Things are changing around here. And I don’t just mean HERE on this weblog (though you may have noticed that a few little things have been altered. Such as the name* and the entire look of it**). But in real life, things are also changing. I want to do more fun things, take more chances, step outside my comfort zone… and not just in terms of parenting. I think the pandemic has done a lot to sap day-to-day confidence – for so long we all had to stay home and even when we didn’t anymore, I for one found it surprisingly hard to step away from that anxious mindset. It’s got to the point where I find it scary to think about doing new things, going to new places (with or without the kids) and trying new experiences. That’s not the sort of mum I want to be. That’s not the sort of example I want to set. So I’m changing my outlook, Trying More Things That Scare Me and dragging this blog along for the ride, mostly because a) it might inspire others to do the same, b) it should at least be entertaining to read/ watch me trying to be less of a wuss, particularly if it involves me having to handle anything remotely creepy or crawly and c) it was definitely due a facelift.

So there you have it: a new direction for the blog and life in general. I want to try and flex my journalism skills, latent as they are, and use them here and elsewhere (Twitter, Instagram and – God help us all – TikTok) as part of this, so expect to see more pics, video embeds and links. I am VERY open to any suggestions of different challenging activities so long as they aren’t too dangerous or unrealistic and if they can incorporate three kids, all the better. As part of all this I’m also trying to discover new, affordable activities for families (particularly stay-at-home-parents to toddlers) in my local vicinity, so there will be some of these posts scattered in the mix as well.

ALL of this scares me (I don’t like change and, to quote Little Miss Shy, there’ll be PEOPLE there! PEOPLE!) but if it inspires another parent to get their toddler out of their dressing gown and away from Poco-bloody-yo (hell, if it gets MY toddler out of his dressing gown and away from Poco-bloody-yo) then it can all only be a good thing.

*Fun fact – the blog’s original name [Insert Future Here] came about because I genuinely had no idea what to call it… so the name was both a reference to the uncertain fate of journalism at a pivotal point in the digital, social media age and a reminder that I should probably think up a better name at some point and insert it accordingly.

**When I first created this blog back in 2010, WordPress seemed to be mainly tailored to blogs and there were looooooooads of blog-style templates to choose from. Now it seems to be more geared towards website building/hosting and so when it comes to choosing a new theme, it’s a bit of a minefield. This site has undergone all sorts of random looks over the last few days, at one point I was worried I’d lost all my posts and that the homepage would have a travel blog template permanently affixed to it (web design is really not my forte). I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to make it look like an actual blog/editorial website as opposed to a front page with the posts hidden in a menu. Turns out a magazine layout was what I was after and hopefully whatever it looks like now is working for it because I’m pretty much past the point of trying to wrap my head around how to change it all over again. Do let me know if the travel page template pops up anywhere though. I’m not *entirely* sure where it went.