Race for Fitness

Well I have done it, for the last 8 years I have said every year I will do Race for Life, and every time I haven’t done it. This year though, I am doing it. I’m not just doing it but I’m going to train and my aim is to jog the full 5k course. I have my trainers, my essential sports wear (very high support sports bra is a must unless I want black eyes!!), and my companion Mumtoj!

I’ve downloaded my iPhone training app, I’ll let you know what I think once I get going with it. I’ve also downloaded Now That’s What I Call Running and what an album that is, whether your planning on going running or not, check it out as its has some great songs on it!

On top of all that I have of course registered with Race for Life and set up a Lets Giving page for people to support me. To be honest I didn’t quite realise how easy it is to set up a let’s giving page. Not only can people support us by sponsoring through the page, you can also text MUMS78 £5 to 70070 and through your phone bill that’s a £5 donation, couldn’t be easier!!

For anyone who doesn’t know, Race for Life is an annual event to support Cancer Research UK. It’s a scary thought that in the UK alone someone gets told they have cancer every 2 seconds. I count myself as very lucky to have never had anyone close to me diagnosed with cancer, but I know at some point that will change and that’s why I am running…not in memory, but in the hope that my experience can be more common than it is. With all the hard work of Cancer Research UK I hope that one day cancer is not such a scary word!

Whilst cancer is the underlying reason for Race for Life, I am hoping that my training will just be the start and that the longer term benefits will be a fitter, healthier, slimmer me. And who knows, that might just be as good for my health as the work that Cancer Research UK do. If you want to support me then please click on the “Sponsor Me” box on the right. In return I promise to blog the ups and downs of my training and the event itself!

Best Friend Ban

I can’t actually believe what I have heard today, schools in London are taking on a policy of banning their pupils having best friends. What utter rubbish. This has really annoyed me because who has the right to stop anyone forming friendships whether a best friend or acquaintance?

The theory goes like this, if children are not able to make close friendships then they don’t get hurt when those friendships break down.

Right, I have to say this:

I moved around a lot as a child, wherever I lived I always had a best friend. I also had fall outs with those friends and some of these fall outs were patched up, others were not. I loved my friends and I confided in them about everything. We got each other through puberty, fancying boys, horrible teachers, periods, boobs, sex, parent gripes. Without my friends, and although this is plural, I mean the ones who were my best friends, without all of them school life would have been hell. If I hadn’t been ”allowed” best friends by the school this wouldn’t have stopped me, most of my friendship moments happened outside of school. Admittedly it was school that meant I met these people, but school had no say on whether this was sustained. I can understand how schools would like all children to play together, no one be left out and ultimately wipe out bullying because all the kids get on, but in reality that just doesn’t work. As adults we gel with some and not others, as children it is the same. I have to say I don’t think I ever became good friends with the person I was buddied up with in each new school!!

As an adult, I have been through friendships and my marriage fell apart, none of those relationships would I have come through so well if I hadn’t experienced what I did as a child. Children don’t just need academic teaching, they need to learn about social lives and friendship and what better way to do that than to be able to make and lose friends when younger, so that as adults we know how to make friends and keep them, or move on! Even now, and I am sure for the rest of my life, I will make friends, I will lose friends and I will laugh cry and beat myself up over things that go on with my friends but I wouldn’t change any of the friends I have had. They say everyone comes into our lives for a reason and whether that is for a short time or a long time, no one has the right to tell anyone, child or adult, who they should and shouldn’t be close too!!

So here’s my best friends, from about the age of 7 to the present day, if your reading this let me know, especially the ones I’ve lost contact with coz that would be a real surprise!!!

Alison Lake, Emma Entwistle, Vicky Miles, Kelly Anderson, Jennie Sanders, Jayne Williams, Tanya McLean, Jo Inch, Jo Harvey

You’re all listed with the names I knew you by and I know some of you have married. I love all of you for being in my life, I wouldn’t change the friends I have had, you have all taught me something very important. Now lets make sure that schools see how silly this idea of banning best friends is!!

Lets make a House a Home

I’ve been separated from my ex husband for 4 years now, and have lived where I do now for the last 3, thing is I have never really felt at home here. Last summer I decorated the kids rooms and they loved it! To me though I still didn’t feel fully at home. I guess a part of me never really believed I would stay, I had come home after the break up and needed time with my family but for a long time I felt lost, not sure if I would stay or move somewhere else. I didn’t know it at the time but I see it now, maybe the depression I had before Christmas was part of the whole healing and moving on process to enable me to put down roots. So what made me realise?

Back in January I decided it was time for change, the only thing I had left from my married days was the sofa and so I decided it was time for a new one, not just because it was from when I was married, but it is looking old and tired (I will NEVER buy a beige sofa again!). So I went sofa shopping and was very surprised to find one I fell in love with and was comfy to sit on. Sofa ordered and home I came, to a lounge in a mishmash colour scheme. I had never really noticed before but the green and beige walls and brown floor, the brown rug and black and brown furniture along with the yellow curtains almost made me cry. My newly ordered sofa was black and grey with a hint of purple….I loved the sofa but really, it wasn’t going to look at home here!

I took the “before” picture as I was packing up to decorate, so ignore the mess, but you get the picture!!

After a number of trips to Homebase, who I really can’t thank enough for their helpfullness, and too much money spent in Dunelm Mill, well, take a look at what I did…….

   

   

   

 

 

I’m pretty proud of myself I have to say. And this is the moment I felt at home, the moment I realised I’d been living on pause for a while, the moment life really does carry on! Oh, and that’s not the new sofa, but that will be arriving in just over a week and then my house really will be my home!

How To Get Picky Eaters To Be More Open-Minded–Guest Post

Sometimes getting little kids to try new foods is akin to climbing the Great Wall of China – it seems like an insurmountable task that only the bravest can conquer. However coercing picky eaters into broadening their taste buds doesn’t have to be like fighting a war, you just need a little strategy:

1. Pair foods you want them to try with foods you know they’ll eat
If you know that your child loves peanut butter and you normally pair peanut butter with an apple or pretzels try serving it with a new food such as baby carrots. If they like ranch then try serving it with cucumber slices or snow peas. The addition of a food that they like will help encourage them to try the new food, and dips are an easy way to encourage vegetable consumption.

2. Sneak foods into meals
Instead of making a traditional meat and tomato spaghetti sauce add in different chopped vegetables such as red peppers and mushrooms. Or try making casseroles with extra veggies added in. If you can get them to start eating foods without even noticing that they’re eating them then they’ll be much more receptive to continuing to eat them in different forms.

3. Try preparing foods in different ways
It may be the way that you’re preparing certain foods that is eliciting an automatic “NO” response from your kids. If steamed broccoli is always turned down try fixing it a different way, such as roasting it in the oven and then pairing it with ketchup. Different preparations techniques bring out different flavours in foods that your kids may love.

4. Don’t label foods
Try to refrain from telling kids that their snacks or meals are “healthy” when you’re serving them fruits and vegetables or that they’re getting “a treat” when you take them out for fast food. Having this mental connection with certain foods can deter them from wanting to experiment with other healthy foods and cling to wanting fast foods and decadent treats instead.

5. Keep trying

Our taste buds are constantly changing and evolving, so what your kids hate one day they may love the next. Constantly offer them new foods; you may be surprised what they end up picking up one day and declaring their new favourite food!

Getting picky eaters to try new foods is a kind of art form that requires some patience and experimentation. Show them how much you love certain foods and don’t quit offering them different foods to try to show them that foods aren’t bad or good, just different. They’ll start branching out eventually! What tactics do you have for getting your picky eaters to try new foods?

Author Bio

Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to hire a nanny by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can be available at H.smith7295 [at] gmail.com.