What if this is the year we don't spiral?

My eldest is a spiraller, bless her cottons. It’s one of the few traits she inherited from me, otherwise that kid is 99% her father’s daughter. We spend a lot of time preparing her, explaining things to her, talking through different scenarios and making her feel safe.

As a seasoned spiraller myself, parenting this wee little anxious ball has been rather a tonic for my own spiralling. If there’s a worst case scenario I’ve imagined it, tripled it and fully committed to the unlikely outcome.

I once had a work colleague refer to ‘finishing Carly up’ in a company wide Slack chat and I flipped my lid. The boss wanted to fire me, everyone knew and my colleague accidentally mentioned it in the wrong chat. Storming outside I dramatically yelled at the sky and then barged back in to find they were talking about a client whose project we’d just finished. A client called Carly. I nearly popped a blood vessel in my eye, screaming at the skies for nothing1. Smooth.

So when I’m talking my big kid off the ledge and saying things like ‘Do we need to worry about things that haven’t happened yet? Do you think that’s a good use of our brain power? Or is it a bit of a waste?’ it sticks.

Could this be the year we don’t spiral?

I hope so.

Reading

Chosen Family by Madeleine Grey. I broke a bookclub rule and chose this for my first pick of the year. We’re not supposed to choose books we’ve already read but I smashed through this over New Year so I figured if it was the first book of the year and everyone else reads it immediately, it still passes the criteria. I really loved it, the language was accessible, it was genuinely funny (I even LOLed a few times) and it was really thought provoking. Definitely read this one.

Watching

The Roses. It was good but just fell short of being a slam dunk. Outrageous casting though, 10/10. Also watching season 2 of The Pitt. I need this show to go full SVU and run for 28 years, Dr Robby retires at 75 but then does 6 more seasons.

I devoured Heated Rivalry and I am weirdly obsessed with Connor Storrie. It’s odd for me because conventionally attractive men don’t usually tickle my fanny. I’m a Benedict Cumberbatch, Cillian Murphy, Adam Driver kinda gal. I like em’ tall and interesting looking, a little tortured with at least 1 or 2 oversized features. So colour me shocked that this mainstream treat has caught my eye. Swoon. Is he mainstream? I feel he's Hemsworth adjacent right?

Playing

I have to add ‘playing’ as category once every 2 years when I play a video game because I’m not at all a gamer. I enjoy cute, fun games where you get to collect things like coins or gems - RayMan, Mario, Zelda are my genre. We’ve been playing Astro Bot and it ticks ALL the boxes. It’s very clever, incredibly dense with engaging worlds and themes and it’s just good fun. Great for kids too.

Listening

Every Outfit podcast. I have had so many readers tell me to listen to this, it’s basically two divas chatting about the fashion in Sex and The City. I never got around to listening to it until recently and now I’m hooked, I even paid for a subscription. It’s very fashion heavy (which I love) but it’s also cultural zietgiesty which I need because I’m not on the socials all that much. I only watched Heated Rivalry because Chelsea and Lauren told me to. There’s years worth of episodes, mainly walk-throughs of SATC eps.

Wearing

Not much, it’s quite hot. These (right pic - please excuse the mess) pants from Elk are the bees knees and I got this cute bubble top from Witchery. I’ve had some money sitting earmarked for the Everyday Necklace of My Dreams and after two years of searching, I found the perfect one at Cleopatra’s Bling (left pic - I’m smirking in the Alpha 60 change room because everything I’m wearing is Alpha 60). I’m going to be mean here and say I think the brand name Cleopatra’s Bling is a bit naff but they make stunning pieces with a kind of Ancient Egyptian flavour to them. The bricks and mortar store is so bougie, you have a ring a doorbell to get in. Anyway the point is, I love this necklace. It’s make the most divine tinkling sound.

Eating

I had confit lamb and a Japanese sparkling lemon vodka thing that was on tap at Tanswell’s and I will 100% be re-ordering both of them. Also daily Zooper Doopers.

The Frankly food van is awesome. Totally GF, every Friday night outside the Beechworth bowls club. Saved our bacon last week when we lost power and couldn’t get home because of a fallen tree. The kids ate nachos near the creek and had a ball.

I’m NOT eating paprika on my yogurt. Silly goose.

Doing

Summer holidays. After the excitement of Christmas Day wore off and my children stopped being so feral and frantic, we had a lovely break. Lots of swimming (pool, lake, creek, dam), lots of ice blocks, lots of lolling about reading books, late nights for the kids, interstate visitors. We got an archery set (suction - we’re not monsters) and the kids love it. Good holiday.

I had 500 Club last week and it was the best I’ve ever played. I got very brave in bidding (I’m usually too chicken) so it was quite thrilling. Finally met an Instagram buddy I’ve been meaning to catch up with since she moved to the area three years ago. Delightful.

Welcome back!

2026 - let’s do it.

Oh also I have a theme for this year, not a word. But that’s for another post.

See you next year!

Love

Carly

xxx