Reasons to be Cheerful: Time, proud mum, school and a bed #R2BC

 
Michelle has handed the hosting baton to me for this month after looking after us for June. So I am making sure that this post is ready to go on time! It has been a pretty good week for me and I look forward to seeing what has made you happy too. So I had better kick off with just some of things that have made me cheerful this week:
1) Time with my girl
I had some extra time with my daughter as I gave her a lift to visit her friend out in the Yorkshire Dales for a drink at the pub. We also had our fortnightly social with her fellow aspies and carers. I got reminded about our wild swimming from last year and hope she is well enough to do more this year:

2) Proud mum

My son is having a good time with his fell running at the moment. His race on Saturday, he was 18th out of 55, means he finished 23rd out of 74 runners for the championship despite being one of the youngest:

He then ran at a small local event last night and was 2nd boy and 3rd overall plus nabbing 3rd place in the potato race! All his training is really coming together at the moment. Not only that but at school he has been put mostly into top sets for year 8 which shows how well he is doing there.

3) School 

I am nearly at the end of the school year. Since October I have been working 1:1 with a child and this week he told me the best thing about this year had been working with me! Just as well when we will be working together again next year... 

I enjoy the fact that not only do we do all the core learning but we have the freedom to get creative. This week we made mosaics to tie in with our Roman topic:

Reasons to be cheerful: Social, running, Kendal and otters #R2BC

 
Michelle has handed the hosting baton to me for this month after looking after us for June. So I am making sure that this post is ready to go on time! It has been a pretty good week for me and I look forward to seeing what has made you happy too. So I had better kick off with just some of things that have made me cheerful this week:
1) Helm Hill Junior Social
On a rather warm Saturday I joined in with many other parents and juniors for the first Helm Hill Junior social. As you can see the fun started with the warm up which was fruity themed, we were squeezing the orange at this point!

Then we went on different runs in 3 groups. I stuck with the youngest runners and my son went off with the oldest ones. On the return we had a buffet and then had a Q&A with some senior runners.

2) Long Run in the Countryside


I had a much overdue long run out on the old canal:

Due to the humidity it wasn't as long as I intended but it was lovely to be out in the peace and quiet.

3) Appreciating Kendal


I had to go into town after to work to complete some errands. On the way back I took my time to appreciate the old town centre and some of our lovely buildings:

Reasons to be Cheerful: 50 percent, proud mum and fabulous fell racing #R2BC

 
I was MIA from reasons to be cheerful last week as life just got too hectic - I did have plenty of things to be happy about just no time to blog about them! Michelle is handing back the baton to me next month after looking after us for June. For now here is a bumper crop of reasons to make up for last week:
1) 50% achieved

As I have already posted in my FitB4Fifty update I have hit the magic 50% age grading. This means I am an average speed for a woman of my age! Next goal is to get back to my PB from 2015. Hopefully my prize inov-8 Parkclaw trainers will help with this:

2) Proud Mum

My son is continuing to do well at fell running. He is working really hard and as well as beating competitors who have always beaten him he is closing on some of those who have always been miles ahead:

3) My girl

I have been able to spend a lot more time with my daughter and her beloved Sherlock this week. Not being together all the time is hard but we make the most of the times we do have:

#FitB4Fifty A good start

Well I have realised I didn't get a chance to update after the first week of the Mediterranean diet! As with many healthy eating programmes week 1 saw a huge loss in weight of 7 lb - what a great motivation. That sort of loss even shows in my progress photos in just a week:

It made a huge difference to my parkrun time too as I knocked nearly 50 seconds off and I am back to my times from 2017 which was my second best year:

I have to say I have found week 2 a lot harder... Plenty of times when I have been rushing around or unprepared and still eating rubbish. This made for only 1.25 pounds off  (still good) and a new stone number at the front. Going to make a concerted effort for week 3 to stay off the carbs...

Reasons to be Cheerful: Roses, blue skies and speeding up #R2BC

 
I may have to dig out my ark construction plans but I still have reasons to be cheerful! Michelle is having a week off so come and share the happiness with me instead:
1) Declutter
We had a much more successful car boot last Sunday. It's good to part with things we no longer need and add to the holiday kitty. Nice for me to see familiar faces and chat too!

2) Roses

I love this time of year as my roses are starting to hit their peak. Most of them are surviving the deluge too:

3) Blue skies

Unlike most of the UK we have actually had some blue sky this week! I made the most of the lovely weather on Sunday evening to take a little jog up to the castle: