More about me and where we started

I realise that some people who will read this will know me very well, where others will know nothing at all about me so I thought this week I would write a bit more about me.

So where to start...

So my name is Katherine, but if you call me that I won't answer. I'm Kat. I was born on the 10th of June 1992, which means as I write this I am almost 27.

I was born in East London and spent the first part of my childhood in Tottenham, North London. I am the oldest of 3, with a sister then a brother following after me.

We moved from North London to Peterborough when I was almost 10 after my grandparents on my dads side moved here and we all loved it when we visited. My mum had wanted to get out of London for the longest time.

When we first moved to Peterborough, I hated it. It was too quiet and I didn't know anyone. I had what all the kids at school thought was a hilarious accent and I hated feeling like an outsider. I joined the school at the beginning of year 6. It was a really small school full of kids who had literally grown up together and I was the new kid, but it wasn't long before I made some really good friends.

It didn't take long for me to start loving where we lived. My parents felt safer there and so gave me so much more freedom. I had never had kids 'call for me' before and never ever been able to 'play out' without adult supervision so I felt like I had a massive amount of freedom.

In the summer after year 7 we moved again to a different part of Peterborough and I had to change schools again. I again hated being the new girl but soon found some great friends.

When I was 17 I met Sam. He had been my brothers football coach and my dad was the assistant coach. I'm pretty sure my dad had been trying to set us up for a while, not that he will ever admit it.

We met at a summer BBQ for the football team and I really did not want to be there, then I met Sam. I have to say it definitely wasn't love at first sight or anything like that. We both got amazingly drunk and flirted ridiculously, with my mum and her friend egging us on. We exchanged numbers and when I left I honestly never thought I would see him again. He was leaving for university in the September.

So boy was I shocked when I woke up the next morning to a text from Sam asking if I would like to meet again. I said yes and we had a great day together. We both agreed that we weren't looking for anything serious and didn't think it would last once Sam went to Uni. Boy were we wrong.

We survived Sam going to Uni in Coventry, me moving to Norwich, Me going to Uni in Bolton and then me dropping out of Uni.

We decided to move in together once Sam had finished his degree and looked at all of our options. We had both loved being in Coventry and so we decided to move there. We lived in Coventry for exactly a year and it was the hardest year of our life, but we both agree now that it was the best thing we could have done for our relationship. Living away from all of our family meant that we learnt to work through any problems we had and grow as a couple.

It was just under a year after we moved back to Peterborough that we found out we were having Harry, and the rest is history!

12 books in 12 months - Book 1. Eve Of Man

So, I have set myself a little goal this year. I want to read 12 brand new books, so nothing I have read before.

Anyone who knew me before I had Harry knows I have always had my nose in a book. But since becoming a mum I seem to have forgotten everything I love about reading and I missed it. I missed the feeling when you get to a really good part of a book and you have no idea where its going, I missed the feeling of achievement when you get to the end of the book and the anticipation of waiting for the next instalment. I even missed the smell of the paper and the feel of the book in my hand (I don't think I will ever be an e reader girl - sorry!).

So this year I wanted to have all of these things again and remember why I loved reading so much and to be able to take the time to read a few chapters every so often. But I'm a mum now and to be honest I don't have the time to sit and devour all the books I want to so I wanted to come up with a realistic goal for this.

12 books in a year seemed doable, so that's what I decided to do.

The plan had been to read a new book every month, but January turned out to be super busy, both at work and home so I struggled to find the time or energy to do any reading.

I also struggled with finding the perfect new book to bring back that love again. I was really worried about picking a book and not enjoying it and so not carrying on with the whole thing because I would be so disappointed.

Then one day early February Sam came home with part of my Valentines day present - Eve of Man by Tom and Giovanna Fletcher. He knew I had been desperate to read it since it first came out and he knew I was trying to get back into reading so he even gave it to me early so I could get going.

And I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!

The whole idea of the book fascinated me. It sounded really up my street and Sam knew that too. I got started that very night and finished it a few nights later.

If you don't know the book is based on Eve who is the first girl born in 50 years anywhere in the world. The book starts just after Eve's sixteenth birthday as she is preparing to meet three 'potentials' one of whom she will need to start re populating the earth with. Of course like any good book it just doesn't work out that way and I was hooked. All of a sudden I was approaching the end of the book and was torn between needing to know what happens and not wanting to finish because it was just so good!

Obviously the need to know what happened won and I am now desperately waiting on the next book!

The story isn't the only thing about it that got me hooked. The writing was amazing - I have to confess I have never read anything by either Fletcher's but that will certainly be changing very soon! Another thing is how seamless the writing is - If i didn't know the book was written by two separate people I would have never been able to tell. I never felt like anything didn't fit.

The book reminded me of the hunger games and divergent series - both of which I love and have audiobooks of every book in both series and listen too on repeat and still love every single time. I have a feeling this trilogy will join them on my shelf of favourites - Along with the Harry Potter series of course!

So far my 12 books in 12 months has started brilliantly and left me looking forward to jumping into more books. I have a few books that I have had my eye on for a while so these should be coming up very soon!

Any book recommendations for me?

1 month in... Where I am with my 2019 Goals

Well, January is finally over. It can't just be me that feels like that was the longest month?

But its over now, and we are a full month into 2019 so I thought I would do an update of where I am with my personal 2019 goals!

1. Blogging more regularly has gone really well! I know its only a month but I'm really proud that I've managed to get a post up every Friday this month and fingers crossed I will continue to do so. I've really actually been enjoying having the routine of it all and I'm feeling great that I have a post up every week!
I feel like I blog differently to others where i will write the post down in a notebook first. I honestly have no idea why but this always works better for me. I've always been a pen and paper girl and its gone over into my blogging style although it is definitely more work, I can write and edit a blog post anywhere and never leave the house without my little blogging notebook and pen!

2. More organised? Well, I don't really know that I've seen much of a difference with this one. I still seem to run around like a headless chicken in the mornings trying to get everything ready for work, but I feel that I have more of a routine with Harry and getting things ready and I don't really seem to be forgetting anything anymore,  I suppose organisation will come with time. I'm also managing to actually get things done from my to do list instead of just writing a list and then never looking at it again. Lets hope I can improve even more as the months go on. I don't feel like I've got the most out of my bullet journal this month either so hoping to make sure I use this a bit more in the future.

3. I have completely failed at taking more pictures. I don't think I've turned my big camera on this whole month and I have very little new pictures on my phone. January is always a hard one for me with taking pictures but hey! Can't win them all. Let's try again next month!

4. Well..... The less said about this one the better. Moving on next month. Hopefully getting my bike sorted and gunna start taking Harry swimming when the weather warms up so that should help!

5. I've been feeling loads better mentally this month, and I think I have been taking more time to be Kat, rather then mummy all the time. It definitely helps that Sam and I have great supportive families that offer to have Harry so much! It kind of feels like Harry hasn't been home too much this month but I've managed to have good sleep and do little things for myself which is just what the doctor ordered.

How are you all doing with your goals? Do you think, now we are a month in they are realistic and achievable? Are you wishing you had made different goals?