A Mother's Ramblings

If you've followed my socials for a while, (and let's face it I've not been very good with keeping the blog updated but my socials tend to be updated fairly often!) then you'll know I attend a HIIT class three times a week, with Milton Keynes most Inspirational Personal Trainer (she won an award, that's not just me saying that!) and that I love it.  I started in July 2021, and quickly became a convert when not only did I see inches and lbs drop off but when I realised that I loved exercising in this way, that I loved working out with weights, that I was building muscle and my body was getting a shape, I was getting toned and... well we won't talk about the endorphins that I get from the exercise and from being with a group of like-minded women! This December I thought I'd be a little, well a little Pippa.

I was never a fan of Pandora Jewellery, mainly because I don't tend to wear much jewellery but also because I find them to be cluttered and that honestly reminds me far too much of my brain, which is almost as bad as my laptop with at least 15 tabs open, two playing clashing music and at least three of them are the same window because I forgot that I'd opened it twice already... However, my Mum had a bracelet, that was covered in charms that she adored and was always buying charms for. She had charms that reminded her of important events, initials for Dan Jon and Top Ender, a Koala for when she went to Australia, charms to mark my niblings being born, Christmas and birthdays and other significant moments that she wanted to remember. When my Mum died, my sister organised it so that the charms would be split between us, each of us getting charms that would remind us of our Mum, our families and of moments that had stood out to our Mum. Having the bracelet, with charms that my Sis...

I thought that yesterday was going to be the hardest day, but I've said that so many times now. I just need to get through the day that I found out that my Mum died. I just need to get through the day that the cause of death comes back. I just need to get through the day I speak with the Funeral Director. I just need to get through the day of the funeral. I just need to get through the first Mother's Day. I just need to get through my Mum's Birthday without my Mum here. I just need to get through my first Birthday without my Mum here. I just need to get through the first Halloween. I just need to get through the first Christmas... I keep telling everyone, I just need to get through this year. The anniversary of my Mum dying will be the marker. If I'm strong enough to make it through the year then it'll be easier after that. Really, I thought Christmas will be the hardest. Mum loved Christmas and so many of our traditions are tied up in things that we did together, i...

It always cracks me up, when I'm reading a blog and then there is an apology post. I'm sorry I haven't written much recently, I've been busy... but I'm back now! Mainly because I'm guilty of the exact same thing and this blog post is an apology post because I really haven't been here much, but I have been on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even Tiktok. I realised the other day though, that I like blogging, and I miss not being able to share my thoughts with those who read my ramblings! So I've decided that I need to make blogging a priority again. Over the last few months I've cut back on the amount of volunteering I do, I've made changes to my priorities to make sure that my health and the health of my family is put first and I've been able to spend more time with my family and friends. I've remembered that reading is a big important part of my life, and so I've increased how much I read and because I like learning I'm making su...

My birthday is the day after my Mums. I loved this growing up, loved hearing the story of how my Mum went into labour on her birthday. How my Dad was annoyed at her, when her waters broke in their bedroom, all over their newly laid bedroom carpet as he thought she'd peed herself. The story of how it was so hot the day I was born, that the Doctor in charge of my birth gave my Mum ice-cream whilst she was in labour, because he'd had some and she was jealous. The story of how my Mum had been drinking Cider and black the day before to celebrate her birthday, how she was told to drink Guinness to replace her lost iron after I was born. The story of how the day after I was registered, the name of the page 3 stunner was the same name as mine and they weren't sure if this was a good or bad omen.

Another week, another set of meal plans. I've been being quite bad with meals over the last few weeks, as I've not been very good at eating at meal times. Basically, I quite often don't eat my breakfast until lunch and then I don't eat my lunch and either eat my evening meal with my family or end up going to bed with only having had my breakfast. This isn't good. So this week, I have purchased everything I want and need to make a HUGE salad, which I'll portion out and take to work each day. I even got some Salmon and Prawns to have with it, and as they are my favourite remind me to eat my lunch! Anyway, here's what we're eating this week.

I watched "A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood" at the weekend. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend that you do, but have a box of tissues nearby because you're going to need them. In case you aren't aware, the film is about a true event, but fictionalised too. It feels very much like the books "Tuesdays with Morrie" or "The Midnight Library". It's soft, and allows you through the safety of the characters to explore your own faults and issues and remind you that no matter what mistakes you have made it is never too late to apologise and start again.

 

I lost my wallet. Well, technically it was a business card holder that I used as a wallet by putting my bank cards and ID in along with a few business cards, but that's not the point. It was missing. I was pretty sure that it was somewhere in the house but none of us could find it, despite having looked everywhere, checked under everything, in everything and behind everything at least three billion times*.  Eventually, I had to face facts and arrange for everything to be replaced.

It's Top Ender's 18th Birthday today, which means I'm now the parent of an adult. I'm sure there was some course I should have attended, that would have given me an insight into what I'm supposed to do now. Some kind of information that would allow me to know how to help her handle the rollercoaster also known as life that is coming her way.

I wrote a little on Pippa World about my "new" lifestyle, but I don't think I have properly recorded on any of my social channels about my motivation and reasons for suddenly changing my life last summer and because it is so important, because it is such a big change and something that I think that other people do want to know about (in their secret searches in the middle of the night when they, like I used to try to work out if they can change their life, if they can change their outlook, if they can lose weight and learn to like exercise!) I thought I should share my story. Every summer, I always try to change my health. I figure I have six weeks. Six weeks of not doing the school run, six weeks to change my habits. Six weeks of goodish weather, six weeks of  daylight whilst the rest of the world is still asleep. Six weeks is twice the amount needed to form a habit, so it should be easy to lose a stone in that six weeks right? So that when I went back to school runs, ba...

I realised this morning, that I'm best at blogging when I'm talking from the heart, so I thought I would just let my fingers type what my head was thinking without me paying any attention... I haven't really been around the last few years with blogging. At first I thought it was because the children were too old and no longer cute and we weren't really doing anything as a family so there was no point in sharing stories about what we were doing to inspire other people. Who wants to hear that we spent the majority of the weekend in separate rooms only coming together for the five minutes before our evening meals?