99 secrets to life

I saw this idea somewhere else and liked it so thought I'd do my own version! It would be nice to hear of anything you'd put in that maybe I've missed...

001 Have faith in God

002 Belly laugh everyday

003 Build a snowman every year

004 Play with your children often

005 Say I Love You a lot

006 Keep learning

007 Take regular walks

008 Eat chocolate

009 Dress up as much as you can

010 Dance like no-one’s watching

011 Bread is Good

012 Wear odd socks

013 Salute the sun

014 Sing sing sing

015 Lick the spoon

016 Look for rainbows

017 Get wellies muddy

018 Make your own cupcakes

019 Read lots of books

020 Don’t buy cheap stuff

021 Trust yourself

022 Trust God

023 Wear Fairtrade

024 Drink wine out of wine glasses

025 Write letters to friends

026 Keep secrets

027 Make fond memories

028 Live in the moment

029 Get lost sometimes

030 Champagne is the answer

031 Have a picnic everyday

032 Smile like you mean it

033 Everything in moderation

034 including moderation

035 Respect your Elders

036 Pick wildflowers

037 Grow roses

038 Play music loudly

039 Speak to your friends often

040 Celebrate every birthday

041 Take a lot of pictures

042 Ask about your family history

043 Keep in touch with your siblings

044 Be neighbourly

045 Stay healthy

046 Take your vitamins

047 Drink good wine

048 Recycle with style

049 Wear clean underwear

050 Keep it real

051 Snuggle in a duvet

052 Don’t believe the hype

053 Buy new underwear regularly

054 Have deep conversations

055 Pray regularly

056 Share your chocolate

057 Watch the sun rise

058 Visit the beach often

059 Make new friends

060 Give money to charity

061 Cook for your friends

062 Play car games

063 Read your Bible

064 Say Thank You

065 Eat good food

066 Buy yourself flowers

067 Learn to forgive

068 Ring your Mum

069 Use words wisely

070 Get creative

071 Play like a child

072 Make ideas happen

073 Use good sunblock

074 Eat your veg

075 Smile if you’re skint

076 De-clutter

077 Don’t hold a grudge

078 Be generous

079 Hug a lot of people

080 Be confident

081 Take risks

082 Laugh at yourself

083 Eat and drink Fairtrade

084 Little stuff counts

085 Make an effort

086 Wear shoes that fit properly

087 Say I’m sorry

088 Go camping

089 Spend time with those you love

090 Walk barefoot

091 Star gaze at night

092 Know when to stop

093 Eat breakfast in bed

094 Get to know your spouse

095 Drink good tea

096 Only God knows it all

097 Paddle in the sea

098 Climb a mountain

099 Live a rich life

The Cyclical Life

Forget the 28 day cycle of many females and their households; ours seems to be on a 6-8week cycle! We seem to get up to 8 weeks of good sleeping of both boys through the night and then something changes. These last 8 weeks have been blissful, both children asleep by 8pm (give or take) and then asleep until 7.30am. Fantastic. Then two things: Solomon is ill and awake in the middle of the night, which is so very rare for him it shows you how ill he was feeling; and Freddie went away for the weekend. And since then we’ve had disturbed nights, so far 3 and counting!

Now I know a lot of people who have disturbed nights every night with small children so this is not a plea for sympathy. My point is much more about the cycles of life and how important it is to be able to say ‘this too will pass’. As I get further on in life I realise that just as nothing is really new, so it is too that nothing is permanent and we have to count our blessings as we go.

So we will be thankful that our children do sleep well generally; thankful that we have medicines which can make them feel better when they don’t and hopeful that this cycle of illness passes soon.

Thank Crunchie It's Friday!

This week has been a LONG one! Always the way when you look forward too much... What am I looking forward to? A relatively child free weekend and the chance to sort out the loft and buy a new cooker for our new home. We're moving house hopefully at the end of this month in half term, it's all rather tentative though as we still haven't exchanged contracts. It'll be lovely to have more space but I'm in danger I think of the old 'Once this happens everything will be better' syndrome. I want to have more time for socialising, for my children and husband, for learning new skills like the aforementioned sewing! Where is all this time going to come from? Just because we'll have more physical living space doesn't automatically qualify us for more time in the day (though wouldn't that be just amazing?!). These things I want to do will need deliberate programming in to our timetable, and I suspect it'll be a little while at least before we get straight enough for any of it to start. Still, it's good to have the goal and if you're fairly local to us, watch this space for your invitation to be sociable!

Today's another day

Today is a different sort of day. Today I am coping with tired children, trying to balance the need for them to sleep with the timing of the sleep and, with one of them at least, failing! I've also spent a lot of the morning at work feeling very bad that I didn't get to Freddie's first Harvest Festival. I comforted myself with thinking I hadn't promised to be there and he probably wouldn't notice, only for him to say 'You didn't come Mummy'! 

So much of life is about balance. Sometimes we get it right and other times not. I can only hope that my husband will forgive me for Solomon sleeping late in the day and therefore probably not being as tired as he should be by 7pm, and that Freddie will forgive me for missing out on the Harvest Festival. That is an endearing thing about children, they forgive and forget.

Confessions of a (newly created) size 15

Ever been clothes shopping having changed size and/or shape? I suspect that I'm not the only one, by a very long way! This is the year I lost about 4 stone and am now around 5 stone lighter than my heaviest. I don't know whether I'll be able to maintain this loss indefinitely but I'm going to try. Having been a size 20/22 just over a year ago, I went shopping today because my size 16 jeans are too big, uncomfortably so. Is it too much to ask to find a style and cut that looks good in my size?

What I want to know is this: if I wanted to make my own clothes could I make a decent pair of jeans? Or should I just keep trying to find the perfect pair of ready-made?