Monday....

I know some people don't like Mondays but I actually love them. On a Monday I will set my alarm a little earlier, plan my day out in advance and decide on five things that I am going to achieve this week.

This Monday is a particularly good one as I have two new staff starting at our company.

I love welcoming on board new people, I love that look in their eye that says "I am going to give everything I can to this"

We will have a welcome meeting with them this morning where they get introduced to the rest of our amazing sales team before they begin their training.

Male Monday a great one for you too.

Zoe

x

Little Spiritual Quirks

Today I thought I would share with you some of the little spiritual quirks that I have, I have never really spoken to people about them before and some people I know would probably be quite surprised that I have these little things that I really believe in.
People can quite often judge me as being rather "matter of fact" however, I actually am also really spiritual.
I find it fascinating, the thought that there is so much more "out there" then we can understand. I believe in a much greater energy that is around us every day that we cant necessarily see. There are lots of things that I do in my every day life that are incorporated with my spiritual beliefs so if this sort of thing tickles your pickle then please read on as I have listed three of them....

Goddess Abundantia Prayer - every morning before I leave the house I say my prayer to the goddess of abundance, once you have said they prayer you have to drop a coin into your money jar. The coin itself can be anything from a penny to a pound, once the jar is full you must keep it somewhere in your home. you should not take money out of the jar or throw the jar away. I have been doing this now for.. goodness... about 4 years and I love it. My daughter calls is "mummys special money jar"
If you fancy giving this a go I have written the prayer below for you.
                       "Abundantia have your way, bless me with good fortune each day"

Now, the first thing that you will notice about this picture is the condition of this purse right? well before you judge me on having a tatty old purse there is a reason for me owning such this. Just over two years ago we lost my lovely Nan, she was 90 when she passed bless her and she was the most amazing woman I have ever met. After she passed away my Mum asked both myself and my brother if we would like any of her things to remember her by, I wanted something that I would have with me every day. I chose the purse because I get great solace and comfort out of knowing that she clutched that purse in her hands, I love the fact that in the little middle compartment nice and safe are coins that she touched, when I get this purse out, when I hold it I really truly feel her with me. In front of my Nans purse you will notice a stone, this is the stone is a Citrine stone. I keep this stone in my purse every day as it encourages a good flow of money. You can pick stones like this up for a couple of pounds. In a future post I will talk more about stones as I have lots of them dotted around all for different purposes.

Water by the bed, this is the last one that I will share with you today. looking at this picture you may assume that I keep water by my bed to drink however, this water is most certainly not for night time sipping!
I visit a psychic on a regular basis and it was he who actually taught me about this one, again this is something that I do every day. The purpose of this is to avoid taking on peoples negative thoughts about you or about something that could have a negative effect on you. each night you have the glass of water by your bed and this acts as a sponge to adsorb any negative vibes that people may send your way, in the morning when you wake up you tip the water down the toilet (down it goes along with any negativity) you wash the glass out three times and then re-fill it for the next night, I love this one and there is something really nice about flushing that water away in the mornings!

My husband finds some of my little traits a bit odd and I am sure some others would as well but that doesn't bother me, I think every single person should be entitled to their own beliefs be that religious, spiritual or anything else. If there are things that you incorporate into your life that give you solace and comfort then I think its a good thing.

Until later lovelies

Zoe

x

Working Mum vs Stay at home

As a working mum I sometimes find myself feeling really quite guilty for not spending more time with my Children, on the odd occasion that I finish work early to pick one of them up from School or Nursery I quite often look at the mums at the school gate with a little bit of envy.

Both my Son and Daughter went into full time nursery from an early age so that I could get back to full time work.

Working with Charlie was not something I had a choice in really, I was at the time a young single mother and I needed to work to provide for myself and Charlie.

When Alyssia was born I put her into Nursery full time from 7 weeks as I was working towards my directorship and I could not afford to take that break in my career at the time.

A lot of people have said to me in the past “why have children if you don’t spend time with them” and I find this hurtful, I also however almost see where they are coming from. For me the main reason that I work is to provide a future for them, I want to be able to provide them with a nice home, I want them to be able to do all of their hobbies that they love like Swimming and Riding, to me that is also an important part of being a parent – providing for them.

I always say to my husband that I wish to make enough money so that my children can do a job for love not for money, I would like to be in a position where I can give them a really good head start in life so that money is not such a pressure for them as it is to a lot of young adults.

I try to spend as much time with them as I can, I see them every evening and weekends are dedicated to them. As you can see from this picture even when I work in the evenings I make sure that they are close to me so that I can still speak with them about their days and engage with them.

I have been really lucky over the years with how supportive both of the children are with my work, they never make me feel guilty for not being at home more, they never moan about their long days in Nursery, School and before and after school club.

My Son who is now 11 often asks me what I am doing when I work in the evenings, he has a real interest in the business that I work for and I like that, I think this installs a good work ethic in him.

When I was growing up both of my parents worked full time and both me and my brother had before and after school care, I don’t think it did us any harm.

I have so much respect for every parent out there and I don’t think we should judge, if you are able to take a break in your career and raise your children at home then I think that is amazing for you, if you decide to work whilst also raising a family then again that is amazing for you too.

Every person is different and things in life mean different things to different people. If I won the lottery tomorrow would I be able to spend more time with my children? Of course I would but right now that hasn’t happened so I will continue to work in the way that I am so that my little muffins can have the best start we can give them.

Both my husband and I are working our little butts off at the moment, I am working hard for my directorship and my husband has recently opened his own electrical company.

One day things will be a little easier and we won’t be spinning so many plates but I think secretly we both enjoy the hustle and bustle of it all.

I would love to know peoples thoughts on this, do you support both working parents and stay at home parents? Have you been a mother (or father) who has battled with guilt for working lots?

Thoughts welcome from all.

Zoe

x

Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/13824799/?claim=qaajkahufr7">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

First Ever Post!

I have always wanted to start a blog simply because I Love to chat and communicate with people, I have however, also been a little apprehensive to post and create a little space on the internet mainly because I’m not really sure if anyone will be interested and also because I am almost 30? Does that matter?

 

Anyway, I have written this “first blog post” about 100 times and deleted it because I think sometimes it’s hard to summarise yourself and what you will blog about in a few words. I thought a good idea for this first post should really summarise me and the kind of things I will blog about.

I may not be your typical blogger? I am not overly amazing at grammar and spelling because I am severely dyslexic (no word police please) I also am not amazing at taking pictures (although I take heaps of them) and I’m not really your crafty bakery type of girl either.

 

On my blog you will typically find stories from the past, events in my life that have shaped the way I am today, you will find blogs about both struggles and triumphs. You will also see a lot of day to day stuff, things I do at work, things I am doing with my children. I will blog about my marriage (not just the good bits) I really want this blog to be about real life. Real life is not always something that comes wrapped up in a big shiny bow that is always flowers and rainbows, it is hard sometimes right? I want this to be a little place on the internet where you can come and read stories and blog posts and think, ok… we all go through “stuff” but we can all get through whatever that “stuff” may be. I also love to cover inspiring women in this world…

 

I love to champion other women, I have worked really hard to get where I am today and I love nothing more than to see women succeed. I believe that women are extremely powerful and that we can pretty much do anything that we set our minds to. I hate when women bash one another (so you won’t find anything like that here either)

 

So, who am I?

 

I was born in Surrey in 1985, my mother was a teacher and my father was a British army major (yep you know I had quite a strict up bringing) ha. My early life was lovely I lived in a lovely home and was very fortunate.

My passion as a child was horses, when I was 12 my Nan got me a pony called Mr Mac and I would spend pretty much every spare moment of my time at the stables.

When I was 13 unfortunately I was seriously sexually assaulted by a man who worked at our riding stables. This changed my life forever.

I went pretty off the rails after that, I rebelled both at home and at school. I started to drink quite a bit with my friends, I started to self-harm and really just went on a little mission of self-destruct. My attitude became terrible and I pushed everyone including my parents away.

When I was 15 I met a man, he was 18 at the time, my friend introduced us. He was from another part of the country about 100 miles away from my home town, after an argument with my parents one evening (still at only 15) I left home and moved away with him.

In the two years that followed I realised that I had gotten myself into a really bad relationship, I felt very alone and isolated and that man that I had run away with seemed to enjoy me being that way. When I was 17 I fell pregnant.

My Son was born when I was 18 in October 2003, becoming a mother changed everything for me, finally I had something good to live for. I wanted to be the best that I could be for that little boy however, I knew that I would be tarnished with the “young mum” brush.

When my son was just over a year old I left my partner, I started a fresh. Got myself a new job (at the place where I still work today now as a Director) I rented myself a little house and me and my son started our journey alone.

Over the years that followed I dated a few people, went back to my parents for 6 months (because I had started to suffer with real sever anxiety) I got Divorced and almost got re-married to the man that I ran away with (I know it sounds mad doesn’t it)

Eventually in 2007 I managed to buy a home and for the first time I felt totally settled, I worked REALLY hard to build things for me and my little boy.

In 2009 I met a man (my husband today) and we went on to have a little girl.

 

I adore my family more than anything in this world, everything that I do is to make sure that they can have the life that they deserve. I am a little over protective of them all and yes I may sometimes spoil them a little bit but they really are my be all and end all.

 

I love my career and I am really fortunate to have worked with my 2 amazing Directors for almost 11 years, they have really believed in me and given me a fantastic opportunity to prove myself.

 

I left school with absolutely zero qualifications and whilst I wouldn’t recommend that to people I would say that it doesn’t mean you are a write off!

 

A lot of people have dismissed me over the years (especially in the early days) people who have sometimes been through things at an early age can end up being overlooked and written off but I am proof that it does not have to be that way. I had all of the “damaged goods, she won’t amount to anything, teenage mum, difficult teenager” but I proved everyone wrong. People when they look at me will often underestimate how tough I really am, I know that I have come through the worst (ha well I hope so anyway)

 

Whatever people go through there is always a way forward, if you are a teenage mum are you a write off? NO you’re not, you can be whatever you want to be, you can achieve whatever you want to achieve if you work hard and set your mind to it. If you are someone who has suffered abuse does that make you damaged goods forever? Do you deserve to feel worthless? NO you don’t, I am proof that you can get through tough situations, you are not alone, you can be a survivor.

 

I would love just one person to read my blog and decide to read more, I want people to have a blog to read that isn’t just about make-up and fun stuff (although yes I will cover lots of that too) but to have a blog where I talk about the things that still stick with me from my past, the difficulties you can have in marriage and in work and how you can get passed them… I also want people to share in my happiness with myself and my husband and our beautiful children.

 

I hope that this will be a blog that will grow and a place where we can all go on our journeys together.

 

If anyone contacts me I will do my upmost to respond.

 

Anyway, not sure how this is for a first blog post but I hope that someone reads it and enjoys it.

 

J

 

I will post again tomorrow.

 

Zoe

 

x