New Years Resolution - 2

Quite simply "be healthier" I've eaten far too much cake, drank too much caffeine, been to one exercise class all year, and not touched a skin care routine for so long. And now it's all finally caught up on me. I'm not going to reverse the situation overnight or in a couple of months but if I can look back at the end of the year and maybe weigh a little bit less and my skin looks a little bit healthier then that's the aim.

So 2013 is the year to improve the situation - I haven't got time to cook from scratch every night or go to the gym 3 times a week but I have got time to make small changes and these are what I am going to work on.

So 2013 - 2 short to the point resolutions that hopefully will lead to bigger things. Bye bye cake !!

New Years Resolution - 1

I've thought about next years resolutions and I've come up with 2.

The first one is "Budget", I'm not the worse person in the world with money (good job as I'm an accountant) but this year is going to be an expensive one - if all goes to plan I'll be moving into our proper forever home in a couple of months - there'll be various expenses, plus I want to make sure the monkeys and I continue to be able to have holidays (first one to be booked next week) I do not want to be worrying about money so my first resolution is budget and track. I've downloaded a cash tracker app - got my savings tin at the ready - I'm ready for a financially savvy year.

Me and My Blog

This time last year I had a few resolutions - the main one being I wanted to write a blog. I told my best friend - she laughed - I didn't tell anyone else for a while. I know why she laughed - I stick at nothing- a blog to be updated and thought about well it wasn't going to last longer than the second week in January - and deep down I agreed with her. I'm an accountant - my childhood dream of being a writer was washed away a long long time ago - and I'm not confident in what I write nowadays, I'm too used to dealing with numbers. Still I ignored her giggles - becoming single has given me a different sort of confidence - a sort of sod you I'll prove I can do it on my own confidence that I don't think I had before. I was always confident to a point - but  listened to others and if they thought I couldn't do it then I probably didn't push it or gave up believing them to be right. However now my life is on a completely different track to where it was 2 years ago - and this little blog - is a little record of just how good the last 12 months has been for all of us. My goal was to write it for 12 months - that was my aim and 140 posts later I know I've achieved a good record of 2012. I don't have much time in life, my laptop at home rarely gets charged up (but that will all change next year), I don't carry a camera around with me - but what I do have is my IPhone, I take pictures of everything and I can write a blog post anywhere and at anytime. This blog is not the most technical or inspiring piece of writing on the web but it is my record of a great year.

Roll on 2013 - I'm just thinking about what resolutions to set next year - now I know I can stick at something then maybe my goals should be a bit bigger.

Happy Christmas

What a lovely Christmas day - life is different to how I expected or how I wanted - the monkeys spend time with their Dad and my fantastic Dad is no longer here - but I try my best to enjoy the day and I did enjoy it all.
The monkeys were so excited - pink monkey was ripping open presents screeching "it's mine, it my (insert word), mine" I've never seen her so giddy. Blue monkey was just as excited - he seems to love all his presents but pointed out no hot wheels (I had to laugh - luckily he's got some pennies to spend on his dream track in the sales).
All food was pre-prepared so it just went in the oven - although to be honest the meal wasn't my highlight - monkeys not too bothered and I'd have been happy with something simple. My highlight was spending the day with my 2 amazing children and my lovely mum - I spent the afternoon fitting batteries for the kids and setting up my mums kindle fire. I too was a very lucky girl this year - I've had some brilliant presents off my friends I feel really lucky.
Bedtime now and looking forward to a chilled boxing day.

Party time

It was the big works Xmas do last night - another chance to get glammed up and dance the night away. My lovely mum had the monkeys overnight so I could stay in a hotel and got a little lie in to recover. It was a great night - everyone was in such a good mood. Just feeling a little bit fragile today - and I hope there is no video of me doing my best gangnam style dance.

Very crafty night

Craft night comes but once a month and last night was our last one of the year. We decided to make Christmas wreathes - I used mini baubles to add some colour and K used flowers hers was very pretty (but I forgot to take a photo).
I also had another picture request - this time for a boy so I made one with his initial and his name, I hope they like it.
Finally blue monkey finishes next week for Christmas and I wanted to give his teachers just a little token of our appreciation - they are so responsible for him settling into school so well (he knew no one when he started) and he has made so many friends, he can now write his name and is beginning to read - its been a brilliant few months. I'd seen various hot choc ideas on pinterest and although mine wasn't as good I was still pleased with the end result.
So this week has been very productive - I think all Xmas presents have now been bought, the turkey ordered and now I just have some wrapping to do before Father Christmas comes to visit.

The Xmas Fayre

Today was the Christmas Fayre at blue monkeys school and as I have probably mentioned before (numerous times) I'm on the PTA and ran the cake stall. 4 hours on my feet was worth it as we raised lots of money. The monkeys were happy eating cake, winning chocolate on the tombola and getting their faces painted.
I've spent tonight stamping out hundreds of hearts to finalise the few orders I've got outstanding. Looking forward to getting them finished and wrapped up.

Party time

So the christmas party season has started - yesterday was our wider team event which had us running round Manchester asking strangers to take pictures of us in random places (in fancy dress) then at night it was off out for a meal and plenty of drinks - I had to leave a little bit early to go and celebrate with my friend at her wedding reception. It was a great day although I feel absolutely shattered today so have made the most of being monkey free and had an afternoon kip and am now lying on the sofa watching strictly come dancing and trying to motivate myself to make some food.

Beautiful blue monkey

So the weekend has come around again and we had plenty of things organised. Nanna wanted to take blue monkey to the cinema but blue monkey wanted mummy to take him - so he got the best of both worlds; lunch out and the cinema with mummy (pink spent the afternoon with nanna) then we swapped blue is having a sleepover with nanna and pink came home with me. I took blue monkey to pizza express for lunch - I even treated myself to a small glass of wine - he got an ice cream sundae! Then it was off to the cinema to watch Nativity 2 - it wasn't the best but it was good to get us in the Christmas spirit. I laughed out loud at one point - and he told me to shush no one else is laughing - that made me laugh even more as that would have been the exact same thing I said to my mum (he is def my son).
Tonight I've been baking in preparation for tomorrows Xmas fayre at blue monkeys school - I'm on the cake stall - fingers crossed it goes well.