France

I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. The weather is a little grey and wet here in Western France. We’re still dealing with a leaky roof so the forthcoming forecast of more rain does not fill me with joy… Luckily we should be getting this patched up soon, and for the time being we’re resorting to lots of towels and bowls to limit the damage. It seems we’re not the only ones either to have been affected by all the storms we’ve had of late so sending lots of positive vibes to you if you have been affected too.

It’s my first weekend being self employed, and already I have been getting some potential new leads as well as lots of creative ideas to look into and develop. In my previous post I discussed how a previous vision / dream board I had created, has almost fully materialised. I guess it might be time to delve in a little deeper and for me to create a new one.

I also just finished reading Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I really enjoyed it, and felt it was a good time for me to read this as I implement some big changes in my life. Thanks to Natalie from the Typeface Group for the recommandation.

Knowing that I am now going to be home more, I reverted back to meal planning and did a big food shop Friday. If you’re new to meal planning, Lucy from Budgeting and Planning offers some great templates on her shop as well as a blog post explaining the benefits of doing so.

As we near the end of the school year, the children are starting to crash, the tiredness is real. Just a few weeks to go! We’ve therefore enjoyed a quiet weekend, catching up with friends, a little Spring clean and mostly relaxing after a good old Sunday roast and homemade rice pudding. I follow a recipe similar to this one, but without the sugar as we tend to add something sweet separately when serving, and we all like different toppings.

As I find myself with more time to think, I find myself thinking back to why we moved back to France and the life we are looking to create here. I spoke to Daniel about this on his podcast : Emigrant’s Life a little while back. Whilst technically not being an emigrant here as I was born in France, I talk about how it felt living abroard for 12 years or so and then coming back to my home country.

Moving back to France, and now leaving my full-time job to become self employed, has meant that I have had to research health insurance (“mutuelle”) this week for the family. It can be rather overwhelming when choosing which one to go for.

I’ve been sharing on Instagram my ongoing sewing projects. This remains a relatively new skill I’m learning, and still have a long way to go but really enjoy sewing my own clothes. First though, I really ought to learn how to use my overlocker as despite reading the instructions it came with I remain overall overwhelmed with its mechanisms. I’ve therefore purchased the Tilly and the Buttons online workshop : MAKE FRIENDS WITH AN OVERLOCKER OR SERGER to help me make the most of it and improve my sewing.

If you haven’t already, you can catch up on the families who have moved abroad in our blog series “Families Moving Abroad“. I am also looking for new families to contribute to the series, whether as a one off post or on an ongoing basis. If you’re interested, do get in touch with me to find out more.

I hope the rest of your Sunday goes smoothly, ready for a new week!