Bubble celebrations #R2BC

I have had a mini break this week as it was so busy at home! It has given me lots of reasons to be cheerful as well as making me late... Thanks again to everyone who linked up last week. For anyone new to the linky we have a few relaxed instructions: 

What do you have to do? Easy: 

1. Link up a post about something that is making you happy or grateful. It can be a list, photos or any way you fancy 

2. Add the #R2BC badge (at the end of this post) onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they want to 

3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too? 

I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on social media too. 

Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week: 

1) Father's Day

We are lucky that as I am a single parent we have been able to bubble with my parents and feel more "normal". This meant an afternoon at their house to enjoy Sunday dinner and play games to celebrate Father's Day:

2) Birthday walkies

We were also able to enjoy an 8 mile hike with my mum to celebrate her birthday:

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A post shared by Becky Willoughby (@lakessinglemum) on Jun 22, 2020 at 10:07am PDT

3)  Party time

We also had a socially distanced party for two birthday ladies for which I made rainbow cupcakes:

Surprises and walking in the sunshine - Day 26

Whilst I was tutoring this morning I jumped at a noise at the window. Turned out our window cleaner is still able to carry on working as he is only outside our homes:

Throughly the freshly cleaned windows our painted window made a beautiful shadow on the fireplace:

I managed to make a couple more TikToks today. It was fun working on my lip syncing for this one:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Coraline and more #R2BC

Miraculously I am joining in with Michelle on the actual morning of the linky this week! I am recovering from a cold and feeling so much better than I have since Friday night.... That is a big reason to be cheerful but here are my smaller ones:
1) Coraline
My daughter had the part of Coraline in her school's Torchlight entry. She was easy to spot with her bright yellow jacket:

This is a taste of the energy on her float as they had been going for 1.5 hours by this point and were nearly finished:

2) Star of the Week

As a teacher I would hope that all the children in a class would at some point get the Star of the Week. However for my son to get it on the first full week of school must mean he has done something to impress his form tutor:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Better late than never! #R2BC

Due to work commitments and then being ill I am very late with my reasons to be cheerful this week! Its a good job that Michelle is a kind host. There were lots of reasons for me to be cheerful:
1) Lakes Alive
We joined in with a drumming parade and then some light and music installations on Kendal Castle. Its great living in a town that embraces culture in the great outdoors:

2) Return to parkrun

I have been missing in action from our local parkrun for months due to family commitments. It was wonderful to be back (although I will be missing a few again!):

3) Proud mum

My son had his first top 3 finish in a fell race for 3 years at the Great Westmorland Trail Race. A great boost for his confidence as well as making me proud:

Reasons to be Cheerful April! #R2BC

Right having been caught out by Thursday coming around quick I am now ready to do a proper host post! It is the last week of term at my school plus my son has had 2 secondary school information evenings so the days have just run away from me.. I also missed last week with Michelle so I am doing my fortnight's worth in one go...

1) Proud Mum #1

On a very sunny Saturday in March my son and I met up with the Wonderful Wild Women in Coniston for a walk up the Old Man. He had said he only wanted to do the lower level 5 mile walk. When we reached the point where the group split he decided he actually wanted to conquer his first serious Wainwright as he wanted to see how deep the snow was. This was the answer:

2) Sibling co-operation

When a friend visited unexpectedly on Saturday that was one reason to smile. When we ended up with an impromptu musical evening with my daughter teaching her brother how to play her keyboard I had a huge grin:

3) Sunny running

We have had some wonderful sunshine and I made the most of it to get out for a 6 mile run on Sunday. It was just stunning out along the old canal and down through Sedgwick:

Reasons to be Cheerful - Torchlight #R2BC

Some weeks the therapeutic benefits of this blog hop are more needed than ever! Two weeks into school and I really have to focus on the positives to give me a boost... So here I go:

1) Torchlight

Since we moved to Kendal we have either watched or taken part in the local Torchlight parade which takes place every September. This year we had a monsoon but it didn't stop the parade and how could you not smile at a pink tractor being driven by a lady holding an umbrella:

2) Torchlight celebration

This year for the first time we had a street party the day after Torchlight in the town centre. There was entertainment and hands on activities. My daughter and her BFF had a lot of fun painting the cardboard castle and trying to unicycle:

A real mix of a day!

It's been a fun day today. I started with enjoying the early morning light from my kitchen whilst persuading my children that one of them had to feed the guinea pigs:

After a day discussing the teaching of reading and phonics plus how to write Masters level essays it was a nice surprise to find owls at our local Pets at Home:

#WordlessWednesday sunburst at sunset

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to me for July! #R2BC

My first week a host back from the lovely Jo for June. Hope you will stick with me for July! Here are the things that made me cheerful this week:

1) An hour of non-stop running

I finally completed the 10 km runner training programme on Friday by running for an hour non-stop! So I may not be super speedy but I can do it! Just hope it stands me in good stead on Saturday..

2) Baby teeth

Its been a long wait but my son finally had is first baby tooth fall out this weekend:

Tackling the Garden

Every year I pledge to get on top of the garden and every year I fail miserably! For one thing we have had so much rain that its too boggy to walk on for months on end so the weeds just multiply. For another I am so not green fingered which is why I do so well at weeds...

Today my dad was coming round to cat proof the big guinea pig run and I was looked out of the window I knew that I had do something about the weeds:

It's not all doom and gloom as I seem to do well at keeping the roses I inherited alive and they open at different times. At the moment it is the purple roses turn:

Whilst my daughter helped gramps with the chicken wire I pulled up most of the weeds down this side of the garden. It was much improved:

#WordlessWednesday Cumbrian Sunsets

#WordlessWednesday: Sunsets

Autumn in Cumbria

Every cloud has a silver lining and today's was that because my mum had to drive me to collect my children (due to my car being poorly) I had a chance to get photographs like this on the way:

The view on the school run

The village hall near the school

As we pulled up outside school the sun was just about to dip behind the hills

When I'd retrieved the children it was setting nicely

We had to drive close to Windermere to take the children to swimming

 What a perfect Autumn evening drive in south Cumbria - so glad I live up here!

#SilentSunday 13th November 2011