the sunday 5

I set myself the goal in May to post on Substack twice a week, and I’ve kept that promise to myself. It’s been three months, and I’m at the point where it’s getting a bit harder. I really don’t want the momentum to die because I’ve been enjoying this form of sharing and writing so much, so I thought I’d bring a little structure to my posts. Mostly so I don’t sit in front of my keyboard twice a week thinking, what do I talk about?

So I’m bringing you the sunday five. Just a recap of my week through five categories: what I’m consuming (reading, listening to, following), what I’m eating, what I’m enjoying as a mother, what I’m wearing, and what I’m using. The last one could be a tool in the kitchen, a vase for my flowers, a skincare product, anything really.

I’m in a re-reading mood. This week I’ve gone back to two old favourites that I remember liking, but couldn’t actually remember much about. Does that happen to you? You read a book and then a year or two later, sometimes not even that long, you realise you barely remember what it was about?

So I re-read Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I still liked it, although I realised I’d found it much more exciting a few years ago when I first read it. I still really enjoy her sense of humour and her perspective on life, so it was a nice, light read.

I’ve now started listening to Unstuck by Pema Chödrön, which was recorded at one of her retreats. I’ve been really enjoying diving back into spirituality and meditation. It’s one of the things I had to sort of give up after becoming a mother, and even though I still haven’t been able to commit to a strict meditation routine since having my twins, just listening to Pema while I prepare breakfast before the boys wake up helps me reconnect to that side of myself.

I believe we are having one of the hottest summers ever in London. It has been so dry that I find it hard to believe I haven’t worn anything long-sleeved in months?

Anyway, this, and probably the many ads I’ve been served, inspired me to start having an ice cream as a treat after I put the boys down each evening. I now eat dinner with them, which is chaos on its own, so I find that my soul craves something indulgent that I can eat in silence, usually while watching something, once they’re asleep.

I’ve tried many different ones and my absolute favourite has become the Magnum Pistachio. I’m not even a huge pistachio girl, but this has everything: the crunch, the gooey chocolate, the nuts. It’s a party in my mouth. I will admit there have also been days when I’ve had one as an afternoon snack.

The boys are now almost 20 months and have really become their own little personalities. They actually have preferences now, which is endlessly fascinating to me.

We recently got them mini tennis rackets and training balls and one of them is absolutely obsessed with tennis. It’s now the only way I can get him to do anything. I just have to promise we’ll go and play tennis later. So we’ve been spending a lot of time at the courts.

The other twin is much less interested in holding his racket and much more interested in sitting on it and drawing on the ground with his chalks.

It’s so interesting to me that they are already such distinctly different little people despite being raised in exactly the same environment, at exactly the same time. It makes me think about how much of who we are is already there when we arrive in this world, rather than something that gets taught to us later.

I’ve had my eye on this bag from The Row for years. Seriously, years. It’s such a high-ticket item that I actually needed that long to convince myself it was worth it, that I really wanted it and that I would actually use it.

It’s a beautifully made crossbody with no logos or specific design details that I think will make it age badly or scream that’s so 2025 a few years from now. I wear it almost every day, especially when I’m running after the boys, because having a crossbody means I can actually have my hands free.

It ended up being worth the purchase for me, when I found an unworn second hand one, and because it makes me feel so much more put together, even when I’m wearing it over my pee-stained T-shirts (we are potty training).

I’m just realising that everything I’m mentioning, even when the item or thing itself has nothing to do with kids or being a mum, somehow revolves around motherhood.

So, this product, a body moisturiser, is the best one I’ve used in a long time. The reason I’ve been using it so much more is that I now get in the bath with the boys almost every day. They’re in that stage where they just want to do the most dangerous things possible in the bath, and rather than giving myself a heart attack and bumping my cortisol levels trying to control them from the edges, I figured I’d just get in.

When we get out, we all put on cream, and the boys love putting it on me. I’m raising great masseuses. Investing in my future!