Just Beginning

JUST BEGIN

There comes a point when you feel ready for a change in your life.

Looking over my Facebook profile – I see it all…family photos, smiling children, exciting holidays and adventure…what a fun and fulfilling experience my life must appear! Quite at odds with how I feel at times. When I stop to reflect, I often think of the difficulties, the struggles, the worries, the frustrations, the feeling that I’m not quite getting things right and I wonder if I’m the only one feeling like this. It seems that everyone else I know is managing so well and that it is only me who feels uncertain.

I have started this blog to address the balance, to be honest about the ups and down, rather than creating a facade of perfection.

Sometimes I feel my life is on a treadmill of….

MUM!!!!! Kaelyn just took my hair brush and she won’t give it back!!

MUM!!!!! Lorna glared at me and stuck her tongue out!!

MUM!!! MUM!!! MUM!!!

At these times, if I can find a quiet corner of my mind, I think to myself… ‘I didn’t plan that it was going to be this way’… ‘this is not how I imagined it would be!’ Sometimes I have no idea what is the best way to deal with situations.

In my grand plan of life, I truly believed that I would have ‘good children’. I wouldn’t need to ask my children anything twice. They would keep their rooms tidy, do their homework without being asked, be close as siblings and my house would be a place of calm.  Of course!! How could it be anything else?? I would be firm, but fair with a sprinkle of fun…practically perfect in every way, Mary Poppins no less.

Slowly and surely I discovered that my gorgeous, perfect babies were developing opinions, determination and their own free will and didn’t always agree or co-operate. In fact, I couldn’t confidently even say they like each other!! That was certainly not in the plan!

Parenting is a challenge…a constant changing challenge, not something that I had expected and I wish I had understood this sooner and I might have approached things a little differently, or taken the time to learn some parenting techniques that could have helped a bit over the past years.

Occasionally I have struggled at times to remain positive and have had some difficult times, where I have faced a lot of self doubt and even wondered whether this parenting just wasn’t ‘my sort of thing’. However, I’m a firm believer in keeping positive and finding solutions and so recently I have been looking around for some guidance and direction.

I am fully aware that I will soon be facing the oncoming challenge of the teenage years, and feel that now is the time to make some changes to ensure that I have the strength, mindset and skills to manage, so that as a family we can successfully negotiate our way through the in any difficulties a positive way.

This blog is the start of a new journey. I will be committing to making some changes which I really hope will improve my life. The two areas of commitment I will be focusing on are:

1. Health / fitness

I hear everywhere that eating well and exercising has a huge influence on how we feel within ourselves. I have previously taken up a bit of running and have actually quite enjoyed it, but have never managed to stick to any sort of plan or proper routine. So, I will be committing a fitness regime. I will be starting as a complete beginner and sharing my journey on the way. I have a very sedate office based job, so I will need a fitness regime that I can do at home, which is enjoyable and varied, otherwise I know I would be at risk of losing motivation. I don’t think I will ever find the time or dedication to actually leave the house to go to a gym, so finding some sort of exercise at home is definitely the way forward!

2. Parenting

I am also committing to learning more and finding some methods to help me deal with some of the parenting challenges I face. I have read a few books and even bought an online course about parenting, but I’m not sure how much I took in and so I will be going through the information again, focusing on finding techniques that I can use and action.

I will be blogging my progress with this journey. The reason for sharing this is that I hope it will ensure that I remain committed and focused and if anyone would like to follow or even join me in my adventure, that would be awesome!!

I’m sure there are so many people who could offer advice or perhaps are going through similar challenges and I would love to hear your thoughts. Perhaps it might be a bit reassuring to know if others are also struggling, perhaps it is something that we don’t always talk about whilst we are busy posting our smiley pictures on Facebook?

I welcome you to share in this journey with me!!