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: Half Term Time #R2BC

 
I am running a day late joining in with Michelle for my reasons to be cheerful this week as its been such a busy weekend! We've had a busy half term with plenty of reasons to be cheerful:
1) Time to socialise

I have already written about our day of fell running at Sedbergh. It's great being part of a great club and a bigger fell running family.  Every event is a social occasion for adults and children as well as celebrating great running:

2) Time with the family

The advantage of working in a school is that I get most of the school holidays off. A chance to have fun together or to just relax! My daughter and I strolled into town and grabbed churros and coffee at one of our local restaurants:

3) Time!

It's great not having to rush around every where for work, school and activities during the holidays. I managed both a walk and run up to Kendal Castle this week and it was lovely up there:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Beautiful Places #R2BC

 
The link now starts on a Saturday and Michelle is our lovely hostess this month. I have been out doing so much that I'm only putting mine together at 9PM as its been so busy here. I will just share a few of my reasons to be cheerful since the last link up:

1) Hawkshead 10 k Trail Race

I survived! It wasn't quick but I wasn't last and I had fun on the way:

2) Filming races in beautiful places

On Wednesday I spent an hour up Grisedale Pike to capture moments like this on video:

3) Family Time 

It was great to get out as 3 generations to Sizergh Castle and enjoy this beautiful local spot:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Time #R2BC

 
The lovely Michelle is hosting for April and from next week the link starts on a Saturday! For once I am apparently ready to post on the Thursday (if I can get my photos from my phone...). With it being the Easter holidays my reasons are all about time:

1) Time to celebrate

At my son's athletics club celebration he was awarded the U13 Sports Hall trophy. This follows on from winning the U11 2 years ago and the U13 fell running trophy for the season! Proves that its more about turning out consistently than being the fastest or best:

2) Time for friends

We travelled down to and across London to visit my school friends and their families. I never tire of seeing the skyline as we cross Waterloo Bridge: 

3) Time for a PB

My son smashed his junior parkrun PB by nearly a minute at Savill Gardens:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Half Term holidays #R2BC

 
Its a good job Michelle is hosting this month as I'm forgetting which day of the week it is! We are enjoying our half term break even if its very soggy one. Here are my reasons to be cheerful so far this week:

1) More School Cooking

My son did proper cooking this week and came home with yummy fruit cake:

2) Extended Family

Our trip to Manchester gave us a chance to meet up with my 2nd cousin and his family. I hadn't seen his wife and children for 12 years so it was a chance for the children (who are 3rd cousins) to properly meet.

3) Proud Mum

My son finished 8th in his latest fell race. This is his best finish position yet and he is putting together all that his coaches are teaching him:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Tiger! #R2BC

 
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. 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?

1) Tiger

As mentioned already my daughter and I got to hand feed a real live tiger when we went to the zoo:

Such an incredible experience!

2) Girl Time

I don't spend as much time with my daughter as I would like so a whole weekend of just the two of us was great. Love her quirky sense of humour:

3) Proud Mum

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: Sunshine and Other Things #R2BC

Sorry for the delay! Can I blame the heat? I am standing in for one extra week whilst Michelle has a well earned break, then we are both having a week off with our families! Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Wine Tasting
I felt like a proper grown up when I was invited to a wine tasting at Majestic. It was great to sample a range of wines and have proper grown up conversations, with mostly much older wine appreciators.  They also laid on yummy snacks: 

2) Time with loved ones

Straight after the wine tasting I went out for pizza with three of the people I love the most:

3) Malham

I have already blogged about our wonderful day at Malham fell race. What I hadn't mentioned was how close we were to the stunning Malham Cove:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Festive Fun #R2BC

We have reached that point of the Festive celebrations when you can't remember what day of the week it is! So can I blame that for not posting on the Thursday but waiting until the Friday? Any way it has allowed for an extra bit of festive fun to creep in. I hope that you have all had lots of happy moments to share with our other linkers? Next week hosting goes back to Michelle for January so thank you all for putting up with me in December. Meanwhile here are my festive reasons to be cheerful:
1) Festive parkrun
For the first time since 2014 we actually had our Fell Foot Christmas parkrun. Plenty of Santas, elves, reindeer and other Christmas characters running or walking round the 5 km. I have already posted a link to a video of the event.  

2) Christmas part one

We had an early Christmas meal with my parents to kick start the celebrations. It was lovely to have a properly laid out table with candles and decorations:

After dinner we then played board games and had a chilled out evening.

3) The Last Jedi

Reasons to be Cheerful: Family & Friends #R2BC

I do need to cheer myself up after a stressful morning so here are the many reasons that made me cheerful this week. 

1) Fun with family

We had a lovely few hours in London with my sister and brother in law at the RAF Museum. All of us had smiles from seeing these wonderful machines:

2) Fun with friends

There were 17 of us for Sunday lunch at my friends' house in Berkshire. Plenty of smiles and laughs to be had:

3) Duvet day

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: Time #R2BC

This is Michelle's last week hosting as the linky comes back to me for October! I had better be super organised from next week. Let's hope I have as much time to be organised as this week... The advantage of being underemployed is that time has not been in short supply. So what have I had time to do this week that has made me smile:
1) Time with family and friends
This week I have spent more time with my local based family including a trip to Victoria and Abdul, tea out and a relaxed coffee. When things have been a bit bonkers this is so essential! Accidentally bumping into a friend when out and about is great reason to smile too.
2) Time to organise
The airing cupboard was out of control so I spent an entire day culling our bedding and towels and putting in back in an organised fashion. How long will it stay this tidy:

3) Time to finish fixing my iPhone

To get all the features of my phone working I had to get help to remove the LCD plate off the remains of the old screen:

Luckily once again my dad had time to come to the rescue and we successfully put the plate on the new screen and I now have a fully functioning phone with Home button and both cameras!

4) Time to appreciate my garden

I am very lucky to have been given some autumn flowering plants which are providing colour for me and food for insects:

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: Families and Friends #R2BC

In a change from my usual reasons to be cheerful I am not having a photographic one! With it being the summer holidays its time for a change and keeping it short & sweet. So here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Family
I am so glad that being off school gives me plenty of time to spend with my family. During the school year things rush by and its hard to show them how much you appreciate them. Its been good to have time with my nearest and dearest and hope that there is more to come as the summer holidays go on.
2) Friends
The holidays are a great time to spend time with friends whether they are local or from far away. I have enjoyed getting to know other adults on my estate too. My son has been spending more time with the children on the estate and with his best friend from school. Let's hope this a step to deeper friendships.
3) Home sorting
I have made major inroads on sorting out the house whilst not having the inconvenience of work! So hopefully now I have a home that I am able to have folks round to more often which will make me smile even more.
Please join in and share your happy posts. 

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: