Ditching sugar & taking control of feeling ‘eurgh’

I have, for a while now, been making an effort to listen to my body & especially take notice of how it reacts to the food I eat. I know that there are certain foods that would make me bloat up uncomfortably within an hour of eating them & there are some that have a slow burn, but I can wake up feeling like I’ve drunk 4 bottles of wine the following morning after eating them, even if I haven’t touched a drop! Whilst I have been off work, I had quite a bit of time to myself & decided to do some investigating into what could be causing this.

The weekend I fell in love*

*With my husband. Again.

On Friday Mr T & I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in the beautiful city of Barcelona & I fell in love. With Barcelona & with my husband.

I need to be very clear here: I never fell out of love with Mr T. I have just fallen for him all over again.

Brotherhood of Man #everycloudeveryday

Yesterday, on the M6 just outside Knutsford, I was part of something amazing.

To NCT or not to NCT, that is the question.

Not that I have that many but, newly pregnant friends will often ask whether I recommend them going to NCT classes (just to clarify, I mean I don’t have very many pregnant friends!). I know it’s an issue of contention & I suppose, I have two answers. The first is ‘YES!’ with a caveat of ‘Maybe not’!

Allow me to elaborate:

#everycloudeveryday The joy of giving, but sometimes not receiving.

I love Christmas, I love birthdays, I love weddings & I love Christenings. In fact, I love any occasion where I get to buy someone a present. I love buying gifts & the joy of giving. I’d like to think I am a thoughtful gift-buyer & take time to decide on the perfect present for the person receiving it.

It’s (not currently) all about me

When I started Project Happiness, one of the things I noticed was that I’d forgotten about myself. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, an employee, a sister, an aunty, a friend, a housekeeper & a cook, but somewhere along the way my identity of just being ‘me’ has got a bit lost. I’m not totally sure I know how it feels to shed these other titles & be me.

#everycloudeveryday ‘Holiday’ is a tricky concept for a toddler.

A while ago we went down to Devon for a week’s holiday. Little T knew we were going somewhere & had helped us to pack, but I’m not sure he understands the concept of a ‘holiday’ as it’s not a fixed, tangible ‘thing’. When we picked him up from pre-school, we said we were going on holiday & if he had a little sleep, we’d be almost there when he woke up. 

#everycloudeveryday Little T’s ‘Roary-isms’

Little T is a huge Roary the Racing Car fan & while we don’t watch tv regularly in our house, he requests Roary whenever he goes to my parents house & – grandparents prerogative – they usually say yes!

The voice of Big Chris, who is the mechanic in the show is narrated by Peter Kay & it is a proper broad northern accent, as you would expect.

#everycloudeveryday What do you want to be when you’re a big boy?

One of my friends bought Little T a DVD of Tractor Ted for his birthday last year & he loves it. Another favourite in our household are the ‘Harvest’ programmes that were on the BBC at the end of the summer, so it’s fair to say he has more than a passing interest in farming, which Mr T’s family are very pleased with.

Little T goes to my parents-in-law every Wednesday afternoon, after pre-school. They are dairy farmers &, as such, have very specific gender roles within the households – Granny does the domestic things, while Grandad does the more physical & demanding jobs. Little T often goes on to the farm to help with the jobs, such as feeding the calves or prentending to help with many other tasks – I’m not sure if he is more of a help than a hinderance sometimes, but they would never tell him that & are definitely encouraging the passion he seems to have for farming & all things farm-related. He can tell you more than I could about the workings of the farm, the animals, the machinery & can tell you what make a tractor is based on it’s colours. He waxes lyrical on the jobs he’s done on the farm most Wednesday evenings when we go to pick him up.

#everycloudeveryday Autumn days

At primary school, one of my favourite hymns was ‘Autumn Days’. I would sing at the top of my voice whenever we had it in assembly & I still hum it on days like today. For those of you not familiar with this musical masterpiece, it was in the ‘Come & Praise’ hymn book & the lyrics went: