BritmumsLive #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

This last weekend i went to Britmumslive along with 500 other bloggers. Mostly women but a few very notable men. It is conference organised by and for the mummy bloggers of this country who regularly put ourselves out there to own our little corner of the internet. My little corner was nominated, short listed and made a finalist in the Brilliance in Blogging awards. I didn’t win in my category. Which is okay. But the awards ceremony bit made me feel ill. I hadn’t thought about it through most of Friday and then suddenly remembered! had to almost sit on my hands to stop me chewing them down to the nubs.

But i didn’t win, it was okay. SIGH. huge relief and then on with games.

Friday was a bit of a strange day for seminars, we formed a little secure pack and gravitated towards the ones that we all jointly thought we would like. Safety in numbers. The seminars were maybe aimed at people new to blogging or with a greater attention span than a mother of 5, freed for the weekend into London! .

These ladies (3childrenandit, the 40year old domestic goddess, hello wall and a strong coffee) were my homies for the day and we chuckled and messed around like naughty school kids. One of my friends noted how wonderful it was to see people realise that the complete stranger standing before them was actually someone who they have a pretty in-depth relationship online. Putting a face to the avatar…that moment was awesome,  arms flung wide and hugging each other like the friends we knew we already were.  Although inevitably it took a lot of staring at name badges, trying to discreetly peer at women’s chests is not a talent i have and again, like last year you got to the end of the weekend and pretty much gave up doing it. Its far to stressful and awkward and little bit odd. 😉

My highlights of the weekend were:

A lovely hotel room (by myself) squuueeeeee….i didnt have enough time to enjoy it really but it was lovely having space that was mine and no-one elses..just for a little bit.

Listening to Kirsty Allsopp talk about dog poo and vomit and thinking actually i quite like her…

Some lovely ladies having my back at the awards when i was feeling nervous

The wine

Laughing….and laughing…and laughing

Hanging out in the bar at the end of the day, WAAAY past bed time with the lovely daddy bloggers

Listening to the amazing Katie Piper and being inspired by her strength and her faith.

Stumbling into a seminar on videography and being inspired by a brilliant and knowledgeable teacher and nice guy who was willing to help

Talking cameras.

Getting my blog name on a bottle of diet coke and marvelling at the genius behind the marketing campaign with one of their PR bods, only to find out it started in Australia a few years ago! We are clearly behind the times here!

The keynotes. Last year these were one of my favourite parts, it was like grown up jackanory 😉 Listening to the stories of motherhood told by mothers who are so very gifted at giving their words a voice. It was again, one of my favourite parts of the weekend. Especially as i was thrilled to see online buddy and writer extraordinaire reading a post which i had read on her blog and been transported into her world, hearing her read it was like listening to a movie script. Do go and check her out.  Oldermum 

The dedication to a very special baby whose shares a name with one of my own babies and who i will never forget

Singing and dancing at the top of my voice to firework by Katy Perry to remember a mummy blogger who last year i chatted with over coffee and who sadly is no longer with us

Laughter through tears

Hugging the incredible Edspire. what a brave, brave lady she is.

For me, it was the people who made this weekend. I could have easily done without the seminars, or maybe actually it is more about the fact that my attention span is so short, so easily distracted that as i sat staring blankly into space while someone was talking..i found myself wondering why i was sitting here and not going out and doing some of those things that i always said i would love to do when i didnt have my kids with me. Beacause here i was, without my kids, and i wasn’t doing any of those things.

maybe we just need to organise a Britmums night out, or weekend away?

Anyway i chatted to many lovely folk this weekend, including Alex from Madagascar..who, okay is a lion..but having seen all of the Madagascar movies a MILLION times i feel like i know him.

But some of the folk that just rocked by little world this weekend where….as they say on the X factor, in no particular order…

Hello Wall

A Strong Coffee

3 Children and it

The 40 year old Domestic goddess

Pinkoddy

mummydaddyandme

capturebylucy

mutteringsofafool

diary of the dad

Babberblog

and a bit of a special mention to theboyandme who i have been badgering about the joys of prime lenses for so long and so convinced was i that she would love it that it toted my own 50mm lens to London so she could try it and i think after using it she might have seen my point!! 😉

This week there isnt a giveaway but you can carry on going for the LUSH box and supporting my friends at onepercent. Rafflecopter below. The winner of the Hotel Chocolat goodies will be announced on my facebook page so be sure to go and like it. Thanks lots!!

 

 

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Cycling freedom #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

Having five young children its always been fairly hard to actually be in a place where we can take them all cycling. There has always been one at that in between stage of being too big for a seat on the back of an adult bike but too small to be able to cycle independently without stabilisers etc etc.

Being as my OH is a bit of a bike nut, rides his bike to work every day, all the kids who are school age have been riding their bikes confidently without stabilisers since around the age of 4…it seems crazy that as a family we haven’t at least tried to do more! But the big draw back? I didnt have a bike. Until recently. We took the plunge and invested in a bike for me and so far we have had two bike riding days out with the kids.

Its a great way of getting out and about with the kids. Its cheap, green and you can cover some really quite large distances. So its lovely to make a day of it.

At the moment we have our two youngest still on kiddy seats on adult bikes. But im sure it wont be long before our 4 year old will be wanting a bit of her own independence!

Its easy to find dedicated cycleways and we discovered a long and flat route locally and this week we took off for an afternoon to attempt a little bit of it.

The kids had a great time and the KM just flew by without them even noticing that they were getting exercise! Made a lot easier by the fact that they had a couple of friends with them as well, so there was much laughing and giggling as we rode through the countryside.  We came across a skate park on our route and the kids all had a go on their bikes. Those ramps are steep and probably not the best place for a toddler. She played chicken with them most of the time and gave us a couple of near heart attacks as she dodged the bikes flying towards her!

We finished the ride of with hot chocolate on the beach, courtesy of the kelly kettle and it was a pretty good end to Father’s day.

🙂

these two in the first picture are my oldest and youngest…people always say how alike they are. er…yep. some family resemblence!! 🙂

 

My giveaway this week is rolling over from last week as it is such a great one! A fabulous Hotel Chocolat gift box, have you tasted their chocolate? It is amazing! Just follow the rafflecopter and don’t forget you can still enter to win a gorgeous luxury box from LUSH and help out the guys at the incredible charity beonpercent. Thank YOU!

 

 

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Run Forrest Run #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

I had a text message this week from my best friend. She isnt a best friend that i see all the time but i have known her since we started school a billion years ago. She now lives in Port. Lincoln in Southern Australia and moved there a while ago with her family.

Her test message read:

Hi sarah, am thinking of running the London 10K while we are back, would you be interested too? Takes a lot of the Olympic route! See you soon. Mel

Thats one way to announce that you are going to be in the northern hemisphere for a while! 😉

Much as i would LOVE to run a race with my school days friend…if its the only chance im going to get to see her while she is back from Aus. Then my plans would be less in the training shoes and lycra shorts and more towards pub lunch and large bottle of wine. Since she moved to Australia i have seen her one other time when she returned when my now 4 year old was a very small baby.

But pushing that aspect aside it made me think a little about races…you know….running races…

hundreds or thousands of people all lined up to pound a certain distance together at varying speeds and times.

Im just not sure its me.

I do run…

well…probably more like a cross between a run and a jog..

a rog…

or a jun…

😉

Im not going to set any records, except against myself, which i get great delight in when the cheery little voice on the nike app happily tells me ‘thats the fastest yet!” or “great run, go hit the showers!’  ( reassuring to know that they care about personal hygiene too!)

Anyway…I go…I shuffle around some miles or clicks..whichever measurement floats your boat and you know whats the best part for me?

The Solitude….

Being by myself.

I like the headspace. I listen to some music…and try to skip the kids stories that are on my iphone playlist…has to be said that charlie and lola don’t offer much motivation to keep on going!

I also go out at a very early time of the morning when it is quiet and there is hardly anyone around. I love that feeling of space.

Clear roads

Empty pavements.

The faint sound of birdsong.

and a great openness for my mind to trail off to…

might be ‘whats for dinner…’

might be ‘what should we do next’

might be ‘ how incredible is this world we live in..’

But its uninterrupted by distraction except that offered by the silence of a waking city.

Thats what im worried about loosing if i was to run with hundred of others…my sense in running is less a need for exercise (although thats obviously good) but its about finding a tiny moment of peace in my day which can very rarely be described as peaceful.

I think i would wonder whether I would in fact find any motivation in a race, swarming along like a mass of bees…or if i would just stop and pretend to be nursing an injury so that i could hide out at the back amongst the stragglers and see if i can search out some solitude running!

Maybe its the pure lack of competitive spirit i have. I have been passed by other runners while i am out and my pace has remained unchanged and my focus stays on what i am doing. Truly in a world of my own!

I have to say though that there are a few runners that i pass regularly and we often acknowledge each other with a little nod of a wave and its nice, a nano-second of community.

Hmmm…i cant decide.

I have made plans in the past to run in little 5k/10k type races but ive always drifted off the idea. Ive thought about running in a race with headphones and seeing if that would help me to zone out everyone else but i just can’t help but feel that, that would be a little rude to my other fellow runners. Like trying to ‘exclude’ them from this group experience seems like missing the point a bit.

Maybe this invite from my friend is the shove i needed to go for it and at least try.

We tell our kids about trying something at least once before you decide right?

Maybe time to do a bit of practicing what we preach..?

This week i had to include a clip from one of my ALL time favourite movies…

 

Right this week its my birthday and to offset all this talk of exercise I am having an extra special giveaway courtesy of HOTEL CHOCOLAT

.

You can win a beautiful birthday gift box for you or for your loved one. Just follow rafflecopter and then be sure to check back for winners! Also announced on my Facebook page as well. Dont forget you can still enter to win a LUSH box of goodies and support a fantastic charity by clicking on this link

 

 

 

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Being beside the seaside #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

The beach.

I love the beach and i hate the beach. This juxtaposition may be a recent thing for me, as in the last ten years really. Having children changes your view of the beach i think. Not the actual beach but just the enormous task that becomes going to the beach. It can almost be a camping trip the amount of stuff you have to take. There should be some kind of lift arrangement to get stuff from your car onto the sand, maybe one of  those delivery supermarket things, you could just order your stuff to be delivered to a pre-deteremined spot. Or maybe a new career for those beach-ride donkeys? There must be a better way.

Then there is the small thing of the sand…the sand…e v e r y w h e r e…..for the next couple of weeks. I swear i have put clothes through the wash and still shaken sand out of them when they come out of the washing machine. When we had a sand pit in our garden my OH used to say that at any given time of the day no matter how much you tried there would always be sand in the house. But how the kids love digging in the sand. I get it, there is something therapeutic about it.

When we go ahead and go for a walk, we can aim to stay away from the water and up here the tides can be a long long way out so you would think that it was doable. But it always turns into a partial swim regardless of the weather. There is something about the sea that draws my kids in..even when you shout ‘we have NO dry clothes with us!’ at the top of your voice. The words seem to drift off with the sand in the wind, carried away from unhearing ears and they plough into the water.!!! 🙂

But you absolutely HAVE to love the joy that it brings to the kids faces, the sound of the sea, that salty air, the connection with the awesome force that is a mass of water…

even if it does result in a very wet and soggy walk home.

🙂

Please dont forget to link up to motivational monday this week! This weeks giveaway is a choice! WOOH! of one of four beautiful Mini Boden summer dresses for girls. You can enter via the rafflecopter below! The winner of the Nike Running shirt is Faye Huntington. Congrats please get in touch to claim your prize! Please dont forget that you can still enter to win a Fab LUSH giftbox by going and showing some love to the beonepercent charity. Just follow this link to last weeks post!

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Be one percent….#motivationalmonday

The be one percent foundation was set up here in the city i live in by a couple of guys who were driven to try and be part of something that aims to change lives and balance out the chasm between the richest and poorest in this world. By donating one percent of their income to the foundation it enables them to work in conjunction with other charities based in some of the poorest nations in the world to change lives by seeing some of the most basic needs are being met. Things we take for granted…so..so…many times…

the basics…

like..

water…

clean

drinking

water

When you go to the tap and get a drink of water…think of the millions..yes millions..who can’t do that. Have to walk for days to get water and then risk giving their child that water which may have ghastly horrible diseases floating around in it.  ( image from water.org)

 

It is staggering…frightening..

Now it may seem like The  be One percent foundation is a bit of a small drop in a large pond. Whats it going to do with these little bits of cash being sent their way every month or so? Well…here’s the thing..in my mind this is how it works…

and bear in mind i spend a lot of my days with pre-schoolers. 😉

My little ones like watching the movie called ‘bee movie’ In this movie it follows one solitary bee taking on the human race for stealing honey. It is a cute, far-fetched cartoon style movie voiced by a couple of well known actors to keep the parents amused…but at the end of the movie (i wont spoil the plot)…the bee and his human friend are flying a plane load of flowers and the engines cut and it looks like certain doom. But out of the horizon come a swarm of bees…millions and millions of bees..they fly up under the plane and cover it from the tip to the tail and out to the wings…and they support it and land the plane safely on the ground.

Now a bee and a large aircraft = no match right?

Well not when there are millions and millions of bees. 😉

Working together those tiny drops in the ocean can become a force for change, directing the sea and bringing the winds of equality and security into vulnerable places.

So will you join? Share? Go like the page…commit your one percent.

and start thinking bee 🙂

 

 

 

So this week..to go along with my water theme the giveaway is going to be of the LUSH nature again. I love LUSH. All you need to do is follow the rafflecopter.  You get extra extra kudos if you sign up with the one percent foundation of course. Please at least go and check it out. The entries for things to do with one percent are the biggest so please do them!

 

 

 

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