In search of MORE in 2017

Most people end one year resolving for less of things in the next year. I know that I normally do and I generally fail! Looking back at this time last year I only achieved one goal which was to run the Brathay Half Marathon:

So what do I want MORE of in 2017? Well its the things that make me happy... So..

More Family Fun

We have plenty of adventures together which is great for all of us. This means more spending time outdoors:

Spending more time playing games:

More Running

Running is good for physical and mental health and I have not done enough this half of the year! Its even better when we do it as a family at parkrun so here is to more running:

I have just signed us all up to plenty of Virtual Races to inspire us all!  

What do you want more of in 2017?

Reasons to be Cheerful the end of year round-up! #R2BC

As its the last Reasons to be Cheerful for 2016 I thought I would do a round-up of some of the biggest things that have made me cheerful this year. I will be handing the baton back to Michelle for January so I hope you will all carry on in 2017.

1) Completing my first (and last?) half marathon

One of the toughest things I have ever done was back in May when I ran in the inaugural Brathay Half Marathon. My finish line photo sums up what it meant to all of us:

Who knows if I will ever run one again...

2) Single with Kids holidays

We had our most ever trips with Single with Kids this year. With them we camped in the Peak District, Stourport and Kettering. There was also a trip to Robin Hood's Bay for a self-catering break. All of these put smiles on our faces:

3) Fun with family and friends

We are so lucky to be able to have great adventures almost on our doorstep. Adventures we have enjoyed have included:

• Wray Castle and Claife
• Cruising on Windermere
• Camping in Dent
• A weekend in Bowness
• Waterhead and Galava
• The Lakeland Maize Maze
• The Hobbit in Williamson Park
• Kirkby Lonsdale
• A walk on Hadrian's Wall
• A visit to Lanercost Priory

4) Family & Friends

Of course my family and friends have put plenty of smiles on my face this year too! Here is hoping for plenty of fun times in 2017 together too.

Reasons to be Cheerful: Festive Edition #R2BC

I am not running quite so late this week! The reason being that I am OFF for the holidays which is my reason number 1:

2) Whistlestop tour of London

We made the most of the dry weather to walk from Euston to Waterloo when travelling down south for a gathering. I loved seeing the iconic landmarks and my son loved catching Pokemon!

3) Savill Gardens Junior parkrun

For the second Christmas running we were around for my son to take part in the festive junior parkrun at Savill Gardens. It was made more exciting this year as our friend has a similar time so they had a great sprint finish:

Reasons to be Cheerful: The National Health Service #R2BC

I have a very good reason for being a day late with the linky this week as yesterday I spent almost the entire night at the hospital with my daughter. This is why the National Health Service is my reasons to be cheerful this week. Here are the different reasons why:

1) NHS Direct

There is a dedicated 24 hour phone line (just call 111) so when you are worried about a health issue you can talk to a trained person. They can advise you what do you to solve the problem and if necessary they will even call an ambulance for you (yes this has happened to us this year!). Yesterday my daughter was concerned enough to call them and they advised her to see her GP.

2) General Practitioners (GPs)

Our GP surgery is large enough to have some great systems for appointments. When my daughter rang yesterday the on call GP called her back and decided that she needed to come in for an appointment. So on the same day we went to see one of our lovely GPs. She in turn decided that my daughter needed to be seen at the hospital so rang them and arranged for us to go.

3) Royal Lancaster Hospital Children's Ward

For the 5th time this year we arrived at the ward at 7 PM and she was assessed by a nurse. Then a doctor came and decided she needed to be seen by a surgeon. As there was a long wait the nurse managed to discover that my daughter was allowed to drink and eat. This was just as well as the hard working surgeon wasn't available until nearly 3 AM! At 3.30 one of the lovely nurses took charge of my finally sleeping daughter as she was left for the night. Today my daughter was seen by a senior surgeon (with a tail of junior doctors!) and cleared to come home. A team of nurses took care of her whilst she was there.

All of this was free at the point of use. Yes we pay in to the pot in our taxes but we don't have to be scared to contact the medical profession. This year with all the medical interventions for my daughter I would have spent a fortune if it wasn't free! So the NHS is a massive reason to be cheerful. 

What are yours?

Reasons to be Cheerful: Feeling Festive! #R2BC

Sorry for a late post on this but its been the school Christmas plays this week so I have been working extra long hours... Here are my festive reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Proud Mum

It was my daughter's turn to shine this week as she sang at her teacher's Christmas showcase. She took on an incredibly difficult song and did herself proud:

2) Me and my girl

Now she is a teen we don't spend as much time together on our own. So even a walk to the shops can be a treat. Scary that she is almost as tall as me at 13 though:

3) Advent calendar

My Virgin Wine advent calendar is proving to be a hit! I haven't loved all the wines but knowing that after a long day at work there is something like this waiting for me is making me cheerful (PS this was lush!):

4) Teaching gifts

The advantage of being in an infant class is that the children still love to give me little things. One boy made me this heart out of plasticine that I have to keep safe always!

4) Proud teacher

There was not a dry eye in the house at every performance of the school Christmas play this week. All the children from Reception to Year 6 had a big role to play with singing, narrating or acting. These occasions are just magical:

Hopefully you have found lots of reasons to smile this week too and I look forward to reading them.

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Its Advent #R2BC

Blimey what happened to November it vanished so fast! I can't believe that its December and my turn to take over as host from Michelle. With the season of goodwill fast approaching I am looking forward to reading lots of happy posts from other folks. Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week:

1) #ReverseAdvent

I had heard about the great idea to have a Reverse Advent box into which every day in Advent you place an item so that on Christmas Eve you can donate it to a family or individual who would benefit. I was lucky to receive one of the CoOp's Reverse Advent boxes and we are looking forward to filling it with various items over the next 24 days.

2) Photo Fun

With long days at work and dark nights my photography has been limited. With a daily shot needed for my Blipfoto journal I have been having fun doing a mini series of our Funko Pop collection.  This was the latest one with Sven from Frozen:

3) 100 Fell Foot parkruns

This weekend we celebrated both the 100th parkrun at Fell Foot and also the 100th parkrun by our director Ron. We had a marshal takeover by the National Trust, we sang a special song to Ron and I ran the whole way with a regular volunteer and helped him to a new PB! 

4) Proud Mum

My son had his first indoor athletics competition with Kendal Athletics Club, it was down in Blackpool but the travel and an entire day in a sports hall were made worth it by his second place in the chest push:

What are your reasons this week?

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Kendal Mountain Festival, Getting Organised and Family

I will have to be more organised next week when Michelle hands the baton back to me as the host! She has done a lovely job this month. Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Kendal Mountain Festival

Kendal has a well deserved reputation for its festivals and the Mountain one was fabulous to explore. I just wish I'd been able to see a few films:

2) Getting Organised

It may be a drop in the ocean but paperwork with no home was a big problem. So I bought myself a handy home filing system and I've begun to work on getting the paperwork under control:

3) Family Time

An unexpected invite out to dinner with my parents was the highlight of the week. Tapas at a local restaurant followed by games back at our house. It all made for a perfect Saturday evening:

4) Fabulous Views

The thing that makes up the long drive along the A590 is the view. At the moment I get to see snow covered mountains, Morecambe Bay, the Hoad monument and some fabulous sunrise/sunsets. To top it off the slag heap behind school did an impression of Uluru one morning this week:

Hope you have reasons to be cheerful of your own? If you do why not join in and share.

Reasons to be Cheerful: parkrun, Pokemon and roses #R2BC

So glad that Michelle is hosting again this month so we can all share the happy! Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Back to Fell Foot parkrun:

It was far too long since we ran around the park. Such a fun and friendly parkrun even in the rain:

2) Remembrance Day

My school observed a super 2 minute whole school silence on the Friday and then on the Sunday I thought about my ancestors who served and fortunately survived the First World War like my grandfather:

3) Weekend stroll

Love my weekend walks with my children hunting Pokemon. This is my son chilling under the underpass whilst collecting from a Pokestop:

4) Still going

My neighbour's roses are still holding on:

What is making you smile this week?

Reasons to be Cheerful: 10th birthday #R2BC

The lovely Michelle is hosting this week and she has super reasons to be cheerful so please pop over! Meanwhile here are mine:

1) Mummy power

My son chose Laser Quest for his 10th birthday. I was forced to join in as one his friends couldn't come along. We all had a lot of fun and I impressed his friends (and annoyed some teenage boys!) by winning our first match [thereby getting 3rd highest score of the day!]. I was then handicapped by being teamed up with the younger boys but still was in the top 3 each time.

2) Family fun

We all popped into town on Sunday and had a chilly but fun time in the park on the way back:

3) Fun teaching

As an NQT I lose a lot of the fun subjects to teach as I am out of class twice a week. This week due to swapping around I was able to have an afternoon learning about Diwali (including making lanterns) and a morning of history. Its definitely what keeps the enjoyment in the job:

4) Birthday Boy

Scary that my youngest turned 10 this week. Where has the last decade gone? So glad he is turning out to be a fine young man whose teacher says he is a pleasure to teach:

Looking forward to reading everyone else's posts!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to routine #R2BC

The lovely Michelle is hosting again this month as she enjoys reading all our happy posts, please pop over and see why she is cheerful this week. Meanwhile here are my reasons this week:

1) Simple fun

On the way home from town my son met a couple of friends in the park and kicked a football around with them for a bit before heading into the playground:

2) Happy Herdwick

How could this smile not be infectious:

#CountryKids in Manchester and Salford #WhateverTheWeather

With it being half term we wanted a bit of a break without going too far or breaking the bank. So we decided on an overnight trip to Manchester so that a) my son could hunt for different Pokemon b) we could visit museums etc. So on a frosty morning we headed up to Oxenholme train station:

It only takes 1 1/4 hours from Kendal to central Manchester but it feels a world away when you arrive at Piccadilly Station:

My son didn't waste much time in setting several eggs incubating and hunting down the Halloween special Pokemon as I navigated us through the city centre. It was a good job I took several battery packs with us as it was long day:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Half Term fun #R2BC

Not quite as late as last week! Finding time amid the fun to write my post.... Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Safe arrival

My daughter flew to the USA with my mum and I was so happy to know they had arrived safely and to hear from her what an amazing time she is having! Hard to let your children spread their wings but reassuring with modern technology to know she is safe and happy.

2) New boots

I spent my birthday money on a new pair of boots for the Autumn/Winter. These will keep me nice and cosy until the weather warms up again:

3) Cosy evenings

With big sister away my son and I made a temporary sofa with camping mats, rugs and cushions to snuggle up watching movies on: