How to still get the most of your days with the days being shorter

Already the mornings are staying darker later and I am so happy about that. Sorry if you are not but I like it and I am already getting prepared. I still going to read in the mornings and evenings. Go on walks in the morning and have a coffee in a coffee shop some days and autumn is the time I change what I drink. I will be buying herbal teas and Earl Grey and a coffee from my Cafeteria and just enjoy the crispy mornings to get outdoors and workout indoors. 

The battle is my sons energy. He often gets unwell around the time the weather changes. He is prone to chest infections but he often doesn't want to wear a coat or jacket. He really has to be persuaded. 

His skin is better and the bed wetting appears to have stopped now, but he is just has so much adrenaline that he often still wants to play at 9pm so it is getting him to unwind. 

It is good to have things planned. My son sports clubs return so that will help along with school and still walking and exploring and off to see the England Ladies play. It is my birthday and my nieces and going to book swimming lessons for him and having time watching some good quality TV as not a lot to watch during the summer and I just love the cosiness and the layering. 

I have my buzz for cooking again and today made for the first time a bread and butter pudding for the first time and it was good and made a chicken roast dinner. I will be doing more and I have filmed a vlog and will be sharing. I love doing these vlogs and it is good for me and want to get back into making my own soups and curries and just enjoy the kitchen. 

It will be good to make homemade food and looking forward to the festive season, more than before. It is finally raining and I hope the ponds fill up as many have dried up due the heatwaves and the grass being dried out and help maintain lawns in gardens and parks. 

Just because of the darker days it doesn't mean that things have to be put on hold. My niece is having a birthday party and I am off to see Bon Jovi in concert and the Real Thing on my actual birthday so looking forward to those and be snuggled up and chill on the sofa with my son and watch a film, read more and have a hot chocolate which I have started to do in the evenings as I find this helps with sleep. 

So lets get planning and enjoy the new season ahead. 

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

Give Yourself Time to Sit Down

My Nan (my mum's mum) would be on her feet all day and either was out getting shopping or in the kitchen cooking. She made an amazing Macaroni and Cheese, Cottage or Shepherd's pie, making baked goods and Christmas dinner was always delicious and this is from a once fussy child when it came to food. 

Now I see why my Nan was continuously on her feet. Looking after a home, being a parent, going to work and trying to be super active, I find it hard to sit down and chill. 

It is important though to sit down and be attentional. Enjoying a cup of tea on the sofa and not reading, not planning or writing just sitting down and take a tea break. Builders are famous for making sure they have a tea break because of the intensity of the work they have to do and so do we. 

Both of my Grandparents were busy women. My Dads mum had three and my mums mum had 5 children and I have her body clock. No matter what time I would go to bed I still wake up early and I have learned to embrace it rather than be an hindrance and my Nan would wake up at 6am every morning making sure she took her tablets. She would did later in life would go back to bed but most of the time she'd be on her feet and looking after us her grandchildren. She was a family orientated person. 

I admired her physicality because she didn't run, do weights she did housework, cooking and shopping. She was a bit of a gambler but she never smoked, drank and she'd had immaculate nails. 

When I think about her I think what have I got to worry about? She experienced war and rationing but nothing ever stopped her and why I make sure I clean, read, sit down and not rush around. In September I a going to challenge myself to do things in silence and write a blog without noise, drink a cup of coffee without being on my laptop, go to a coffee shop and not browse on my phone or journal as I saw a women do that. I wrote a blog about it: https://everyonecanbuildacastle.com/2026/08/10/taking-the-time-to-just-enjoy-your-coffee-inc-weekly-cheat-sheet/

It is good to sit. Now going to watch some football as I write this blog and enjoy my third cup of tea for today. 

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

Love having a physical Diary again

I have tried digital planners but I like to plan physically because for me it enters into my mind better and stores it and I think its a science. I would love to study the mind and find out if writing is better rather than digital? I wonder what results I'd find? 

It is good to get a pretty diary as for me it helps to use it. I no longer use Filofax and use a physical book type diary. I have a wall calendar and I have found it more functional for me and its seeing it in front of me making it easier to remember what is happening and its there in plain site. 

I have my sons terms dates near by so having it on a pinboard aswell as a diary more simple and a notebook and using paper. I recycle. I am still using Notion but have two lists and that's it and I get satisfaction ripping paper up. I use the Notebook APP but that is for any codes or things and brief notes and trying to use my phone less. 

In browsing on google I asked "Is writing things down better than typing them up all the time?"

The response was: Writing things down by hand is better for memory, learning, and conceptual understanding, but it is not necessarily better "all the time" depending on your goals. Neuroscience studies show that the physical act of handwriting activates broader, more synchronized electrical patterns (such as theta and alpha waves) across multiple regions of the brain—including motor, visual, and language circuits—which helps encode new information into long-term memory. Typing, by contrast, is faster and more efficient for capturing large volumes of text verbatim, but it engages fewer neural circuits and often leads to shallower, more passive cognitive processing.

I have used Google Calendar which I do need to alter and is good as its free and Notion is good but I find I am using it less and I like to use online tools for blogs and creating my books, but not all the time because too much screen isn't good. 

Yes google calendar I use but just reminders but I find it clogs up my email and with Notion it doesn't and it is free if you use it for personal use rather than business. 

So tell me do you prefer a physical diary still?

Please use the comments box below.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

My Favourite Thing Is Planning and Going Through my lists

I love it when it is time to plan for the following week. We are away next week and so it is time to plan for our trip. I am a bit worried because I have a Kidney Stone that isn't causing me pain but can, so not sure if  I will need surgery or not. 

It was sad to hear that someone I knew as a kid lost someone with cancer and its heart breaking and reminds you how life has to be lived. My lists and plans keep me going. 

I feel it is good set up and rather than having fear I look forward to my plans. It makes sure I don't forget what I am going to buy at the supermarket in terms of food. I do a list of things I need to buy and what I want to buy and packing list. I have one for next week when myself, husband and son go to the Isle of Wight and that we pack ready and going to use one suitcase for my son and my clothes and things and my husband will pack his stuff in a holdall and that we remember phones, chargers etc. 

I enjoy ticking things off. What can wait and to do instead and adding to the list and changing it on my mood and something else crops up.  

One of my friends used to write down the TV programmes she wanted to watch and when they were on using, before the internet, the TV times or radio times. I find it fulfilling and helps me manage my time and it empties out the mind and I think of in Harry Potter when Dumbledore, empties his thoughts and mind in a well and feel that what a list does. 

I have to have lists easy accessible by putting them on the wall, in a diary or notebook. 

It is just helps me function better and that everything is there that I want to get done and just keeps me sane and not going out thinking I've forgotten something or forgot to pick something up. 

Are you the same? Please a Comment Below. 

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X  

I am all about lists

I love a list. Honestly I am a list nerd, if there is such a thing. I have a list of things that I want to do and need to work on, on a piece of paper in my wordsearch book. I often will do things that I have listed for ages but it is because it helps me to organise and separate tasks. 

                                                  

Yes I will often do things not on a to list but will take note of what I have done so ends up on a list. 

My mum is the same. It helps to revise my daily and weekly plans and stay in my brain even if it is not urgent but is noted should I have a gap of time to do it. 

I stores online where you can create a wish list and list of what I want to write and book ideas, blogs and finance. You name it is listed somewhere. 

My nan would write a list, my grandad and would watch the horse racing on TV and keep a list of who won and it just was embedded in me and I find it a functional. A good start to the week is having a list. In my journal I will write down what I thought was good on some days and what was the highlights of the week and that I keep notes of my son school events and just helps to remind me, having so much to remember. 

I do have lists on Notion too, but I am finding that I am using it less and may unsubscribe but will see. I have gone backwards and forwards with it and so not sure if I will continue. 

I have created my own templates to organise my weeks using Google Docs, but find it easier to write and not use these either and I love a notebook. I like a scrap piece of paper and after my laptop dying if written down it can't go missing and is stored without my laptop crashing. I like to carry a notebook too. I have used my phone but often runs out of storage and so it just easier for me and can jot down things as I go. 

It is good to have written and feel people are so consumed with technology. I have found since using my laptop my writing is bad and so I like to write. It helps my handwriting and it will always be my thing, 

I see people use their phones on Youtube to Pastor, on a Podcast or a video, but for me I like to write and have specific notebook and plenty of paper to write and how I function. 

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

Ten Different Ways to Get more organised

When it comes to organisation I have to really drone in on my habits and I am avoiding my bedroom at the moment because of the heat wave I have gone through a lot of clothes, but I know in myself I will tidy them up but not just yet. 

Having Several Accounts Doesn't Work For me

Since watching many different videos on money, some saying you should have seven accounts or 4 to 5. To me that was too much and when I followed that I ended up in huge debt. 

                              

I have now two accounts and one is for money saved for holidays and my main account. I like it like that. 

Having my balance showing in my Wallet it is so easy to keep track of what I am spending and balance and like tomorrow I have cash ready and I will take a certain amount in cash and if I can use it I do and has been a good strategy. 

I can't handle so many accounts. Two is enough and my son has an account but that is for him for when he is older and credit cards are venom to me and glad I no longer have one. I would like to have my own home one day but now I am happy with my current situation. 

So my focus is to save for the Summer Holidays and for weekly expenses, like food shopping, coffees, even though most days I make my own, but love writing in a coffee shop at least once a week and I like to mooch but I can restrain myself and just like to be outdoors. 

I'm glad I no longer have an Overdraft and I am glad that I have unsubscribed from some companies and keeping what I know I am going to use and has value. I like the fact I have Journal APP, free fitness APPs and notes and TV APPs which are free and I am selective when it comes to APPs as they use up storage and if I have point cards for the coffee shops and supermarkets I use. 

I was thinking about it, because I am in a steady place in my life and when I get the urge for shopping my enthusiasm tends to go and feel good when I don't spend. Life is not all about Materialistic things. I feel once you love what you have that is the biggest incentive in not spending and having control of the spending bug. 

So have two accounts if you feel the same and having a daily check on your money. I am going to each day check my balance and set myself saving goals and I each week do a Buy List and this helps see where I have to spend money, like food, toiletries and cleaning products. The main things we buy and that I have money should something else come up, example: School uniform and go through my sons clothes, if we need toilet roll, sponges for washing up and laundry detergent. 

I have done some videos about Hoarding on my Youtube channel if you'd like to check them out and please follow me on X too: 

https://www.youtube.com/@Carriechalloner

https://x.com/typical86285

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X