Thursday photo #296

With the last piece of Christmas cake and mince pie consumed, the children trotted off back to school. And just like that, the holidays were over. It’s amazing how quickly we snap back into a routine.

Creating new habits

This year, I’m trying to do things a bit differently. I’ve picked up some more editing work so I need to keep the days free for that. So, I’m running first thing in the morning before my husband goes to work, then again in the evening before dinner.

I’ve never really run more than once a day before, but I needed to up my mileage for the marathon and fit it in around work. So, the logical thing to do was to fit in my morning run earlier and change my evening dog walk to a run. I still haven’t decided when I’ll fit in a long run each week, but perhaps that will become more clear when I’ve finished my tax return.

Trying new sports

The girls have always done loads of different activities, but occasionally even I’m amazed at the opportunities they have. Before Christmas, we noticed that their riding stables were running a pentathlon. It involved swimming, cycling, running, horse riding and nerf shooting. Of course, they were desperate to sign up. It took place on Friday and as predicted, they loved it. I don’t think it’s going to be something they’ll do regularly, but it was a great experience for them and they came away with a rosette each.

Pentathlon isn’t the only new sport they’re trying out this month. For some time now, Libby has been asking to play water polo. Being quite small for her age, we’ve been putting it off. Her swimming is excellent, but water polo is quite a physical sport so we wanted her to be fully confident before letting her get in.

After much pestering, we’ve decided to let her give it a go. So this week, we’ll be going along to a junior training session at my old club. Optimistically, I’ll be taking my costume as well, hoping to get some training in myself when she finishes. I had always hoped to go back to water polo in some form. I didn’t expect it to be as a parent watching quite such a little one play.

Thursday photo #296

I grabbed the girls for a photo last night before they went to bed and they insisted on having poor Rupert in the photo with them. His face explains how keen he was on this idea.