18 in 18 - May Report

Well we're into week 2 of June and I'm only just getting to do my May report.  I'm beginning to accept that sometimes life just gets busy and complicated and joyful and busy!  Which of course means plans go astray.  Even the best laid plans!  

The arrival of our second Grandson, 3 weeks early on 17th May, disrupted plans but of course in the nicest possible way.  And then at the very end of the month Grandson #3 started his birth journey and arrived on 1st June.  All my Grandsons had June due dates but Rory was the only one to hang on (just) for June and even he was 2 weeks early.

So a wonderful month in terms of family life, not so good for meeting challenges but here's the run down:

 
1.   Bake at least once a month.

Didn't happen!

3.  Sort out magazines
Well I've got them organised.  Now I just need to go through and pull out anything I want to keep, receipes etc.  Oh and read the ones I haven't even looked at!
4. Plan a lunch date/date night with Nick once a month (theatre/cinema/meal)
Well it wasn't planned, but sometimes spontaneous is more fun.  One Tuesday after we'd been looking after Nathan all day we decided to eat out at one of the local pubs.  It also happened to be Quiz Night so we decided to join in.  We had a fun evening and managed to not finish last!  (Who knew that listening to an advert for chocolate would provide the answer to Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River in Breakfast at Tiffany's!  Especially when I've never seen the film.  Surreal moment of the night for me lol)

5.   Eat at 4 new to me restaurants

I actually ate at 2 new restaurants this month.  One was an Italian restaurant while we were away in Lincolnshire.  The food was lovely, I even took some photos!

Salmon & Prawn Starter

Chicken with a yummy mushroom sauce

There were vegetable sides to go with the chicken main course and sadly I had no space left for dessert!  Of course this won't count as 1 of my 4 new restaurants (they need to be ones we'll return to) but a trip to "Filika" in nearby Wanstead will.

Filika is billed as a Mediterranean restaurant and has received good reviews since its recent opening.  I went there with 2 former work colleagues and we had a lovely time.  They have a varied menu and the food and service were excellent.  This is definitely a keeper for me and will be going back with hubby. 6.  Complete the A - Z Challenge Well you know I completed this but I've now signed up for the Road Trip, which means trying to visit all the other blogs who've signed up before the challenge starts again next year.  This is quite a nice thing to do because during the challenge it's hard to keep up and visit other blogs.  Sign up closes later this month, then I'll try and set out how many blogs I need to visit each week to get through the list.

8. Walk at least 3 times per week –  I need to work on this.  I'm definitely walking (especially with Nathan) but my routes are a bit repetitive.  Need to vary things a bit.

9. Visit my brother
Almost!  When we travelled to Nottingham to meet Noah (Grandson #2) we decided to have a few days away and planned to visit my brother.  Unfortunately he had also planned a break away.  So we were near his home but he wasn't!  Hopefully on another trip we'll meet up.

11. Visit the beach 

Yes!  Our break away took us to the Lincolnshire coast and we had several walks along beaches.

12.  Complete my reading challenge (52 books for the year)  Still ahead of schedule :)

In May I read:

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
An Englishwoman in New York - Anne-Marie Casey
Dancing Over the Hill - Cathy Hopkins
The Fix - David Baldacci &
First Family - David Baldacci
I even started one book and gave up on it!

Details and reviews can be found on my Goodreads site.

13.  Keep my bullet journal updated – 

May started out well and then it went to pot with babies arriving!  Definitely needs work!

14.  Blog at least once per week (plus regular memes) – 

hmm, well it's a good job it's easy to post book reviews when recording them on Goodreads otherwise my blog would be really suffering from a lack of entries.

I did manage 15 posts in May which is always going to be less than April but it could be better.

15. Take more photos
Well I did take some while we were away and of course I've taken lots of babies recently!

This is where we stayed in Burham Market

 

17. Do more crafting – update on blog.   Work on the two baby blankets is ongoing.  Note to self - try not to be so ambitious with projects!

18. Try out a new recipe each week – I managed one in May, a Chicken chow mein recipe.  It was ok but I don't think it's one that will get repeated too often.

But.....I did a take a photo!

Actually looking back over the report May wasn't too bad!