Kindness Doesn't Cost A Thing

Last night Noah and I unfortunately ended up in A&E after he woke with a really bad cough which was causing him to struggle to breathe . After a call to 111 we were  sent there to be seen and checked out as I was pretty freaked out by how much he was struggling. Our nearest one that was open and available was about half an hour away, we arrived there abut 11.30pm and on arrival it looked busy but not so much that it would take long to be seen, or so I thought.

All in all we waited 3 hours to be seen by a nurse and then be told there was a near enough 4 hour wait to see the doctor. By the time we were seen by the nurse, where Noah had been sat up for some time as we couldn't sleep due to the noise that was going on in both the triage rooms and the waiting room, his breathing had levelled out and he was chesty but breathing at normal rate. After being told his oxygen levels were 100% and that it couldn't be croup this settled me slightly. 

While sat again in the waiting room after seeing the nurse a lovely lady arrived with her son who was just a year younger than Noah. When your sat in a hospital with your child who is poorly or injured it gets pretty lonely with your own thoughts and wonders about whats going on and when you will be seen. As soon as she walked in we started chatting and she made the whole experience that bit more bearable at 2am in the morning. We spoke about random things and kept me sane during the wait.

It was late, Noah wanted to go home, he was tired and I started to wonder if to go home as he was so much better than when he had first woken up. Being by myself I was unsure on what decision to make as I didn't want to make the wrong call. The lovely lady must have seen my anguish and asked if i was ok. I explained that I wasn't sure what to do and she kindly helped me make a decision and put my mind at rest. 

She didn't need to do that, she could have just sat there quiet with her son and left me feeling like I was. And I think without her I would have sat there for the duration which I know now, after Noah woke up after sleeping in our bed so much better, would have been a silly decision. 

Once the decision had been made I took myself to get Noah discharged which by this point I was tired, felt guilty for my decision, felt like I had wasted time and just generally feeling rubbish, which isn't a brilliant combination. I then had to wait and that is when the tears came. I think the worry, the tiredness and the guilt just took over and the tear started to flow. And throughout that time while I waited, the kind lovely lady kept her head poking round the corner checking on me, asking if I was ok and giving me that look that only a parent can give another parent of - your doing the right thing.

So I want to say thank you to that lady. She will most likely not see this but if she by some chance does, I just wanted to let her know that her kind and lovely self made last night that bit more bearable.

As I write this I am fuelled by tea and cadburys dairy milk!

Where have I been........

Wow, it seems like a long long time since I sat at the computer and wrote. I have sat at the computer lots but it has been to work which has kind of taken over the time I had before that I used to blog. The words have also not been there, I have had them in my head but I've really struggled to put thoughts to screen which I think has been one of the causes of my recent anxiety. 

I used my blog to document life but to also get the thoughts that were swirling in my head and the frustrations of parenting out. This became a struggle, I think because I was over thinking everything I wrote and wondering what people would think of me. This is one of my biggest downfalls and I am doing my best of late to not let it rule my life. I worry constantly what people will think of me and what they will think of the words I am publishing for everyone to see.

This struggle of not being able to get my thoughts out has come to a head of late and I have realised I do in fact suffer in some way with anxiety. I am hoping that starting to write again will help me deal with this. I find that I worry about everything and my heart is at a constant go fast due to this. Trying to do too much is also an awful trait of mine so I'm going to try to slow down and focus on the important need to do now things.

Life of late has been lovely, we have had holidays, millions of days out and so many memories have been made. The summer was a jam packed 6 weeks of fun, laughter and tantrums and I have to say I was sad to send them back to school, although they did drive me slightly potty. Saying that, on their first day of back to school I flew to Ibiza with my school friends so this took the pressure off slightly and I had the most amazing time.

We have also since my last personal blog post got a little Dachshund. Her name is Poppy and she has slotted right into life with us and we couldn't ever be without her now.

I'm at a crossroads in my work career that I am wondering what to do. I have a passion for social media, which I have made into my job for the past 2 years, but I am wondering if to take it one step further and make it into a business but I am still at the scared point that I wonder if anyone would want my help. Just going to see where the next few months takes me.

The boys are loving school and have settled in amazingly which means that routine can be restored which I love!

Watch this space.........

Review of the New Balance Accelerated Tights from excell-sports.com

Last year I ran my first ever marathon and I did say never again unless it was London! But when I was offered the chance to run in the Manchester marathon which is now in just 2 weeks time I couldn’t say no. I’m a sucker like that, when I’m given an opportunity however hard it is I’ve got to give it a go because otherwise I’d spend my life thinking ‘what if?!’.

So with that in mind training went full stream ahead in January and my running kit got a bit of a battering with all the miles & all the wonderful winter weather. Anyone who’s a runner will know your kit doesn’t stay fresh for that long, however many times you wash it.

When I received the email asking if I’d like to review something from www.excell-sports.com, the opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time. I chose the New Balance Accelerated Running Tights and waited patiently for them to arrive.

A few days later, very speedy service, the came and without even trying them on I loved them! They are made of very soft material and once they were on, like some running tights, they didn’t stretch and loose their colour when I moved or bent over. They held everything together where they needed to and they just felt so incredibly comfortable. They have zips on the ankles which help getting them on & off a lot easier, especially after a long run.

They also have a tie around the waist do you can tighten or loosen the waist to your comfort.

The next test was to take them out on the road and see if they still felt comfortable after a few miles......

And I can report that they do. They have become one of my favourite pairs of running tights and have done a good few miles and are still in brilliant condition. I love the bright colours at the bottom of the tight and I didn’t even realise they go with my trainers! Bonus!

So I would give these a definite 10/10 as they are just brilliant!

* I was kindly sent these in return for an honest review *

Selection Day with Runners World UK & Vifit Sport

Just over a week ago an email dropped into my mailbox which made me stop, and I had to read it about 5 times before it actually sank in, I had been invited to a selection day with Runners World and Vifit Sport. A few weeks before I had entered a competition with Runners World that I had seen them promoting on Instagram, the opportunity to win a place in the London Marathon 2018 and along with that, get professional advice and couching to get you there. This for me is a dream so I entered with my story of my latest asthma diagnosis. It was at the back of my mind but never in a million years did I think that I would actually be selected to go to the selection day in London, as lets be honest, I'm just little old me! I just knew that I had to go and I would do anything to make it happen. Luckily I have the most supportive husband in the world and he told me to go for it, so with childcare arranged and the hotel roomed booked my trip to the Lee Valley Athletics Centre was a go.

I was already in London on the Thursday so I made my way to my hotel early evening in the hope of a good nights sleep and some rest, because if I'm honest I was terrified of what Friday was going to involve. I'm not the most outgoing person and it takes me a while to come out of my shell but I just knew my comfort zone was going to have to be jumped out of and into the unknown with a big smile I would go. Friday morning came and I arrived at Lee Valley Athletic Centre with plenty of time just so I could settle my nerves and make myself familiar with the place.

Upon arriving I was greeted by one of the Runners World team who asked me to fill out a form to say I was happy to be filmed. Now I know it said about photography and filming in the email but I hadn't given it much thought between choosing what I was going to wear and trying to remember packing said kit into my suitcase, so I had applied NO makeup and had sprites my hair with some dry shampoo. I then began to regret that decision when I saw the camera crew! Haha so I was going to appear on film and in photographs looking as I had just got out of bed, because thats the look I had going on.

Any how I had to just get over that and get on with the exciting day ahead. We were all given #missionmarathon t-shirts to wear, which made me feel a little less intimidated as we all looked the same! The next half an hour was spent chatting with fellow selecties and having head shots done. Now as out of my comfort zone as that was I'm looking forward to seeing the finished results, and it made me feel rather professional.Everyone I spoke to was so lovely as everyone was in the same boat, also wanting that place pretty badly. I also tried to keep that smile on my face and not pull any silly faces, which I'm known to do, knowing the cameras were floating about.

There were three teams in which only one from each team would win a london marathon place as there were 3 in total up for grabs, #finishliners which was the team I was part of, #breaking4 who were those hoping to complete the marathon within 4 hours and #speeddemons which were those who were aiming to complete within 3 hours. It was great to meet those with a passion for running just like mine, and that actually got it! Our days were then split into 3 sessions - Run, Recover and Repeat. These sessions were going to cover all bases when it comes to running and it would help those who would be selecting the winners to get a feel of what we were all like.

The #finishliners

Our first session as the #finishliners was the Run session. We made our way out onto the running track to complete this first session. This had got to be the one session I was most excited about as I have always wanted to run on a proper athletic track. It was taken by Jane Vongvorachoti, an Olympic marathoner at Rio 2016 and Joe Mackie. Once on the track we did a warm up where we ran casually around the track while having a chat with the other team members. It was then onto a drills session before we ran our mile round the track. I was 20 seconds off a personal best with the mile as I started out slower than usual as I didn't want to tire myself out too soon. The run around that track was just incredible, the flatness of it considering I live in one of the hilliest places I know and the bounce on the track just made the running seem effortless - although my chest would say different as I had to go off after and have a puff on the old inhaler.

Such a close to PB in the track session

From this session it was into the Repeat session which was a Q&A with Ben Green and Andy Dixon (Runners World editor), who are both sub 3 hours marathon runners, which I find incredible. This was a great session in which we asked questions as well as they both gave advice on marathon running, and running in general. I got a lot out of this session especially with regards in how to increase my speed as I thought I had hit my top speed of running. We also spoke about training schedules and how to get the most out of them.

The last session of the day was with Andy Vincent, a PT, who talked us through and showed us some foam rolling technics and what he believes works and what doesn't. I have to admit I am not great at the old stretching after a run, especially after a race, so the technics I have taken away will help me especially as I have flat right foot and suffer from time to time with ankle pain because of it. The stretch we did with our big toe, really helped with this, because as I have been running runvember my ankles have been getting a pounding.

All in all the day was such a brilliant experience and one that I will always remember. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to do this day and I have fingers, toes and everything else crossed that that place has my name on it. And if it doesn't I honestly wish the winners all the best and I look forward to following their journey, while creating a new journey for myself with the Bournemouth marathon in October 2018.

What's Next?

As you may have noticed I have been a bit absent from the blog for the past 6 months and I honestly haven't got a reason for that. Nothing really major changed 6 months ago which made me stop blogging, I just lost my words and my passion to put my thoughts down for all to read. I think I started to worry if what I was writing was interesting to other people and I didn't want to start writing posts for the sake of writing them. I want my posts and words to have passion in them and that went away for a while, but I think they are back.

We had the most incredible summer having days out and generally enjoying each others company. I turned 30 which was an amazing few weeks with lots of fizz, laughs and love. I was taking in our time together without having the worry of feeling like I needed to document it for the internet world to see. This I believe was all down to the fact Noah, my youngest, started school just over a week ago. I subcontiously was savouring our time together and selfishly keeping it to myself. 

Last Friday, 1st September, Noah set off into school for the first time and Finley started in year 1. That day was emotional for us all, due to the fact it was all new and all change from that day forward. I have been used to having some time at home while Noah was at preschool but for some reason school felt a whole lot different. He is still on less than half days and doesn't actually start full days until the end of September but there is some shifting that has gone on in my head and its been a struggle to get used to.

I have been poorly so this helped slightly take my mind off of it, but slowly as I have got better my mind has been going into overdrive about the future. Where am I going in this journey of ours? I'm not going to lie, but I currently feel a little bit lost. I work from home for a few hours a week but this isn't going to keep my mind busy for the 6 hours they are at school and also I have a feeling of needing to find me again.

Jobs have bee applied for so I have my fingers crossed for those, but then I worry about how we will cope during the holidays, as the holidays which the jobs offer don't cover the time they have off school in the year. Then I begin to think should I stick with what I am doing now as this is perfect for us with regards to the school runs, but then I start to think about what people think of me. Do people think I should get a job? Do they think I'm lazy? Then other times I think, do you know what who cares what anyone else thinks!

I am incredibly lucky that I get to do what I do and that I don't have to worry about childcare, and I hope everyone knows that I know that. I think I just need to find my place in our new normal as no one knows what the future will throw at us!

Living In The Moment

For January I decided to challenge myself to come off of Facebook for a month as I felt I was spending far too much time on there and it was a place to procrastinate. 

And I did it, yay!!

How I am not entirely sure as I am the first one to admit that I am a social media obsessor and it is basically my job to be on social media! But I have to be honest and say it was pretty refreshing, even if a little bit frustrating at times when people around me were talking about things they had seen on Facebook and I didn't have the first clue what they were on about.

The other thing I did was not start over my photo a day challenge that I was doing on Instagram. I wanted to start living in the moment and not feel like I had to be taking a photo to document as my photo of the day. I found in 2016 I was finding myself forcing activities onto us so that my photo would be good for that day, and that isn't what I want to do. 

Since doing these two things I have found that I haven't taken so many photos, which I feel bad about in a way, but I have been in that moment and I have been present. I'm not saying that those who take lots of pictures and document them aren't living in the moment as we are all different, but I wasn't. I was living behind the camera trying to make our lives more exciting, when in fact they didn't need to be but I was trying to do something that wasn't us.

I have found myself sitting on the floor playing board games with the boys and not having to stop the game to take a photo. We have been on walks where I have been present the whole time and not been distracted with 'when will be the best photo opportunity'. We have been to a cafe and had hot chocolates with no phones in sight, just the boys and I, talking about the random stuff a 3 & 5 year old talk about.

This may sound all a bit dramatic but my approach on life has changed a little bit, I am starting to go with the flow a bit more and I really like it. I am trying not to plan too much stuff to do and trying to just chill out a bit more. I was finding myself trying to prove myself to other people with photos, trying to show everyone that I am a good mum and that I do all these things with the boys. But I didn't need to. No one else matters but these two boys and what THEY think of me. And they love me whatever we do, even if it is just making them a hot chocolate at home as the praise and love I get from them is phenomenal. 

Photos are lovely but lets me honest, in 10 years time who is going to look at a ton of photos of the boys sitting watching a film, and that is the kind of thing I was finding myself taking a photo of rather than sitting with them and enjoying their hands in mine and sharing their sweets. I am also more present in the evenings, I am watching programmes and actually knowing what is going on and not having to ask Mr C what just happened. My evenings are now a bit more chilled with me catching up on some tv without me on my phone ALL night, as that is what I was doing.

Now with it being the 1st February I am back on Facebook, as lets be honest a month is enough to be out of the social media loop, but I am going to try and curb my time on it and try not to get back into old habits.

Minion Mania In Our House

From the very moment that the boys watched the Minion movies they loved them and everything about them. They are funny little yellow characters which act silly and this is what they found so funny. I have lost count the amount of times that we have watched the films but they are still going strong in our house and I can't see a time in the near future when they will be getting old or boring.

When I was asked if we would like to review some Minion products I of course had to say yes, knowing how much the boys would love them. When a big box arrived I didn't have a clue what it was as I had forgotten that I had said we would like to review them. On opening the box I was gobsmacked with how much was in there and couldn't wait for the boys to get home to open them up and start playing.

The toys which we were sent to review were Fireman Lucy, Minion Kevin, Bob, Minion Dave, a teddy Minion and a Dancing Bob. 

Dave and Kevin both had a launcher which was so easy to use and because they both had one the boys had a ball firing them at each other. They are such sturdy toys that have been well made so they can take a lot of playing with by a 3 and 5 year old.

Fireman Lucy was also a brilliant hit as you could change her outfits, and it was very simple to do for little hands. You could have her bun on, or you could change it to a head piece that you see some of the minions wearing in the films. As we have watched the films so much all the toys that we received the boys could relate to and were easy to play with.

Bob and the minion cuddly toy have also been played with many a times, even though they don't do anything they get added into the play with other toys. With Bob you can take his royal cloak off and one his arms, the cloak fits on the other Minions so it has been on all the other characters since we received them.

I have to say that the biggest hit had to be the dancing Bob! He interacts with the boys by dancing and talking when they talk to him which when you are 3 & 5, even for myself and my husband, this is brilliant. He then sings and dances around the room when has been great fun to play with from all by all the family. You start him off by pressing a button on his foot and from there he will dance and sing 3 different songs, which he does on the request of the boys as he will respond to their voices.

These toys are firmly in our toy box and are played with on a daily basis and as you can see from the picture above, they bring a lot of happiness to the boys!

* We were kindly sent these to review. All opinions are 100% my own. *

The Stunning JORD Wood Watch

I have had the same watch now for over 6 years and it has been on my wrist nearly everyday, apart from a few weeks when the boys were newborns as I thought I would scratch them with it. If I don't have a watch on my wrist I feel naked and a little bit lost, I think this may be a little bit of a control thing and the fact I need to know the time. 

All of the time.

When I was contacted by JORD wood watches and asked if I would like to review a watch I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to update my watch after so many years. While looking through their website at the women's watches they had so many beautiful ones to choose from but in the end I went for the FRANKIE 35 series, Zebrawood & Navy. The combination of the colour of the wood and the navy looked beautiful so couldn't wait for it to arrive.

When it arrived it came in the most stunning wooden box with the watch secured around a pillow. The packaging makes such an impact that it would make a beautiful gift for someone special. The watch was everything I thought it would look like, it was even more beautiful in real life. Upon getting it out of the box I couldn't get over just how light the watch was, considering it was made from wood. It is that light that you would even forget that it was on your wrist at all, but that wasn't going to happen to me as all I kept doing was staring at it! And flashing the beauty of it around.

I have had so many comments on the watch since wearing it as it is such a unique watch and not one you would see everyday. It goes with any outfit, be it on the school run or if I am going on a night out with friends. It really does fit so perfectly on my wrist and even with the face being a dark navy, it is still so clear and at a swift glance I get to see the time.

I am really excited to be able to offer you a chance to WIN a $75 voucher to spend on a Luxury Wood Watch and everyone who enters (excluding the winner) will receive a $20 voucher. All you have to do is click here to enter - Good luck!

Term & Conditions

- There will only be one winner of the $75 voucher

- The competition runs until 22/01/2017

- The $75 winners voucher and the $20 vouchers will be said until 15/05/2017

- Winners will be chosen at random

* This post was sponsored by JORD Wood Watches. All opinions are 100% my own. *