Catching Up

Well the good news is I survived half term last week and life is back to normal again.

It was the first time in a while that I've had to go out to work during the school holidays and finding out at the last minute that the football school the boys usually go to wasn't on, was a bit of a worry.

But thankfully friends rallied and as I only worked two days I managed to reciprocate their kindness later in the week.

The boys had a great time, they went bowling, to the cinema, on sleepovers and football in the park.  My eldest even managed bouldering - that's indoor rock climbing without ropes to the un-initiated like me. I even managed to persuade them to do a spot of homework!  

I didn't get much else done mind you.

Well, we've collected up all the sponsorship for our walk and we raised £267.10 which I'm really pleased about.  I've banked the money and Charlie has written up the project so all is well.  I'm going to carry on with the walking though - just as soon as I can get down the Greenway without my wellies.

At the moment I'm trying to edit some old stories and generate some new ideas because I feel that I need to create something new (editing feels more of a chore sometimes). I need an injection of enthusiasm!

Watch this space.

Take care all, hope you're having a good week.

We Did It

I wasn't 100% sure that we were going to do the walk today, as the weather forecast was awful and much better for tomorrow.   But we took the bull by the horns and went for it.

When we set off there was a slight drizzle, which got worse as we went along.  But we were all kitted out for the weather and although we were wet on the outside, we were dry on the inside until nearly the end.

It was a good job we took the wellies though because the path was flooded in places.

And we had a lovely mug of hot chocolate when we got back.

Looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow.

Doing a 10k Walk on Saturday

Firstly, hope you are all surviving the storms. Last night was pretty scary here, trees were flying everywhere, but we have  remained relativity unscathed so far, compared to other places.  (Fingers crossed).  My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering from the floods or those who have no electricity, you just never know whats round the corner do you?

Now, the subject of this blog is the 10K walk.

My eldest is doing the Archbishop of York Award through his school (similar to the Duke of Edinburgh Award), and the first task is to do some personal voluntary work / fundraising.

As he is only 12, Charlie wasn't too keen about going out into the community (bless him, he's shy), so he decided to do a sponsored walk instead.

The walk needs to be completed by the end of this coming half term, but when we did some research, we couldn't find anything suitable in our area.

So we decided to make up our own, which you can do through the Macmillan website.  Its so easy to do, they send you official sponsorship forms, you can design your own posters and they even send you a free T-shirt.  

Macmillan is also a charity which is close to our hearts as Charlie's Granddad, my father in law, died from breast cancer, so we have dedicated the walk to his memory.

Two weeks ago we did a dummy run (just to check that I could do a 10k walk!) along the Chester Greenway, a path which cuts through the center of the city - a bit more picturesque than having to walk along roads.  The only problem was that it was flooded part way along so we got a bit wet - twice.  

I'm just hoping the weather picks up by Saturday, otherwise we are going to have to take our swimwear, and possibly climbing gear to climb over fallen trees!  At any rate I'm taking the wellies!

So far we have raised £130 but if anyone feels like they would be willing to sponsor us, any donations would be most gratefully received.

Charlie has a just giving webpage at http://www.justgiving.com/Charlie-Middleton

At any rate, please wish us luck for Saturday, I have a feeling that we might get very cold and wet.  But whatever the weather we will be out there!  It might even turn into a run if the weather is really bad (perish the thought)

Targets!

I had a busy week last week, revising and resubmitting short stories.  This was in an effort not to let January be entirely wasted from a writing point of view.

You see, I’ve set myself a target to submit four stories each month and coming into the last week of the month, I was set to fail miserably.  During the month I had only subbed one story, and that had been rejected, along with two others. This left me with only one story out there and that’s been out for a while so is probably a no.

To be honest it sent me into a panic.  If I’m not sending stuff out then there really is no hope.

So last week I rejigged my latest rejection and sent it out elsewhere, and revised two other stories which have been rejected before, but which I am hoping are a case of me not finding the right home for them yet.

So technically I achieved my aim last month, even if what I sent out wasn’t new.

I did manage to write one story which is still in its first draft, and I will be working on that this month along with others, but it’s a pretty poor show.

In my defence, January was a difficult month, settling into my new job.  Apart from a new routine, it’s been mentally challenging so the last thing I’ve felt able to do when I come home is to either write or edit.

This month, I aim to send out four stories again – hopefully sending out stories more quickly than they are rejected, so I can build up my submissions.  Some of them this month might even be new material.

Motto for February – must do better!