It’s that time of year again where I like to do a little ‘day in the life’ post, where I record a 24 hour stint in my life just for a bit of fun. So I’ll get straight to it, this is Thursday 13th July 2023…

Midnight- I’m at work, 8 hours down, 2 to go. Sat next to my work Mama and it’s going quick (good company helps on a long shift, especially during the night), there’s been lots of laughing and some very inappropriate conversations!

00:33AM- We go for a lap of the building, a quick way to wake yourself up and stretch your legs. I sneak a Kinder chocolate before logging back in for my last stint of the shift.

2AM- Log out and leave work, Mama walks me back to my car and then she heads back in for the rest of her shift. Drive home. The moon looks amazing, it’s only a slither and it’s a strange colour- a little perk about being awake at stupid times is that sometimes you’re the only one who gets to see the sky showing off.

2:22AM- Park up and head into the house. Feed the cat a quick treat to stop him waking up the whole house.

2:30AM- Check the little two who are still in their beds, then climb into our bed which is also housing Polly. Sleep.

6:02AM- Polly wakes up. She clambers over me and heads downstairs to chill out on the sofa- she’s an early riser but she also likes a bit of chill time by herself in the morning, she watches a bit of Netflix or does a bit of colouring.

6:16AM- Clara comes crawling into the bed to take Polly’s place.

6:40AM- Clara is being a bit too wriggly and keeps trying to sit on my head so Henry wakes up and heads downstairs with her. Seb wanders in at some point, says ‘good morning’ and heads downstairs too.

7:42AM- I wake up two minutes before my alarm goes off.

7:45AM- Strip the kids beds and put the sheets in the wash. It’s a rare morning where we are both in the house which is why I’ve nabbed a bit of extra sleep and he’s got the kids sorted with breakfast and also made me a cup of tea. The kids are watching ‘The Hoof Doctor’ videos on YouuTube whilst eating (how they can eat whilst watching those videos is beyond me!).

7:50AM- I make the kids packed lunches and do myself some toast.

7:58AM- Sit down to eat breakfast whilst Henry is trying to persuade a rascal Clara out of hiding to change her poopy bum.

8:05AM- Start getting the kids dressed.

8:15AM- The kids are now actually dressed.

8:16AM- Bloody sun cream time. I still can’t decide what I hate more- finding bloody gloves in the winter or putting on bloody sun cream in the summer (maybe Autumn is the best season!).

8:19AM- Plait Polly’s hair whilst the little two get their shoes on.

8:22AM- All upstairs to clean teeth.

8:29AM- Leave the house. Say bye to Henry as he’ll be heading to work shortly.

8:41AM- School run time. Polly normally catches the mini bus up to the bigger site but she has a school trip to the beach today so she has to go into Seb’s school today instead of hanging around in the car park. I chat to a couple of Mum’s and sign a Thank you card for Polly’s teacher.

8:48AM- Walk into town with Clara. I’ve got major cabin fever as due to a sickness bug that took all three of them out in stages this is our first time out properly (I’m not counting going to work as I work in an office!) so it’s nice to just be out in some fresh air. I was aiming for Blackmore garden for a little chill before singing group but Clara throws a strop as she thinks we aren’t going to group so instead we head to the church and sit in the little garden there instead. Clara plays on the slide and I sit on the bench. Kirsty who runs the group comes out and we have a little catch up which is really nice.

9:30AMish- We head inside for Panda’s singing group. Clara is very enthusiastic today and joins in with all the songs, she covers herself in chocolate at snack time and I catch up with some of the Mum’s. It’s a really good morning.

11AM- We’ve delayed leaving group as it’s pouring with rain, as soon as it eases a bit we head out towards Tesco. I pick up a couple of bits and Clara picks up a flump (you can’t beat a flump!).

11:09AM- Start heading home with it still spitting with rain. Clara demands we go the river way which I reluctantly agree to as it takes a bit longer and I didn’t bring my coat. Inevitably I get soaked when we stop to play pooh sticks at the bridge and it starts raining properly again.

11:19AM- Back in the door and very wet.

11:23AM- I hang the washing up on the airers whilst Clara throws a strop as she doesn’t want to get out the pushchair.

11:28AM- Strop finished so we get some puzzles out.

12:03PM- Puzzles complete and little diva has requested we watch the Christmas Chronicles (specifically part 2 with ‘Mummy Santa’), with a blanket round her and her baby tucked under her arm.

12:10PM- Lunchtime. I make eggy bread today. Clara does pop in to sit on the side for a few moments to help ‘mick it mick it’. We then sit and eat together with Santa for company. She’s watched it so many times that she re-enacts bits including reading a story whilst they read one on the film- pausing to copy the fart noise from the whoopee cushion of course.

12:48PM- I catch up on a bit of life admin.

13:14PM- Washing up and clean the kitchen.

13:35PM- Clara drags me back into the living room for the grand finale which she acts out singing along and ‘playing’ her sister’s ukulele.

13:54PM- I cross my fingers and stick the washing outside.

13:58PM- Tidy up the toys and hoover. Clara is now loosely watching the new Matilda, I say loosely as she’s playing school. She has the film on to set the scene then packs up her baby for school and takes herself off to ‘work’.

14:20PM- I sit down and do a bit of reading with a cup of tea whilst she carries on playing school. I gain a furry friend for a cuddle.

15:06PM- Shoes on for the school run. Again Polly normally catches the bus down to Seb’s site so we normally have to hang around for 20 minutes but today she’s already here because of her very wet trip to the beach- so of course we still hang around for 20 minutes whilst the kids play and I chat to some friends.

15:43PM- Home and a snack for everyone.

16:05PM- Shoes back on and time to leave the house again. We walk through the Byes along the river with lots of chat as to why the river is running brown thanks to all the rain.

16:30PM- Arrive at the swimming pool for Seb’s lesson. Get him dressed and to the water. The girls and I set up camp on the side. Sadly Seb has gone backwards with his lessons and spends the whole lesson sat on the side with his feet in the water laughing with his friends and playing with a jug of water instead of actually getting in the pool. Clara tests my patience and earns herself several glares from the lifeguard as she is running her toy car along the edge of the water getting her dress soaked. Polly has bought 600 unicorns down in a bag as is playing such an intense game that at one point I asked her if she was actually ok. I catch up with a couple of the Mum’s and we have a laugh whilst despairing at our kids in the water.

17:05PM- Out the water, dried and dressed as quick as we can.

17:15PM- Leave the pool and start walking home. Get called the worst Mummy in the world as I won’t stop for a play at the park even though one child has been twice today already and the other tells me he’s too tired to walk home anyway. The big two have a fight over something stupid, it starts to rain and Clara falls asleep- all in all I’m pleased we didn’t bother with the park!

17:38PM- Home. I grab the washing back inside, stick Matilda on for the 3rd instalment and then put some food in the oven (it’s definitely a chuck something in the oven kind of night).

17:50PM- Diva children have requested hot chocolate. I take a gamble and take a sleeping Clara out the pushchair fully prepared for her to have an absolute meltdown, luckily the hot chocolate is a good distraction and she gets cosy on the sofa with that instead of throwing it across the room.

18:10PM- Sit down to eat tea which is pesto pasta and chicken. Clara manages to spill half her hot chocolate all over herself and the blanket.

18:34PM- Have some cuddles with Clara, Polly is doing some drawing at the big table and Seb is clutching his class photo that he bought out of school telling me everyone’s names for the tenth time.

18:42PM- Washing up. The kids follow me into the kitchen as I’m playing music whilst doing it. Polly brings her drawing through on a clipboard and then Seb instigates a full blown dance off. He beats Clara and I fair and square with the ‘shark dance’- it’s a very eclectic playlist ranging from Tina Turner to the Weeknd.

19:00PM- We head upstairs. I run a bath and then put the sheets on the bed with Clara trying to help. They have a bath, cleaning their teeth in the water and soak me and the floor. I sound like I’m performing an exorcism whilst washing Seb’s hair. We have a chat about wobbly teeth and the troll fairy who will come and take away manky teeth if they don’t keep them clean.

19:32PM- Out the bath, dried off and dressed. Hair drying takes a bit of time thanks to Polly’s Rapunzel hair.

19:45- Story time and cuddles.

19:50- Hear 36 reasons why they can’t go to sleep- 34 of them from Polly.

19:58PM- Bit later than planned but final goodnight.

20:00PM- I jump in the shower.

20:07PM- Out the shower, deliver some ‘Shhh’s’ from the landing and head downstairs.

20:14PM- Diffuse a fight between the big two, one is ‘breathing too loud’ and one is ‘putting her arm to close to his bed.’

20:25PM- Clara is just not settling, after the vomiting earlier in the week and the fact I’m now knackered and the big two need sleep before school I make the choice to pull her out of bed and bring her downstairs just in case. I snuggle her on the sofa under a blanket and put a wash on.

20:40PM- I sit down with a cup of tea and catch up with a guilty pleasure- Emmerdale.

21:15PM- Henry is home after a Lidl run on his way home from work. He unloads the shopping and faffs around in the conservatory with a bike tyre.

21:45PM- He finally sits down with his tea and we watch some Motherland together (we started watching it again last week).

22:30PM- I hang up the washing on the airer.

22:35PM- I concede to sleep. I carry on the lazy parenting though and just carry the fast asleep Clara into bed with us, leaving Henry instructions to get the cat back in before he comes up.

So there is it, another crazy day in my life. Henry as predicted fell asleep on the sofa and found his way upstairs at around 2AM and thankfully Clara woke up fine this morning so who knows what was up with her last night. Today is a bit quieter thanks to the rain and no group or clubs, this does mean I can catch up with some cleaning and also have a bit of a chill too. Until next time…

Another week of school ticked off and I can’t quite believe we’re actually almost at the end of another school year. It’ been a bit of a blur of a week where I’ve not quite known what day of the week it actually is most of the time. Today included a trip into Exeter to pick up a few essentials. We went on the bus as Clara thinks this is a real treat and to be honest the cheap bus tickets make it more economical than driving in and parking. She did absolutely crash and burn on the way home though and fell asleep on my legs in quite possibly the stupidest position I’ve seen one of our children sleep in!

The big event of the week though was Henry’s trip to Exeter on Wednesday. He braved it and has had the big snip. He’s been feeling a bit sorry for himself but it’s all been straight forward. Of course he’s been surrounded by a loving and supportive family during this difficult time- the last text I sent him as he arrived for the op was- “Your penis is in my thoughts.” I mean that’s being considerate, isn’t it? And the kids were on top form after getting a child friendly explanation on why Daddy can’t move off the sofa and why he will cry if you jump on his lap. Polly laughed and asked “Is your penis all twisted up?” Then Seb started full blown cackling and shouted “Did they cut your bum off?” Might have to do a bit of better explanation when they actually start asking more questions. But hey at least this absolutely answers that question that has followed us around since having Clara- yes we are completely done having babies- this womb is closed and now so are his balls.

Polly has been on top form with getting words a bit mixed up this week- honestly this is one of the most hilarious and underrated aspects of parenting, Clara’s classic phrase is still ‘mick it mick it’ when referring to mixing any food or drink item. Polly however gave us a couple of howlers this week when she referred to McCoy’s crisps as ‘those McGregor crisps’ which they’ve now been re-named as in our house. She then asked for some ‘Southend chicken’ in her packed lunch- she meant Southern Fried- honestly I’m still laughing about this two days later.

I realise I didn’t do a blog last week so the tale from Clara’s birthday hasn’t been told yet and boy is it a classic chaotic Woodard tale. Her birthday was on a school day and Polly had Rainbows in the evening so all in all it was going to be a pretty quiet affair with presents and cake then a day out at the weekend. That was the plan anyway. The kids though thought that was far too boring. I was in the kitchen just after getting back from the school run making a snack, Henry was due home imminently and Clara was patiently waiting to open her presents- then I hear a “Muuuuummmmmyyyyy!” from the other room. I was walk in with the ‘what is going on now’ attitude to clap eyes on Seb covered in blood and Polly screaming bloody murder.

I asked them both to tell me what the actual hell had happened and was met with Polly screaming that he was going to die whilst hiding under the table and Seb kept saying ‘the balloon did it.’ I took him upstairs and cleaned him up as best I could, it stopped bleeding but the cut on his head definitely needed looking at by an actual professional so I got on the phone to Henry to find out how much longer he was going to be. No answer. Several texts and about ten phone calls later and he still wasn’t answering. I just needed to know whether he was going to be back with the car in five minutes or two hours. I did however get a proper explanation as to how Seb had sustained this latest injury. Turns out he was playing with a helium birthday balloon, throwing it up in the air and of course the weight at the bottom came down first and he didn’t move out the way in time so it landed on his head (insert face palm emoji here!).

Time was now ticking on though, I had three children all needing different things. Luckily the Rainbows crew came to the rescue and Polly got a lift to and from the meeting (this was actually quite a relief as she was definitely entering into hysterical nuisance mode and she needed to be somewhere else). With Henry still AWOL I decided to jump on a bus up to the Doctors at the top of town that thankfully has a minor injuries unit that is open till six. This must have looked hilarious- Seb sat in the pushchair with blood still on him and Clara bouncing around with her birthday badges thinking it was a great twist to her special day. The nurse was great and luckily it could be glued up instead of stitched. I also finally got a phone call back from Henry at this point- unfortunately he was still at least half an hour away so we caught the bus back down home. Polly and Henry came through the door at basically the same time and finally it was time for the littlest rascal to actually open some presents and enjoy some cake.

I hope to God though that after him bringing the chicken pox into the house, the foot saga and now this that Seb’s run of three is finally over (touch wood!). Although he had another X-ray last week just to make sure he’s not still hobbling round on a broken foot, he has made massive improvements on walking this week. Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to try walking to school and he said no- he wanted to scoot instead. This is better than the pushchair so I agreed and we left early. Five steps along the pavement though and he was walking with his legs either side of the scooter getting annoyed with it so I offered to carry it for him. He handed it over and then started walking- almost with his foot back to the floor in a normal position. He then walked all the way down there- it’s not a big walk to school but this was momentous. In fact when he arrived at his class door with his beaming teacher waiting, I almost cried. I honestly think it was more emotional than when he took his first steps as this has been such an ongoing nightmare. He has carried on being an absolute superstar since and was rewarded with a special certificate from school and a little racing car from us. Hopefully we’ll get the all clear from the X-ray at some point and we can finally put this whole foot saga behind us- fingers crossed,- and toes too just for good measure.

Anyway that’s enough for today- I need to go and do some washing up that we are both currently ignoring plus I keep getting distracted by Harry Potter. The kids have got right into the films recently which is a literal dream come true but it does mean they ask a million questions throughout that I can’t help but answer as it’s literally my specialist subject that would undoubtedly earn me a trophy on Mastermind if I ever had a chance to do so.

Oops, I’m not really sure what happened to May, but anyway here we are in June. I was going to write out a post last week actually and truth be told it would have been a very different post based on the bits of it I had written up on Wednesday, so although I will pull some of those bits in, this blog will be a bit more cheery than that one was looking.

So, last week was half term. And out half term was definitely a tale of two halves. We did have a fab time at a family wedding the Friday before the holiday officially started- the kids missed a day of school but had a blast running around in the sun. I then worked over the weekend and the first couple of days after that were just very ‘meh’ days. The kids were being shits. I know we aren’t supposed to swear about our children as the ‘hashtag blessed’ brigade start hunting you down with a court order to have your kids taken away from you but honestly sometimes you’ve just got to say it like it is. They were fighting and whinging and the whole thing with Seb’s foot was honestly testing every last nerve. But then somehow we turned it around and the second half of the week was much better.

It wasn’t a quick turnaround though, but things started to get a bit better on Tuesday afternoon. Those who have seen us recently may be aware of the drama that is Seb’s foot or is it his ankle?- you’ll forgive me for not knowing but apparently even the hospital can’t decide which bone it was he broke (I mean you’d think they of all people would be able to give that answer) but anyway- the bottom bit of his right leg is proving to be a bit of an ongoing nightmare. He broke a bone in this region just before his birthday and had a cast on for 3 weeks. We then removed the cast as instructed but sadly there were no other instructions given. We assumed (wrongly) that he would quickly be back on his feet running around- oh how wrong we were. This is the 4th week since the cast came off and he still won’t weight bare. He occasionally does a little shuffle and drags that leg along or a little hop and drag, but the rest of the time he’s getting about on his knees. Don’t get me wrong that boy can move quicker than I can on his knees but oh my god we are very over this whole foot/ankle situation. And yes before I get attacked by a Karen we have been back to the doctors and he has an X-ray booked for next week just to check that it’s actually healed alright. In the meantime though the little Prince is still being pushed around in his sister’s pushchair and going out most places is proving to be a bit of an expedition.

So, the sudden dash up to the doctors on the bus last Tuesday afternoon did seem to break the whinging children syndrome for a short while as an impromptu bus trip always cheers up any child, even if it’s left us hanging in more foot related limbo. The half term stresses weren’t fully wrapped up yet though thanks to the whole ‘getting them anywhere’ problem. On Wednesday (the second crossover day from bad to good) I felt very brave and took all three kids down to the cinema. Although Polly has been a couple of times it was the first time going for both the little two so I had no idea how this was going to go down. We saw The Little Mermaid- it’s actually pretty good, a bit scary in places but all in all I was pretty impressed. Seb provided entertainment by describing Ursula as an evil octopus and Clara carried on her brilliance of not being able to say ‘fish’ properly yet and declared ‘bitch’ multiple times throughout. The problem was I got a bit full of myself and thought I’d squeeze in an errand at the Post Office after this as things had gone so well- too well. The entrance to the Post Office was my destination of downfall. Clara decided she didn’t want to queue up and wanted to wait outside- this obviously wasn’t happening. Now the problem that’s been created by the whole foot/ankle saga is that Clara has come out of the pushchair for big chunks and her little legs aren’t quite ready for this, her stroppy little toddler brain thinks she is ready though. So one minute she wants to walk and then her legs remind her brain that she’s tired but her sassy alter ego has been unleashed and she mustn’t resort to going in the pushchair as she’s ‘not a baby anymore’ so the result is if you put her in the pushchair during one of these meltdowns she will hurl herself forward and come close to throwing herself headfirst out the pushchair. Even strapped in on the tightest setting she’s still an absolute danger to herself. On this occasion though when I bailed on the errand in the Post Office, she couldn’t go in the pushchair anyway as the little Prince was in there so I had no choice but to scoop this screaming wild little fireball of anger up and carry her under one arm all the way home. It was not a highlight of my ‘parenting journey’. She screamed. She hit. She scratched. She even bit me. Each time I set her down to try and talk reason into this little screeching ball of fury though she tried to run back in the direction of the Post Office as she thought they were missing out on something fun by us leaving there. Instead I sucked it up and carried on marching on with this hilarious set up of Seb chatting away in the pushchair, Polly skipping around my ankles and Clara in full blown rage. We obviously got plenty of stares from passers-by and we live in a town with a high proportion of elderly folk who love to chime in with really helpful comments like- ‘Oh someone’s not a happy bunny’. No fucking shit. Good job on your observation skills, would you like a gold star for pointing out that the screaming toddler is clearly not happy. This comment is so incredibly pointless I’ve now reached the stage in my ‘parenting journey’ that I don’t even acknowledge the moron uttering these words anymore and just carry on dealing with the clearly not happy bunny who actually needs my attention at that time.

Anyway it was that evening that I wrote about my slightly more sweary and slightly more rage fuelled post as I was feeling a bit shit about how the week was going. I’ve always been a mum who just loads up the pushchair with kids and a bag and heads out to toddler groups, the park, the beach, wherever and I’ve never really put too much thought into it but now I was starting to doubt my whole parenting capabilities as I couldn’t even run an errand to the bloody Post Office. So I had a bit of a cry and felt a bit sorry for myself. But then I snapped out of it.

I worked all day Thursday, but this meant I had two journeys in the car by myself to recharge. It meant I didn’t see the kids all day but peeking in on those sleeping rascals after a recharge gave me the push I needed to go into Friday with a very different mindset. Friday was a very different day to Wednesday. I bossed it which was just what I needed. The kids had the dentist first thing in the morning and we actually arrived on time to the appointment. They were all superstars in the room (our dentist is an absolute legend which helps a bit too!) and even the feral little one let her look inside her mouth which she’s never done before. We then met up with Pirate Laura and caught the bus to the theme park for a day of fun with her.

Then Saturday arrived and this was a really good day too. It was Polly’s 7th birthday- this has me full of emotions anyway as I can’t quite believe that my first baby is 7! We went back for another day at the theme park with Daddy this time though and he caught me off guard when we were eating some lunch. He said a couple of things about my parenting (unprompted which made it even more special!) that almost made me cry and that was honestly all I needed to complete the reverse from wound up, sad and stressed out Mum that started the week to just normal Mum me who finished the week.

We finished off the weekend with a trip up to the farm where Henry works so the kids could see the cows and we all got an ice cream. It was very impromptu as we were meant to doing Clara’s birthday day out but the place we were going to now doesn’t open on a Sunday (thank goodness I checked before we went!), but that made it all the better and it meant we could squeeze in a little visit to Nanny and Pops’ for a chilled catch up in their garden too.

So, all in all a bit of a mixed bag, they probably ate too many sweets and they definitely watched too much TV, we now have Britain’s Got Talent to thank for Polly naming her cuddly toy ‘Cowell’ as the winner Viggo was their absolute favourite, closely followed by the pants man who is to blame for the kids now shouting “I’m wearing pants” continuously at each other. But we also had a lot of fun and a little epiphany for me just for good measure. Anyway time to sign off now as the big two need picking up from school, I’ll try not to leave it too long next time!

This is a blog post that I meant to write up just after writing the last one but life chucked a few things at us so here I am finally writing it up a bit later than planned. If you’ve read the last post, seen any of my social media or bumped into me in the last couple of weeks you’ll probably know that my brother and I took on quite an adventure over the Easter break, this meant we ended up having 2 little mini breaks to book end the start and finish of that adventure.

We arrived in the Lake District on Sunday afternoon, staying at the trusted ‘Quiets’ with Oli and Faye. The weather wasn’t great but it did stop raining for us to enjoy an evening down at Derwent Water with fish and chips and some very excitable children. Henry stayed in the Lake District for another night with the kids whilst the rest of us headed up to Scotland. They then journeyed across to Wales whilst we were tackling Snowden and we all met up in the lush little cottage in North Wales for a relaxing break that we all needed.

Some highlights from the trip included having to drag Seb out the hot tub as he was loving it so much he would still be in there now if we’d left him. The rain lingered into Wednesday morning so we took a trip to a soft play which the kids enjoyed- Oli and I may have regretted this choice fairly quickly as chasing kids up and down slides with muscles screaming at you wasn’t the brightest idea! We found ourselves all sat in the toddler area trying to chuck plastic balls into a chute for quite some time till some actual toddlers forced us out. We did go for a nice walk once we’d got back and the rain had cleared, Clara made friends with a horse and Seb complained how tired his little legs were.

We did have an amazing afternoon at the beach the next day. The sandy beaches there are huge and we all had fun building castles, sand angels and giant holes in the ground. There was also some log rolling down the dunes. It was a great trip and the kids loved spending time with their Aunt and Uncle.

We were bought back down to reality with a big bump on the journey home though when I clocked a couple of red spots on the back of Polly’s neck. The bit I’d missed at the beginning of this post was that Seb came home for the Easter holidays with the dreaded chicken pox. Luckily he had been clear the day before we were due to leave but it did mean we were slightly on edge waiting for the girls spots to appear at some point in the following couple of weeks. They timed it to perfection and by the time we had arrived home both girls were covered. I am slightly relived we’ve now done the pox even though it wasn’t a fun experience when we were in it- the girls were so much worse than Seb, especially Clara.

The girls were on their last day of quarantine when I got that dreaded call from the school to say that Seb had had an accident and needed picking up. Luckily Henry walked back in the door as I was about to head down so I didn’t have to drag the pox girls out. Turns out he had fallen off of something and landed badly on his ankle which he now wasn’t able to put weight on. He was very reluctant to leave school and I literally had to prise him out of his teacher’s arms as he was adamant he was fine. It became clear pretty quick that he did need a little trip to the minor injuries unit at the very least. 12 hours later and after being sent on to A&E, a midnight trip through the McDonalds drive thru and a few very stressful phone calls and Seb arrived back home in Henry’s arms with a bright red cast and a broken ankle.

He’s been an absolute superstar about it to be honest. He was back at school late the next morning and apart from a couple of bad nights where he couldn’t get comfortable we’ve hardly heard a peep from him about it. He’s crawling and bum shuffling around inside and has booted his little sister out of the pushchair outside- although Clara thinks this is brilliant having to walk everywhere.

It also didn’t stop us celebrating the birthday boy himself last weekend with a trip to Crealy. It did mean we had to do a bit of child juggling so they could go on the rides they wanted to go on, I got 2 go’s on the water blasting one which was hilarious fun (I think I enjoyed it more than the kids!). Polly was also a superstar and drove Seb round on the little cars which he thought was great fun, even if her driving won’t be passing any tests any time soon as she drove straight over grass and hit the roundabouts the wrong way- ironically the ride is called ‘Driving School!’ The rain set in by the time we were getting ready to leave so we headed home for birthday cake.

The last week has been a bit of a blur of school and work so we’ve enjoyed a lazy morning today, Polly is currently being my hairdresser whilst the little 2 play trains and sneak more biscuits- they think I don’t know how many they’ve actually got through. Once Henry is back we are hoping that the weather sorts itself out so we can head out somewhere. That’s been the other big thing- he’s changed jobs. Our hours were clashing badly with him in hospitality and we were really struggling to get any time as a family and he was burnt out so he’s made the choice to go back into farming again. This means early starts (very early starts), separate washing baskets and having to share the car, but a much happier husband as he’s back with the cows which is his happy place! It’s completely changed the way our week looks and has freed up time for his fitness stuff again whilst also spending time the 5 of us again.

I’ll finish off with a couple of humorous paragraphs. Yesterday we were chatting about dinosaurs and the kids shared their own take on the meteorite that wiped them all out. Seb started by declaring that “a big ball of fire fell from the sky onto Dinosaur land and killed all the dinosaurs dead.” Polly then chimed in with- “So, did the first humans, who didn’t like the dinosaurs, go up into space and push the big rock down onto the dinosaurs?” Not quite baby, not quite.

Polly also gave us some solid gold whilst Seb was unwrapping his birthday presents. The kids are obsessed with The Mandalorian, especially Grogu, so we got him a cuddly Grogu which was the last thing he unwrapped. Henry was joking to the kids about what it could be and said ‘maybe it’s a baby, it can’t be a baby,’ Polly then turned to Clara and said “It can’t be a baby, it can’t be you because you’re already out of your packaging.” Henry and I nearly wet ourselves and are still giggling about it a week later.

I’ll finish off with this last bit, we obviously spent a lot time in the car with the kids the other week which provided some incredible quotes. So here are some of them, I’m not going to give any context as I think that makes them even funnier so here we go:

Me: “It’s just clouds, it’s not a tornado.”

Seb: “Look at that big thing.” Polly: “Guess what my favourite coloured horse is?” Me: “Yup, that’s your penis, and I don’t know Polly.” Polly: “It’s white.”

Everyone: “How much further?”

Seb: “How many more hours?”

Seb: “Polly, how big are you?” Polly: “I think I’m one cube bigger than you.”

Polly: “Why is that car overtaking you?” Me: “Because it’s going faster than we are.” Polly: “But I thought we were the fastest car in the world.”

Polly: “I saw a llama, or was it a camel?”

Everyone (especially Clara!): “Sheep!”

Polly: “How do we grow grass?”

Seb: “Look, there’s a garden on the roof.”

Polly: “If I were a cow I’d run away from everything.”

Seb: “Oh my God my bum came out.”

Seb: “The air is going 12 now.”

Seb: “Why why why why why why why?”

Polly: “Has time passed now?”

Polly: “It’s his first time going out of the belly.”

Seb: “I want to have a baby.”

Seb: “Huggle.”

Seb: “Is there a tank in my penis?”

Seb: “When are we seeing the giraffe?”

Seb: “I want to huggle Peter Rabbit. I want to eat Peter Rabbit.”

Polly: “Does a cow have 4 penises?”

Seb: “How is a cow born?”

Polly: “How is a chicken born?”

Seb: “We’re beating up that lorry.”

Earlier this week my brother Oli and I set off on the biggest adventure of my life and oh my goodness it was an experience I will never forget. On Monday morning we left Henry and the kids in the Lake District where we had stayed the night before and after a few hugs we jumped in the car and headed north. The drive up through Scotland was amazing as the scenery is something else up there, it did however, make the whole thing a lot more real as the mountains got bigger and more snow covered. We stopped for a late lunch not too far from our destination and the nerves really started to settle in.

Then just before 5PM we parked up at the bottom of Ben Nevis and got our kit together. The weather at the bottom was great, but you could easily see how people get lulled into a false sense of security that the mountain itself would be the same. Oli’s partner, Faye, who was our incredible support crew, wished us a final dose of good luck and we set off on the hour.

We set off with high energy and enthusiasm, chatting and looking forward to what was to come. The weather was kind to us on the way up and the views were breath-taking. There was a lot of laughing navigating the waterfall that crosses the path and we basically had the mountain to ourselves. Further up we crossed the mist line and said goodbye to those views, then a bit further up we found the snow line and donned the crampons. By the time we reached the plateau the snow was thick and all you could see was white. There was a slightly scary moment when a swirl of mist cleared to reveal a sheer drop under an overhang of snow which made it clear how easy it would be to make a fatal error. It was surreal making our way up to the summit in those conditions and the feeling of overwhelming joy when we spotted the top was amazing. We didn’t hang around at the top though and started heading back down within a couple of minutes.

On the way back down the wind picked up a bit and it started snowing, we did however get below the cloud line before it got dark so were treated to those views again. The drink on the side of Oli’s bag had actually started to freeze so we drank that pretty quickly too. We managed to get below the waterfall before the darkness swallowed everything. It was honestly like a light went out. Even with head-torches on we both had a couple of slips and we also spooked a few sheep. We made it back to the car 4 hours and 50 minutes after setting off.

We bundled into the car and devoured some snacks that Faye had gone to find. The drive back down to the Lake District gave us both chance to have a bit of sleep. Although we did stop at a service station for a quick pit stop, we must have looked quite a sight in our unusual attire but none of us cared remotely!

We arrived at the bottom of Scafel Pike in the dark and set off straight away at around 4AM. This was definitely a moment where my body screamed at me- “What the actual frick are you doing?!” It was dark and cold, my legs were already like jelly and the path up this one is basically straight up. We then had a slightly hair-raising moment where we lost the path slightly whilst crossing the river, not an experience I’d like to repeat in the dark!

It started to get lighter and we made some mountain friends- a mum who was being dragged up the mountain by her 2 teenagers- we shared a couple of stories then they overtook and disappeared up into the mist that was also at the top of this one. We knew Ben Nevis would be covered in snow but we weren’t actually prepared for it on this one so hadn’t bought the crampons along for this climb so the surprise sight of snow and ice made for an interesting challenge. We slipped and slid our way up and were very relieved to see the top of this one too. Again, there was no hanging around at the top though as it was also a white out.

We headed back down, with more slipping and sliding, the good thing was that once we were back below the cloud line we were treated to the stunning views that we’d missed on the way up. We also passed many people on their way up and were able to pass on some encouraging nods and the confirmation that yes there was snow at the top.

We arrived back at the car 3 hours and 54 minutes after setting off and literally jumped straight in the car and set off. This was the moment where we realised timings wise we actually would maybe be able to complete all 3 peaks in 24 hours, providing luck stayed on our side. We both managed a bit of sleep on the journey over to Wales and even though we hit a bit of traffic we made good time.

This was however, where our luck ran out. We arrived at the bottom of Snowden to rain and wind. The path was full of people heading down and we picked up our pace as the weather got worse and worse. My trusted pink boots were ruined within the first half an hour and my feet were wet through. Our hands were frozen too, so there were no cheerful videos and photos to document this mountain. She threw everything at us and our bodies were screaming at us by this point. We pushed on as the rain turned to sleet- this alone wouldn’t have actually stopped us. It was the wind. The gusts got stronger and stronger till they actually started blowing us off our feet. There were less and less people about as we crossed the halfway point. We pushed on and spoke to some of the last people making their way down, they warned us that the wind was only getting worse the higher you went and that there was an actual weather warning heading our way. Finally two thirds of the way up, with the top almost in sight, we huddled under one of the train bridges and had the conversation we really didn’t want to have. It was hardly a conversation to be honest, we both knew there was only one sensible decision to be made. As heart-breaking as it was, we made the call to stop, it just wasn’t safe to carry on past that point.

It was truly gutting to start heading down but we realised very quickly it was absolutely the right call. The wind was savage and we had to hang on several times, trying not to get blown off. We also came across an older couple who had also made the same call we had- they were very experienced mountain walkers and they confirmed that no-one else would be able to make the summit that day.

We arrived back at the car 3 hours and 15 minutes after we had set off, we were cold and wet, with shrivelled fingers and toes and feeling absolutely destroyed by this last beast (bitch!) of a mountain. We stripped off in the car park and clambered into the car and got under towels and blankets heading towards our little cottage sanctuary, fantasising about a hot shower.

In summary, I am so proud of what we achieved and even though we couldn’t finish that last bit of Snowden I know it wasn’t our choice- the weather made that choice for us. It’s also slightly encouraging to realise that we would have made it in the 24 hours if the wind had been kinder. It was one of the best experiences of my life, I also think it was the hardest- physically and mentally it pushed me to my absolute limit. I didn’t warm back up again for another 24 hours, when we had a good soak in the hot tub at the cottage and my body was in complete agony for days afterwards, my legs actually felt bruised.

A couple of people have asked whether I would try it again- as it stands it would be a no. I absolutely gave it my all and am content with the effort I put in. There’s always going to be a risk that something other than your own abilities would stop you from completing it and at the moment I wouldn’t want to try and re capture this experience, it was the right call to stop when we did but I don’t know if I could take that disappointment again especially as it’s not myself I’m disappointed in- it’s the weather.

On a final note I just want to say a few thank yous. To Henry and the kids for being believing in me and for putting up with me chatting about weather forecasts and equipment lists for weeks, but also for picking me up after. To friends and family who provided all the messages of support and encouragement leading up to and during the challenge- I honestly don’t think I could have even attempted it without a handful of people thinking I could actually do it. To Faye, the most incredible sister in law you could ask for, thank you so much for driving us literally all around the UK and for keeping us going and keeping us on track- you are honestly a hero! And finally, Oli- I really could not have done any of this without you, you were the best companion on the best adventure ever and without your help I would have stood no chance at getting up the first peak, let alone getting to where we did. Thanks Mountain Goat and good luck with your little run tomorrow (only my crazy brother would do the 3 peaks challenge and a marathon in the same week!), super proud of you.

I’ve been a bit slack again, oops. I’ve actually been a bit poorly over the last couple of weeks, so not only have I have not really felt up for anything including writing but this means that exactly that- there’s not been much to tell.

I was feeling a bit run down and just put it down to general life getting on top of me a bit, but just carried ploughing on, it wasn’t until I visited the chemist to get some cream for a rash that had appeared down my back did she put all my symptoms together and tell me to book a doctors appointment fairly sharpish. Yes, I had the joy of experiencing shingles. I can safely say it’s a fairly shit experience that I most certainly would not recommend to anyone. I conceded to having to have some time off work, actually listened to the nurse and spent a couple of days on the sofa and even got myself some vitamins. I’d say I’m 95% of the way there now back to my normal self.

This meant that today I stuck the walking boots on again after a bit of a reluctant break from that too and tested myself to see whether I could still walk up a hill- the answer is yes, so I made it 2 just to be sure. Oli and I also did a bit more research into our little trek next month and realised that conditions might be a bit different to what we naively were thinking so we’ve both been making some Amazon purchases to ready ourselves for a bit of snow. We’re both pretty excited about the challenge we’ve set ourselves and the hot tub break that we’ve got as a reward afterwards!

The kids of course have kept me on my toes whilst I’ve been parenting from the sofa and at times just blatantly running rings around my muddled arse (nothing new there). Clara is learning quickly from her siblings and when she farted in the kitchen the other day, I asked her “Did you fart?” Her response quick as a flash, “No, you fart.” Thanks mate.

Seb is bringing sarcasm to a new level too. Last week he asked me for triangle sandwiches in his lunchbox and I panicked when I realised my confused brain had started cutting wrong and he ended up with 3 triangles instead. The next morning he asked for triangles again, I said “of course, I did you them yesterday but you somehow ended up with 3.” He didn’t miss a beat and replied with “It’s ok Mummy, you tried your best.”

But of course, the Queen herself is still reining high on her chair of sarcasm and mockery. Polly outdid herself the other bedtime when she volunteered to read the bedtime story. She kept getting distracted and going off topic every time she turned a page. Henry got a bit frustrated and told her to hurry up- “Can you just get on with the reading, this chit chat is getting boring.” Polly didn’t waste a second and shot back with “you’re boring.” I had to bury my face in a teddy to mute the laughter. Maybe she has been watching too much Brooklyn 99?

As I say there really isn’t much else to report expect that Polly did make us very proud at the weekend with a project she’s been a part of with Rainbows who joined up with the local artists. They’ve helped make a big billboard in one the car parks in the town which is made up of lots of pictures of the town to celebrate how great Sidmouth is. She’s, rightly so, very proud of her picture and it’s quite something to see her name on the list of artists. It makes me feel slightly better about the fact that she’s turned the dining room table into her art studio with several projects currently on the go- I mean she’s now officially an artist so a girl’s gotta have some space to work on her stuff.

I’m going to sign off now as she’s also charged me with searching for her pencil case which I’ve neglected to do this evening. I should probably also get a decent night’s sleep and hopefully I’ll be up to 100% come the morning- I might have to actually start wearing a bra again too as that’s the true sign that I’m better and I can’t really use the illness as an excuse for my slack behaviour anymore. We’ll just have to see what the morning brings.

I meant to write up a post just after half term but the last week went by in such a flash that it was the weekend again before I knew it. Half term itself was a blur of playdates, binge watching Happy Valley (yes I know how late to the party I was!), a monster walk that turned my legs to liquid, work and a Disney pj day thrown in at the end to recover from a much more full on week than we’d planned. I worked quite a bit last week so today has been nice to spend some time with Henry- we went for breakfast with Nanny and Pops as an early birthday treat for him, but also to just have time together to sit and binge a bit of Clarkson’s farm and eat chocolate without it being stolen by the kids or having them jumping all over us whilst we try and have an actual adult conversation.

As I say the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur but there have been a couple of anecdotes the kids have provided us with.

Polly has started a new favourite game of ‘restaurants’ where she makes you up a plate of whatever you fancy from their little kitchen. When Henry came home from work at the weekend and sat on the sofa she was straight onto him asking him what he wanted, as a joke he replied “a poo” which she took in her stride and replied immediately with “you can’t order poo,” he then headed upstairs and when he came back he was greeted with a little plate of plastic food complete with a drawing of a poo from his savvy first born.

Clara has also taken on the restaurant game but she takes six requests to bring you your order as she usually declares “no, not got that” to most things when asked “what you like?” But she didn’t bat an eye the other day when Seb replied “children.” (We have Unicorse from Bluey to thank for that slightly disturbing reply!).

Another new favourite game the girls keep playing is ‘Mummy goes to work and takes baby to school on the way.’ The other day Polly had the little two playing her baby twins and me playing her teenage daughter whilst she went off to work for the day, but my god did she make me feel seen playing this bloody game when she huffed halfway through “this has been such hard work,” I asked her what had been and she tutted declaring “them” pointing at her younger siblings.

Seb made me realise I should probably be watching my language a bit more around them when he came downstairs after having a slight toilet mishap and boldly announcing “I’ve got bloody shit all over me!” Just to state he did not have ‘shit’ all over him, he hadn’t wiped properly and had a slight skid in his pants bless him but nothing to have a meltdown over.

Clara then let us know how quickly she’s growing up when she took a green stamp apart and got herself cover in ink. I told her “you’re looking a bit green there” and she replied “Yeah I should go doctors about that.” Thankfully it was just her that was green as I got hold of the stamp before she got too creative with the fixtures and fittings in the living room.

The sarcasm in this house is so high at present that no one can escape from it and Polly outdid herself this evening dishing out the burns. First off she presented Seb with a card that she had made him, he happily took it off her till he realised she’d addressed it ‘to poo Seb.’ I mean she had signed it off ‘love Polly’ but still! She then got me when she didn’t find my funny accent amusing whilst I was joking about washing her in the kitchen sink with the plates and she made me a lovely sign which simply read ‘stop talking.’ These kids are learning too much sarcasm way too quick that we can’t keep up.

I don’t really have much more to add tonight so I’m going to make another cuppa and settle down with some reading before the boy gets home and then we can shit ourselves up again watching the latest ‘Last of us!’ I’ll just leave this last little video of chaos which is the many faces of Clara watching her siblings have an argument about goodness knows what!

How on earth are we at a half term week already?! Like seriously where has that time gone?! We are just back from the park and the kids are in cosy pjs doing some science experiments at the big table whilst we watch a random spider man film (the 3rd instalment today of the same film- it’s been one of those days!). We misjudged how cold it was out there and they got covered in sand at the new park so we voted to have an afternoon bath instead of a bedtime bath, Seb was slightly concerned though that we wouldn’t be having tea and would be going straight to bed!

It’s been a fairly busy week so we don’t have too many big plans for half term, anyway last weekend was pretty full on. On Saturday we headed down to the Eden Project via a McDonalds breakfast. There were plenty of games of I-spy in the car, always an interesting experience with the kids anyway due to Polly’s versions, this time she was trying to get three turns by having Charmander and Evie (the Pokémon who’d come along for the drive) each have a turn as well as her. We play the colour version but you have to be prepared that the answer may be a car or a house that we went past four miles previously. We had a great time down in Cornwall and the kids had a blast running around the biomes. They loved searching out the frogs and birds and we also spotted the geckos hiding in a little hut. We weren’t so quick at spotting how feral Clara thought that after using a drinks fountain it meant you could get water from anywhere and started licking drops off a nearby bench.

We stopped at Tesco on the way home and picked up a naughty tea which we ate whilst Henry carried on giving the kids a Star Wars lesson- they’ve been watching them all through and during a particularly exciting scene with all sorts of things exploding Polly declared, “see this is why it’s called Star Wars.”

The next day after a long shift at work I joined some work friends for a spot of food and a bit of bingo, we had a proper laugh and two of us even won some money which is always a bonus.

Monday afternoon after school gave an absolute treat when we got to watch Polly’s dance class. This was definitely an experience I won’t forget. I went up with the little two in toe and whilst getting Polly dressed things got off to a great start when Seb randomly smacked Clara in the face and she then did a shit. A few minutes later we settled into the room with a fresh nappy and some cars to distract the rascal little two. Polly then put on quite a show. I’m not sure what the highlight was? Either when she twerked away towards us shouting “Mummy I’m going to fart in your face.” Or maybe when she just did her own thing completely instead of the routine they were meant to be doing. Or maybe when she shouted about how much money ‘Mummy won last night.’ All in all I spent most of the class hanging my head in horror hoping against hope that this isn’t her normal dance class behaviour (I’m assured it usually only last about ten minutes!).

The week also included the kids first school disco. Seb was adamant he didn’t want to go and Polly wouldn’t stop talking about how much she was looking forward to it. So you can imagine my surprise when I picked them up to find Seb bouncing off the walls about how much fun he had had (he’d changed his mind at the last minute and said he wanted to give it a try) and Polly stood at the top of steps screaming and crying about ‘the worst disco there has ever been.’ Turns out she just didn’t really want it to end and she was sad to have not been named a ‘top dancer.’ She banned Seb from talking about it on the way home but I did enjoy feedback from several of the mum’s who’d spotted Seb’s amazing dance moves.

I’ve also snuck in a couple of walks this week. I pushed myself to an almost 9 mile beast on Monday that went up and down several hills in the valley, it was a lush day for a walk but I did have some jelly legs after that! I did also set a very early alarm on Wednesday and went up one the hills into the woods in the dark, I then made my way along to the cliff and caught the sunrise which was quite a treat. I will make sure I don’t go for a dark walk after watching ‘The Last of us’ the night before again though as I got spooked a couple of times that a zombie might have been lurking behind a tree and almost shat myself when I spooked a deer across my path.

Anyway time to go and make that promised tea now, especially as Spider man has just come to a very dramatic end. We’re opting for a bit of Tinkerbell now to lighten the mood! Good luck to everyone out there for this week- we’ve already been through 687 snacks and 849 fights.

Every now and then I like to do a little summary blog on the realities of parenting so after a quiet couple of weeks this felt like a good time, so here goes, a random selection of points about parenting.

It will turn you into a blubbering emotional mess and you’ll cry at all sorts of random shit- like when your eldest makes her own storybook or the little one tells you “I lub you” or you run out of chocolate. Or things like TV programmes, I challenge anyone to watch the Bluey episode with the baby race and not turn into an absolute crying wreck, it gets me every time. A few years back it would have been something like Titanic that would set me off but now I realise Rose was a selfish cow as there was blatantly room for them both on that bit of wood and that kind of ruined the tragedy of the story so now it just takes a learning-to-walk cartoon puppy to tug at my heart strings instead.

Talking about programmes, it changes how you watch reality shows too- any contestant who has a family they want to support and that’s it I’m rooting for them. We were watching Next Level Chef the other day and I couldn’t give a monkeys what the others were cooking but the parents on there could have served up scrambled egg and they’d have my vote. Now I’m hooked as I need to know how well they do- I mean I’m also watching it for that angry chef who likes to cuss, as his angry chef cussing does something to me.

And binge watching takes a whole different turn, a few weeks back I was binge watching Bluey with the kids during the day and the Handmaids Tale by night. Quite a contrast and definitely two programmes you don’t want to mix up.

I was asked today whether I had baby brain and had to confess I still do, I honestly think it’s now a permanent feature. I can’t remember what I had for lunch but I’m pretty sure I can recount the whole of Encanto, dance moves included.

At some point in the parenting experience you realise that you are actually the adult and so therefore the rules come from you (sometimes this is not the case, like if Clara raids the snack drawer for the fifth time with puppy dog eyes and I can’t be bothered to deal with the fallout of saying no). This means that you sometimes start questioning why are you saying no to some things too- why can’t we watch a film at 8AM or eat ice cream at 3PM? The kids might come up with some crazy suggestions but honestly sometimes I have to concede that actually ‘why the hell not?!’

You will get attached to all sorts of things. I’ve just had quite the purge in the house and we decided to get rid of the older pushchair, the Winnie the Pooh one we got before Polly was born. It’s falling apart but this was still a hard moment and I couldn’t bring myself to hurl it in the skip and left Henry to do the honours at the dump whilst I shed a little tear.

The kids will also get attached to all sorts of stuff- rocks, a sweet wrapper, a dog they walked past along the sea front. Sometimes they get attached to toys you’ve already purged to the charity shop- I may have spent two days last week assuring Polly I was searching for a certain teddy that she hadn’t looked at in over a year as suddenly she was desperate to play with it, this also meant doing a quick walk past the shop where the teddy is now sat in a box by the window.

Your sense of humour may also become even more ridiculous. The other night the kids and I were hurling a toy ghost at each other all screaming with delight and we then decided to prank Daddy by hiding it under his side of the duvet, the kids thought it was hilarious, I did too to be honest.

You also get some solid gold moments courtesy of the kids. Question highlight of the week came from Polly- “Mummy what happens if we were to eat the sun?”

Seb came out with some gold on Thursday when the air ambulance landed near the school whilst they were on lunch break. I asked him if he saw the helicopter land and he excitedly declared that yes that had seen Postman Pat’s special delivery helicopter land nearby.

And finally the big two were playing a typical game of making dens the other day, they made houses living next to each other and Polly declared they were husband and wife, they didn’t have any children as that was a lot of effort, instead they had a cat called Rosie. She then started calling him ‘huz’ and I nearly wet myself laughing. Might starting calling Henry this instead of dickhead.

So basically it’s quite a mixed bag still, I think it probably always will be, but that’s what makes it what it is. One minute you’re catching vomit in a hat on a bus and the next minute a child has climbed into your lap, strokes your face and tells you that you are their favourite person in the world. You have to take all that comes out the bag and just remember we’re all strapped in on this crazy parenting ride together so buckle up, sing some Encanto songs, eat the ice cream and always keep a spare hat in the bag.

Well, Christmas feels like a million years ago already, the kids have been back at school five minutes and bought home the most horrendous sickness bug known to mankind. People often ask what’s it like to have three kids and I usually joke that three is a lot- there are just so many of them running around. But let me tell you three kids vomiting at the same time when you’re on nights is absolute fricking carnage. One highlight was literally passing the sick bowl between the girls as they did some tandem spewing, or maybe it was when I was cooking tea last night and Clara just waltzed into the kitchen and chundered at my feet with no warning what so ever. Anyway, it’s been a challenging weekend and my poor washing machine has been going round the clock and Henry and I are literally praying we escape this one.

Sitting here this evening listening to the tenth load of washing spinning around, with one eye on the baby monitor hoping that there won’t be an eleventh load and it got me thinking though about this time last year. This time last year I was pretty close to hurling myself as it was the night before I started the training session for a new job and like most people in that situation I was feeling pretty nervous and had no idea what to expect. Then, thinking about my drive home this morning with Heart blasting out in the car with a smile on my face and I realised I needn’t have been too worried as although it was a big change, it was one of the best changes I could have made. It was scary making such a change but joining the Green family on the phones has been amazing. Yes I’ve been shouted at and called all the names under the sun but it’s also been the most eye opening experience of my life and oh boy does it make you appreciate the little things in life like being healthy for a start. Plus I get to work with the most amazing team who get you through even the toughest calls.

Obviously at the beginning of a new year we all like to look forward to any plans we have on the horizon and may start making some more. We’ve got a few exciting things lined up over the next twelve months and are doing that thing where you realise that they are actually not too far away now that we’ve moved past that strike of midnight that everyone gets a bit excited about, and starting to realise we need to get more organised with said plans. The first plan is a walking challenge my brother and I are hoping to complete in April, hence me going on a few more walks than normal over the last few weeks as I really need to build up my stamina. It’s also been a good excuse to get back out into the countryside which is always a good thing, mind you the steps up the hill on my last walk almost killed me and anyone walking in the woods that morning may have thought an asthmatic pirate was stumbling around near them but six miles later and I felt much better and now have another route to add to my collection and hopefully in another couple of weeks there’ll be less breathless cursing when I attempt it again.

To be honest I’ve not got much more to add tonight, I’m slightly frazzled after the last couple of days and have an alarm set bright and early for another shift, plus I’m thinking the kids may be lulling us into a false sense of security right now as the monitor has remained quiet for too long, so I may actually be able to watch Silent Witness, although I’m not holding out much hope. So I’ll sign off tonight and try and not let big gaps between posts appear again like they did last year!