Posts in category: Quotes

There’s a big pile of chocolate in my kitchen right now.

Some of it is waiting to be made into festive bark to give to the fab staff at school.  But the rest is waiting to be used in another batch of Baileys rocky road.  Which is for us.  After we demolished the first batch in a matter of days.

And there’s a small part of me that thinks maybe I shouldn’t make it.  Maybe I should find a slightly less sugary, calorie-laden snack to munch on.

But the rest of me just wants to eat yummy things.  Life’s too short to deprive ourselves of treats.

And if you can’t enjoy yummy things at Christmas then when can you?

So this sentiment from Gilmore Girls feels very fitting for me at the moment.

Just replace ‘cake’ with ‘chocolate, treats and yummy things’ and it’s perfect!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if there’s a pack of gingernuts in the cupboard so I can also make some more chocolate ginger bites.

A few months back I was sat on a train with a copy of Cosmopolitan, and I started reading the note from the editor that you always get at the front of the magazine.

She was talking about how she was training for a marathon (I think that’s what it was), and how hard it can be to keep going with training and planning for the race when you feel like you’re not good enough.

Then she wrote this:

“There will always be those faster, smarter and hungrier than you, but if you don’t push past the fear of failing, you’ll never know what you’re truly capable of.  Because part of the secret of success is being in the race in the first place”.

I just thought it was such good advice.

Not just for runners, but for everyone.  It’s pretty good advice for life in general, isn’t it?

If there’s something in life you want to do, just get in the race.  By all means look around at the other people who are already doing the thing you want to do.  Admire their success.  Be inspired by their drive.  Just don’t let them put you off.

Don’t worry that you’re not as good as them at the start.  Even the top people in their field were beginners at one point.

Don’t stop before you’ve even started.  You’ll never know how good you might have been if you never try.

Just get in the race!

I’ve written and then deleted a few versions of this week’s quote post.

I just can’t seem to settle on what it is that I want to say.

There’s a lot running through my head at the moment, but at the same time I feel a little empty.  There are so many words, but it’s like when I try to write, I have nothing to actually say.  Or too much to say maybe, which makes me seize up.

All I know is that I’m finding this hard today.  And when that happens I just want to stop.  I want to shut down the computer and climb into bed.

But I’m not sure where that would lead me if I were to do that today.

So, instead, I will sit and I will work.

I’ll work through the mental fogginess, hoping for a moment of clarity.

I’ll work through the worries about whether I’m good enough or not.

I’ll keep working.

When I was pregnant with Rhys I read quite a few different books, to help me get my head around all of it.

I read books that talked about pregnancy.  I read books that sort of helped me get my head around giving birth.  And then once he’d arrived I read a couple more books that offered advice on what to do now that he was actually here.

One of my favourites was the baby whisperer solves all your problems.

I liked the philosophy behind it, as it acknowledges that babies aren’t all the same.  I also liked that it acknowledged that parenting is hard.  And that one of the best things you can do as a parent is learn to be patient.

I’ve definitely had to dig deep into my reserves of patience in the last 5 years.

For the most part I think I do a pretty good job with it.

We were patient with Rhys, when he just didn’t ‘get’ potty training.  And it was the best decision we made.  Because it took the pressure off all of us, and he got there in his own time.

I was really patient when he regressed a bit at bedtime, and didn’t like being left to go to sleep by himself.  We knew controlled crying wasn’t for us, so for weeks I sat on the floor.  By his bed, in the middle of the room, by the door, on the landing.  Gradually inching away until his confidence came back and we could put him to bed with a kiss and just walk away.

I try to be patient with the constant, endless questions.  When my two seem to take it in turns to ask questions that don’t always make sense.

I do my best to be patient when Nerys decides she wants to do things herself, when we really just need to get out the front door.

Some days though, especially if I’m tired, I struggle.  I snap and I shout, and then I feel awful about it.

But I think that is just being a normal parent isn’t it?

Did you find patience you didn’t know you had, when you became a parent?

Or have you found that you’re really not as patient as you thought you were?!

What quality do you want to nurture most in your child?  For me, I think it’s kindness.

If my children grow up to be kind I’ll feel I’ve done my job as a parent well.

It makes me so proud to see Rhys being kind to his sister.

A few weeks ago he came out of school with a piece of birthday cake, and he offered to share it with Nerys.  Then he ran ahead of us, chasing after his friends.  And for a second I considered calling him back.  I thought about asking him to share one more bit with his sister.  But I decided against it.  I want him to share because he wants to, not because he’s been asked to.

Then, a minute later, back he came.  With a small bit of cake still in his hand.  To offer Nerys a last bite before it was all gone.

And my heart almost burst.  I was so proud of him.

That one, small thoughtful act.  It made Nerys so happy.  It made me so proud.  I’m sure it also made Rhys feel good.

And that good feeling just radiated from that moment, out into the rest of our day.

I think this is something that is so important for my children to realise.

And for me to keep in mind.

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness.  Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”

Kindness doesn’t have to be a big gesture.  

More often than not the acts of kindness we experience are small.

It’s a kind smile to the parent with the tantruming toddler in the supermarket.

It’s making a cup of tea for your partner after a long day.

It’s sharing your last bite of cake with your little sister.

But those tiny acts?

They really do create ripples, that go on and on and on.

I read quite a lot of blogs.

And I see quite a lot of bloggers get down about their work every now and then.

Sometimes it’s down to writer’s block.  Other times it seems to be down to making the mistake of comparing their blogs, and themselves, to others.

And it’s so easy to do it.

To read a couple of brilliant posts on someone else’s blog and to start to question whether you’re any good or not.

You start to wonder what you’ve actually got to offer to the world of blogs.

And I think the answer to that question is you.  YOU are what you have to offer.  No one else will think, or write, exactly the same way as you.  No one will express things in quite the same tone as you.  YOU are what makes your blog great.

So for any bloggers out there reading this, who are having a bit of a wobble.  This quote is for you:

The full quote goes like this:

“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”

And I think it’s a pretty good quote for us bloggers to keep in mind!

I’ve been really enjoying the new series of SAS: who dares wins.

I find it fascinating to watch.  To see how far the participants can push themselves.

And I love hearing the stories from the actual SAS guys about the mindset you need to have to be able to do what they do.

They talk a lot about fear.

About how the only way you can get past that fear is to face it.  To take action.  To just push through it.

And I think that’s pretty good advice for life in general.

It’s too easy to let fear hold us back.  

To wait until we don’t feel so scared.

To wait for the fear to go away.

But the thing is, very rarely will it just go away on it’s own.  The only way to get past fear is to face it head on.

Take away its power!

This quote from Eleanor Roosevelt says it pretty well for me.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

Now, in our day to day life we won’t be facing the kind of fears that the SAS face – I hope!

But we can still apply that same mindset to our daily lives.

What are you missing out on because of fear?  What project or dream are you too afraid to get started on?

Take a minute to stop and look that fear in the face.

Really, what’s the worst that could happen?

Who knows what amazing experiences are waiting for us, if we just take a deep breath and push past the fear.

Go and do the thing you think you cannot do!