The last three weeks have been busy so it’s a quick resume of life lately. As a family it was the end of the football season and straight into summer sports. My husband’s sport is a summer one so it definitely is ‘if it’s not on the calendar it’s not happening’ as we try to coordinate diaries with fixtures.

For my son, he’s enjoying the build up to finishing his school and going to a new SEN sixth form college. He had a residential to Center parks just before half term so the weekend before we had a shopping trip and hair cut to ensure he was prepped and looking good. The shopping list now includes powder and sea salt spray for the hair. He had a great residential although the house was very quiet. However, I didn’t quite get the benefit of child free evenings as my class were on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition on the same dates and I stayed to help with the evening activities. I didn’t camp as with the high level of medical need, I really needed to be on top form during the day and thus needed a good night’s sleep. I had a very impressive step count for this week with two days walking in expedition. Our route included some of the half marathon course I’m doing in October so it was a good recce and of course we eagerly spotted more mermaid tails. The mermaid trail finishes tomorrow and I’ve found a few extras last week so have finished with 2/3 of the collection. It was a nice little activity over the past two months.

May has been a good month for my running, I became the first woman to run 100 parkruns of my home parkrun and received a lovely little memento. Yesterday we had a really fun dinosaur themed parkrun. I’ve also been increasing my mileage in preparation of half marathon training. My official training plan starts during our holiday and as we’re on a cruise I’ll have limited opportunities to run, so my new plan is to start a week earlier, enjoy the cruise and focus on the training after. I’ve been creating running routes and am looking forward to the challenge.

Half term was quite tricky on family matters but we did enjoy a session at a water park and golf driving range. As the rest of the week didn’t go as planned, I used the time to plan for the upcoming birthdays, prom etc.. It’s a busy seven weeks til our holiday. I like to use my school holidays to plan as it helps me feel more organised and in control.

One of the half term highlights, was a check up at the nhs dentist. I haven’t had a nhs dentist for over 25 years so when our local dentist started accepting nhs we all signed up. I was relieved that despite not having been to the dentist in the last decade I only need a clean with the hygienist and a filling.

I do like the seasonal vegetables so have been doing lots of simple recipes with the most delicious fresh ingredients. Nothing beats the taste of a Greek salad with fresh, juicy tomatoes or an asparagus risotto. My husband has been busy in the garden and we have freshly harvested rosso lettuce too. My beautiful rose has been in bloom this week. I love this rose and it is very special as it was a 50th birthday gift from my wonderful neighbour. I miss her lots.

Hopefully that’s a sufficient catch up and fingers crossed next week it’s back to normal service.