wellbeing
The Final 6 Books for 2025
Ward D by Freida McFadden My rating: 4 of 5 stars As usual, very good, easy but gripping read. There was something missing for me though, which I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe just that the twist didn’t seem quite as WOW as they usually are for me from Frieda’s books. However, I still really enjoyed it and it kept me guessing throughout. Every Move You Mak…
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wellbeing
5 Books of 2025 - Part 2
I started the year really well with 5 books read by February 12th. Book 6 was read by the 18th of February. And then....I didn't really pick up any books. I tried but it felt like a chore. And my belief is that if something feels like a chore then it's not a hobby I should do at that time so I stepped back and thought I'll pick the books up when I have t…
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monthly roundup
monthly roundup
motherhood
The stage of parenting we're not told about
There’s so many stages of parenting that I feel we have so much advice and tips given to us about. We can prepare ourselves. “Sleep when baby sleeps” “Ahhh my baby has a rash, I know to do the glass test” “My child has hurt themselves, kiss it better”. We kind of know what to do and what not to do. We’ve read it in a book, on a forum, our community has told us.
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wellbeing
April 2025
Well April just flew by! It didn't feel long ago that I was writing my March roundup post and now here I am writing an April roundup! April, thankfully, has been quieter than the last couple of months which is just what I wanted/needed. Crabbing! I sat in the garden to have my morning coffee and was desperate to get out of the house for the day. The boys appeared…
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wellbeing
Things That Are Therapy to Me
Last week I sat on a panel with two other colleagues, Wendy Robinson who is the Director of Services at CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) and our work Wellbeing Ambassador Jeff Brazier. The panel event topic was 'Therapy' and was filmed to be shared with colleagues in a months time. I mainly shared about my experience with seeing a therapist, briefly a…
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wellbeing
Things I’ve done to improve my Wellbeing - #2 Wellbeing Days
In September last year I planned to start a blog series "Things I've done to improve my Wellbeing". I wrote one post, about reading , then I didn't write any more for that series. In November I followed it up with " Things I STOPPED doing which affected my Wellbeing ". I could easily think that I failed in not continuing with that series …
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wellbeing
March 2025
I genuinely thought that March might be relatively quiet. Other than having plans to go to London with work for an event, I didn't think I'd have much else going on really. How wrong I was! This was my March:
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wellbeing
Reflections on Winning an Award
On Thursday the 20th of March I attended the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards.
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wellbeing
Sleeping with Giants
If there is one person on this earth who I feel is my therapist without actually being my therapist (really, I feel like I owe him a lot of money, but I suppose buying the albums and concert tickets counts in some ways) it would be Dan Reynolds, singer of Imagine Dragons.
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wellbeing
What to say/not to say to a colleague with an Eating Disorder
4 weeks ago I opened up to my manager and a couple of colleagues about my food addiction.
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wellbeing
A Wholesome Sunday
I resisted the urge to lay in bed, sleep a little longer, scroll on my phone. I got up, made a coffee, went to put the washing out on the line (then realised the load I put in yesterday didn’t actually wash, damn it) then I did go back to bed. But with good intentions.
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monthly roundup
February 2025
After a busy January it was so nice to finally have a relaxing month. No pressure, no extra expense (although the extra expense in January is always worth it).
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wellbeing
I'm Lauren and I'm a compulsive over-eater
Hello. I'm Lauren and I'm a compulsive over-eater.
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wellbeing
Show Up, Be Brave, Be Vulnerable
For the last 3 weeks I've joined 24 Zoom meetings. I've talked on some of them, shied away on others, and until today kept my camera off.
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wellbeing
Just one more chapter
That’s the hardest thing about reading. Well, other than reading a book that is slow starting and hard to get into.
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travel
Murrays Motor Museum | Isle of Man
In 2019 I took my boys to experience their first Isle of Man TT. Unfortunately, the weather didn't want my boys to experience it properly and in the 5 days we were there we only saw one practice race. The rain sadly caused the other practices to be called off. Good for the racers, not quite so good for us.
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wellbeing
The First 5 Books of 2025
Last year my Reading Challenge target was 8 books. As someone who doesn't read a huge amount it felt realistic. I exceeded that by reading 15. This year I've set my challenge at 11. Even though I managed 15 last year and could have had that as my goal this year I again wanted to be realistic. I didn't want to set something that might not be manageable and…
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wellbeing
2024 Books
I wrote recently about how last year I really enjoyed reading and found it helped my mental health a lot. I had a few months break due to grieving a book I'd finished ( more about that here ).
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wellbeing
25 Things I Like About Myself
My bucket list includes "Make a list of 25 things I like about myself". It feels like it might be easy. Just 25 things that you like about yourself. It's really not. "List 25 things you dislike about yourself" would be easier but.... just 25 ? I could list more than that! And I guess that's the reason behind me putting that on my list back…
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bucket list
100 Things - Bucket List 2025
In June 2023 I posted my " 100 Things Bucket list " after being inspired by a Podcast I'd listened to called 'the Brave Table'.
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mental health
How do I, once again, feel beautiful and confident in this skin?
When I called my blog ‘In This Skin’ it was not only because of the Jessica Simpson song but also because this is a big focus in my life at the moment.
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monthly roundup
January 2025
I see quite often people comment about how January drags and is a long month. I could not disagree more! Obviously, this is my personal opinion based on my experience of January.
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motherhood
Done Mother!
One of the bittersweet things about your children getting older are those words that they never used to be able to pronounce properly now being pronounced exactly as they should. I will always miss the words cuggoowe (cuddle me) eweven (eleven) beweieve (believe) and wenembwa (remember). And many more to be fair.
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The Confidence of a 5 Year Old Girl
“Are you now going to school?” I asked, as I stepped away from my car towards my front door and my sweet little next door neighbour stood and waited to talk to me.
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Introducing: In This Skin
In 2011 I started blogging as a way of feeling less lonely being a mum of a toddler and a newborn. It brought me relief, a new hobby which would also earn me some money and reviewing opportunities (which I wasn't aware of at the time I started) and eventually brought me friendships.
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word for the year
Word for 2025
I thought I had my word set for 2025 a long time ago. I was ready for it. Prepared. This year my word was going to be "Consistency". In 2018 my word was supposed to be "Routine" but I ended up changing it to Faith. This year I thought consistency would be great. I wanted to get some order in my life. Follow a set of rules when I wake up and go to…
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Longing for Summer
I'm one of those people who loves to ask simple questions to find things out about people. What's your favourite flavour crisps? Who's your favourite James Bond? (Roger Moore should always be the answer) What's your favourite colour? What's your least favourite colour? Top 5 farm animals? What's your favourite season? For me, if anyone had eve…
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