1. My relationship with my mom | My mom and I have such a great relationship. She is one of my best friends. I know that I can go to her when I need advice or support and I know that she will always be honest with me – even when it may not really be what I want to hear. I am so very grateful that she is in my life and that we have the connection that we do.

2. Personal growth | Looking back over the past 4 years I have been through some amazing personal growth. I am happier and emotionally healthier. I have recently begun taking some time to work on my confidence as well as setting up guardrails in my life. Slowly but surely, as each day goes by, I am starting to see more and more changes within myself. I am so grateful that I have been brave enough to open myself up to these changes and I am excited to see where this leads.

3. Crafting time | For a little while I stopped doing anything craft related. I felt like it was constantly reminding me of the relationship I no longer had, the children I desperately wanted but didn’t have and instead of my hobby encouraging me, I was finding it was adding to my negative feelings. So I took a break for a while. Towards the end of last year I decided it was time to take my supplies out of the cupboard and to begin to use art to express myself and to grow. I wanted to commit to something so that I could remain accountable on this journey and so I signed up to two different, 12 month projects. The time that I set aside for myself do create my pages or journal my thoughts has become really special to me and it is one of the things that I look forward to each and every week.

4. Persevering with my finances | I am so proud of myself. I can honestly say that I know how much money I have, where it goes to and what debt I owe. My finances showed a very different picture a few years ago, but I have worked hard, implemented some accountability and maintained discipline in the area of spending which has all played a part in getting me to where I am right now. I even have a little savings account set up with a decent amount of money in it. I have just booked and paid for two holidays, debt free, and I just wanted to share how grateful I am that things have worked out and that I have managed to get myself out of a bad situation and into a good one.

5. Holidays | And speaking of holidays, I am so grateful that I have two holidays booked for the first 6 months of this year. The last time I went on holiday was 2 years ago. I have had no weekends away and no downtime. I have been focusing so much on getting my finances sorted that those sorts of things needed to take a back seat. But now that they are in a better place and now that I am a little braver on my own, I am going on holiday. The first one is off to Iceland with my family for a long weekend and the second one is a week long holiday, on my own, at the seaside. Right now, in this moment, I am so very proud of myself.