am still loving my Filofax, I have the A5 Domino, patent, in the Hot Pink. It is beautiful and feels great to hold too which I love. Plus I really like the elastic, which I didn't think I would.

Isn't it beautiful, even if it does blend in somewhat with the awesome hot pink blanket. My lovely mother-in-law got me for Christmas and which everyone keeps trying to steal. dogs, cats, SAMMY!!!!!

Well, my Filofax has become a real labour of love, it's something that you have to play around with until you find what works for you and be warned it can become incredibly addictive. 

I have spent a bit too much money already on my cuteness parade and so I opted for creating my own tab sheets among other things, but I'll give you a a bit of a walkthrough of what I have done so far. 

So this is what you will see when you open up the cover of my Filofax. Post-it reminders on the left. Some doggy I-clips there also as they are good for holding the long todo lists I keep at the back of my Filofax in place. Some spare note paper in the build in pocket and then in the clear plastic pocket. Photo's of my hubby (it looks like a mug shot, I really need to get a better one in there) and my son when he was just a babe, along with some flags and the post-its.

Behind them is the  sheet I made for my spare I-Clips. I didn't take too much time over this as it was just somewhere to store my I-Clips, but I might make it better at a later date. For those of you who don't I-Clips are like little magnetic markers/ bookmarks.

This is my meals, tab, behind this is where I do all my menu planning. From here I can keep track of what we are eating for the week, what I need to buy in the shopping for those meals as well as in general, what items I need to pick up from the farm shop and also my favourite recipes. 

The"this will be the year" page was part of a free print out set I found. That came with all sorts of goodies, including a yearly planner, which I actually have behind this tab. It also came with month on one-page calendar which my son is enjoying using at the moment. There was so much more too, so if you want to take a look and maybe print some of the items off yourself you can find them here.  I also have my bucket list behind this page too. 

Next is my to do list tab. Which I probably doesn't need any explanation. I am not to happy with this one and think I might change it. It just didn't come out quite how I wanted, but we shall see. 

This is my Todo list itself. I keep mainly things that I do on a regular basis here. So normally they would have four rows of seven for roughly a months worth of ticks, but having only started using this method two weeks ago. January only has that on it. I keep things abbreviated and have a sheet that reminds me what things stand for and things I complete, like books I am reading. I cross through with little lines as you can see with the SE, EIM and FL todo's :) So the circles are Monday through Friday and I just colour them in if I completed the task on that day. This  show's I am slacking on my WIP oops. 

Then there is my notes tab. I love this and doubt I will ever change it. Behind this, I keep my lists for my reading challenges. A wish list. A list of books I want to read. My son's attendance record. I like to keep track of this as he suffers from asthma pretty bad and this means he can at times miss quite a bit of school. 

Next is my gratitude journal. I absolutely love this. the idea behind it is that at the end of each day you right what you are thankful for inside and that keeps you thinking positive, which is always a good thing right. I used print outs that I absolutely love for this. They come in black and white but with a little bit of effort you can make them all colourful like mine. :) Want some? Then go and find them here.

The calendar tab is next.  This one took me hardly anytime at all to make, it's simple but I like it, plus I can pull the post-it for the year off, come the new year and easily replace it. So I don't need to make a whole new divider. 

Year at a glance next. (sorry for the shadows on these pictures but my Kitchen light is sadly in the wrong spot.) I just pop colour coded dots on here for when something important is happening, or little lines across the corner of the square if my son has a school holiday that day. It's pretty straight forward and means if I am in a rush I can quick glance to see if anything important is happening that day. 

Month on two pages next. This really works the same as the year above so I really don't know if I am going to keep it in or not. The only plus point is I can actually write what the event is here but really as I just glance at my main calendar that isn't needed.

My main Calendar is a week on two pages and yep, that is this week. It's been a busy one. As you can see my goal to be more productive is going well. Everything I want to get done during the day goes down here. On Sundays, I plan my week out but I also add to this as I go through the days. I'm pleased to say that for the most part I am achieving all the goals I set. Just working on my WIP to improve on. I plan to make the first priority next week.

My weight loss journal is next. You might recognise the picture. It was one I used on my blog recently. It was created for the blog originally, but I thought it would work great as a divider  Behind it I currently just track my weight but I might start to track stuff to do with my weight loss too, like what I am eating. This week I lost 2 pounds. Which given I had quite a few cheats. Isn't too shabby.

Next is my tab for the Bible study I am doing with Proverbs 31 ministry called "keep it Shut."
Notes from that are naturally kept behind this as well as the daily pray they gave us.










There are a few other sections to my Filofax although I have yet to finish making the tabs for them. They are a blog section for all my blog ideas, plans and such. There is also a writing section for story idea's and other writing related items. At the back, I have my to-do list pad for the one off items that I just rip a sheet off and post at the front of my planner as needed and a little clipped on plain notepad too.

So that's my Filofax and the course of my new Filofax addiction. Do you have a Filofax addiction too? Or have you never had a filofax and think perhaps you might like one? Maybe dare I say it, you tried Filofax and couldn't get on with it? Whatever the case I would love to hear from you and hay, if you have a filofax you don't love, I am more than happy to take it off your hands ;) Gotta be worth a try right.

Next up in my cute-fest is my new pencil case, who's sole purpose is to hold all my pens, that I use with my Filofax, along with a few page flags too. I loved the dreamer written on the front, because that is me to a T, and all the artwork too. Just a beautiful pencil case. This is a Santoro's gorjuss pencil case. Encase you want to look for one and just to clarify. I am not being paid to advertise any of this stuff on my page. I am showing it because they are items I have bought and am proud of and thus would just like to share with you guys, because they bring me joy. 

And the back of my pencil case, also gorjuss.

Next is my I-pad case. I can't for the life of me remember the name of this now but I got it off Amazon so type in cute I-pad case and it should come up. Hubby is not so keen on this one because he does like to use my I-pad a lot. I have this on an I-pad air, but I do believe they had them for several different I-pads but you would have to check. 

This is my newest Filofax which I actually won in a competition, it's the Filofax Petal Pocket organiser in Pink. There is not a lot going on in this one just yet as I have only just got it, but I intend to use it to keep a record of my son's behaviour as we are currently trying to determine if he has ADD or ADHD and it's a really nice size for this.

Another item from Amazon that I can no longer remember the make of. Is my I-phone 5 case. I love, love, love this. I did consider getting the one that matched my I-pad case, but I have a bit of a thing for butterflies and saw this and just had to get it.

And that brings us to the final item you are likely to find in my bag. Well, beside my Kindle or possibly a paperback and yes, my Kindle case has pink in it too.

This is my new wallet. I am loving these longer wallets right now and bought a longer one for my friend for Christmas too. They just feel so good in the hand and I just love them. Especially as they are no longer old fuddy duddy designs. This one is made by Samilon and I suspect will be in my bag for years to come.

So that's what's in my bag. How about you? Do you like things cute, stylish or perhaps you just go for practicality over style? what ever the case I'd love to hear from you. So be sure to leave a comment.


According to Grammerly, there are 24 mistakes in this blog post. If it weren't so late, I'd fix them, but I think you are just going to take me as is on this one, because I have loads to do and not enough time to do it, due to a sudden and unplanned day out with family. Still life is for living right.

Here's wishing your weekends are going great.

love and hugs
Joss xxx

Express yourself

It's time for another express yourself post. For those of you who don't know, express yourself is a weekly Meme hosted by Dani and Jackie in which a question, aimed at helping us bloggers get to know each other, is asked each week. If you want to find out more or read some other bloggers express yourself post click here.

This week the question is: what are some writerly tips you've found helpful?

It's actually quite funny that this question has come up this week as I just finished reading a book about writing that has really had me thinking about this topic.

I won't name the book but it had so much condradicting advice and baffling advice that it left me feeling as if all was hopeless.

Then a friend said to me," just write what you want to read," and that right there is the best advice I think I have ever had when it comes to writing.

I see so many people worrying about their writting but the reality is we should just write. Readers don't think like most of the people who write these writing tip books. I know myself as a reader I never disected the whole story and thought "Oh dear they use an awful lot of ly words. (a big no no according to the book I just read.)

No I read a book and if while reading it, it flows well, has a good plot and seems realistic then I am happy.

I just feel as if sometimes, people in the writing world just want to over complicate things to much. Where as I think that natuarally over time, with figure things out and improve from doing things like reading other peoples books and from trial and error.

But that's just my opinion. What do you think?

love and hugs
Joss xxx

The dreaded D word

Dieting!!!!

I always knew dieting sucked, but I have never felt so disheartened by it as I do now.

There is so much conflicting information out there and it seems as if there is nothing that is just out and out simple and straight forward.

Trim Healthy Mama has S and E meals that sound simple in the beginning but then as you read on through the book become ever more confuddling. Don't mix carbs and animals fats. Forget potatoes and bread, but have at fatty meat, oh and don't forget to steer clear of most of the fruits you've heard of, like banana's and apples and instead eat all this fruit you don't know.

Fruits bad for you!!! I feel like I have been lied to all my life.

Slim fast yum! yum! yum! The diet plan for the lazy eater. Perfect right!

Just drink these shakes, maybe have one of our special snacks, then a healthy evening meal. Except the shakes in no way come close to filling you up, so you end up indulging in Slimfast snacks and hating yourself for being so weak.

Then there's raw diets, where nothing cooked must pass your lips. Does that mean I can eat crisps??? oh no wait, they've been baked. So it's pretty much fruit and salad then because there is no way I am eating raw meat. Yuck!

Why oh why must there be so much conflicting information?

A friend said to me "try slimming world!" When she tells me the things you can eat I think, "wow!!! sounds great, sign me up." Only to be a part of that, properly, I have to go to a club, queue in a bloody long line so I can climb on some scales and be told how amazing or how pathetically, I have done that week. No thanks.

Why can't someone just lay out a very simple healthy eating plan?  I mean really simple. Like type in what you want to eat and we will give you a healthy version of that meal or if that's not possible, make some suggestions that you might like.

A site that will allow you to plan all your meals in this easy fashion and then go "Hey, guess what! Your calorie count for all your meals today, leaves room for you to snack on a cheeky pack of Maltesers,  (YUMMY!) or if not that then some fruit maybe.

In truth what I really want to do is one of these, we deliver all your meals ready to eat to your door, plans, but they are so unbelievably expensive. I mean for the price of a weeks food for just me, through one of these companies. I could feed my whole family for that same week and probably with money to spare.

So in short, I hate fat, I hate dieting and is there anyone out there willing to either force-feed me healthy nutritious fair like a feeder in reverse or alternatively put me in a coma and feed me via a tube wedge down my throat.

No waking me till I'm a skinny Minnie though.

I would also take some healthy recipies or sugguestions for healthy eating plans too, although it maybe with a sigh. :)

love and hugs
Joss xxx

Solheim family catch up

It's been a relatively good week this week. Even if I have spent the last few days feeling a bit yucky with a tummy bug.

The highlight of the week though had to be the arrival of my brand new FILOFAX!!!!!!!

Yes, I know, a few weeks ago I was bemoaning having to use one but things change people, and I am in love.

I have watched so many setup videos for Filofax it is unreal and finally have gotten mine pretty much how I want it, with reading lists, important dates, a gratitude diary and so much more.

 I got so into it, that my first planner, a Collins planner in the personal size, quickly proved too small.  Thankfully my wonderful husband allowed me to upgrade to an A5 Dominio, Hotpink Patent Filofax!!!!!

So all above pics are my new Filofax and the below are the old Collins Planner, which my friend is going to borrow so she can try out the whole personal planner lifestyle.

Also, this week hubby took advantage of me being ill and powered up his steam engine to show off at the bus stop while collecting our son. I was less than impressed by this at first as I was worried he'd be late. As a precaution, I dragged myself up to the bus stop  ahead of him just to be safe. I needn't have worried though because he made it up there with time to spare. The kids loved the steam engine and were swarming all over it which made my husbands day.

Our son  was also overjoyed and telling anyone who would listen, "That's my daddy's steam engine." Sadly I didn't get pictures, being poorly I didn't even spot the perfect picture opportunity, even though all the other mums were snapping away. Oh well, live and learn.

It's been a pretty pleasant week, bar the sickness, and I have managed to be pretty productive thanks to my new Filofax addiction. Seriously, if you haven't tried Filofax or at the very least having a personal planner you should. It has completely turned my life around.

More has been going on this week than just my Filofax though so I need to pull myself away from that topic.

I started doing FlyLady again, so for those of you in the know that means I have a nice shiny sink and have done a few 27 fling boogies as well. The only thing I don't do is dress to shoes. I find shoes way too uncomfortable and I am not putting shoes on, indoors, for anyone. Not even the lovely FlyLady.

I also started reading Trim Healthy Mama. A book that teaches you to eat healthy for life. I have to admit it's a bit scary. Especially as all the things I like to enjoy together, they say I can't enjoy together. We shall see though.

Well, my shopping is due to be delivered soon, so I am going to leave it here for now but let me know if you  have a Filofax. :) or have ever had a Filofax. Did you love it, or dare I say it, hate it? Perhaps you've been a fly baby, or have tried or are living a Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle. Whatever the case let me know in the comments along with how you've found it?

Love and hugs
Joss xxx

Express yourself meme

For those of you who don't know, Express yourself is a weekly Meme hosted by Dani and Jackie. Each week we get a question to answer and this weeks question is...

What's your favourite movie you saw in 2014?

That's a no brainer, it has to be Divergent. 

I loved the whole series of books and when the film came out I just had to see it. Normally the film is a bit of a disappointment in comparison to the book but I didn't find that to be the case at all with Divergent and would highly recommend it to anyone. 

Plus four/ phew is hot, hot, hot, both imagined and in the film LOL. 

He's also my book and movie boyfriend of choice. 

So what was your fav film of 2014? Do you have book or movie boyfriends? 

Leave a comment and let me know. 

love and hugs

Joss xx

Express yourself

For those of you who don't know, Express yourself is a weekly Meme hosted by Dani and Jackie. Each week we get a question to answer and this weeks question is...

What's a musical or play you've viewed?

When I was younger my older sister treated my mum and I to a joint birthday gift, in which we went to the theatre and saw West Side Story. I'd never been to anything that was a live performance like that before and have not been to anything like it since either. Which is a shame as I really enjoyed it. Living in the middle of nowhere means that you have to go a pretty long way for shows like that. For us I think Plymouth or Exeter would be nearest and there over an hour away. Plus with hubby needing to drive us and musicals not really being his cup of tea. It just wouldn't be fair on him.

I loved seeing West Side Story; however, and it is an experience that will remain with me for the rest of my life. 

How about your? Have you been to see any musicals and plays? Perhaps you have seen lots, if so which was your favourite? Leave a comment and let me know. 

Solheim family update

I woke up this morning, felt the cold, heard the wind and hurried to hear the weather report. Why do we do that? We can look out the window to see the weather and yet so many of us will still rush to see what the professionals have to say about our day/week of weather. It’s like we want to be depressed.

Well this morning that was indeed what I got, rain, wind; cold and possibly even the dreaded snow. 

YUCK!!!!

Essentially everything I hate about winter.

Now don’t get me wrong, I can cope with a lot in the winter. Rain I can handle and the cold I can tolerate, but the wind… I hate the wind.

The wind smashes into my canopy on my scooter and leaves me quivering with fear. 

Will it tip? Will the canopy get ripped off and go flying down the road? Will I be humiliated and unable to do anything about it?

Touch wood, no!!!

My hubby assures me all is well. That my canopy is tougher than it seems. I hope he is right.

Needless to say, my trip to the bus stop this morning will be an anxious one and I am praying that the bus is on time, so that I do not need to be out in the wind too long.

Snow!!!!

I used to love snow, back in my innocence, before I knew the disruption and stress it can cause.

I live at the bottom of a big hill, if it snows while my son is at school I am left panicking about whether or not my scooter will make it to the top and if not,  can I make it up there on my crutches alone.

I used to love winter, but these new found fears that arise during the winter, mean that it has now become something to dread.

It’s interesting how much being disabled changing the way you think and act in life.

I have certainly become a lot more fearful since my disability developed.

There is; however, some news on the disability front.

I had a doctor’s appointment Thursday and my doctor has decided that it is time to try physiotherapy. The idea being that if we can strengthen the muscles around my spine, it might help with the pain. I hope he’s right.

I of course also need to work on shedding some weight, which will hopefully help take a bit of extra strain off my back.

Dieting of course is never easy and it seems as if food jumps to the forefront of my mind whenever I am trying to be good.

That said, if I can beat smoking I can beat this too. Although I think this will definitely be the harder of the two battles.

More news on the disability front, my lovely Ludo has been deemed officially calm enough to continue on with his service dog training.

YAY!!!!

It’s been a long hard slog working on calming the Collie, not helped by the fact that I was mega soft and kinda liked his excited, happy go lucky nature.

Well he is still very happy go lucky and given half the chance will still jump all over you and smoother you in kisses but he has also learned that he needs to sit and wait for a fuss as opposed to throwing himself at people.

Well I say has learned, he has learnt it with my dad, Dan’s mum; however, has yet to be tested and she is his fav person to jump attack. He just loves her to pieces lol.

So time will tell there.

All round though we are seeing a lot more calm, he has been learning to wait for me to step through the door before he goes through, this has been tough for him too, as he likes to always be in front spinning with excitement.

So the continuation of his training means that he is now learning some basic commands, Touch for items I am holding and items I am not, Paw’s up which will help him later to deal with doors and light switches for me and focus, which simply helps him to learn to pay attention to me.

He is doing his training alongside Harley de. Yes those who know Harley are probably thinking, but he is too old to be a service dog and your right, if Harley were a service dog he would be a retired one by now.

Harley isn’t training to be my service dog though, he is doing the training for fun because Harley loves learning new things and it’s also so that he doesn’t feel left out of all the fun, which is essentially how they view the training.

Harley is in fact doing even better than Ludo with the training, but that’s because he is a little less distracted than Ludo lol. Harley has mastered closing cupboard doors and the washing machine door using the paws up command.

Whilst Ludo has mastered paw’s up quite well, he has only been able to apply it, bizarrely enough, to closing the washing machine soap draw which I would have thought was a much more challenging task than the door of the washing machine, but Ludo seems to think not.

Focus, they both have to a tee and I have noticed that they look at my eyes a lot more now since learning the focus trick and they are just generally a lot more intent on me all-round.

Touch, is a tough one for Ludo who has always been very paws on and whose paws like to get involved with everything. The result is that touch gets his paw, instead of a gentle nudge with his nose. I wonder if it is because the command for his paw is tap and perhaps it is a little too similar, so this may be something that needs to be changed, that or a clearer distinction made by re-teaching him tap alongside touch.  

Harley; however, has well and truly mastered touch both in hand and when the object is not being held and even progressed yesterday to picking the items up. Although letting go was only done when he had enjoyed a brief tug of war and nibbled a small chunk of the letter we were using for training. Good thing it was just junk mail.

Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks?

Organisation

I never thought I would truly master or even enjoy the art of organisation. That said, although I think I am far from a master, I have actually started to find that I am enjoying being organised.

Oh I feel so dirty for saying that. I feel as if someone needs to come and wash out my mouth with soap or something.

I don’t think I will ever be as organised as my mother or mother in law, nor anywhere near as tidy as them either. Although I wish I could sometimes, but I think I am making progress in both areas at present.

Blogging

I tried a week of blogging every day but I have to admit, it just wasn’t for me. I don’t think I could find enough topics to cover like that and I found that when I did have stuff I wanted to blog about I had to make a note for a later date because I already had blog posts scheduled for that day.  

A few other bloggers talked about schedules during the IWSG posts last Wednesday and said how they found that scheduling blogs took the fun out of it too much and that they were just going to post when they felt they actually had something to say. So I am going to follow their lead.

Today there is clearly quite a lot to say, mainly due to the fact that I couldn’t say it last week due to the pre-planned posts.

Workshop

Hubby’s work shop is really coming along now, he has started to build his work benches and has everything planned out. The only problem is going to be keeping him out of there long enough to spend time with Kye Kye and I, because although we can go out there with him, we would also like some none workshop time to spend with him. J

Well that’s everything for now. I don’t want to bore you too much.

How things with you and yours?

Love and hugs

Joss xx

P.S. no pictures today things have been real hectic and it has taken all day to get this post done near enough never mind designing artwork for it as well. 

School run in 15 minutes, how time fly s. 

P.P.S. I am slowly working my way through all my comments and over to your blogs to comment but it has been a busy few days so please be patient I will get to everyone

Reading challenge fun!

I love reading, in fact given the opportunity I would probably do nothing but read all day, sadly life usually has other plans for us but that didn't stop me from wanting to get involved with a reading challenge this year.

So off I went searching the blogger-sphere for anyone who was holding one of these challenges and I found The Reading Challenge 2015 hosted by popsugar.

It had a great list of reading challenges and I was really excited to get involved. I even wrote all the challenges out into my planner. I think I am starting to get the hang of this whole organisation thing.

These are the challenges:

Having found this Reading challenge and having decided to do it, another reading challenge found me. 

This time it was the 2015 Diversity reading challenge that a fellow blogger posted about and tagged me in on facebook. 

The 2015 Diversity Reading Challenge is hosted by An Unconventional Librarian and is a 12 book challenge. See below. 

I'm really excited by this challenge because I think it's important to read books by people from all walks of life, I'd also love to see more book with characters who are disabled and for it to be the norm for books to have a more diverse range of characters from all different walks of life. 

It's going to be a busy year of reading for me, but I am hopeful I will find some great new authors and books in the process. 

How about you? Are you planning any reading challenges this year? I always take part in the goodread's yearly challenge and set myself the challenge of 80 books this year although I suspect I'll be upping that at some point now.

Well that's all from me for now, I hope you have a lovely day. 

love and hugs 

Joss xx 

Quitting

On the 18th of August 2014 my husband and I officially quit smoking. That makes this week our 23 week smoke free and I can honestly say "I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth."

It was a lot easier than I thought it would be to quit. That's not to say there weren't times when I longed to pick up the cigs and get smoking again, thankfully it was quite a long time before I did pick up another cigarette and as a result a couple of puffs was all I could take before I was stabbing it out. 

Quitting has had several benefits for me and my family, the first being money. We have had one of the best Christmases ever this year, because we quit smoking. We are saving nearly £70 a week just by not smoking. That's around 280 pounds a month and a massive 3360 a year. Yep we were heavy smokers. Looking at those statistics I think it's a good thing we were smoking roll ups and not pre-made cigarettes. 

It's also had a good impact on our health as well. Having suffered from double pneumonia in my younger years my lungs are already not the best. So since quitting smoking I have found I can breath better when I get a cold something that used to be extremely difficult before. 

We did have a lot of nosebleeds when we first quit, but apparently this is quite common and not something to worry about. 

The final big improvement is that there are no longer nicotine stained walls, fingers or surfaces around our home or in our car, nor the smell, which makes cleaning a whole lot easier. 

Now I just need to get rid of the log burner and cleaning will be a breeze, although I am not sure hubby would go for that. 

I don't want to be one of those people that goes on and on at others about quitting because at the end of the day I know that it is something you can only do when you are ready and no amount of pressure from others is likely to change that, but if it is something you want to do and are afraid to do, well give it a try. Maybe you will succeed maybe you won't. Whatever the case don't be tough on yourself. It's better to try and fail then never to try at all. Isn't that what they say. 

Love and hugs 

Joss xx

IWSG post

It's the first Wednesday of the month and that means it's time for another Insecure Writers Support Group.

Due to health I wasn't posting much during 2014 and so it has been a while since I did an IWSG post.

Trying as I currently am, to get into the whole a post a day thing, means I am hoping that I will now be able to do these post every month and have a lot more to talk about.

I understand that today we are meant to be introducing ourselves a bit, so what can I tell you about me.

Well I am a writer, mother and wife. I have one book published called Insane Reno and am currently working on my second Novel. Rehabilitation girls among other things.

I live in a small village in Cornwall, UK, with my wonderful hubby, eight year old son Kye, two dogs, two cats and three bunny rabbits.

I'm disabled, so suffer a lot of pain on a daily basis and have very limited mobility due to a pretty serious back injury, but I am pretty good at managing my pain most of the time now/

I also have an anxiety disorder, which has gotten much worse since my disability, but I am working to build my confidence.

So. as I already mentioned my current work in progress, is Rehabilitation girls and I am really nervous about this one, mainly because the sample chapters that were put up on certain sites were so well received that I am now petrified that I will fail at doing the rest of the book justice.

I almost wish now, as silly as it may seem, that I had never posted up the sampled chapters, because every email I get begging me for more chapters makes my nerves jump that little bit higher.

I am by nature a very anxious person. My doctor recently stuck me on medication because of this and where others thrive under pressure, I freak out and want to run and hide lol.

This was always the problem with me and writing. Insane Reno my first published novel went out before I was ready for it too, but pressure from friends and family made me bite the bullet and do it and even though I got a publisher I still lack faith in myself and the result is that every time I look at Insane Reno, I want to rewrite it.

So my biggest fear I guess is that people will either force me to put RG out before I am ready or worse that I will never get to that point where I feel it is good enough.

Which quite frankly, sucks!

What makes it even worse this time is I have no editor and am relying on Grammerly to get me through that part and although my grammar has improved somewhat, even if I am a little sloppy in my blog posts, I am still petrified of messing up my novel simply because I lack the skills when it comes to grammar.

Which leads to other questions. Should I pay for a professional editor? How will I know I am being charged a fair price? Who's good?

And that's before we even start looking at publishers because my hubby thinks I need to get a better publisher this time, as he is not a fan of my current one.

No one tells you when you start out as a writer just how scary it will be, it all starts off so simple. A happy escape from reality that's for your eye's only.

Well that's all from me for now, I've got this post done in advance so I can spend Wednesday hoping around your posts and seeing your IWSG's. Here's hoping your feeling less insecure than me this month.

If you would like to take past in the IWSG post's then please check out The Insecure Writers Support Group  you can also explore others post from there too.

Love and hugs
Joss xx

Express yourself

It's time for another express yourself. 
Express yourself  is Hosted by Jackie@ bouquet of books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests  this is a weekly meme that allows bloggers to get to know each other better by using prompts to write a post. 

This weeks prompt is....

Do you have a new year's resolution? 

Well yes I do, although how well I will do keeping them remains to be seen lol. 

My new years resolutions are as follows: 

1) lose weight
2) get more organised 
3) finish the first book in the Rehabilitation Girls series ready for publishing. 
4) continue to work on my anxiety disorder and getting out more 
5) Try not to get distracted so much
6) Try and get involved with some more blog hops. 

Do you have any new years resolutions? Let me know. 

love and hugs 
Joss xx 

Are we getting our priorities straight?

As the clock counted down to the new year, people all over the UK gathered around television screens or headed for London and other cities around the UK to watch impressive firework displays.

They estimate that 100,000 people showed up and paid £10 to watch the massive display that cost a whopping 1.8 million.

If you combine all the displays held in the UK that night alone, imagine the overall expense.

And that's fine, who doesn't love a good celebration right!

The problem is, not everyone can afford to celebrate. In fact an estimated 13 Million UK residence now live below the poverty line.

Which means many families are having to turn to foodbanks for help. In 2013-14 foodbanks in the UK fed 913,138 people nationwide and statistics provided by The Trussell Trust say that 330,250 of those helped were children.

Given those statistics can we really justify a 1.8 million pound bill for a firework display that lasted just over 10 minuets.

 That's far from the only money wasting that been going on either. The Royal family cost us an extortionate 33.3 Million between 2012-2013 and there cost apparently rise on a yearly basis. On top of that, the belief that they create revenue by attracted tourist is untrue. In fact the only time that the revenue created from tourism that can be directly attributed to the Royal family has come anywhere close to covering the costs of having them, has been when there have been special events such as wedding and births and the buildings an history alone could continue to draw tourist, even once the Royals were cast out. So why do we insist in supporting a family and providing them with untold luxury at our expense, when so many others in the UK are struggling to feed their children.

And then there was the 2012 Olympics, which cost an eye watering £8.77 bn. The reality is all of these things have something in common. They are designed to impress. To say look at us, how big and expensive everything we do is, which begs the question posed as the title of this post.

Are we getting our priorities straight?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feelings on this matter in the comments.

love and hugs
Joss xxx

My ageing De Man and the St Columb Charity Steam Up

Christmas in the Solheim household is always special for two reasons. Firstly, it's Christmas and who doesn't love Chrimbo. I'm mean even the Grinch and Scrooge came round to it in the end.

The second reason, is that our old boy Harley de was born Christmas Day 2000. Meaning this year he saw his fourteenth birthday and with his greying face and shaking legs it's getting harder and harder to watch the years ticking by. 

How do you deal with the knowledge that the baby you've watched be born, grow and mature into one of the most important little critters in your life, will inadvertently no longer be there any more at some point in the probably not to distant future?

Truth is, I can't. The mere though of it makes tears rise in my eyes. 

This scruffy little urchin has been apart of my life for fourteen years now and I can't even begin to image my life with him not in it. 

Yes he's a grouch, who lives for telling the rest of us off when he deems we are misbehaving, yes he jumps in my seat the instant I exit it and yes he looks at you like you're the cruelest person in the world if you force him outside to go to the loo, but he's my grumpy little couch potatoe and I wouldn't change him for the world. 

Yet with every year that passes, with every new grey hair on his little face, my fear of how I will possibly cope when he is gone grows. 

How do I deal with the inevitable? Why has no one yet found a way to extend the life of our furry friends so that they may live as long as we do? Is there time for me to come up with a longevity or youth serum?

The reality is, even if there was time, I'm pretty sire I don't have the brains to concoct it.   

So my best hope, is that De Man is as stubborn as his father was and that he clings to life for years to come.

So how about you? Can you relate? Is there a special pet in your life who's getting on in life and coursing you to have the same concerns as I do? Or did you already lose that special friend and are learning to cope day by day? I'd love to hear all about your experiences, concerning this matter. 

A bit of a topic change now, but Saturday 3rd of January saw my family and I heading for St Columb for the St Columb Charity Steam up. Think Steam engines and the like :)

This is a yearly event to raise money for charity and his organised by Emma and David Goodwin at their yard in "Greenacre", St Columb Major.

Last year they were able to raise £1000 for The Special Care Baby Unit at Derriford hospital and were hoping to raise a similar amount this year for The Moorgate ward, Neurosurgical Unit at Derriford Hospital.

On arriving at the event we found that it was pretty busy and as a result the only available parking was a little bit to far away from the event for me to manage with my disability, so Kye and I decided to remain in car while Dan went and had a quick look around. 

It was a little disappointing but these things happen sometimes when you are disabled and you just have to go with the flow as they say. I still wanted to give it a mention; however, as it is for a good course and I hope they were able to raise lots of money for their charity of choice. 

Dan did get some pictures though and so I can still share some of them with you here. Enjoy!!

Love and hugs 

Joss xx