Well, I know that many are struggling with lockdown. For me, I’ve been on lockdown almost since Little One was born. I was so ill for the first 3-4 months of her life I barely left the house, if I did it was to the doctors or hospital. That was my life.

Except now I am pretty much mostly healed and able to do more, and now I am in lockdown of a different kind. Yes its mentally taxing, but its not as bad as the first few months of mother hood. Traumatic would be an understatement. Thankfully though I have a wonderful partner who is keeping me strong. As for Little One you wouldn’t know it, by how well LO thrives.

I am slowly trying to build stamina daily. Though lets face it what new mum really has the energy to exercise.

I am planning more walks daily slowly. Though it will take a while to develop the habit probably. Mind you I’ve got less weight to loose than just after birth thanks to being so ill.

Low fat diets, not very flavourful, hard work without a doubt. It’s not like it is even by choice, it is very much a case of not having the choice to eat what I like, I end up quite ill, which can be exhausting. There is hidden fats in lots of things.

This week my aim is to add a walk in that wouldn’t normally happen at least once this week. We will have to wait and see.

Well its been a long old while since I last updated. It has been a bit chaotic. The baby has arrived, but as I was so ill during the pregnancy after birth I thought it would be fairly easy sailing recovery wise. Boy was I wrong, I ended up really ill and had to have an operation and have been recovering since.

I haven’t had the time or imagination to write to be honest. Crashed into mother hood well and truly just not quite found my feet for having something called “Free Time” whatever that is now.

Not got much to update on really though mentally exhausted 😀

Just a brief update right now but hopefully I will write some more later.

Over June and July I saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat- was a lovely evening and I could have slept for days after.

Not sure what the next plan will be on this list considering a tattoo is well off the cards. I hope I will get some writing done though. I want to finish Christmas shopping soon, maybe that will be the next goal.

I wonder if those 5 books count if I make them baby related books?

24/7 Goals:

1. Write one book
2. See a west end show
3. Write a second book
4. Create/keep a writing schedule that works for me
5. Keep working on arappleby.com
6. Work with an agent/publisher
7. Complete one knitting project
8. Complete some crafting cross stitch project
9. Keep doing daily positive aspects
10. Complete one minor savings goal
11. Get Christmas wrapped up early (ie. Halloween)
12. Learn a new song on guitar
13. Work on the schedule and make it work for this year
14. Do another “on the fly” project
15. Draw or sketch something to a point that you are happy with it
16. Learn how to do winged eyeliner freehand
17. Win the lottery
18. Dress up and go out for an evening
19. Buy a Kat Von D eyeliner
20. Read five books this year minimum
21. Get a tattoo (either finish one or get a whole new one)
22. Create a budget that works really well
23. Go ice skating at least once
24. Enjoy 2019 as much as you possibly can!

I haven’t written in a while, a long while. I’ve been taking a break.

Honestly I’ve not been feeling well. I didn’t anticipate feeling so ill, or so unmotivated to write. I think I’ve lost my way a little bit the last few months, feeling so drained constantly and tired and achy, its not exactly conducive to feeling remotely creative.

I am hoping to be able to change that but for the moment this is the brief update on whats been going on…

I’ve had medication since about 8 to 10 weeks in this pregnancy for severe morning sickness, I’ve struggled with my blood pressure being low and having lots of dizzy spells (faint type thingies) and incredible back and hip pain all thanks to this tiny little human growing inside me who likes to kick the daylights out of my guts and keep me up at night.

I’ve at least reached that half way mark and the freak outs about looking after said tiny little human are becoming more realistic. But apparently its all natural.

I am hoping that by some miracle I find the energy, enthusiasm and motivation to write something creative again soon.

And as always nothing changes here in terms of throwing plugs in for my amazon books on my author page…

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA

xxx