Jade

My favourite part of the day is….

In the evening, cuddling up with my daughter, squashed up into her half-sized bed sharing her animal print blanket and a story.

She often starts unpacking her day then, once the lights are low, telling me about playground injustices and new phonics sounds she’s learnt.

I’m also on the cusp of adult time – that small, delicious slice of no-work and no-responsibilities before bedtime.

For breakfast this morning I ate…

Fried potatoes pooling in olive oil, with clumps of bacon and the tang of pickled jalapenos – a medley of last night’s leftovers and the fridge’s odds and ends, fried by my partner as he endured the Moana soundtrack on repeat and I grabbed a few extra golden minutes in bed.

One thing I can’t live without is….

Coffee. The caffeine addiction is strong. When I was pregnant, the other banned or limited substances – alcohol, soft cheese, cured meat, Mr Whippy – were easy to avoid. But coffee was another matter. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Limited myself to one daily, delicious but too-small latte, and then survived the rest of the day on decaf alternatives and herbal tea. Now, I feel myself semi-consciously shaping my day around my coffee fix…..

I love…

Living near the sea and that blue horizon.

Winter slowly melting into spring.

The smell of my daughter.

Losing the stress of the day in mindless reality TV.

Dancing with my family in the kitchen with the lights down low.

Being outside.

If my body could talk…

Maybe it would ask me to fill it with healthier things – swap the chocolate for tropical fruit, the Kit Kats for mangoes. Nourish it with leafy vegetables, sustain it with pulses and beans. Treat it like a temple? Acknowledge it, if not worship it. Perhaps it would tell me to push it more – stretch more, climb more, run more. Maybe it would ask me to consider it more – to respect its potential strength, to think about its lungs and heart that keep it going.