Love, Kay

So, I did it! I survived life without Facebook for 9 days. Was it painful? No.... Was it challenging?...yes  Did I miss it?... no Did I miss anything? Yes, a few birthdays (sorry!) What I have learned from my “break” from FB is that it’s pretty clear that FB has become a necessity in our society. Without it, a lot of information is unaccessible to me; for example summer camps for my kids, social events and fantastic bargains being shared on sale boards by other mums. I hate this but I appreciate it is the world we live in and for this reason, I now only look on FB for those things. I will scroll through once or twice a day but I won’t like everything (please don’t think I don’t actually like things but if there is something that really grabs my attention or makes me feel something... I’ll message you, I’ll connect, I won’t just click anymore). I have started a FB cull. If you share pictures of people you don’t know as it’s their birthday and they have no friends and w...

My name is Kay and I am a social media addict. These words kill me but it is the truth. Facebook has become an automatic “go to” activity in my daily life.  Seeing someone’s pictures or reading their updates has become my socialising. “Liking” a picture or perhaps even “loving” something has become my connection to others. This is wrong. How can I expect my kids to stay off their iPads, if I can’t take myself away from my phone? (Please note the painting my son did of me last year. It’s so beautiful and colourful and he’s even included the baby in my belly but there’s the other addition, my phone!!) I dread to think how many hours I have wasted following links, reading random posts about pointless things and crying at videos of soldiers returning home to surprise their families. Yes, these are heart warming videos but there is a time and a place for it and that shouldn’t be when my baby is staring up at me from her bouncy chair or whilst my son is trying endlessly to per...

“Hmmmmmmm... what’s the word again?!?! You know what I mean?! The thing? The thing that does that thing?? Oh come on?! You must know what I mean!!” Welcome to the inner workings of my brain! It’s a scary place and I have noticed recently that due to the 3rd baby entering our family, it’s become even scarier!  Mumnesia or “baby brain” is something I have joked about since I fell pregnant with our eldest in 2010. I used to blame my absentmindedness on the fact I was pregnant or had a new born or had a toddler or because I was pregnant again. 8 years later, I can honestly say that baby brain is real, it’s serious and I have it! It can be seen as day to day absentmindedness but forgetting where the “special” place I put things is or forgetting appointments is incredibly frustrating. More so, recently I have found that simple words escape me. I know exactly what I mean but I end up staring at the person I am talking to and in a complete panic, all the while trying to find a...

I sat recently and thought really hard about my kids and their futures and what I want for them. Do I want them to be rich? Successful? Cure cancer? Win Olympic gold? Well yes, all of the above if I’m being honest but deep down, what do I want my children to become. I want them to be good people; Good human beings with good hearts that want to do good things for others. There are just too many assholes in this world, it’s our job to ensue we help guide these kids away from potential assholdom (pretty sure that’s a word!) and towards.... what’s the opposite of assholdom?? Non- assholdom?!?! Yep, that’ll do nicely.   This sounds so idealistic and fluffy but it’s so true. I can’t honestly prepare them for the world they will live in in 15-20 years as I don’t know what that world will look like and I can’t fully prepare them for their future careers, perhaps these jobs haven’t even been invented yet; but I can prepare them to be good people; people who live life with empathy, al...

Introvert, extrovert, chatty, aloof, confident, shy, snobby, warm, irritating...  Are any of these words ones that you’d use to describe yourself? How about other people? Do you feel that people really “get” you?  I turn 36 this year and I have come to accept the person that I am; that’s not to say I’m 100% happy with myself but I understand myself better and feel more comfortable in my own skin. Throughout my life, many people have made snap judgements about me, my bitchy resting face and introverted characteristics have made me seem aloof, snobby, unfriendly and sometimes even boring. Seriously though.... this was me having fun at a beautiful family wedding!!!!     This always bothered me as I found myself becoming increasingly worried about what people thought of me. It wasn’t until I attended a coaching course and completed the Myers Briggs test that I was able to really get down to the nitty gritty of what makes me me. I hate the idea ...

Last week I did something that I have always dreamed of doing; I bathed with elephants. I unfortunately live in a country where these beautiful creatures are tortured for the logging and tourist industry and have their spirits and bodies crushed by small people with big hooks. Fortunately, there are some people trying to solve this and there are places where these elephants are being rescued and treated with care and the love they deserve. (I appreciate they are still in the tourist industry but this is somewhere that people can be educated about elephants and hopefully reduce the amount of elephant shows/rides tourists take). It wasn’t until I returned home that it dawned on me that I could now “tick” this off my bucket list. “Bucket list”, is a term I really dislike so instead wish to call it “Kay’s List”.  I want to see the world with my husband and do all the magical things that so many others dream of; go on safari, skydive, take a hot air balloon ride etc. But I’ve de...

Every morning I wake up and grab for my phone; I check my messages, emails and then check in with the world of Facebook. This morning I read an amazing blog entry from two wonderful ladies I met in Texas. These ladies and their blog are the reason I went to the hospital to have a colonoscopy at the age of 33 & these ladies are the reason I found out that I had the colon of a 69 year old and if I didn’t sort myself out, I would eventually develop colon cancer.  Blogs are a fantastic avenue in which we can vent and share and sometimes, a blog can change your mood, perspective or perhaps even your life. (Thank you again, ladies!) In their blog today, they wrote about friendships and the kind of friends that “fan our flames”, friends that uplift us and inspire  us to be better people. This really made me think.. Again, I’m going to refer back to the latest shooting in the US. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a teacher, because I have kids in school, have a newborn...