Reasons to be Cheerful: Proud Mummy #R2BC

When my children have driven me up the wall on one afternoon I have to focus on the more positive things they have done this week! They do feature quite highly amongst my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) A proper bedroom
Its 2 months since we moved into the house but because my son's room needed major work its been the only room not done. This week my dad and I finally rebuilt the high sleeper (an interesting 3D jigsaw) and I have been moving all his furniture into the house. He now has a room in which he and his new friends can happily play with Lego or whichever toy they fancy:

2) Family Parkrun

My children were bribed to get up and do Parkrun this week with the incentive of their RMR Kid's Virtual Race! My son flew round to get yet another PB 26:03 and finish 2nd in the boys under 10 category (a fab result for an 8 year old!). Big sister wasn't feeling great but managed a sprint finish and a time of 37:19 which was her first proper completion of the course. I am still out of condition but not displeased with a 34 minute time.

3) Garden

My mum is working hard on rescuing our inherited neglected garden. She and my daughter went shopping with a house warming present to buy roses for the flower bed: 

4) Blue Peter Badge

In her last term at primary my daughter took part in a day's Eco project to bash Himalayan Balsam on the shores of Windermere. The class were all awarded a green Blue Peter badge which arrived in the post this week:

What has made you smile this week? 



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Reasons to be Cheerful XXVI ( #R2BC )

This week's guest host is Clare at Seasider in the City. It's been a mostly cheerful week this week so here we go:
1) School Trip
For the first time ever I managed to go on a school trip with my daughter. Until now I was either working or had her little brother to look after when ever there was one on. I struck lucky and got a trip to Manchester. The photographs from the day featured in this week's Gallery. We went to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and Manchester Jewish Museum both well worth a visit.

One of the lovely stained glass windows

The children on the trip were all very well behaved and it was such a pleasure to spend a whole day with them. I look forward to going on another trip sometime soon!
2) Operation 3rd Bedroom
For full news on this read this post but needless to say finally getting everyone in their own bedrooms for first time is a reason for all the family to smile! The children no longer have to share and get in each other's way. I can get my daughter to bed at a much more reasonable time as I don't have to wait for my son to go to sleep. One of the strangest reasons to be cheerful is that I can now get out of bed on both sides as my bed is no longer tucked up against a wall! My daughter is now on a Hello Kitty spending frenzy and turning her room into a girls only zone:

Operation 3rd Bedroom

With a lot of hard work from my parents we have finally all got our own bedrooms! It's not a finished job but tonight everyone will be sleeping on their own (hope it lasts all night...).


The first phase of the operation was getting my son into his own room after removing my office and sundry items from the box room. Phase two involved swapping my bed into my new room (but not putting it back together) and moving my daughter's bunk bed into her new room and reassembling it. I then spent the rest of the week on the bottom bunk.


Today was the most complicated part of the project. We had to swap all the rest of the furniture around between mine and my daughter's rooms. Things started to get interesting when my wardrobe had to come out.. This belongs to my landlady and so was already in the middle sized bedroom. We had no problem getting it out of my bedroom onto the landing but then found we couldn't get it round narrow landing into the other bedroom.

It reminded me of the song Right Said Fred by Bernard Cribbens as we kept on trying different angles. For those too young to know what I'm talking about its on YouTube:

Then we resorted to semi-dismantling the wardrobe on the landing. Due to the lack of space we had to keep sliding the wardrobe backwards and forwards to have enough space to do this. We did indeed need to have another cup of tea to get the job done.

top off the wardrobe

doors off the wardrobe

Eventually the wardrobe made it via an over the bannister lift and into its new home! Luckily all the rest of the furniture was much more manageable. There is going to have to be some tweaking to get all the furniture with the best use of space. The problem with having an office at one end is that there is more furniture to deal with.


My daughter's room is also going to take some organising to get everything in the right place. It always takes some jiggling to maximise her storage as well as leave her space to play.


The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be getting closer...

Reasons to be Cheerful XIV ( #R2BC )

Michelle on a blog break at the minute so this it being guest hosted for 5 weeks! Today's hostess with the mostest is Emma at a Matter of Choice.
Things feeling pretty positive for me again this week so here is what is making me smile:
1) Family Fun
We rounded off the school holidays with a 3 generation trip on the bus to Keswick to try out the leisure pool up there. It was a bit of a shame that it was a very wet day so we couldn't see the fabulous views properly from the top of the bus but it was a good fun change:

The pool itself was great for all of us for a splash around (not cheap at £15 for 4) with shallow sloping beach type bits, a wave machine and a black hole flume. My 8 year old and I had quite a few goes on the flume but the others stayed jumping in or playing catch with a beach ball. Think we will go back again sometime but save it for a special treat.

2) Halloween/Bright Lights

My children once again went to the free party at our church St Thomas Kendal and had hot dogs, cakes, party games and fireworks. Then they were allowed their first ever trick or treating in our street. Being a family estate all the trick or treaters going round seemed very nice and it was a lovely atmosphere so guess I'll let them do it again next year!

Best dressed house in the road

3) My son

He is so very nearly 5 and growing up fast. At swimming this week he swam quite away unaided on his front and is getting more confident with floats on his back. At parents' evening I was told he was settling in well and was doing his best to obey class rules. His phonic starting sounds are really coming on and we just need to work on his fine motor skills.

4) My daughter

Her cycling is carrying on getting better and despite a big crash resulting in a bloody nose she is loving to be out on her bike as much as possible. She even managed to cycle all the way to church and back on Sunday with very little fuss. Her parent's evening report was that she was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. For reading she is about 6 months ahead of her age and her spelling has improved. Just need to practice those times tables and joined up handwriting...

5) Operation 3rd bedroom

Apart from the fact the front room, landing and bedrooms 1 & 2 are chocker block with temporarily homeless items this is coming on well. My dad took out the fitted shelves and plastered the holes over making enough room for a bed. I had a lucky moment in Morrisons and spotted an ad for a second hand cabin bed going cheap so that will make the transition much quicker. Next step is to construct the bed in place and then move his stuff in there from his current bedroom.

6) (late update) Diet

I finally lost weight again this week after wobbling for most of October! Only a 1lb but hoping that its all a start of a downward trend to last until Christmas... I've joined up with the Twitter #NoAlcoholNovember pledge so hope that has the same result as last year. Not necessarily the booze that's the problem but the reduced self control to snack after a glass of wine!

Click on the linky to see who else is smiling: