Yay, it's freedom week!

Three things make this freedom week:

1) my one friend has resigned from work and she finishes on Wednesday - so excited for her :)

2) it's Freedom Day on Thursday. For the non-South Africans, here's a write-up from Wikipedia

Freedom Day is a South African public holiday (its national day), celebrated on 27 April. It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age of over 18 from any race group, including foreign citizens permanently resident in South Africa,^[1] were allowed to vote. Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites had only limited rights to vote.

3) we're going on a little break this week too - woohoo - our first holiday since moving into this house and high time, if you ask me!

Of course, freedom is my number 1 value so I'm very passionate about the concept of freedom. Turns out it's important to God too. This is my favourite scripture about freedom:

2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” NIV

This blog post is short and sweet because it's pay day tomorrow and I need to do my budget recon before all the new money comes in :)

But tell me, what does freedom mean to you? What are you planning for Freedom Week?

Happy Easter!

It's the end of the Easter weekend and it's been a really lovely one.

Relaxing, even!

I had this bright idea to invite D's mom for Good Friday lunch. Well, I said sometime over the weekend, and D said, "let's do it on Good Friday so it's over and done with". He is a keeper and comes up with the best ideas!

So that's what we did and our only people commitments were over and done with.



A few notable moments:

1. church on Good Friday morning
2. family lunch afterwards
3. RAIN!
4. running around the garden with my camera after the rains - this is my best!
5. reading, reading, reading my Jenny Colgan
6. gym as usual on Saturday morning
7. supreme chilling and pottering
8. playing with my website for hours and hours and hours (some of this was pure torture but needs must... and the one thing is still not fixed - my picture was linking to an old domain I've let go and I can't find where to change that in the code)
9. Remembering that Jesus rose from the dead! 
10. An Easter egg hunt - this is Connor's favourite thing of the whole year - he's been talking about it since January.... and they had such fun. We have a much bigger garden so they were occupied forever.
11. more chilling
12. a power outage, short walk and "the best supper ever" (French bread with cheese/ apple slices/ yoghurt and a mini doughnut in case you want to replicate :)) by candlelight
13. the power came on after two hours so I RAN to the kettle to make tea and jumped into bed with my book 

and here we are - Monday.



We're going to see a movie later - Boss Baby. I adore Alec Baldwin, especially his voice, so I can't wait.

But the best news for today is.....tomorrow Alec Baldwin's memoir releases. Of course I pre-ordered so I will get it at midnight!

How was your Easter weekend?

PS My children have just discovered Siri and it's the most fun ever!

I'm falling into completely bad habits

Ah, it's the weekend. I haven't made my weekend to-do list yet but reading this book is a big priority 👍🏼😜 . What are you currently reading? . #books #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #sareaders #readinggoals #lianemoriarty #thehypnotistslovestory

A post shared by Marcia Francois (@marcia0608) on Mar 3, 2017 at 7:21am PST

I once successfully started a good habit of cleaning my face every night before bed. I remember I started that habit on 21 March (of whichever year) because we went to see Michael Buble that evening.

And then in July when we went on holiday, my good streak was broken and I never started up again.

I've been in a great sleep habit for a long time but I do track it which is the magic pill for me.

Anything I track I do well :)

But last week I read past 1 am on two nights because I have no discipline to go to sleep instead of reading.

But I confessed on Instagram on Monday and it's been good accountability for me because I've been in bed by 10.30 this whole week.

However, the weekend is near so who knows what'll happen :0

Last month, March, I had a spectacularly great reading month with 12 books.

I finished my Maeve Binchy on the Wed night, the end of the month was Friday and I posted on Instagram "wondering" if I'd just relax or try to read another. All while I was charging my Kindle. It's like my body knew before my mind had been made up.

So I checked the books available (still 31!) and selected the Lisa Hall, a psychological thriller (I think that's what you call these books). I read and read and read, and finished it outside of work, kids, school meetings and coaching calls, after 1am.

I was knackered the next day but it was great to completely dive in for a long stretch. Like the pre-kids days :)

The stats
12 read
5 non-fiction; 7 fiction
Most books read in one day, 14th March - 2 books (while on flights to and from Cape Town)
Audible: Kindle: Physical = 1:5:6

Noteworthy
I read my first Jodi Picoult and I loved it despite some hot-button topics!
I of course loved the Liane Moriarty, the Hypnotist's Love Story. She writes such great books full of discussion topics, perfect for book clubs :)

I'm currently reading Friends like us, Irish fiction by a new-to-me author, and I'm listening to Jen Hatmaker's For the Love, which I got through the free Overdrive app through my library membership.

What are you reading and listening to?

Let's talk about comparison

Guys, it feels like forever since we've chatted even though it's not even been a week!

Ha - my standards are low these days.

Anyway, I want to talk about comparison.

This has come up 4 times for me recently:

1. Our podcast club had this come up as a question on our parenting, like do you compare yourself with other mothers in your parenting?

Both of us said no. Great!

Do you compare yourself in that way? How?



2. Then, I listened to this podcast and this guest said her reading had started to feel competitive because of Instagram. Like you start judging the books you read - are they cool enough, literary enough, up to date enough?

I get that. I don't care what Instagram followers think but I realised that I actually don't listen to that very podcast because I compare myself to those guests and feel like my reading is not literary enough.

Then I started listening again.

Really weird.



3. Design Mom linked to this post where he talks about the way to be happier.

Do you know what that is?

To think like a bronze medalist and not like the silver one. The thinking is that when you're the silver medalist you compare up, and say "oh, I missed the gold. I should have been faster" but when you're the bronze medalist, you compare down so you're grateful to place 3rd.

I, of course, thought of instagram, which is the gold medal. Everything is perfect and all are in the top 1% of experiences - perfect holidays, houses, clothes, families, etc.

We look at that perfection and we're unhappy because we don't have that - or maybe you have.

What we should do is think about all the things we do have that others don't. Some people don't even have houses, families, jobs, money for new clothes, etc.

It all comes down to perspective but it's a great reminder.



4. And then this post.

This post says that basically we're confident until we compare. That's also true.

We've all had instances where we were quite happy with a situation and then we found out more information (someone else's salary, job title, what they drive, etc.) and then suddenly we're unhappy with our lot.

Tell me what you think.
Do you battle with comparison?