I don’t know about you, but I feel exhausted at the moment. Spring is still struggling to break through and like the blooms on my wisteria, I am finding it hard to burst into life.

It is one week until half term and I am going to need my energy for that. Mid-week my husband turns 40 and the last weekend of it sees the arrival of summer (ha!) and my son’s 6th birthday. I am deliberating as to whether I should make him a Spiderman cake or just cop-out and buy him one from Sainsbury’s. The latter will be cheaper and look infinitely better, but making it myself will appease my love of baking and, in some dark recess of my mind, will make me a better mother. How stupid is that? ‘VERY!’ I hear you cry and yes, you are right. Doesn’t stop it creeping in though… Twenty years down the line when my son’s in therapy they’ll say….

*puts on Freudian accent* ‘I see….well all your neuroses seem to stem from your mother’s unwillingness to make you a cake…’

In other matters, I did my first Google hangout this week with my blogging conference cohort and now successful author, the lovely Helen McGinn aka The Knackered Mothers’ Wine Club. Myself, Mari (Mari’s World), Emma (A Bavarian Sojourn), Jennifer (Britmums) and Helen had a lovely chat about her book, her blog and, of course, wine! If you want to see it click below. My thanks to Mari from Britmums for inviting me, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it’s always good to try something new.

You will be pleased to hear I am sustaining my efforts to get a bit healthier and try to get my core muscles, er, active! On a whim, I have bought a slendertone belt. Much mocked by me, my pal (who used to sell such things) assured me with casual nonchalance ‘Oh, yes – they do work.’ My ears pricked up…something I can put on, watch tele and tone up my core muscles at the same time?

Oh, come on. A girl’s gotta dream….

Sure enough, I consulted the oracle that is Amazon reviews and indeed, they were all very positive. Then, like a sign from the gods, on Groupon the very next day was a half price offer for one. So, I might have snuck it onto the joint account…

Now, I know it’s not going to give me a six pack, I am hopeful not delusional, but if it can kick-start my abs into some sort of action and be supported by my feeble attempts at yoga/pilates then I might, just might be able to reduce the wobble and strengthen my dodgy back.

This is the theory. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that most of you are sitting there thinking ‘suckerrrrrr!’ I know. I am. Mrs Quickfix, me.

On a final note, and conferring with Older Mum (who’s done it!), I am thinking of going on a one day writing retreat. Before you think cottages and butterflies, it’s urban (baby) and involves an internet free day in London to simply write and be. And there’s lunch and cake. All the necessities. Well, except wine. I always write better with a glass of vino by my side. My motto should be ‘Write tipsy, edit sober’. Bringing out the best, then editing out the worst!

If you have a blog post you’d like to link up to The Monday Club, please join in below. Linky is open all week and please link back to me here and try to read/comment on some of the others. Spread the joy…..:)

Those of you who are regular readers (yes, both of you!) will know that I am wont to a few fads, normally connected with trying to make my 40 year-old body defy the odds and look/feel like I don’t drink too much wine and turn to carbs in times of need.

Anyway, it is 6 weeks to go until Britmums Live (and a HUGE thank you for everyone who voted for any of my blogs in the Bibs.  Voting now closed and everything is crossed.  Yes, including my eyes…).  So, I thought that would be a great target time to make a few changes. Again, I know. Still, perseverance and all that…

6 weeks is about 40 days, so it is like my own personal Lent and I usually am pretty good about sticking to that. And it’s the usual stuff, less alcohol, more exercise, less carbs, more healthy stuff and I am trying to implement some yoga stretches each morning to de-creak myself. Honestly, sometimes I can audibly hear myself crunch as, bent over like on old crone, I shuffle my way across the bedroom.  So I have positioned my yoga mat by my bedside with the idea I can just sort of roll/fall out of bed straight onto it.   If I’m clever I will do so in that scrummy state of slumber when you have sort of woken up but give it 5 secs and you’ll be resuming your morning dream. Yoga with your eyes shut….I can say I am meditating.  Might work.

Yoga is a new thing for me.  I have been looking into classes but can’t seem to find any at the right time. So I did the next best thing and turned to YouTube.  My first attempt at some ‘wake up your body stretches’ involved me on my yoga mat with the iPad perched on the kids step stool and my son and daughter trying to join in with me. On the mat. Which resulted in small feet in my face and me being sat on in quite an awkward pose. To top it off, Fergus, our cocker spaniel, joined in and laid next to me with his front paws on my arm.  It was not a successful first attempt.  The woman on YouTube had her leg over her shoulder and I had everybody else’s legs over mine…

Anyhow, I did a 5k run this morning and even drank some rooibos tea which tastes a lot like normal tea, but with a dentists’s mouthwash aftertaste. So a good start.  If you are coming to Britmums, I’ll be the one with the healthy glow. Failing that, I’ll be the one with Pinot Grigio glow.  Similar effect actually….

Link up with the Monday Club below and don’t forget to link back to me purleeeease and read the others too! Also joining in with A Party of Seven’s Motivational Monday.

I made the executive decision to take advantage of the bank holiday and postpone The Monday Club.  Had we been meandering in the garden all day I might have sneaked it on, but we actually had a rare, family day out at Penshurst Place in Kent.

We have been planning to come here for ages and largely due to the bloody awful weather we’ve had, it’s been put off.  However, the sun was shining (mostly) and off we went.

I had to laugh.  We forgot the suncream and my husband insisted we stop off at Sainsbury’s to get some.  So, clad in cardi and gilet (yes, I knew better) I snuck in and picked up a nice little BOGOF offer. The bottles lie, unused, in my bag. It was sunny and pleasant, but I was a little bit chilly at times and sensibly dressed in jeans and converse.  The rest of them were in shorts and T-shirts and, despite their protestations, I knew it wasn’t quite shorts weather just yet.  But, hey.  We’re Brits. A glimpse of sunshine and we bare as much flesh as we can without a care as to how traumatising a sight that may be….

Anyway, Penshurst was lovely. There was an enormous adventure playground which (sensibly) had a coffee kiosk on site.  There was beauty all around and despite my son telling the lady at the desk that the toy museum was ‘boorring’, all five of us enjoyed the day.  It was a rare family day out, something we’ve not done for too long and worth its weight in gold.

Coming home, I planted seeds with the kids in our new raised veggie bed and we had the obligatory BBQ. Never quite as exciting for us veggies, but a necessity all the same.

A rarity for me, but I have included a little gallery of pics to illustrate our day. None of me, you notice.  Thank God. I think if you click on one you can scroll through. Should you wish to.

I hope you all had a good bank holiday.  Do sign up to the linky below and remember to add the Monday Club badge (on my sidebar) or link back to this post.

 
My 3 blogs have all been shortlisted in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards! If you would like to help me get into the finals, please click on the badge at the top of the sidebar and vote for Hello Wall.. in OUTSTANDING, Supper & Syntax in WRITER and What Would Nigella Do? in FOOD.  Many thanks x

A few weeks ago I conceded that, despite signing up with the best of intentions, I would not be doing the Moonwalk this year. I had severely underestimated how much time would be needed to train and how little time I actually have.

However, I have, once again, signed up for the Race for Life.  But, this year I am doing it with a team from work and, more exciting, my 8-year-old daughter too.  No surprises that I’m not on for a pb, but to be able to run/jog/walk with her and help her understand its importance is a huge privilege for me.

So, this morning is the time to finally admit that I am out of excuses not to run (I always enjoy it when I’m out there, but it’s getting out of the house in the first place). I’m aiming for 5k and hoping I won’t be too red in the face for too long afterwards. Being a ginger, I go a weird shade of lobster and remain that way for about 2 hours. It’s not a good look. One year I wore the expected pink to run in and by the end if it you couldn’t tell where my T-shirt finished and my face started…I’ll stick to white this year.

In other news, my weekend has been filled with sunshine, gardening and cooking. To balance this my kids have been off the scale with trying behaviour, tweenage mardiness and generally ignoring everything I say. By the end of Saturday I decided ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ and had a tantrum of my own. Not that anyone noticed. And this, dear reader, is why I talk to the wall.

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