Category: Parenting

Shaking the Blues Away ðŸ¥¶

As February starts to draw to a close, there is hope of sun, blue skies, and some warmth on our faces. And boy, does that help to lift your mood.

This last week or so, I have found myself sinking into a bit of a negative nelly mode. My motivation has been low, my self-belief even lower and I have just felt at a bit of a loss. I know what I can do to help me feel better, but I don’t have the inclination to do it and have purposely pushed against it. That Fcuk it button has been pushed multiple times.

It’s not lost on me that this coincides with it being around six weeks since I decided to close the Community Interest Company (CIC) I was working on. The initial relief at not being constantly on social media, having to put content together, thinking about marketing, and helping clients have turned into a feeling of loss and lack of purpose.

And I don’t know about you, but the weather really doesn’t help – although saying that, even on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I can still be found lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself!

So what can you do to shake off these negative vibes?

Continue reading “Shaking the Blues Away ðŸ¥¶”

Let me re-introduce myself…

With a four year hiatus in blogging, I have finally found the headspace to open it up again. Now on the slippery slope to 50, with a tween and an adult – the journey continues!

Well, well, well… it’s certainly been a while. Not sure if you remember me, but I’m Linda… and I used to write a blog! I actually did that for three years… and then took a four-year hiatus. The blog, called Tales of a Mother’s Daughter, originally centered around the diagnosis of Autism for my daughter when she has five, her food intolerences at that time and managing her Autism as she got older.

So, what’s been happening since I’ve been gone?

Not much has happened in that time – just a global pandemic lasting a couple of years, a war with Russia, football finally came home, we’ve had several Prime Ministers, and we celebrated our Queen reaching a record 70 years on the throne, only to lose her later in the year. I could go on and on – four years is a long time!

That time for me has also been different. I lost my freelance work thanks to the panic of Covid, launched a new business, nearly closed that business two years later… changed that business to a not-for-profit (CIC) then finally ended up closing it in January this year. There will be plenty of time for reflection on that, but for now, this decision has given me rather a lot of headspace. So much so that I have decided to start blogging again, so if you are reading this… thank you and I hope you stick around.

So, with that in mind, we have had a name change! ‘Mum Running Life’ reflects my love of running along with the fact that I often feel like I’m trying to find ways to run this thing called life effectively – usually without much success. Running has been a big part of my life for the past four years, given that my business was to do with encouraging people to run, so it seemed only fitting to have it in the title somewhere.

So, what will I be blogging about? Well, as I am on the slippery slope to 50, I am always on the look-out for how to feel better, look better, and function better, so there will be posts about the things I am trying – the good, the bad, and the ugly. The last time I blogged, I had a teen and a tween… I now have a teen and an adult! I will be chatting about the challenges that my daughter faces as an adult with Autism and also our journey for ADHD diagnosis – might be waiting a while for that one though!

So, if you’re not there already, you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram, sharing bits and bobs that make me laugh, make me think and keep me sane!

See you there and see you soon!

Much love

Linda x

Autism Vs Social Media… The ongoing battle!

I’m sure you’ll agree, teenagers and social media are not a great mix.  I don’t know what they get up to on their phones at that age, but with all the trolling and the ‘haters gonna hate’ mentality, it’s a brutal world online for a young, impressional teenager.  Add into the mix the Autism (Aspergers) aspect and it can be a recipe for disaster.

For months and months, I was debating whether letting my daughter have social media on her phone was a good thing or not.  Up until just before Christmas we’d had a few occasions where she was not using the phone appropriately. Continue reading “Autism Vs Social Media… The ongoing battle!”

Reflection & Intention… not New Year Resolutions!

happy new year decorative plate

Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels.com

Well, here we are again at another New Year! It doesn’t feel like five minutes ago since we were sweating our arses off in the hottest summer since 1976 and hoping that football was finally coming home… and we’re still hoping!

The Christmas break certainly gives us the chance to reflect over the past year and look at our achievements, our challenges and how we can make the next year even better…. along with drinking our body weight in Gin and eating the entire box of Thornton’s chocs (just saying!).

Continue reading “Reflection & Intention… not New Year Resolutions!”

Going with the flow & not sweating the small stuff at Christmas!

close up of christmas decoration hanging on tree
Photo by Gary Spears on Pexels.com

Excited for Christmas!

Actually, for the first time in a few years, I am excited for Christmas!

Not to sound like a miserable cow, but I must admit, the last couple of years have felt a bit shit without Mum being here. She was my Christmas. So much of how you celebrate the festive period is built around how you spent it as a child.  All the traditions, the smells, the songs, the 80’s brash decorations! I loved all of it!

I certainly don’t want this to be a sad blog just before Christmas, but I know a few people that are experiencing Christmas for the first time this year without one of their parents, or a parent that is incredibly ill, and I just want you to know that you’re in my thoughts.  It doesn’t seem like it now, but I want you to know that it does get just a little bit easier as the years pass.

Crying for Mum… or George Michael? Continue reading “Going with the flow & not sweating the small stuff at Christmas!”

George’s Hypno Journey… Part 2!

So, I’m back to finish the story about when we took our nine-year old son for hypnotherapy following his panic attacks about taking our little dog off her lead.

The first time we went, I can’t lie, George was a little giggly and I did suspect that he didn’t really ‘go under’. The massive panic attack and throwing himself on the floor that followed a week later, kind of confirmed it!

So, in the spirit of not giving up, I text the lovely Michelle at Fairy Heart Therapies and asked if we could come back to see her. Thankfully, George was very keen to do this too… he was desperate to get this problem sorted. Continue reading “George’s Hypno Journey… Part 2!”

George’s Hypno Journey… Part 1!

After a year of panic attacks, it was time to take some action to help my son get over his fear of letting our dog off her lead… so, after trying to solve the situation in a number of different ways with no success, we looked at Hypnotherapy!

For the last 14 months, my son George has found it impossible to cope when it comes to taking the dog out for a walk.  He could just about manage to walk her on the lead, but any time it came to taking her off the lead, he would suffer with severe panic attacks.  This trigger of panic all stemmed from an incident that happened when our dog was just a few months old. Continue reading “George’s Hypno Journey… Part 1!”

I’m a ‘Queen of Comparison’ living in Funksville!

I know… I’m talking in riddles again! Just hear me out on this one… it’ll be worth it!

Theodore Roosevelt once said ‘Comparison is the Thief of Joy’.  Well last week I really felt that someone had stolen my joy!  You could argue that I maybe it was ‘that time of my cycle’, but if you’ve read ‘Be Still My Beating Ovaries’ you’ll know that just isn’t happening (though I swear I still have some kind of ‘cycle’). Whatever was going on, I was really not happy and it’s all because of comparison… or as my mentor calls it ‘Comparisonitis’! Continue reading “I’m a ‘Queen of Comparison’ living in Funksville!”

Be still my beating ovaries!

silhouette of man touching woman against sunset sky
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So, how did I come to the decision to have my ovaries removed?

Yes, you heard that right. At 37, I made the decision to have my ovaries removed… I went into hospital and had the old egg factory shut down for good!  It wasn’t quite as straight forward as that, so let me explain what happened.

I remember back in 2012 there being a lot on the news about the cancer gene BRCA1 and BRCA2 which are the genes that are recognised as the breast cancer gene. For a while there had been a lot of talk about how you could get tested if your family had a history of breast cancer and when I thought about it, this meant me!

My mum, whilst in her 40’s, had pre-cancer cells identified after a breast reduction operation – they were found in what the consultant took away (more details in my boobs blog).  My Nan had breast cancer, as did her sister.  There was only one other sister (my great Aunt) that had so far escaped.

For those carrying the gene, there was a very difficult decision to make considering whether they had surgery, or whether to have more regular check ups dependant on their chance of the gene turning into cancer.

For me there was another reason why I wanted to look into this.  Mum was fighting ovarian cancer and there is a clear link between breast and ovarian cancer.  There was no way I would want to put myself at risk, especially with ovarian cancer being called ‘the silent killer’ due to its lack of symptoms in the early stages. Continue reading “Be still my beating ovaries!”

Writing ‘My Story’! Intro week of ‘Get Excited About Your Life’

blackboard chalk chalkboard concept
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This week I started my Introduction or ‘On Boarding’ for my new course ‘Get Excited About Your Life’.  This is a course which will help me to look at key points of my life and help me to move my mindset to a positive place which will inevitably help my business.

We’ve had a few actions to take on for this introduction week – one being to do a Facebook Live to our group.  Now, for me it was fine as I’m a complete show off, but for some of the ladies in my group it was a real baptism of fire… and they all nailed it!

The other big task for the week was to write ‘My Story’.  No rules, no template to follow… just write my story as I ‘feel it’.  This will be used as the basis of my 1:1 sessions with my mentor Andrea.

Jeeez! Where to start with that! How long should I make it?  How much detail is required? Continue reading “Writing ‘My Story’! Intro week of ‘Get Excited About Your Life’”