As per usual the last few weeks have been insane. There really are not enough hours in the day. Ever. An hour of house work and clearing up in the morning, an hour of school run, a ten hour working day, more school run, more housework, an energetic dog, food to buy etc. Oh and a blog to run (on average 25 emails a day that need answering, sorting is just the tip of the iceberg). I have talked before about not knowing how I keep all the juggling balls in the air.
Well after Britmums Live and the craziness of that weekend the hangover (and I don’t mean drink related) I did start to drop balls. I was feeling really low. For all sorts of reasons, some of which I blogged about (and if you commented, thank you, truly). Then we have had some other stuff to add to the mix of things on our plate in the past week which are ongoing.
In the middle of all of this though was a Twitter conversation, as there always is:
Those sorts of conversations are usually a joke. Banter. The reason I love social media as it gets to the very heart of the social bit. A sort of virtual lunch that twitter followers often have. Such as my “who wants a cuppa” tweet at 7am. I clearly have no intention of wheeling a creaking tea trolley up the M1 but it doesn’t stop me offering.
Except Ms Peacocks and Pom Poms wasn’t joking. Because she lives 10 miles away and was being deadly serious. She clearly knew I was struggling, and in all honesty needed some time out as much as I did.
Now normally I would be too busy to take time out for an hour to have lunch and would be polite in my thank you and say “oh you don’t need to do that” and get back to what I was doing, or move on to the next Twitter conversation, or shut it down completely. Something this time though told me I had to take Nell up on her kind offer. I needed to. Really needed to. And so did she. More than either of us had even registered at that point.
Nell duly arrived an hour or two later, do you know what? It was heaven.
It made me realise that actually taking time out to appreciate the simple things is SO important. Imperative in fact. The simple art of lunch at our kitchen table, catching up with a friend over a take away curry and home made ice cream was joyous. It really did make me think I had recharged my batteries, as daft as that sounds.
No planning had gone into it. No advance organising. No pressure. No great expense. And in fact if Nell had said it to me the day before I would have said “Lovely idea, but I just can’t do it”.
Do you ever feel like that?
And get that overwhelming sense of joy from something so simple? That you probably wouldn’t have got the same feeling from even if you had just spent £100 of lottery winnings on a new dress?
It reinforced to me that the simple things really are the best.
And that we should never be too busy for some time out and a spontaneous lunch with a friend.
Sounds like it was just what you needed! What a lovely friend!!!
Oh my love…
You deserve a break, it’s been a HUGE year for you. But what a fab friend you have. It’s those little things that can make the world of difference.
Sending all my love your way xx
One of my dearest friends came round last week with ‘lunch’ which consisted of just cream cakes. We sat in the garden and ate them, putting the world to rights and hiding the ’empties’ in the bottom of the recycling. Lunches like that should be compulsory at least 3 times a year with one to be takem in November of February.
I still haven’t forgotten that I’ve promised you lunch when we where skirts and proper shoes rather than our slippers. It will happen xxxx
I so get this. Every so offen when I really need it something happens to make me stop for just a little bit and breath. I no I need to make it happen more but I don’t.
I often say no to things I’d love to do, but in fact just the thought of fitting something else in is to much let alone actually doing it.
Yay to a lovely lunch xx
Exactly that Ellie “just the thought of fitting something else in is too much …. ” I have JUST turned something down that I know I am going to regret but I just can’t think about being able to do it. And that makes me sad.
I think we get so caught up in the enormity of the online arena that we think there is more needs doing than it really does. It’s hard to gift yourself the time to just be you – thank goodness you had a friend who could gift it to you x
There are so many things that can take over that we really do forget to find time to appreciate the small spontaneous things life can throw at us. This time of year is seriously busy and I am so looking forward to the summer holidays with my 3. Hope you are feeling better x
Its good to take time out just for you…though I am spectacularly bad at it and am constantly turning down things I shouldn’t. I am also very guilty of neglecting ‘real-life’ friends. Am very jealous of your lunch…and am dashing off to follow @PeacockPomPoms on twitter, what an awesome lady!
It sounds like you needed an hour of impromptu relaxation with a good friend. I hope you’re feeling a bit more together x
That’s lovely, and I hope you are feeling better rested now. I felt low after Britmums too and it took me a good week to recover from it….. I always think the summer is a very good time to take time out from things. :o)
You’re so right. My eldest son turned three on Sunday and the tidal wave of presents is threatening to engulf the house. The baby is wiping snot onto my shoulder, but I’m heading out for some time in the sunshine which will make everything just a bit better!
Thanks for putting it so well, as always. I hope things get better for you soon. xx
Sometimes you really do need to take that time out, I would even say it can be time efficient as you often come back feeling more refreshed and whizz through everything thats needs doing – sounds like a lovely lunch 🙂
Taking time off is the best and we should all do it more often xxx