Friday Faves & Fails – Frogs, Birthdays and Woodchip
I was looking for a particular blog post for something the other day when I came across my old ‘Friday Faves and Fails’ posts, which I’d completely forgotten about!
So it inspired me to bring it back for this week at least. My old ones were really nice to look back on, and I don’t get much chance to write more personal, easy posts anymore, so I thought it would be nice to write one now.
I feel like I’m in a pretty good place right now with lots of good things happening to me, so I’m hoping there will be more faves than fails, but we shall see!
Faves
Being in a new area!
It’s the best thing ever, being in a different and much, much nicer after finally moving house, and I’m so happy about it. It’s so peaceful that it feels like we’re in the middle of the countryside when, in actual fact, we’re in a village. I can see trees out my window, and we can walk outside for a dog walk and walk multiple different ways along nice roads, which we couldn’t do before.
We’d wanted to move forever, and I’m so grateful that we were able to at last. Honestly, it’s completely changed our life already, and I just love our house so much. We have so much to do, and it’s hard not to try to do everything all at once and get rid of the woodchip that is EVERYWHERE, but we’re going to do a bit at a time.
It’s not that bad (apart from the WOODCHIP), it’s just not to our taste and some bits need updating, and the garden needs a lot more work (we’ve already done loads), but there’s no rush (she keeps telling herself).
Seeing family more
We’re now within walking distance to all of A’s three cousins, and so we’ve seen a lot more of them already. I love it and she loves it, and it now means when we go to her Grandma’s for Sunday dinner, which we usually do about once a month, we can walk home afterwards, which means we don’t have to fight over who is driving home and therefore can’t drink!
We also have to walk home up a big hill, which exhausts me currently, but it means we can burn off that big roast dinner and pudding!
Having people round to our new house for my birthday
It was lovely to have my friends and family round to celebrate my 40th birthday and the house move. We never really wanted to have people round before because our old house was just falling apart later on, so it was nice to get people round and see friends I hadn’t seen for ages.
There are loads of kids now, and I got the paddling pool and (reusable!) water balloons out, and they all had a lot of fun trying their best to ruin my new home!
Getting to go away a couple of times over the summer
It’s funny, since moving house I sort of haven’t wanted to go away – I’m in the area I’ve wanted to live in for so long and I love our house, so I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible, especially in the sunshine. But of course, both before and after moving house, there is always loads to do and boxes everywhere, and it’s a lot.
We were still in our old house on my 40th birthday, and going to be moving 4 days after, and I really didn’t want to be there on my big birthday, so we went to Norfolk for a few days, which was lovely. We were SO lucky with the weather after it had been pretty awful, so we spent lots of time at the beach and just getting away from it all. We saw loads of seals in the sea, which was amazing and made A so happy – she adores all animals, so she loved seeing seals in the wild and really wants to go back, as do I.
We stayed in a cabin in Happisburgh, which was a little cosy for three of us for four nights, but it was still lovely and a really peaceful site where you could walk to Happisburgh beach.
That was at the end of July, and then we’ve just come back from a few nights in Saltburn-by-the-Sea where we once again were really lucky with the weather and got to enjoy a wonderful afternoon at the beach with family who were staying in Whitby. Ava had so much fun with her cousins playing in the sea for hours with their bodyboards and a rubber ring, and it was so nice.
I managed to find a great apartment with the beach at the end of the road (down a big hill, mind) where you could see the sea from the dining table, and it was a great price for the summer holidays in such a great location, and we’d love to go back again.
Our new pond
There’s a little pond in our new garden, and we had planned on filling it in eventually, but there are lots of frogs living in it, and we’re all really enjoying spotting them and having some additional pet friends! Ava loves looking for them and talking about them, so I think we’ll keep it now. We won’t be getting any fish for it, as I have enough animals to look after, but I’m in the process of cleaning it up a bit for the poor froggies, and I’m going to get some oxygenating plants for it.
Fails
Scout at the beach is a nightmare
Our dog, Scout, both loves and hates the beach in equal measure. She adores running about on the sand and digging for stones and then chewing on them – which is vile and sounds horrendous – but she isn’t massively keen on the water and hates us going into the sea without her, but won’t come in properly!
So she worries that the sea is going to take us, and so spends any time we’re in the sea crying her absolute head off! It’s not nice for whoever has her on the beach if she’s on a lead and pulls to save her family, and I’m sure it’s pretty annoying for others on a busy beach!
Year on year, she seems to get more difficult at the beach, and it becomes pretty stressful. She loves digging for rocks and will carry them back to us and then try to chew on them, which is obviously so bad for her teeth, but also means she ends up eating a lot of sand which is also bad for her and gives her a bad stomach for a few days!
I don’t really know what on earth we can do about it, to be honest – we all adore spending time at the beach, but it’s hard work with Scout!
Feeling tired and old and haggard!
This isn’t about turning 40 because I’m quite OK with that and grateful to get older. It’s more about the fact that I haven’t had much time or energy to exercise every day over the last couple of months, coupled with going away a couple of times, celebrating my birthday (and celebrating and celebrating), and moving house, meaning I’ve drunk a lot, eaten what I want, and generally been overindulging for a couple of months.
I’d been exercising quite consistently before my birthday because I really wanted to feel better about myself for my birthday, but I was so busy packing up the house that I just didn’t maintain it.
Now, at the end of the summer holidays, I feel knackered and a bit uncomfortable, and so I’ve needed the routine of school days and normal life to give me the chance to get exercising again, drinking loads of water and eating better – so hopefully I’ll do that soon!
Woodchip is the bane of my life
I love our new house, as I’ve mentioned more than once – it works so well for us as a family, and we’re already spending so much more time outside and just together. But oh my word, there is woodchip on every single wall AND ceiling in every single room except for a small extension.
I have very un-fond memories of removing woodchip wallpaper from walls with my mum when I was young, and it slicing down my fingernail and causing me pain, as well as being a bloody pain to remove also.
We’ll be redecorating room by room, but I am dreading getting this horrible lumpy bumpy mess off all the walls and especially the flipping ceiling. Thank you to whoever decided to cover everything with it; much appreciated.
Have you had any particular faves or fails this week? I hope it’s been a good one for you.
Lou xx
