(This is a now page, and if you have your own site, you should make one, too.)
Updated 30th Decemeber 2025 whilst Em looks after the kids. Hero.
Recently I was asked to record what my occupation was, but the prompt was "The thing you spend the most time doing.". It was in that moment that I realised raising two small children is my occupation right now, my full-time job is just secondary...
It's full on, but it is the most wonderful delight. Hope is unbelievably cute right now, and Caleb makes the most wonderful hashed sentences. When leaving for work recently I said "Bye Caleb, love you lots". Apparently, as the door closed, Caleb turned to Em, mouth wide with excitement and said "Mummy, Daddy love you lots'd me!".
My faith in Jesus Christ is really important to me. I don't just believe that Jesus is God, I believe in him as my God. My allegiance is to him, and I aim for my life to be guided by his commands.
One of the ways I intentionally set that aim is by practicing spiritual disciplines. Most people would recognise disciplines such as prayer and Bible study, but there are loads that followers of Jesus through history have encouraged and practiced.
A few that I have been working on would be:
That might seem like a lot, it does feel like a lot to me sometimes, but if I wrote a list of all the other things I do on a regular basis (brushing my teeth, checking my emails, scrolling the YouTube homepage, etc...) it would be much longer. I'm just trying to be intentional with these things so that I maintain space in my busy, distracted life for my relationship with God. I'm finding it difficult, but habit formation is quite difficult for me. I'll keep asking God to help.
How is your relationship with your phone at the moment? How much time are you spending on the internet?
Every month I sit down and write a list of the things that are distracting me from the life areas and associated action steps that are most important to me, and every month the list is almost entirely digital distractions. That's so frustrating!
I've done a number of things this year to try and overcome this:
I've come a long way from where I was. I believe God has helped me, and realising he could help came as I was writing this poem.
One realisation along the way was that after asking Em to take Caleb so that I could have some alone time, I would often watch YouTube. During lent when I couldn't watch YouTube, the desire for alone time significantly reduced. I was shocked to realise it wasn't alone time I wanted, it was time to watch YouTube. I thought I was leaving my family to serve a reasonable need for time alone, and it turned out I was serving an unrecognised addiction. That was pretty eye-opening, to see how manipulative this technology can be.
I now have a pocket notebook which I try to get out instead of my phone. In there is written a list of my life roles and areas of interest. Reading that helps ground me in my own life, and the life I'm trying to build for me and my family. So much better than scrolling which only draws me into what other people's desires.
I'm really enjoying my squash at the moment. I'm lucky to get to join the university team for their coaching session on Fridays, and that has really helped me improve. I think I'm playing the best I've ever played, and I'm really enjoying playing in the Hampshire men's league as a result. I've won most of my matches this season, and the team is on track for promotion into Div 1.
I set goals for 2025 after doing quite a bit of review of 2024. That was the first time I've done that, and I made some progress towards those goals, but not as much as I'd hoped in January. I was a total beginner then, and I'm hoping I can set more informed and realistic goals for 2026. I'll be reviewing 2025 over the next couple of weeks and then setting some goals for 2026 which I'll probably upload here.
Em and I got quite a few new board games for Christmas. Board games are one of our favourite things to do together, so I'm excited for these: