Recapping week 2

Hi Clanettes

It's been a busy week at Christie HQ. Full time school for all the kidlets and I worked everyday. After school clubs include beavers, cubs, swimming, tennis, football and youth club. Holy batman it's tiring writing it down, let alone ferrying everyone everywhere. And occupying those kidlets not attending said club, but waiting 'patiently' with Mummy. Still, I (we) chose to support the activities and I think giving them opportunities to find strengths and enjoyment away from home is important. Even when I really. Really. Don't. Want. To.

Paul was away this weekend, completing his Personal Trainer training and will receive his results in the next few weeks.

Whilst he was away, we spent Saturday with Rae Rae and enjoyed some sun in the garden.

Rae Raes house means being spoilt and Saturday was no exception, they made salt dough and used biscuit cutters to great effect.

I am 2 weeks into my health make over, and I lost 3lbs this week. 12lbs in total. 

Paul is measuring me for my records. Talking about how much I weigh is excruciating, particularly knowing how hard I worked last time. So I'm talking in measurements instead.

I'm faithfully committed to my weight watchers plan and I like the way those numbers look after two weeks. 

This week I mainly spent my early mornings catching up on Netflix on this bad boy

A stationary spin bike! Or over at the park making the most of the sunshine, brisk walking and using the public exercise machines.

Nick, my personal trainer, has been on holiday for 10 days, and because of my back I declined the option to see a newbie in his absence, so I know I'm in for a self imposed world of pain on Tuesday. I love it. I'm looking forward to it.

Onwards and upwards Clanettes.

BLASTseptember!

Lots of love xxxx

Recapping week 1

I've had a great week for movement. I feel so energetic and inspired. I have been to the gym twice with my personal trainer, trained at home with paul, brisk walked round the park, sprinted to and from school three times a day and recorded it all with my vivofit.

My unofficial weigh in this morning gives me a 9lb loss this week. Squeeeeeee. A great start with weight watchers, I'm absolutely thrilled, but it also serves to prove how awfully I have been eating!

Here are some of the delights I have taken the time to cook for myself (and the fam) over the last 7 days, to nourish and look after myself.

Beef stuffed courgettes with pesto rice and salad

Greek yoghurt with strawberrys and a drizzle of choc shot

Winner winner chicken dinner! Roast chicken, roast potatoes and vegetables, corn and gravy

Chicken stir fry in a fajita wrap 'bowl'. I made the bowl by baking the wrap over an upside down dish in the oven and leaving it to cool, I sprayed mine with fry lite and dusted it in paprika. My fave dish of the week. I want to serve everything in a wrap bowl!!

Quorn burgers served in 'thins' with feta salad

Steam in the bag chicken breast and veg, with rice and corn

Niamh is full time in school now, with the bigs, and I am doing some over time at work. This week is a challenge because my PT is on holiday so I'm going to have to rely on myself in the gym #firstworldproblems and I will only be sprinting to school twice a day. However, I'm ready for week 2.

Bring it on. 

#BLASTseptember

School

Here they are, my babies, my offspring, the fruit of my womb. All big and at school. 

I type from the treadmill at the gym. Go me!

Happy Thursday Clanettes xxx

A quick crafty project

We have a blank pin board at home, set aside especially for school/club achievements to parade our certificates proudly.

Bebe and I decided it needed jazzing up a little, it always looks a little sad at the start of the new school year, so we made some decoupage bunting and sorted a 'High Five' sign.

Ta dah! We are very pleased!!

The Bers #BLASTseptember

It's the first of September and tomorrow all three of my babies go to school.. I've been at home with one or more kiddiewinks for 8 years and to say it's daunting is a little bit of an understatement.

I work part time at my local Marks and Spencer (they made me permanent after my temp job last Christmas. I love them. Alot. Too much. Ahem.) in the cafe. They work to a two week rota 'week 1' and 'week 2'. It basically allows them to have greater flexability with hours. I do 16 hours a week, split differently on week 1 and week 2. Every other fortnight is the same. Does that make sense? I work a weekend on, then a weekend off. If I work a weekend, I dont work Friday or Monday either side.. If I have the weekend off, I do work the Friday and Monday either side.. Sounds complex, but once you get your head around it, it works. 

So I work 16 hours a week, in 4 hour shifts. My week day shifts are 10am-2pm. School hours. Perfecto. Monday to Friday I work 3 days. So I am now approaching a period of time where I have two days to myself everyweek.. I plan to take on overtime once the Christmas hours are released.. Until then, I have set myself a little schedule. Plan. Goal. Just to get me through September until life becomes the new version of 'normal' that it will be now that the children are all at school.

Work 3 days.

Gym with my personal trainer 2 days. Do an additional session on my own where time allows.

Cycle to work 1-2 times a week.

Stick with Weight Watchers. Weigh in every other week officially, weigh in privately when I can't get there.

Get healthy.

Be mindful

LOSE WEIGHT. Full stop.

I was gifted a spoon today. A spoon. It made me cry. It's just a spoon. But it's not. It is the gift of mindful eating, of love and of care. Of myself. I adore it.

Eat less. Move more. Craft. BLASTseptember

Hyde park

My sister and I went to hyde park in June to see Taylor Swift in concert, and quite apart from the afternoon we spent together and seeing Taylor, we both agreed that Hyde park was pretty cool and we'd like to come back with our kidlets and anyone else who would like to be a part of it.

Yesterday we took the children and my mum there on the train and we had a lovely lovely day.

We hired some borris bikes, which I adore, we went to the 07/07 monument, the princess diana water feature, had ice cream and ran around.

And then we came home and had cake and champagne to toast Yvies 1st birthday.

Paul was away on a training course this weekend, but he was there in spirit through skype

Mind AND body

In the few posts I made before radio silence at the beginning of the year, I made reference to my mental state, and my depression. This is something I have really struggled with this year. I weaned myself off my original pills, because I thought that's what I should do and I crashed. I am now taking different medication, prescribed for anxiety with the bonus of mood lifting a happy side effect, after trail and error I have finally found a good dose and am feeling in control again. Settled.

In the midst of being crazy, I have gained a lot of weight. A LOT. I am bigger than I was three years ago when this little blog started. I have realised that you can't do it all, I can only work on one thing at a time. So now I'm feeling settled in my head, I have a plan for getting my physical well being in order, starting on Tuesday 01 September.. The Bers! 

In the mean time I have been browsing for inspiration, I love a good meme.

My basic plan entails moving more and eating less. Simples. Ahem.

More on that next time xxx

Hello there

Hello Clanettes

Its a horribly wet and windy Wednesday at the end of a wet August and I'm sat here with the urge to blog. I considered starting a new blog and wiping out the writing gaps, starting a fresh new and shiny record of family life but I couldn't think of an appropriate way to do that. So here I am.

Writing to fill gaps is pretty overwhelming because I feel the need to fill them with glitter and rainbows, but I'm not going to do that peeps. Instead I'm going to share a few photos for the last, lost, 8 months and then we're going to move seamlessly on. Kay.

Niamh turned 4

Lochie completed his first triathlon and smashed it

The girls had haircuts

Paul and me, dressed as a wench out for a friends birthday

My birthday

Away with VF

London for Taylor Swift, with my sister

Holibobbles in Cornwall

Leif, my nephew, came to stay

School shoe shopping

I have lots to say, but we are going to take this slow Clanettes.

Stick with me, Im getting there, prom prom xxxx

 

Mac

We have welcomed a tortoise into the clan this weekend, we're all a bit smitten! He's a teeny tiny Hermanns baby, currently weighing 50g and his shell measures 6.5 cm. I say He, but he could be a She.. It's too early to tell gender.. He has a little growing to do first.

With the right conditions, Mac could easily outlive us all, so it wasn't a light decision! 

Why did we call him Mac, I hear you ask! Well! Do you have family 'in' jokes, the kind that make perfect sense to those you live with, the kind that are hilarious in the right company.. But fall flat to anyone not in on the joke..? This is one of those moments.. 

We watched a film a long time ago, where the lead guy, an alien funnily enough, was called Steve. Now anything that requires a name, even things that don't need a name, are Steve. Right..?! Wai though, it gets funnier!

When we think of surnames for Steves, we think of Steve McGarrett, one half of the joint lead characters in Hawaii 5-O. So we named our tortoise McGarrett. Mac for short. After the guy out of Hawaii 5-O. It's an 'in' joke, do you see?

Ahem.

Anyway, here is the gorgeousness that is Mac