Reasons to be cheerful: birthdays, Wii and more #r2bc

I do believe it is Friday which means I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! It is a good job this is one of the most laid back linkies on the Internet... Preparing for being back in a real job and a return to some pre-lockdown activities has caused me to get behind! Lots of these have been reasons to be cheerful though. I hope that you have some reasons of your own to share?

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) Belated birthday celebrations

As my dad had to be quarantined after a holiday to Holland we only celebrated his birthday (and my daughter's boyfriend's) with a takeaway curry and a cake made by my daughter:

2) Wii fun

We are having so much fun on the old Wii. It does get temperamental sometimes as its an original so pretty ancient! I am finally getting the hang of Mario Kart - typically there was a disc read failure after I managed my first ever 2nd place:

3) Days out

Now I am mobile again we have had a couple of days out into the Lakes. One trip to catch up with a family friend staying in Langdale and one visiting Grizedale Forest. The sheep seemed please to see us:

Garden Party #R2BC

It is Thursday so it's time to share the things that have made you happy this week.  I need cheering up this evening so looking forward to your posts. Thanks for everyone who joined in last week. For anyone new to the linky we have a few relaxed instructions: 

 

What do you have to do? Simple: 

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) Gardener Round

The relaxed rules meant I could have my gardener round. Bonus is that my gardener is my mum and I only pay her in cups of tea, biscuits and ice cream:

I did do some work myself when she had gone and it looks a lot better:

@lakessinglemum

Front garden rescue ##garden ##gardening ##fyp ##over30 ##over40 ##mumsoftiktok

♬ Wait - Chantel Jeffries

2) A splash of colour

Inspired by the front garden I tackled the back. I even dug out a new to me flower bed on the bit of grass that sloped annoyingly:

@lakessinglemum

Some work on the back garden too ##garden ##gardening ##fyp ##over30 ##over40 ##mumsoftiktok

♬ Tell Me - Marshmello

3) New Fridge Freezer

My pre-loved fridge freezer, that I have had for 5 years, finally stopped being good enough for use for us. So I bit the bullet and bought a new one for the first time in 20 years:

Being healthy - #R2BC

It was lovely to have so many folks joining in last week, it's great you are finding things that make you smile at this time. Please carry on making others smile by joining in!
What do you have to do? Simple:

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) Daily exercise

We are very lucky to be living in Kendal with so many options for our daily allowed exercise. Walking up our nearest hill certainly lifted my mood:

2) Healthy food

We are both hitting our 5 a day targets on fruit and veg. The warmer weather is making it salad time for lunch too:

3) Return to fitness

After a couple of week's housebound I've loved being back outside running. My speed is picking up again too. Not sure when I will be doing my marathon but I am loving local runs and this week's rainbow theme with a colour a day:

4) Making people smile

I have been going out in all sorts of costumes this week. Its funny how some people react when presented with something like this:

The running fairy does seem to be the most popular one though:

Now it is over to you...

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Mud, mud, glorious mud #R2BC

 
Oops been so busy out filming that I haven't had a chance to post the host post this week! So very quickly here are some of the things that have made me smile this week:
1) Proud Mum
My son ran for his club in a road relay for the first time. He helped them move up 3 positions to finish in 11th place out of 37 teams. The video of his race is here.  

2) Mud!


We had a lot of muddy fun at the County Show:

3) Arty Farty

Reasons to be cheerful: Back to School #R2BC

 
It's September which means back to school for many of us and the hosting of Reasons to be Cheerful comes back to me from Michelle! So glad that so many familiar faces are joining in and I look forward to reading and sharing your posts. I've just come back from an 8.5 mile run and the happy endorphins are flowing so here are just a few of the things that have made me smile this week:
1) House sorting
It is still a work in progress but lots of things have got better. I swapped a chest of drawers with a book case in my bedroom so my bed feels less enclosed. My dad fixed the Algot shelving in the cupboard of doom so I can be much more organised. We had a patch of damp in the lounge and this has now been fixed and patched up. Just have to decorate once all the works in the lounge have been done: 

2) Walking to work

I have missed my daily commute across the River Kent. It lifts the spirits taking in the water and sky:

3) Into Year 8

My son went back to school and he is now in Year 8. He had to stand one step down for the annual in front of the door photo as he has grown so much this year:

Reasons to be Cheerful: End of the school year #R2BC

 
Gosh its the end of the school year already for us! So hopefully 6 weeks of things to keep us cheerful. But meanwhile here are just some of things that have made me cheerful this week:

1) Sedbergh Sports
It was a fabulous evening of traditional sports in aid of Sedbergh primary. My son was 2nd in his fell race and 3rd in the potato race. A smashing time (this was the egg toss):

2) Sorting out


The great purge and tidy before the central heating system is ripped out (this Monday!) has been coming on well. A couple of rooms are completely ready and others will be done by tomorrow. It's been a combination of dismantling furniture and organising things more efficiently that has helped. We now have all our board games away and easily accessible:

3) Family

My mum came over to babysit my son whilst I was out celebrating the end of year with my colleagues. This gave us a chance to get a 3 generation family selfie. Yes he is only 12 and I am 5ft 8.5!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Family, YouTube and my Commute #R2BC

 
If I've got the scheduling right its Thursday which means its time for the happiest linky around. So come on over and share the things that have made you smile this week - no matter how small. It as wonderful having old and new friends joining in last week so I hope its going to keep on making us all feel happier. As host I will visit, comment and share all the posts that are in the linky. If you are new to the linky then here are the simple guidelines (we are far too nice to do rules!):

• Posts must be about things that have made you happy
• Add the badge code to your post (see end of this post)
• Add your post to the linkup below
• Visit the other posts and comment to share the love
• If you want to then share those posts

So what has made me happy over the last week (apart from all the running posts I've already posted!)?

1) Family

My daughter started the couch to 5km running challenge last week I went out on her first run:

Running made us both smile. Let's hope being back at school doesn't scupper her fitness campaign! We also joined my parents at a local quiz night and were only 6 points off in the top 3 - guess we need to revise before the next one...

2) YouTube

Filming big competitions like the county cross country  and our local Kendal Winter League puts a real boost to my watch time! At one point I had had 1,400 views in a 48 hour window thanks to the 9 videos I made this weekend for the channel:

3) Proud Mum

Reasons to be Cheerful: New Year and Christmas Edition #R2BC

 
Welcome back to the happiest linky around! I hope you have had a wonderful festive break and are ready to face whatever 2019 may bring? Michelle and I will once again be taking turns on alternate months to host the linky so its me for the rest of January. As host I will visit, comment and share all the posts that are in the linky. If you are new to the linky then here are the simple guidelines (we are far too nice to do rules!):

• Posts must be about things that have made you happy
• Add the badge code to your post (see end of this post)
• Add your post to the linkup below
• Visit the other posts and comment to share the love
• If you want to then share those posts

So what has made me happy over the last few weeks (playing catch up as been no linky for a month!)?

1) Family & Friends

I am so lucky to live within walking distance of my parents. We are able to see each other a lot and I loved spending Christmas with them:

We also spent an all too brief time with my high school friends back down in the south before Christmas.

2) Helping Hands

My son and I get a lot of help from local family members. It was great to be able to return the favour by helping to shift firewood for them:

3) New to Me

Reasons to be Cheerful The Birthday Edition #R2BC

 
I've been lucky to be working virtually full time which is great for the bank balance but not so good for blogging! So a slightly later than usual Reasons to be Cheerful but the same simple rules apply:

1. Link you your happy post
2. Comment on some of the other blogs to share the love
3. If you want to grab the code from below
4. I will comment and share your posts!

Meanwhile here are my birthday reasons to be cheerful:

1) Birthday Princess

I can't quite believe I am now the mum of a 15 year old! She is still as beautiful as she was for her 5th birthday:

2) Birthday relaxation

As part of my shared birthday weekend away with my daughter I had time to chill by a real fire with a book and a glass of lovely red wine:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Nearly Half Term #R2BC

As an NQT and a parent its been quite a stressful half term so I am so happy next week is our break! Luckily there are always some things that keep me smiling and sane so that I am not totally stressed out.. Here are a few from this week:

1) Flowery treat

Nothing quite like bargain roses on the 15th of February. One of my favourite flowers and with no significant other to treat me it was nice to be able to treat myself:

2) First snowdrops

There is always something special about seeing your first snowdrops. It heralds that the end of winter is nigh and that spring is nearly here:

3) New running shoes

After nearly 2000 kilometres I finally gave in and replaced my running shoes. A wonderful treat for my feet:

Reasons to be Cheerful - don't Thursdays come round quick! #R2BC

Oh my its Thursday and being on holiday I lost track. So please join in and link up and I will write my reasons later... Meanwhile here is my smile to prove I am cheerful:

OK normal service is now being resumed but I am leaving the above as folks seem to like my smile!

Here are the reasons I am smiling this week, apart from having lots of lovely folks link up already:

1) Friends

The one big down side of moving to Cumbria was leaving my best friends all back in Bucks and Berks. This weekend was one of our big get togethers and I drove down to near Reading to stay with one friend and meet up with the others. The friend we stayed with had acquired guinea pigs since our last visit so it was a delight to have lots of furry snuggles as well as catching up:

2) Photos

This week I have been making the most of some free time and printing off photos to go up on the walls. Its such a shame that I take so many photographs and hardly ever put them up... I also framed some school photos and started a family gallery up the stairs. Nice to be reminded of happy times, beautiful places and my wonderful family:

Reasons to be Cheerful a Happy Easter #R2BC

I don't know about you but I really love the Easter weekend. Whether its the double bank holiday, the chocolate or celebrating Jesus there are plenty of reasons to smile at Easter. Hopefully people will have time to share their happy posts with others this week despite it being school holidays (well for many of us it is!). Here are my Easter reasons to be cheerful:
1) Fond farewells
Something I never expected working as a supply teacher/teaching assistant was to be given a farewell bouquet of flowers! I was therefore very touched after a half term in one school to be given these in front of the entire school:

2) Proud mum

My son volunteered for the first time at our local parkrun. He was assistant run director to start us all off and then sorted all 207 finish tokens at the end (2nd highest ever turnout!). Glad to say he really enjoyed it and wants to do it again:

3) Easter fun

Reasons to be Cheerful : Marching on #R2BC

Normally I would have handed the hosting reins back to Ojo's World but she is having a break this month so has left the linky with me! Hopefully I will continue to look after it well.. We need to share the love a bit more and get more folks joining in with this mood lifting linky. Please share and join in this week. My own reasons to be cheerful this week are:
1) Blast from the past
Inspired by my old Guide blanket I have started a macrame owl kit:

It is really satisfying to re-learn a forgotten skill and to see how it grows. Those half hitches are satisfying to conquer! When finished I will blog more about it...

2) Marshalling at Parkrun

I don't often get to volunteer at our Parkrun as I have to find another responsible adult to run with my son. Luckily the regulars are all very friendly and I know which ones run the course in a similar time to him! So on Saturday I was on of the team of marshals on a very cold day at Fell Foot. It is such a pleasure to be able to encourage people with a comment or a wave. I even had a chance to take plenty of photographs too. This is my son on his way to 16th male position in the event:

3) Winter Run

I have already blogged about my trip to Manchester for the race. There were so many reasons to smile about the day including: 

• meeting other mummy runners
• the atmosphere
• my finish time
• the support from my daughter

get the InLinkz code

 

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Birthday edition 2015 #R2BC

Thanks everyone for joining in last week I am doing my best to visit you all! Its great when people find the happy little things when life can seem grim. Here are this week's reasons for me:
1) Proud Mummy
My daughter took me past the shop window which has the artwork she has helped make for the Comic Art Festival with her school. In fact I helped cut out some of the badger material as she had sprained her fingers!

My son has got hooked on the competitiveness of Mathletics and at various points this week has been 12th in the UK and 33rd worldwide!

2) Running

On Monday I'd one of those mornings when things weren't going right. So I headed out the door and went for a run to clear my head. Going up hill wasn't pretty but it felt like I was flying back down and I broke so many PRs:

I am obviously a downhill runner!

3) Beautiful days

With this being birthday week for both myself and my daughter we are feeling blessed with the weather. Yes its rather chilly first thing but boy is is stunning around Kendal at the moment:

4) Birthdays

Finally yes it was my birthday and I was lucky to be given the latest instalment of one of my favourite series. I treated myself yesterday to half an hour in Costa with a massive coffee and the book!

We want to share people's happy posts so please link your posts and grab the badge...

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