Happy Christmas

This will be my last post of 2014. I can't quite believe it. Not only is the end of yet another year, but I've been blogging now for 9 years! This time next year it will be a decade of life speaking to you all through this blog and sharing snippets of our life.

Cheeky boy here, cracks me up on a daily basis, interspersed with his incredible knowledge and wisdom that blows me away!

And life, what is that? A life portrayed as 'perfect', I hope not, we have as many mess ups and down days as the rest of you only I am more picky about what I make public. A life where my children are no longer really the subject of this blog; they have grown, and oh 'how' they have grown, and their lives are theirs and theirs alone, not something for me to find a blog subject in. Of course I mention them, frequently, but I no longer blog about their toilet habits or silly things they say or do as they are no longer toddlers and, frankly, it's no longer that kind of funny !!

Yeah, not a lot changes for those of you that know this funny guy! He is so adorable and loving.

This one is going to the stage! Such a daaaaarling as well as an absolute darling!

It's been nine years of evolution for me as a child of the pen, to an adult of the computer age. I fight demons on a daily basis about the merits of blogging, computers, facebook, email communication and time spent doing such by both myself and my children, but I know that life is different now and frankly, I enjoy reading blogs and facebook. The former placates me sometimes at the end of a long and tiring day. I quite like to lose myself in five minutes of someone else's life and yes, I do tend to go to my favourite bloggers who have similar lives to my own or similar ideals.

I do sometimes have ruminations as to whether it is time to stop the blog, there are so many out there now and blogging has become a career for so many that my feeble little rambly blog just doesn't compete with the big boys, but, then the voice of reason says: Who are you blogging for? Ultimately it's for me, and for my family and for my friends whom we don't see very often or who live back in the USA, Belgium or Scotland, and, if I didn't unload my head on here, there'd be one hell of a lot of mixed up incoherent crap in there, and blogging is cheaper than therapy ;-)

So I will continue, perhaps for another year.

For now though, I'm going to switch off here and spend Christmas with my family and I'll be back in the New Year.

Have a wonderful Christmas time

A year of running and discovery

This year is now finally at a close so far as my 'racing' goes.
I use the term 'racing' in a loose sense as, although I am strictly in a 'race', I am only really running for and against myself, therefore, whether it should be called a 'race' for me or a 'challenge' is probably another question.

It's December and, having started in February, I've run at least one, if not, sometimes two races each month, clocking up somewhere around 130 miles in races and much more if you include the training that has gone alongside.

One of the ghastly early races in April 2014

The icing on the cake came this weekend when I made a rash decision around three months ago to run my first half marathon (that's 13.1 miles to those of you with better things to do with your lives than follow the aches and pains of runners!).

It was a bit hasty, I think I'd just done a sub 30 in a park run, was feeling rather high on the endorphins that followed and noted that December was 'race-less' so I needed something to fit into this month.

Milton Keynes Winter half seemed to fit into the criteria I needed: flat (ish!), not expensive and local and on a day that I was able to do.

I had a training plan, then life took over. The nights got dark, my job turned nearly full time, we had some family stuff going on that needed some tlc and some wine and the training plan got kyboshed.

The day arrived upon me without really having run more than 8 miles ever. Was this foolhardy - well, to the seasoned runner, yes, probably, but I figured I had nothing to lose. No one was watching me that I knew; I wasn't running with anyone that I needed to keep pace with; if I needed to walk any of it, who would care other than me?

I'd love, at this point, to tell you it was easy...but my nose would be cracking my computer screen right now. It was nothing short of bloody hard! Probably one of the most demanding things mentally that I have ever undertaken.

I arrived at 9.30 only to queue in the freezing cold for the best part of 20 minutes for the loo. Was I that desperate? Well, I was certainly more desperate to use the loo than I would be to squat halfway around with my arse exposed to the elements...I presumed that as there were at least a 1/4 of the runners behind me in the queue, the organisers would have the common sense not to start if the queue was still snaking round the park, so there was no choice but to wait.

It was freezing - did I say that? We had to avoid the ice on more than one occasion - so there was the dilemma of standing shivering waiting to get going, then that hideous few minutes where your body temperature still hasn't reached sufficient high levels to reduce the running shakes.
The course itself was probably the only saving grace. It was slightly undulating, but primarily flat and ran all around areas of Milton Keynes that you never see from the roads. We ran along the union canal for many miles, into outlying villages with beautiful tudor homes, past fields of cows and then through housing estates. There was time to think and dream.

My pace was very steady, far steadier than I'd run a 10K, but I thought this was a tactic I would need for survival. I got to 10miles without too much trauma, but then suddenly my mind seemed to turn a corner for the worse. I noticed a blister on my heel and then spent half a mile fighting the urge to stop and take off my shoe. My head was telling me this was a death sentence, my heart said I could fix it if i took off the shoe and fixed my sock. Luckily I have learned that my head does in fact, rule my heart, even though my teenage self may not have realised that!

Then I felt aches...everywhere, my thighs, my pelvis, my ribcage...The last 3.1 miles may well have been the whole 13.1 all over again. It used every ounce of my mental strength not to give up.




But! I didn't and now I am proud to say I have achieved half of my goal but it's not just the physical that I'm proud of, I proved my ability to physically challenge myself on the top of Scarfell this Easter, but the whole challenge of keeping going. I have kept going, from January, I have kept running when I've wanted to stay in bed or go home. I have kept going with blisters and when I've wanted to cry and give up.

I've run in rain;

In hideous heat,

In foreign countries,


In a tutu;

With my youngest in our tutus at a race for life in June

Through mud and cow pats.




I've gone from this:








To this:

I'm no faster than I was in January really, but I don't care. I have lost weight and yes, I'm very happy about that, but whilst we can change our outward appearance, I have found an inner me that was lurking below the surface. It's a me that can say what I want (I'd say pretty tactfully except my kids will tell you that I must make an exception when I'm in the car - running does nothing to hone road rage!), what I like and what I am able to do and I like that person. She's okay to spend 2.5 hours of solitude with on a Sunday morning with only her thoughts and a few of the negative conscience for company. So I'm going to stick with her and with it, it has been good for me, not only for my health, but also for my brain and my character and...well, I like that.

I'll see you at the Brighton Half in February!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I love today!

It is 'deck the halls' day today, or rather, deck the scaffolding in our case!

I love to make it a bit of an occasion when we put the tree up and decorate it. We get in some gluhwein and some spiced apple for the kids, put on a bit of Buble and out come the decks. It's all so very jolly and little House on the Prairie...........screeeech! Hold on, rewind a bit, let's just back up:

So, it IS a day when we get the gluhwein heating on the stove and the spiced apple simmering in the pan, the tree is placed and the decoration boxes brought down, Buble is on the CD player warbling out those Christmas tunes; but that is where my family will tell you that it then turns into a very military operation 'hup two three four, keep it up, two three four!'

I am a touch anal when it comes to my tree. We normally have two, a real one in the sitting room and an artificial one in the music room/snug, only this year we've decided to just have one because of the outdoor chaos. We have a colour scheme for each tree and things need to be balanced and organised.

I have a box of purple, pink, silver and white for the real tree alongside several very sentimental ornaments that have come from places we've been. These don't fit the colour scheme, but are important for memories and sentimental reasons. This tree has WHITE lights.

Then there is the box for the artificial tree, these are more tartan, red and natural ornaments from straw and wicker etc. The lights on this tree are WHITE!

OH and finally there is the box of decs that the kids have made over the years and the things that I just can't quite chuck away, but there's no way they'll ever bedeck my Nordman again!

The children and Mr Beehive hound me every year to do coloured lights, but I just. can't. do. it.

Mr Beehive and the kids get the run of the exterior!!! 

It's a little bit like National Lampoon and I'm Audrey; "I hope nobody drives past the house and sees me standing here with all these bleeding coloured lights" but hey ho, they love it, I can sacrifice a little bit of taste for a few short weeks right ;-)

At least I can close the curtains and admire my indoor tree with a cup of gluhwein in hand!

Advent Traditions

December 1st...finally! I can put away my 'bah humbug, it's too early slippers in November' and gently ease myself into the season of goodwill and cheer.




We have for many years, in fact, since LMB was two, had a beautiful birthday ring*. It is made from alder wood and we put beeswax candles in.

There is something earthy and grounding about the smell each year when I take it out for another child's birthday and, believe me, even at nearly 15, the eldest still wants the birthday ring out.

I have hankered after an advent spiral for many years and this year I gave in to my desires. We only have four candles as we intend to light one on each of the four Sundays before Christmas and we also have a small, fillable advent calendar.

Again, a tradition we have followed since they were small has been the filling of a re-usable advent calendar. We are actually on our second as our first one was eaten by mice one year in between Christmasses. When the children were young, it was easy to find little things to put inside for each day, now they're older, it's a little harder and I'm loathed to fill it all with sweet things. This year I've gone for tokens for things like a trip to the movies at some point in the year, a movie and takeaway night of their choice, an afternoon doing something they choose. I've also put in a little wooden ornament, something I do each year and then this year each child has a 'personal' gift. For Master Beehive the elder, I've got him some fingerless gloves. He really suffers with his knuckles and hands being covered in nasty eczema and sores, hopefully this way he can wear these, still write at school or do the things he needs to do, but equally give his hands some protection. Master Beehive the younger is a stickler for hoarding, so he has a lovely little wooden box made out of some tree wood from a local cemetery and the youngest rug rat has some bath bombs with essential oils to curb her desire to pinch all my lovely bath things!!

*Although I was very drawn towards Waldorf and Montessori when the children were younger (and still am as much as I can be as my children are growing), the main reason I bought it was watching toddler attempts to blow out candles 20, 30 times and the sequential spit and nasal contents that used to decorate the cake; it became somewhat a matter of necessity and hygeine ;-)   )