Rollercoaster Mum: February 2012

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Wednesday 29 February 2012

Feb 29th.net - The World's Biggest Blog Project

I found out about Feb29th.net on the BBC news show 'Click' a few days ago and I rather wish I had found out about it earlier as I would love to have persuaded my oldest daughter's school to take part. It is not just for schoolchildren, although the project was started by a headteacher of a primary school from Bolton in North Yorkshire who discovered that blogging improved his pupils writing scores enormously when he introduced the idea of blogging to them. You can read more about this here.

The idea of Feb29th.net is to record one special day across the globe with the site open from when the first country's times zone enters Feb 29th to when the last one leaves it and it becomes ordinary old March 1st across the world. If you would like to join in simply write a blog post - long or short and load it into their form on Feb29th.net.

So on to my post. What am I going to write? Well I wasn't too sure at first and then I thought about what was special to me this year - the answer is that I have had a big landmark birthday this year as anyone who reads my blog will already know (I know I'm banging on about it again!). This got me thinking and I decided that I would write about 29 things that I should do this year (easier than *ahem* 21!). Some of these things I know I am definitely going to do - others may be harder, although I have tried to be realistic (it's not a bucket list!). Here goes - 29 things to do this year  - before Feb 28th 2013.

1/ Get a job or start a business
2/ Go on a cruise
3/ Get an allotment
4/ Make some money out of my blog!
5/ Go to Britmums or Cybher or Blogcamp
6/ Stay in a yurt
7/ Sort out my wardrobe
8/ Read at least 12 books (I used to read loads but have got out of the habit)
9/ Make some real craft (as opposed to just the kids stuff!)
10/ Cycle around the local ranges with my eldest daughter
11/ Go to an exercise class regularly
12/ Have a big party for all the neighbours
13/ Go to a summer festival with the kids
14/ Learn a new skill or sport
15/ Decorate youngest daughter's bedroom
16/ Do Race for Life (quicker than last year)
17/ Have a weekend away with my husband
18/ Go to an Olympic event
19/ Get my eldest daughter to write a blog post
20/ Sort out our garden and make it pretty again!
21/ Find a family activity we can all do together regularly
22/ Have a reunion with some of my old school friends
23/ Sell some stuff on Ebay
24/ Complete another section of the South Downs Way
25/ Take my youngest daughter on a bus
26/ Sell at a car boot sale
27/ Put up some more nest boxes for the wild birds
28/ Get my (21 year old's!) check up at the doctors
29/ In summary - declutter, get organised, get fitter and spend more time with the family!

That was harder than I thought! I'll let you know how I get on on my blog Rollercoaster Mum. In the meantime what things would you like to do this year?






Monday 27 February 2012

Listography - Top 5 things that make me happy

After joining in with Kate Takes 5 Happiness Project which was all about finding out what makes your kids happy I really wanted to join in with this Listography. What are the 5 things that make ME happy? It was surprisingly easy - so here they are:

1/ Sunshine 
I think like most people I just feel naturally happier when the sun is shining, it doesn't matter if it's bright, cold winter sunshine or hot, sultry midsummer sunshine it never fails to lift my spirits and make me feel happier.

2/ Spring Flowers
I like other flowers too but there's nothing quite like spring flowers peeping through the ground when the branches on the trees are still bare to bring hope and a smile to my face. My absolute favourite are daffodils which I just love - they are so happy and I never fail to have some in the house throughout the daffodil season.

3/ Planning a holiday
I LOVE planning holidays. In some ways this is the best bit. It probably harks back to when I worked in travel and planned other peoples as well as my own (and we had many more opportunities to travel too!). It doesn't really matter though whether it's the Isle of Wight, France or Sri Lanka, I love the whole research into what we can do, what the weather's going to be like, where we should stay and of course, crucially, if you have a holiday booked you have something to look forward to!

4/ A clean(ish) and tidy kitchen!
This is a bit of an odd one really as I detest cleaning and housework with a passion but if I go to bed with the kitchen dirty and untidy (washing up piled up etc - you get the picture!) it is sooo depressing the next morning. Go to bed leaving it clean and tidy and it's lovely to come down to the next morning. Even in the middle of the day (usually on a weekend after OH has been cooking - very lovely of him but he does make a bit of a mess!) it's just depressing looking at it untidy. The rest of the house bothers me less somehow and I imagine some people would think my 'clean and tidy' kitchen wasn't that clean and tidy but it's all personal - right?

5/ Cuddles from my girls (and OH!)
I do like a good cuddle, and coincidentally this is also one of the things that Little Miss Star listed as making her happy. I'm not big into cuddling people I don't know though so it really only counts if it's from my girls or OH. The best cuddles are when it's a big family cuddle and everyone is happy - they're not so good if it's a 'sorry I shouldn't have done that' cuddle or one of them's cuddling and the other one is shouting so has to be a happy, peaceful cuddle!

So there you go - my top 5 things that make me happy. What makes you happy - I'd love to know!

For lots more happy thoughts head over to the lovely Kate Takes 5.



A Happy Sunshiney Spring Daffodil!



Sunday 26 February 2012

Silent Sunday


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