Reasons to be Cheerful - Suiting Myself!

I have to say that I am really pleased that the girls have gone back to school and JJ has started college, this means I am getting a bit of time alone in my house again. I treasure this time. It's when I do the cleaning, listen to the silence and just suit myself.

Today all three kids were working and then the girls went into the local town with my hubby, this again left me alone to do whatever I wanted to do. So it has been the most lovely day and I feel as if I have achieved loads but it has been simple, no stress activities without having to travel anywhere. 

The only downside of my day was getting up early to ensure the girls got to work for 8am and JJ for 8.30am. I figured because I was already awake I might as well do an exercise DVD and clock up some good steps to start my day well.

It was then time for some yummy scrambled eggs on toast and preparing all the veggies for tonight's roast dinner whilst watching church online. I enjoyed the service and as it was just me in my kitchen I was able to sing to my heart's content.

A quick tidy of the kitchen, put the washing on and do the few bits of ironing I had and then I headed for a leisurely shower and a read of my book whilst I dried off. It really was a very slow-paced and enjoyable day!

I met JJ for lunch and we had ham and cheese paninis in the sun and then a walk around one of the lakes before he had to go back to work and I continued around the other lake and sat for quite some time praying and waiting on God. 

By the time I got back home, it was time to cook the roast dinner and watch a bit of Chicago PD as I did so. We then had a good family dinner together and everyone shared a little of their day. I got the kids to clear up and I read some more of my book.

And here I am now doing a spot of blogging whilst watching Home Alone. It really has been a lovely day, just suiting myself but still looking after my house and family. I'll be heading to bed soon for a little more reading and feeling quite content that I clocked up over 13,500 steps on my leisurely day.

I hope you've had a nice Sunday and been able to find even a little time to suit yourself too.

I'm linking this post up with Becky at Lakes Single Mum for Reasons to be Cheerful.

Without Me...

• The kids wouldn't get up, ready and out on time each morning for school
• They'd have to walk the 5 miles to school along the main road with no paths
• No homework would get done
• There would to no holidays organised or enjoyed
• Planned family day trips would be sparse
• Christmas and birthdays would pass by unnoticed
• No-one would receive a thank you, how are you or greeting card
• Family members would never get visited
• The bills wouldn't get paid
• All the insurances would lapse
• The mail, household paperwork and forms from school would create an impressive stack
• The car would cease to a halt or cause an accident through lack of maintenance
• The family wouldn't have home-cooked meals all together at the table
• In fact, there might not be any food in the house, as the order might get forgotten
• School lunch bookings and payments would be forgotten
• The house would be in disarray, things wouldn't get tided away until weeks later and the dust would build
• Everyone would have to dress from the laundry pile
• The kids would look quite humorous in clothes and shoes a couple of sizes too small, as nothing new has been bought
• The items to go to the charity shop or dump would build up and up
• All the regular dentist, doctors and eye checks would be forgotten
• Everyone would look like a shaggy dog without any haircuts
• Various charities would be one volunteer down  
• My blogs would fester, unloved

Finding your Joy in Every Day

This week I'm part of a video that has been put together by Michelle Reeves, who formally blogged at Bod for Tea and now at The Joy Chaser and The Essex Barn. Michelle and I first got chatting back in 2010 when she was an expat living in China and a fairly new mummy. When I started my Reasons to be Cheerful linky in January 2011 Michelle was one of the first to join in and it was clear even then that she wanted to seek out the joy and the good in life, turning her back on old habits of negativity.

You can read about Michelle's journey to joy and how she has found her new happy over on her new blog but being involved with this project has had me reflecting on the subject of happiness and joy and how for me they are very different constructs.

I know most people use the terms interchangeably and I think perhaps my perspective is different due to my faith. I view happiness as something very surface, usually dependant on external circumstances and it is normally achieved when everything is going your way and life (or a situation) is good. Whereas joy is always achievable, even in the darkest of times because it is an internal; found in our relationship with Jesus. It is a gift that He freely gives to us, in the same way He extends His grace. All these amazing things that we don't deserve and yet He wants us to receive them freely.

An evening stroll (A year in photos - week 30)

Yay for the school holidays, I am loving the fact that the kids can stay up late and have fun. There are serious benefits of living in a community of 70 and having 220 acres to explore. JJ has been spending more and more time with our young adult volunteers going for walks, chilling, playing pool and even having an outdoor movie night, which just looked awesome. How many 10 year olds can say they stayed up until gone 11pm and watched a movie under the stars surrounded by twinkle lights with about thirty 18-25 year olds?

One of the things I plan to do regularly is go for an evening stroll round our grounds with one of the kids. Miss E and I went for one earlier this week and it was so good to have that one-on-one time. We chatted about everything and nothing and both of us with our cameras enjoyed the silence too.

We started on the main terrace and headed out to the woods above front water.

This was growing as a weed but looked glorious.

Miss E loves to find a large stick each time we go walking

Walk nearly completed and we get to watch the sun go down over Ashburnham, with the stunning swans swimming past.

A few moments after this we had tears as I had lost her beloved pheasant feather than she had found.

Then as we reached home the sun literally disappeared over the hill, but that beautiful pink sky meant a fabulous next day.

Thanks for coming on our evening stroll with us.  Mich and Miss E xxx

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May 2014 be a blessed New Year

Happy New Year friends, it has been a pleasure to journey 2013 with you.

I am sure this next year will be an eventful one and I have high hopes of what God will be up to in my life and yours.

I'm not big on resolutions as I just find they are made to be broken but I do like looking forward and vision, so here are my expectations for 2014 -

What are yours?

BTW - have you seen the new canvas colour function in Picmonkey, it allows you to create your own little graphics like mine above. I love it!

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If you like what you have read and want to stay up-to-date then subscribe by email for free and receive blog posts directly to your in-box - just click the link Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or perhaps you like to keep all your blog reading in one place, if that is the case you can follow me on BlogLovin too!

19 years ago today...

A guy that I was not that keen on picked me up from a very wet pier that I had just fallen over on.

He then saved me from dancing with a very creepy guy at the nightclub on the pier.

We had our first kiss that night and the rest as they say is history.......

Now here we are 19 years later with three small people to call us Mum and Dad and a life very different to the one we might have imagined all those years ago. I'm happy where we are and what we are doing and I'm happy to be with you.

Love you babe xx

I thought it might be fun to track through the years of photos of the two of us and see how we have changed.

1995 - on holiday

Christmas Party - 1996

1998 - on holiday

1999 - At a party

Our wedding - 2002

2006 - End of year ball

2008 - Family wedding, girls aged 1.5 years and JJ was 5 years

2010 - Another family wedding

2012 - My birthday

Christmas eve - 2013. Very blurry but I love the happy faces!

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New school cheer = Reasons to be Cheerful week 36, year 3

Hello all, how are you? I had the most fabulous day yesterday and as such it is the basis of my Reasons to be Cheerful post.

Yesterday the children started their new school, we could tell how nervous they were and I don’t think they were even really aware of it. In the last week we have had JJ with an unexplained bad tummy multiple times a day, Miss E crying and saying she hates it here, no she loves it here and Miss M just generally acting out and disobeying any kind of instruction we give her.

We got everything ready in the couple of days before and each of the children were moaning, they seemed to have forgotten how much they all enjoyed their trial day in July. Apparently they don’t like blue uniforms, their new teachers are not nice and there are lots of bullies at their new school – excuses, excuses!

Wednesday morning dawned and dh had agreed to go into work late so he could be there to drop them on their first day. He set them each the challenge to enjoy their day, to really enjoy it and the one that could give him the best reason at tea time of why they had enjoyed their day would win a prize. To peak their interest he got them all to tell him why they had enjoyed breakfast and the one with the best explanation got 50p, the next got 20p and the last got 10p. This certainly whet their appetites and they started to speculate what the prize later might be.

This incentive worked a treat and two of the kids got a tenner each and the other learned a valuable lesson about listening to daddy and doing as she is told! I'm super pleased to report that all the kids came out of school happy and each had enjoyed their day and scrambled to tell me about what had happened.

As for me whilst they were at school, what did I do? Well I went for tea and home-made cake at a nice local tea room with dh. I then took an hour stroll around the lake and enjoyed some time with God and lastly caught up on a bit of blogging, I was worried that I might not enjoy their first day at school, that they would be teary as they went in and I'd have pinned all day but dh really sorted that out for me and I had a fabulous glimpse of my future here in East Sussex as a SAHM.

#R2BC blogger of the week

This week I have chosen Maria of Tiger Tales to be my #R2BC blogger of the week. Last weeks #R2BC post was her 65th time joining the linky, how is that for dedication and she has been joining up since 2011. I like to visit Tiger Tales as it is a blog of such love and it has been wonderful to watch her little Angelo grow up over the last couple of years and more recently become a big brother to Valentina. Here is a recent pic of Maria and Angelo.

What has made you cheerful or grateful this week?

It could be something massive or it might just be the everyday simple things that happen. If you are new to Reasons to be Cheerful then take a look at the background to this linky and my rational for starting it 3 years ago. Write a post and link it up, no rules, just as long as you have written about something which is adding a smile to your face or rocking your world then I’m happy. Then link up the post, add in the blog hop code to your post if you fancy and then people can go from post to post nice and easily. Visit a few other people and leave a comment and I pray they will come do the same for you. 

Wishing you a blessed week ahead, Mich x

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If you like what you have read and want to stay up-to-date then subscribe by email for free and receive blog posts directly to your in-box - just click the link Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or perhaps you like to keep all your blog reading in one place, if that is the case you can follow me on BlogLovin too!