Reasons to be Cheerful: Home Sweet Home #R2BC

Its a miracle I am ready in time to host Reasons to be Cheerful this week! No need for Michelle to dash to the rescue - thanks for last week. I look forward to seeing what is making everyone smile this week: grab the badge, link up and share the love.
1) Holiday memories
After a fortnight in Wales I have so many happy memories to look back on:

It is however wonderful to back home and close to my family again.

2) Bejewelled

How could the sight of a rose like this not make you smile:

3) Happy Cat

Reasons to be Cheerful: Teaching, YouTube, National Running Show and more! #R2BC

The lovely Michelle is hosting again this week before I take back over for February. Please do pop over to her place and say hi! I seem to have plenty of reasons to be cheerful this week and here are a few of them:
1) School Display
I have been enjoying creating an England display at school with the help of the children. Alongside the St George from last week we now have a dragon and Big Ben or Elizabeth Tower:

2) Fell Running filming

I had a freezing cold afternoon videoing the Giggleswick fell race in the snow:

I am astounded that I have had over 700 hits on my two videos! That really did put a smile on my face. I will be doing a fuller blogpost about this tomorrow...

3) National Running Show

My son and I had free tickets to the first National Running Show at the NEC. Plenty of reasons to be cheerful meeting folks I have only spoken to online and listening to some famous runners. 

Reasons to be Cheerful: Happy New Year! #R2BC

Its January which means I have handed the reins back to the lovely Michelle so do pop over there and say hello! There has already been plenty to smile about even though 2018 has only just begun:
1) Snow
Well it wasn't a lot and it didn't last long but it made for a more dramatic backdrop for our latest fell running film:

2) Coco

My daughter's cat thoroughly entertained 3 generations on New Year's Eve. He is turning lots of non cat people in to cat lovers:

He even tried to join in at Game of Life:

3) New Year's Day dip 

Sinking into the cold of Windermere on New Year's Day certainly put a smile on my face:

4) Family

Having shown you last week how tall my daughter is getting this week I can show you the height of my 11 year old next to my mum (she is 5ft 4.5)! I think he is taller than I was at his age...

Please join in and visit all the other happy linkers and share some love in 2018!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Fixes, Family and Fun #R2BC

The linky is still being hosted by Michelle so please pop over to her blog! I have got plenty of reasons to be cheerful this week but here are just a few:

1) Bargain

We don't have a sofa and our armchairs are the wrong shape to curl up on. So I grabbed a bargain off our local Sell and Seek of another armchair plus footrest that we can share when watching TV or a movie:

2) Girl time

This weekend I had lots of time with my daughter both country dancing, then with a movie marathon with pizza on Saturday and finally the bridge tournament on Sunday. We were supervised by this handsome chap:

3) Proud Mum

Reasons to be Cheerful: Family, Friends and Celebrations #R2BC

Where is August vanishing to? Scottish schools are back already and we have less than 2 weeks left here! So much still to make me smile this week though and I hope lots of you join in too and then comment on other blogs:
1) Happy Birthday Dad!
Today is my dad's birthday so I just have to post the oldest photograph of him I can find which must be from the early 1950s!:

2) Furry Family

We have 3 furry family members who bring us all lots of pleasure here are Bubble (Splodge playing hard to get!):

and Coco:

3) Movie Time

Reasons to be cheerful Flaming June #R2BC

This has been one of those months when focusing on the small positives has provided light at the end of the tunnel! Being able to smile and laugh when things aren't going well means that it's not all doom and gloom. So here are the things that have kept me sane this week:

1) Splat

You can't help but smile when your child gets a face full of cream when playing a silly game (he laughed when I got hit too!):

2) Super long run

I braved the heat to achieve my longest run for over a year with 7.5 miles through beautiful countryside:

3) Proud mum #1

My son did a fell race on that hot day and tried his very best:

He also had sports' day and helped his house to their first victory in 13 years! 

Reasons to be cheerful: Easter family fun and a cat! #R2BC

I am so glad we still have this week off for Easter as time is simply flying! Thanks for joining in last week and I hope that more of you are back from school holidays to join in this week. Don't forget to visit the other linkers and leave a comment... Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Coco

We adopted a cat called Coco last Thursday he is an adorable 9 month old kitten who has stolen all our hearts. He is fitting right in at home and hopefully he will soon feel like this is where he belongs. I have never had a cat before and it so far is a pleasure to have one (especially as its my daughter's job to clean out the litter tray!):

2) Proud Mum

On Saturday we all wet to Parkrun with my wider family. My daughter was the official photographer and took so many fabulous shots. My son ran his best time for 18 months and really is coming back into form again:

3) Family

We really enjoyed having our extended family around last weekend. Things like the park are so much more fun with others to share it with:

4) Family days out at National Trust

I have already blogged about how we have already made use of renewed National Trust membership. We are lucky to have some fantastic properties near us like Allan Bank:

and Sizergh Castle:

Reasons to be Cheerful Week 17 - 2014 #R2BC

It's been great seeing more people returning to this linky whilst its been hosted at Ojo's World this month - hope you all stick with it when it comes back to me in May! I am feeling kinda shattered after going back to work after Easter so keeping my reasons mostly to a photo edition this week:

1) Time with friends

It was one of the 3 annual get togethers with my secondary school friends this Saturday. There were 5 of us plus 3 husbands and 8 out of 9 of our kids. Plenty of conversation, wine and good food - oh and of course chocolates:

2) Easter Fun at Sizergh Castle

I already blogged here but this is a taster:

3) Four years of Blipfoto

This was my 1460th daily photo in my Blipfoto journal:

Why are you smiling this week? 

Feline Friday

Our neighbours' young cat has discovered that if he perches on the children's playhouse then he can see in our kitchen window:

 

Today he decided he wanted to come in through the window and tried desperately to get me to let him in:

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry young Ollie too many members of my family are allergic to felines so you have to stay outside!