Hello my little Foxgloves,
I hope this post finds you well and happy?
As I settle even more into my life here in Scotland, I feel my creativity and passion coming back for things that I’d lost interest and motivation for. And it’s felt nice but also kind of overwhelming in the sense of “where should I start” But before my move, I promised myself that I wouldn’t put pressure on myself about anything anymore, instead I decided to try and be more present and just do whatever I wanted to do in that moment.
And honestly it’s made me feel so much better. So I wanted to share some more things with you that I’ve been doing different since I moved to Scotland.
I go to bed earlier – In my old house I felt like I would be tired all day and then when it came to bed time I found myself laying on my side scrolling through social media till the early hours of the morning. Often sleeping fitfully and waking up numerous times when I did fall asleep. Here though, I find my eyes growing heavy around 10am. I’m usually in bed not long after and sleep right through to the morning.
Why? I don’t know. It could be a few things, which I’ll go into a bit later. But mostly I think it’s because it’s so quiet here at night and the bedroom is at the back of the property so we don’t have the glare of a streetlight shining through the gap at the bottom of the blind!
I wake up early and get out of bed straight away – We have two cats, the smallest one is very affectionate in the morning and she tends to jump on the bed and bunt her head against our hands purring, which wakes us up. It’s honestly a cute way to be woken up. The bigger one (who is the mum of the little one) will usually follow suit by jumping on top of me and meowing in my face.
When the cats woke us up in our old place, I’d lay in bed and stare at the wall or my phone and instantly check my work emails and feel all the weight of what I needed to do that day, weigh down on me. And it would make me feel so overwhelmed sometimes that I’d close my eyes and sulk (I’m not ashamed to admit it) and get out of bed 10 minutes before I had to log on and start work for the day.
Here when I wake up, I get up straight away. Not only is this nice on the days when my husband is working from the office because it means I get to have a coffee with him, but it also gives me time to do some bits before work. I usually unload the dishwasher and put everything away, spray and wipe down the kitchen surfaces, put on a wash load. Then I usually shower and do my skin care before making a coffee and sitting for half an hour to read through social media.
Having this me time, has really helped me focus and be more productive in my work day and I find myself barely looking at my phone when I’m working.
I try not to drink caffeine after 5pm – In my old place I was guilty of drinking coffee till about half an hour before bed. Since I’ve moved here, I try to cut it out after 5pm. If I want a drink, I’ll have a mug of hot chocolate with oat milk or a glass of diluted juice.
This could be one of the reasons I’m sleeping so well!
I’ve been eating a vegetarian diet – I’d been thinking of turning vegetarian for a while. I love animals and found myself feeling guilty about the cruelty against them in order to feed me. I also wanted to do more to reduce my carbon footprint. So my husband (already vegetarian) and I decided that we would both live on a vegetarian diet when we moved.
Honestly, I haven’t found the transition hard at all. If anything, I find that my love and joy for cooking has come back more. As a side note, I LOVE my new kitchen. But generally I just enjoy planning our evening meals (which I tend to do on a Sunday for the week ahead) and then get the joy of cooking them.
Some of the dishes we’ve enjoyed so far are;
Vegetarian Jalfrezi Curry (chickpeas, sweetcorn, peas, onion and spinach) with rice
Quorn mince spaghetti with home made Bolognese sauce, served with Mediterranean vegetables
Quorn Roast Log served with garlic roasted potatoes, sweet potato mash, sage and onion stuffing, mixed veg, Yorkshire puddings and veg gravy
Tagliatelle with creamy garlic and cheese sauce, fresh spring onions and garlic bread
Quorn chicken in sweet chili and garlic sauce, served with rainbow veg and udon noodles
Today we have a friend visiting for dinner so I’ve got a Vegetarian Sausage Casserole in the slow cooker with root vegetables and I’ll serve it with creamy sweet potato mash *chefs kiss*
I’m more mindful of my leftovers – Trying to be more conscious about reducing my waste, I now try to utilize any leftovers and use them to make something else. For example, if I only need half an onion for onion gravy, then I will store the other half in a refrigerator bag and use it in a recipe the following day.
One of my favourite things to do (which I feel will turn out less soft and crunchier when I get an air fryer) is taking the sweet potato peelings, rinsing them off, putting them in a bowl and adding olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika and letting them sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. Later on I cook them in the oven until they’re crisp. Homemade crisps people! They’re good!
I try to eat 3 meals a day and have my tea (I’m northern don’t shout at me) earlier – I’ve always been guilty of skipping breakfast. I’ve been a couple of cups of coffee and not eating till lunchtime or, in some cases my evening meal, kind of woman. Obviously this isn’t good or healthy. As what I was doing was ordering takeaway most nights and filling myself on stodgy food that left me feeling bloated and gross.
Now, I try to eat three meals a day. I still have my coffee but I will try to have a bowl of cereal, porridge or some toast. Then around lunchtime, I’ll either have soup or I’ll make a healthy but filling snack. Such as carrot shavings drizzled with a bit of olive oil and honey mixed with soy sauce. It doesn’t sound filling, but it was for me and it tasted fresh and was quick and easy to make.
Fortunately being able to work from home, also means I can eat my last evening meal earlier. My husband finishes work at 5pm and usually gets home about 6pm. I tend to take my laptop into the kitchen around 5pm and start dinner prep (I still work, make calls and reply to work emails) and it’s easy enough. Then around 5.30pm I start cooking everything. This usually means that by the time my husband gets home at (which is the time I log off for the day) we’re sitting down for our tea and catching up about our day by 6.15pm. This means we get more us time in the evening.
We get more quality time together in the evening – As we’ve had no internet till recently, we’ve either cuddled up with a DVD (we re-watched Firefly and made a start on Boardwalk Empire) or I’d sometimes tether my phone as a hotspot to my laptop and we’d watch a scary film on Shudder.
Sometimes my husband would play offline games on his Playstation and I’d lay the other way on the L shaped sofa with a book. One of the things I love the most about our relationship is that we each respect the other person has their own interests/ways to relax and we don’t always expect the other person to want to do something together. It’s possible to do your own thing and still be together.
Right now, I’m writing this blog post out and listening to music on my headset whilst my husband is taking part in an online battle on Pokémon Sword. Both happy, still together.
I try not to let myself feel guilty for every single thing anymore – I’ve suffered from anxiety since I was 16 and was diagnosed with depression after the death of my dad, which got worse after the death of my mum. I still have a lot of things to work through from the past 5 years or so. A lot happened in a short space of time and I never really allowed myself to acknowledge anything or feel anything fully.
This means that I’ve spent a long time feeling guilty about pretty much everything, even things out of my control. Even things I shouldn’t feel guilty for, like taking an hour to have a hot bath…It’s not easy, but here, I try not to feel guilty about everything and take a moment to think it through. Previously if I tried to show myself any kind of self love or self care, I felt guilty and thought that it was wasteful use of time and that instead it would be better if I did something else.
Now…If I want to take a half hour nap on a Saturday afternoon, I will. If I want to sit and spend two hours flicking through all of my old Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazines for some nostalgia, I do. A moment of kindness to yourself can go a long way. Try it!
Is there anything you’ve started doing that’s helped improve your mental health or phsyical wellness? I’d love to hear if there is, so why not leave a comment below?! Until next time…
Stay Spooky!
👻LWG👻
☽ SpookyGee ☾ 