Freespirit - My Word!

                                        

Driving home from work the other evening it leapt out at me, sprung into my brain, my word! The word to help define my 2014, the word to strive to, to live my life alongside. 

Freespirit

I had been thinking about my daughter and how she is developing into an adventurous, eager to learn, beautiful unique young girl, a one off, a freespirit! It reminded me of myself when I was a tad younger! It's there now but is barred by responsibility, adulthood, being a mother, worry. It comes out every now and then, but it should be making more of an appearance, I should not forget who I am when being a mummy. There is no doubt being a mummy changes who you are, in fact I feel it has added to me, made me a better person, however it should intertwined with the good parts of who you were before. It is so easy to get bogged down in being responsible, worrying about the future, but you mustn't let it engulf everything! I mustn't let my freespirit get lost, it is part of me and I must let it out, embrace it, cherish it and most of all enjoy it! If I do it will have a positive affect on me, my husband,  my daughter's development and the way we embrace our lives. 

My mummy has always told me to be myself, not let other people affect who you are! In today's media crazed, fast moving society it can be hard to forget but as part of embracing my freespirit, I must be myself, be who I want to be and most importantly be happy with who I want to be and not let things that are of no real importance change that! 

So here I pledge to ensure I keep on living by my mom's motto:

Be Yourself 

And to embrace my new word for 2014:

Freespirit

Some Early Morning Learning

      

J is for jam and jumping!

Being at one with oneself

As I dropped off my daughter at playgroup this morning I realised just how much I have changed since Christmas and  since we decided not to move. The last three to four months of two thousand and thirteen I had found myself getting more and more stressed about things and less patient with my daughter and my swimming lesson children. I was beginning to not like the way I was, but found it almost impossible not to be like it. I had been doing extra shifts and I think that just put an added strain on my normally fairly patient self.

When we were thinking about moving life got a little crazy, you get obsessed with the whole moving thing and I found that I was forgetting my true self, beliefs and how I wanted to live my life. We found ourselves making more and more compromises (to only move 11 measly miles) to the point that we were convincing ourselves that we wanted a different way of life! The relief when we finally decided not to move was immense, we discovered that what we really wanted was a lovely home and garden to spend time together in and although it would be nice to live a bit closer to friends and family and to save money on fuel, these things did not have enough weight in the arguement to win over compromising on a home.  

Christmas itself was fairly hectic, we had our traditional Christmas Eve roast with my mum, my best friend and her parents and Christmas breakfast with my dad, his wife and Auntie Em all at home which was lovely.

I love entertaining, setting the house up and using all the lovely crockery we have collected over the years. Then it gets a bit crazy, we headed to my mum's for Christmas lunch, Gray's parents for Boxing Day (I was poorly so not feeling overly festive), my dad's on the 27th and so on. Although we had a good time (except the being poorly part) we were all exhausted! Next year we vow to stay at home and entertain!
The second half of the Christmas holidays was much more chilled, we stayed at home just the three of us and menagerie. We had lazy mornings, slow breakfasts, pyjama days, walks with Peps and generally recovered from the craziness of everyday life and the mega excitment of Christmas. We felt refreshed and head clear to start a new year.

               

               

 Since starting back into the normal routine I have found a sense of calm and inner peace that I have not had in a long while. I feel more certain about things, more in control, I feel I know what I want in life and what is important! I cherish each day, I love watching my daughter grow and develop her life story, I feel at one with my amazing husband, our home and animals. I have started exercising again and taking the dog out more. I am making sure I have me time, sitting down to do the things I enjoy. 

The Christmas break and New Year have helped us to chill, rethink and reassess. It has been about stopping, taking check, making sure that we are living the life we want to live and not being swept along by current of the fast moving, sheepesque society we are surrounded by. It is important to remember this lesson the next time life gets crazy, remember to stop, chill and ensure that the life we are living is the one that we want to be living!

Me, a cup of tea, wool and a good book. Perfection!

Jantastic

,Well its the start of a new year, a new chapter, a time to embrace new challenges, relinquish old worries and look forward to making new memories.

Number one on the list is to find my fitness bug again!! A common theme at this time of year and why not?! its a good as time as any to spark up that fitness fire and get healthy! Not only do you increase your fitness levels, but it helps improves your mental well being (crucial at this time of year when weather and finances can get you down), it makes you feel healthier and in turn I find it makes you think about what you are eating. Throw all those things into a pot and you have a good start to the year!

I have signed myself up to a free running challenge called Jantastic. It's aim and I quote is "to keep you motivated to achieve your personal running goals through winter and spring." For January I have set myself the challenge to run three times a week with each run being a minimum distance of one mile.  At the end of each week you log your runs and earn points depending on whether you have achieve your goals. I plan on recording each run at the bottom of this post, helping me to stay focussed and on track and enabling me to see what I have achieved.

Monday 6th January - no rain, but extremely wet and muddy under foot.
                              - approx 1 mile in 16minutes.

Tuesday 7th January - no rain, windy, wet under foot. Pepper on lead for about a third.

- approx 1.5miles in 21minutes.

I think I need to invest in some form of pedometer. 

Thursday 9th January - no rain, ran in woods. No lead. Cool but sunny and beautiful.

- good run, approx 1.5miles in 21minutes.

Monday 13th January - no rain, chilly, ran in woods. Slippery under foot, endeavoured to make it up hills without stopping.

- 1.43 miles in 22:28 minutes ( bit slow think its to do with stops after the hills).

Peps is working hard! 

Tuesday 14th January - no rain, sunshine, chilly, ran in woods. Slippery under foot, impressed myself on the hills.

- 1.90 miles in 28:22 (pushed hard, legs are feeling it! )

I have been using an app on my old phone called Runmeter, it uses GPS to record my timings, distances and paces etc. So now my timings etc are much more accurate.

Thursday 16th January - sunny, windy, ran round fields from home. Flatter route, slippery in places. Slight cold, first five mins were hard!

- 1.21 miles in 16:04 

Tuesday 21st January - no rain, sunny, ran in woods. Slippery under foot, very tired after crazy weekend! Had to stop and walk quite a bit! 

- 1.19 miles in 18:49 (ummphh!!) 

Thursday 23rd January - sunny, windy. Struggled! More matter over mind! Flat route.

- 1.64 miles in 23:46

Saturday 25th January - dry, wet and slippery in places. Ran from work to mum's. Undulating route.

- 2.70 miles in 33:39 ( longest run yet woop woop!!)

Monday 27th January - dry, wet under foot.

- 1.18 miles in 14:46 ( getting quicker)

Thursday 30th January - Peppy on and off lead.

- 1.47 miles in 19:26

Sunday 2nd February - Quick run

- 1.05 miles in 11:57

Tuesday 4th February - dry, but wet and slippery under foot. First ten minutes hard work, but felt good after.

- 1.82 miles in 22:55

Blog Restart

Well..... its been a while! Yes I know a slight understatement! However seeing as it is the start of a new year I am on a mission to make blogging part of my life, a way to record events and to share my thoughts, ideas and passions.

A few things have changed at Moss' Menagerie since I wrote my initial post. Sadly our three chooks and two new chooks have joined the beautiful stars in the sky thanks to Mr Fox!! We plan on creating our own Chooks Alcatraz and getting some new ladies in the spring.

We have two new additions to the Menagerie; two male guinea pigs, Conker and Poppy ( my daughter insists he is a she and has named him after her favourite chook). They are currently living in our sitting room as they were too young to go outside in the winter. They are lively chaps, especially in the evening when your trying to chill in front of a good television programme!

My daughter is now three, still beautiful and funny, but growing up scarcely fast, I plan to write about this in a separate post.

In the year since I last wrote we decided to take a sabbatical and then changed our minds and we decided to move and then changed our minds! It's been one of those years and for now we are settling down here and saving to go short term travelling (holidays) to global destinations and to get the house sorted! 

I shall leave my Restart post there and will be writing soon about whatever takes my fancy. 

See you sooner than last time.

Abigail