Planning ahead

I suppose this time of year everyone does this, but, inbetween working a lot and getting ready for Christmas and New Year I have been trying to plan some of my running goals for next year.  This year I achieved my half marathon and I would like to do that again next year.  I would also like to complete some off road trail runs, not as races but running while Rick runs some of his ultras.  I so love trail running and would like to be out and about more again.  Unfortunately the last few months of massive changes for us have meant I haven't run for a while and have put on some of the weight I took off.  However - achieved a lot over last winter and intend to start again in January.  The running club has an altitude challenge again this January and I have also committed to Jantastic in 2014 so that should get me off to a good start.  It won't be about distance or speed - just running.
December has been really busy with work.  I have been working all Christmas week apart from Christmas Day and Saturday and am working most of next week apart from New Year's Day.  I so much love my job though which I am really grateful for.  This contract comes to an end in February and I am applying for some more District Nursing contracts as I definitely know now I want to stay in the community as opposed to returning to hospital.
We had some lovely Christmas meals out with the staff.  The photo below is of 2 practice nurses, 3 health care assistants and 4 district nurses.  Sounds like something out of the 12 days of Christmas!

December is always a busy month in our family.  The children are involved in so much that there is always some sort of event going on.  8yos was invested into cubs in the photo below and he has already earned quite a few badges.  He really enjoys has cubs.

14yos had a lot of events with the brass band, including the usual carols in the square on Christmas Eve, which for me is when Christmas really begins.  The band also played at various venues around the area as well as hosting their own concert in a church in a local village.

Busy times

Posting on this blog seems to be slipping.  It feels at the moment that there are really not enough hours in the day.  Work is busy, the children are busy, home life is busy.........
Some things we have done recently though.
We had a great day at the running club awards session.  The run was a 5.6 mile run around a local loch with the children doing a smaller run of one mile.  Barnaby joined us adults around the loch and ran a brilliant time, beating a lot of the adults showing what a good runner he is for his age.  Rick as usual was speedy and I plodded along at the back of the pack where I am happy.  We had a great buffet and games time and then the awards ceremony where I was shocked to win a prize for the most improved between 2012 and 2013.  Really thrilled.
Spent a good day shopping (it that is possible) with Talitha last week.  Managed to get her bridesmaid material to make her dress and spent my birthday money on a pair of boots which I really like.  Successful day.  A week of annual leave was spent shopping, tidying and seeing people I keep missing by being busy in work.
Barnaby went to France with school for 5 days and had a really good time including enjoying the chance to show off his French fluency to his fellow students.  They visited the Omaha Beach and the American graves plus the war museums and a Christmas market.  Had a really good time by all accounts.
Max was invested into cubs last Wednesday and below is a photo of him taking his promise very seriously before shaking the cub leader's hand with a scout handshake.

Work is busy as usual but I am really loving it.  It is great to love your job.  Last night was a Christmas night out with one of the GP practices I work with.  It was a great night with everyone together and really good food and company.  I am blessed to work with such lovely people. The first photo is of the 4 district nurses, 3 district health care assistants and 2 practice nurses.

Below is my main course - cod and swede.  Lots of vegetables to go with it made it a really nice and very filling dish.

Below is my Charge Nurse, Lisa about to enjoy the same dessert that I ordered - meringue.  Really lovely food at the Clansman Restaurant in Port William.

Tonight Rick has taken the scouts on a sleepover in the forest youth hostel and they are doing a night walk among other things.  Tali has gone with him so myself and the boys are at home.  

Another year, a new age

November is my birthday month and this year it seems to have come round especially quickly.  I was working on my birthday so out of the house early on but managed to finish early so could spend more time than I expected with the children.  We then had parents' evening at 14yos's school which seemed a strange thing for a home educating mother to be doing on her birthday.  It was a good evening though with lots of positive comments from the teachers so that was nice.  After that Rick and I had a takeaway.

November itself has been very busy on the whole.  We had a great time with Josh and Bethan spending 2 weeks with us.  A couple of friends and I helped them to do some sewing for the inside of the van, including covering cushions and me making patchwork curtains.

It was great fun to be involved in the project together and we had some good laughs.  It was really good to get to know Bethan a bit more before she joins our family when they get married in February.

We had a lovely walk along the shore a couple of days before my birthday in the crisp cold November weather and although it wasn't really a very long walk it was very enjoyable.  The family was a lot smaller than our last walk though!

Last weekend was the running club annual chip cup and awards.  It was a 5.5 mile run around a loch on a lovely track.  Weather was great and the scenery stunning.  I had a lift for the last mile as I wasn't feeling 100% but really enjoyed the bit that I did.  I am not managing to run as much as I would like these days for various reasons so it was good to get out.  I was also shocked to receive the prize for the person who had made the most improvement between 2012 - 2013 which was a £20 gift voucher for the local sewing class.  I was really pleased although I don't think I will make the same progress next year.  Max did really well on his run as well - he puts 110% into his runs.  Barnaby also was really fast on the long run around the loch, despite having been up early for his paper round, been swimming and not having eaten too much.  He is a really good runner.

Eat, walk and run

Just come back from the really good 4 mile run in the forest with Marie.  It is getting so hard to squash runs into my work/family schedule but when I do manage to get one in it is so enjoyable.  We parked in the angler's car park and ran in a loop around the forest.  We took the dog with us and as usual she managed to get very muddy but enjoyed it very much.  By the time we had finished the dark was rolling in and we realized that early evening runs will be over for a while and we will have to go out earlier next week.

Last weekend was lovely.  All the children and two girlfriends together for a celebration of our 25 years of marriage.  We went for a lovely walk out in the hills and had lots of adventures, including crossing a cold river and stepping over marshy ground trying to find the least boggy.

Cairnsmore

Bethan braving the cold water

We had a really lovely walk with fabulous views over the hills and it stayed dry most of the time

When we got home the children made a lovely meal for us all.  Really special to spend time together and I had that lovely warm mummy feeling I get when all my children are around me.  Special times, precious memories

A Little Luxury Goes a Long Way

We have just spent a lovely weekend away together celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary and none of it disappointed.  It was so nice to be able to have a wee bit of luxury.
We left home around 10am last Friday having had to make last minute arrangements for Max to stay with my parents for a few hours because poor Josh and Bethan were having a rather traumatic journey north from her home in Hampshire.  They got here in the end but not without a few adventures in their camper van on the way!  Rick and I travelled up to Dunblane to see our friends there, where Tali was staying, as we needed to drop things off for Tali.  Elaine had made us a lovely lunch of leek and potato soup which we really enjoyed.  We then drove the 30 minutes from Dunblane to Crieff Hydro Hotel.
It was lovely to arrive and find out what the place was like and our room really delivered in every way - especially the dual aspect views over the Perthshire hills.  There was a delightful window seat which I enjoyed very much and part of the pleasure of the weekend was just spending time in the room.

 We had dinner in the hotel restaurant both Friday and Saturday evening and the food was delicious, although as is usual in these posh places, we would have liked a little more of it!

Saturday morning 6 am saw us having breakfast in bed as we had to leave early for Rick's ultra marathon.  It was only a short drive away and we parked the car in the allocated spot between muddy puddles and Rick registered.  The photo below shows the ultra marathoners and their supporters making sure kit and supplies are all in order and doing last minute adjustments to clothing.

 We walked a very short way over the road and up a forest trail and then they were off.  I had offered to help marshal at the run and I had intended to drive out and support Rick on the course before starting to help but there was quite a lot of work needing done like putting up gazebos, flags, packing goody bags and the like so I just went straight to the finish to help out.  I did enjoy the bacon buttie and coffee which the organizers bought for the helpers so that was nice.
It was quite cold helping out but moving around a lot made it a little better until about 1130 the heavens opened and from then on there was a stream of heavy, cold rain.  It was great to have a fire to warm up at. Rick wasn't racing this one, just there for the enjoyment of it and he came in at around 4hrs 30min in about 23rd place out of 180.  There were quite a few non finishers and a good number who didn't even start. I take my hat off to anyone who even started that run, let alone finished it.  There were some people really struggling out there.  

Although we had intended to hang around for a while after Rick came in, it didn't appeal to either of us at the time as we were both so cold and wet.  So we headed into Comrie, got fish and chips and then headed back to the hotel.  Hot baths were the order of the day to get the chill out of the bones and then Rick headed down to the spa for a sauna while I had an Indian head massage which really worked wonders to relax my neck and shoulder muscles.
After dinner on the Saturday we went to the hotel cinema to watch Les Miserables, which I love and have seen before while Rick probably endured it rather than enjoyed it!  It was quite a surprise to hear the fire alarm in the middle of the film and have to start evacuating the building but it soon became apparent that it was a false alarm and we made our way back in.
Sunday morning we had a long lie in and a leisurely breakfast which was certainly plentiful if not quite as top notch cuisine as the dinners!  We went for a lovely walk in the hills with some spectacular views which I really enjoyed.  The weather couldn't have been more different to the Saturday and I am sure we were both wishing it had been the other way round!

Altogether we had a really lovely weekend which I will live off for a long time.  A weekend like that is precious.

25 Years and Counting

Yesterday Rick and I celebrated our Silver Wedding.  It is so hard to believe that we have been married for that long.  In some ways it feels like just yesterday but 6 children, grey hairs and the amount of "stuff" we have accumulated all go to show that we have indeed enjoyed each other's company for a good while.  I can genuinely say "here's to the next 25".
I have had quite a lot of work on recently and working 4 long days on the trot meant I was really tired and ready for a day off so it was a welcome relief.  Rick gave me a lovely silver necklace with a real pressed rose in the centre which I love.  We had some lovely cards and it was great to get some from people we don't hear from often.
We went for one of my coastal walks (see http://footstepsbythesea.blogspot.co.uk/ ) in the middle of the day and then had a takeaway for tea before going out for a night walk in the forest with the head torches.  Perhaps one of the highlights of my day was being proved right on a certain forest trail which Rick thought finished a long way from where it did.  It's not often I am right when it comes to navigation so being right then will be remembered for the next 25 years!  I love the forest for all sorts of exciting reasons.
Main celebrations are this weekend when we go away to Crieff Hydro for a weekend of pampering which is very rare for us as we are used to roughing it.  Hope we don't feel too out of place but I know we will enjoy the luxury.
Then the next weekend rounds it all off wonderfully with all 10 of us together for a meal here which the children are cooking (I hope)
I was on a course today and got home after a long day of travelling and studying to find this pie made for our tea.  Rick is finding his inner chef at last.  Note the romantic message on top!

Views

Had a nice 2 mile run with the head torches this evening with M.  I had thought it would be chilly and wear headband and gloves but really didn't need them.  It feels good to be out with the head torch again though.  I do enjoy autumn/winter running.  I have set myself a goal for a spring half marathon so will be getting back to consistency - and also watching the weight!
I was working last weekend and was quite busy and also worked a half day on Monday which was a bank holiday here.  After I finished work we went out for a short walk and I asked Rick to find me a walk with a view - I love seeing the beauty of the hills and although we didn't have time to do a hill walk I wanted to see the hills.  He delivered as usual....