Planning My Electives

It is certainly a busy time with my degree at the moment.  Assignments due in five weeks, end of year exams, clinical placement and a proposal to submit for my dissertation.  Am I really heading in to my final year? Stress levels are high but there is a lighter side to thinking about the final year, I can plan my electives.  Towards the end of our final semester we get to spend two weeks visiting other hospitals, seeing treatment techniques our placement hospitals might not use.  I am actually finding this as a welcome distraction from the current workload.

Helping people has always been at the heart of my choice to retrain. So using my elective time to understand the journey of my patients a little better, seems perfect.  Spending time with a research team, visiting a Teenage Cancer Trust ward, shadowing MacMillan nurses in the community are all on my elective wishlist.  Obviously I also want to see Cyberknife in action and other advanced techniques.  But this is probably the only time I will truly get to step away from the clinical department and get to understand the wider aspect of cancer care. So fingers crossed I can make the best use of my elective fornight.

Are you retraining in the health professions and planning your electives too? Do you have an elective dream list?

Until next time, take care.
Zoe
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Growing Into Our Home

I know people tend to say that you need to grow into your house, before making it a real home.  Well we have certainly done this.  Having moved here three and half years ago, we whizzed through, making quick updates to a very tired old decor, replaced the kitchen and had central heating fitted.  Then we stopped, not quite sure what to do next.  Slowly we have changed different pieces of furniture to better fit this house, made plans for different rooms.  But in the past couple of weeks, perhaps as a distraction from my huge workload, Andy and I have been thinking hard about how to make our home work better for our family.  The children are getting older and over the next few years we will be waving them goodbye as they head off to uni and then to grown up lives of their own.  This is quite a scary thought, my babies are not little anymore.  

However this has had an impact on our decorating ideas, on how we plan to utilise the space we have.  Whilst I hate thinking about my little birdies leaving the nest it is also quite liberating to know we can choose furniture that doesn't have to be toddler friendly.  For years we have had a lovely leather sofa, partly brought due to the easy cleaning option, but now I find myself looking wistfully at fabric upholstered sofas and chairs when we visit the huge Next At Home store down the road in Martlesham.  

We know our plans will take a couple of years to come to fruition, time and money restrictions slowing us down.  But this also means we can indulge in the planning stage, so I am sure I will be adding plenty of inspiration to my Pinterest boards over the coming months!

Are you busily planning a revamp in your home, making small or dramatic changes? Exciting isn't it?

Until next time, take care,
Zoe
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The Year in Books - March

I am a little late to the table with my year in books post this month.  Life has been a little hectic but somehow I have managed to find some time to read a couple of books.  Those few snatched minutes at bedtime are so precious to me, a time when I can enter the pages of another world, just for a little while.  Last month I read and absolutely loved How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.  As you may remember this book was recommended by my eldest daughter, Lucy and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Infact I was pleasantly surprised by this young adult fiction, a novel full of fear, love and coping.  Initially I struggled to work out that this was set in modern day Britain, but soon adapted to the concept of our modern world being destroyed by war.  Entwined in moments of joy, love and tenderness there were moments of unimagainable fear.  The immature understanding of the characters made this even more poignant and the believability of their situation became easier as the story progressed.  Lucy and I have definitely added Meg Rosoff to our list of favourite authors this year and will be reading more of her work in the coming months.

Over the last month I have also been dipping in and out of the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I have been subscribed to Gretchen's daily email for several months and have enjoyed reading about her mission to make her life happier.  Taking a few moments a day for be grateful can help us all to feel happier and definitely something I am trying to adopt.

So this months book choice.  To be perfectly honest with you I have yet to choose from the many books awaiting my attention, both on my bedside table and loaded onto my iPad.  My biggest downfall is wanting to read more books than I have time for.  Books reguarly added to my wishlist on Amazon, nevermind the appeal of fabulous bookcovers on a trip to the library or the local bookshop.  

Right I will pick a book for a March.  The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has been on my list (and bedside table) for a little while, especially since Jack went to London recently to watch the play as part of his GCSE Drama course.  The best thing about taking part in The Year in Books is tha fact that I am taking making time to read books that I have wanted to try for ages.

What are you reading this month? I would love to know, maybe I can find space on my overloaded reading wishlist!

Until next time, take care.

Zoe

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The Beach - My Spiritual Home

Over recent years I have become more convinced that we all have a spiritual home, a place that makes life manageable, that answers questions we have been struggling with, somewhere to go to when our heads are full of cobwebs.  For me the beach is this place.  Whatever the weather a walk on the beach makes me stop worrying, to breathe. 

Do you have a place or space that feels like your spiritual home? Maybe the beach has the same magical effect on you as it has on me?

Until next time, take care.

Zoe
xo

A Once In A Lifetime Opportunity

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So a few weeks ago we had an email from the boys school, proposing a trip to Everest Base Camp. Wow, I thought, what an adventure that would be.  I didn't for one minute think about the huge cost involved, but just saw the opportunity for them to have an adventure of a lifetime.  They could pack up their backpacks, head up a mountain, be the explorers they loved to pretend to be before school got in the way of their childish imaginations.  I encouraged ideas of the trip, wanting them to be able to do something that they wanted. 

But now reality has set in. The cost is huge, well for us anyway.  In all honesty the cost for what the package involves is reasonable, yet it is beyond our budget.  So we now need to decide, to commit to a decision. We could say yes and aim to raise the money through various fundraising activities or we could say wait, plan a trip after you've graduated from uni, when you have a job.  They are both looking at studying geosciences, so undoubtedly will be heading off to exciting careers up mountains or volcanoes.

Trips like these are physically and mentally tough, would the boys be mature enough to cope? What if something went wrong? What if we had paid all of that money and they got altitude sickness and didn't even make it to base camp? So many what ifs to be considered.  

Adventures can be had at any time in our lives and maybe, in all honesty, they would be better to wait until they are a bit older, earning a living and fund such a trip themselves.  Sometimes opportunities need to be passed by, to be postponed.  Maybe this is one of those times that waiting will be of benefit and actually lead to more adventures.  

Until next time, take care.

Zoe

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Celebrating Our Anniversary

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Today Andy & I celebrate our sixteenth wedding anniversary. It doesn't really seem like that length of time at all, to be honest it has flown by.  I am incredibly lucky to still be in love with my best friend, my soul mate.  So many people don't have this opportunity, to love and be loved, to find that somebody who they want and can spend the rest of their life with.  

So today we are celebrating the day we said 'I do' to a life time of love and happiness.  Whatever life throws at us in the future, one thing we can be sure of is our love for each other, this will guide us, support us, when we hit rough seas.  Everybody deserves to love and be loved and I hope you all have or will find that special someone who completes you.

Until next time, take care.

Zoe
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Spring is Coming

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It's coming, I can feel it's warm breath in the wind, it's teasing heat in the sun, the clear blue skies that grace my horizon.  I can see it in the garden as trees start to share their secrets and brighten our day with their blossom.  As little buds appear on branches and colourful pops adorn the now luscious green grass.

Oh yes I can feel Spring, as I throw open the windows and give the house new breath.  The days seem a little longer, the commute is greeted with daylight and new hope fills the air.  It's time to make plans, clean those nooks we forgot and breathe.....

Until next time, take care.
Zoe
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