Liked and loved – June 2017

I can’t quite believe that it’s the end of June already, and that we’re halfway through the year.

And writing that has put this little rhyme in my head:

“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

Really though, how did it get so late so soon?

June itself has been a pretty quiet month.  We’ve not really been up to much, and have just done a fair bit of pottering and pootling about at the weekends.  So it might not be the most exciting of lists, but here are the things I’ve liked and loved in June.

Baking with Nerys

One of my favourite things to do with Nerys while Rhys is at school is to bake.

She is getting so good at it now, helping me measure out the ingredients and mixing them all together.  She’s starting to get brave with cracking eggs too, and it’s fascinating watching her tap them on the edge of the cup, trying to work out how hard to do it.

We’ve baked a few different things this month, alongside our trusty fairy cakes.

We were sent some yummy Tractor Ted cheese to try and made some simple cheese pinwheels with it, which were really good.  We’ve also made my chocolate banana bread a couple of times this month, as our bananas seem to be getting over ripe really quickly at the moment.  I don’t know if the heat has something to do with that?

I’m not complaining though, that banana bread is really tasty!  And I enjoy baking with Nerys so much, especially as she’s going through a phase of wanting to do the washing up at the moment so I don’t even have to do much cleaning up afterwards.

Celebrating Father’s day

With Rhys and Nerys still being so young I tend to buy presents for my husband on their behalf.

This year though, as well as the gift I picked out for him, he also had 2 little presents chosen by the children themselves.

Their school organised a sale where they could go in, pay £2 and pick out a present for their dad.  They had help wrapping the gifts up, and then were under strict instructions to keep it all secret until Father’s day.

Rhys and Nerys were so excited about the whole thing, it took a lot of effort for Rhys especially to keep his choice a secret!

He managed it though, and was just so happy to hand it over on Father’s day and watch Steve open it.

It was socks by the way.  Which might not seem that thoughtful, but he’d seen Steve buy new socks the week before, so in his 6 year old’s mind that meant he must like socks.  So he bought him some more.  Very thoughtful in my book!

And Nerys chose him a Newton’s cradle of all things.  Slightly random, but a lovely thing for him to have on his desk at work!

Seeing Nerys grow

Speaking of Nerys, one thing I’ve really loved this month has been watching her continue to grow and develop.

She is a much more imaginative child than Rhys was at the same age, and has been showing a really nurturing side lately.  At the weekend she sat on the sofa and got us to put the cushions up around her to make a little ‘house’.

Then she sat inside for ages with her Doc McStuffins toy and her baby doll, chatting away to them.

In other news we heard the other day that she has got a place in the nursery class at her school for September which is a big relief.  She’s so happy there in the little class she’s in at the moment, I would hate to have to try and settle her somewhere else.

Starting to exercise again

I’m writing this feeling ever so slightly sore as I’ve just started exercising again.

Before I had the children I used to do loads of exercise.  I would go for runs (well, jogs) along the seafront, I would go to the gym several times a week to classes and to use the equipment and I would do workout dvds at home.

I’ve really struggled to get back into it though, since having Rhys and Nerys.  But I’ve been looking back at old photos recently, and thinking how different I look now to how I looked at the peak of my gym-going-ness.  I don’t think I’ll ever get back to the body I had back then, it’s been changed so much by 2 pregnancies.  And I’m ok with that.  But I would like to be a bit slimmer, and a lot stronger than I feel at the moment.

So, I’ve started doing the 30 day shred dvd.  I’m not doing it ‘properly’ because I think I would quit if I went too full on and tried to do it every day for 30 days.  Instead I’m aiming to do it 3 times a week, which I managed last week.  Hopefully I’ll stick with it and see the benefits at the end!

So there we are, the things I’ve liked and loved in June.  

I’m already looking forward to July, as long as the weather holds it’ll be off to a great start with the Wales national airshow next weekend – I can’t wait!