Reasons to be Cheerful Back to School! #R2BC

Thanks to the wonderful Jo at Ojo's World for hosting in August and taking good care of everything. The hosting is back to me for September so its time to share my reasons to be cheerful:

1) Mintfest

This weekend was the Mintfest Street Theatre festival in Kendal. We enjoyed lots of fun over the Saturday and Sunday. There were oh so many reasons to smile:

2) Back to uni!

Twenty years after completing my MA I officially went back to university this week. It's both exciting and nerve-racking to be starting teacher training at my age but on a campus like Lancaster and at a lovely village school there are plenty of reasons to be happy:

3) Being lucky

I won a Facebook/Twitter draw this week from our local shopping centre. So now I possess a deluxe art set and I've been enjoying spending my voucher at Rymans on stuff for uni! Just goes to prove that these competitions are genuine.

Keeping this short and sweet as I am shattered after starting my course... Please join us and share your happiness and grab the badge if you would like it:

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Week 16 - 2014 #R2BC

Once again thanks to Jo for hosting this week! Have to say I am not just smiling this week but grinning from ear to ear and here is why:

1) Family Fun

Think I will need a holiday to recover from this holiday with all the days out we have had! Cycling to Wray Castle, local fun at Damson Day, an adrenalin rush on Go Ape Junior, hunting for the Gruffalo at Grizedale, hiking from Elterwater and a day at Brockhole. There has been a lot of faces looking like this this week:

2) Blue skies

It's been wonderful to have so many days with blue skies which has enabled a lot of this fun to go on:

3) Winning things

I know I have had some lucky wins in the past but in one day I found I out that I had one two. The best one is a week's holiday in Cornwall thanks to their tourist board! Due to restrictions on dates we have to wait until next Easter to take it but something really exciting to look forward to. Just wish I'd been able to invite more of my family but will be great for my children to spend time with their only cousin.

Then I won tickets to see the Liverpool Philarmonic just a shame I can't get there and I am asking my family if they can go instead! Hey ho hope someone makes the most of my windfall..

Why are you smiling this week?

Reasons to be cheerful week 49 year 3 #R2BC

Thanks everyone who joined in whilst I was hosting last month now its over to Jo who has made the lovely new badge above. I may be hosting again in the new year if Michelle wants a longer break! So back to my reasons to be cheerful:

1) Helpful children

Not only did they help with the Christmas fair last weekend but my son has been doing more chores around the house:

Definitely good to have more help at home!

2) Feeling festive

We have got the Christmas decorations down just need to put them to their proper use:

3) Being lucky

I have won a prize from Tigerlilly Quinn with Argos. Not posting a photo on here but really hope my son will love the wonderful Lego set I chose from the dream toys list!

Why are you smiling?

Reasons to be Cheerful XXXV ( #R2BC )

Been a bit of a roller coaster week so I really need to think just about the positive things! So here we go:

1) At home

My parents came and swapped our small kitchen table for my granny's slightly bigger one. We now have 4 chairs and it can open up to seat 6. It's great having a decent sized table so I can do things like lay out serving dishes and feel all posh:

De-cluttering and tidying has moved along noticeably this week. The heap on top of the dressing up box at the top of the stairs has been sorted and either returned to its rightful place, binned or set aside for a car boot. One small victory in the battle to get the house straight!

2) My Children

On Saturday my daughter decided I needed looking after and brought me breakfast in bed, She tried to keep me there all day by bringing me an early lunch as well!

Reasons to be Cheerful XXX ( #R2BC )

Think my numbering gone awry but this may actually be my 30th R2BC post! Thanks Michelle for helping me stay optimistic in 2011 :-) Here is why I am smiling this week:

1) Family

On Saturday I as able to catch up with my brother and sister in law whilst I was down in Reading.  My Silent Sunday post showed how delighted my son was to see his uncle for the first time in over a year. It is great that I am still friends with my ex husband's family even though he is out of the picture. Spending time with them is always a pleasure.

2) Friends

The rest of the weekend was spent with my old high school friends. With a total of 9 children between us and 3 husbands its hard to get us all in the same place at the same time but we manage it a few times a year. I am very lucky that we can get put up for a couple of nights so that its not a rushed trip down. After being friends for 28 years its always great to get together. One day I hope to be able to have everyone to come and visit us again...

3) Winning things

Back in November I entered a competition on Knees Up Mother Brown and then completely forgot about it. I was delighted to receive in the post a gorgeous necklace handmade by Innocent Charms. 

I also loved the day out we won to South Lakes Wild Animal Park at Dalton. A great way to get in the mood for Christmas with visits to Santa included!

4) My son

Having completed his first term at school my son is now keen to practice his writing on things like present labels. When it came to writing mine he said he had to write "Love you" first as the most important thing:

Reasons to be Cheerful XV (#R2BC)

Here we go on my Reasons to be Cheerful this week:
1) I won the lottery!
Unfortunately only £50 and not £100 million but it paid for my much needed hair cut and leaves some for a salon colour instead of my normal home effort! I am so used to not winning anything on my irregular tickets that I was pretty surprised to get something back. As its still a mega lottery prize this Friday I've had another go too.. watch this space...
2) I won a dress
You know those Retweet Twitter competitions that fill your timeline? Well I actually won one this week. A pleasant surprise to get an e-mail from Tesco telling me I was the winner and asking me my size choice for their new Freya dress. No idea whether it will suit me but hopefully it will!
3) Getting sorted
I have done a couple of sorting sessions in the "office" and the kids can now use their PC again for the first time in months! Just need to acquire the right number of kettle leads to keep everything powered up. We all enjoyed a session on the Bagging The Dragon maths game. I was very impressed with my 4 year old's maths and computer skills! He ended up the winner and I came a lowly 3rd as I've obviously forgotten everything I learnt to get my B at O level...
4) Family
My cousin Harriet had her baby boy safely this week. This was her 5th child but the first with her boyfriend. I wish them all the best for the future.
Please look at the other blogs taking part in this blog hop: