"There is sunshine in my soul today"

The sun coming out makes a huge difference to our moods and productivity. It's been a wet and gloomy few weeks in Shropshire, so we've tried to make the most of the sunshine when we've had the chance. I've been meaning to renew our National Trust passes for over a year and something about the bright sun and blue sky this week was all the motivation I needed to get that sorted. With our temporary passes in hand, we headed straight up to Attingham park to make the most of the weather before it inevitably disappears and we are left with the wet and cold again.

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."

I'd purposely not weighed myself in over a year because I'm disappointed with myself for letting my exercise come to a stand still. I still get out walking with the boys and play a lot of Hockey with them but I used to go out walking and sometimes running and it was part of the reason I lost over 3st a couple of years back. It's so easy to let things slide and although I've said in the past 'I don't have time'  and 'I just want to relax of an evening ', I am the only one to blame for the weight that I have put back on.

When I received a surprise package just before Christmas and was also told that one of the main aims for micro scooters during 2017 was fitness, I knew it was time to make a change. It's no shock to anyone that I love scooting, if you are local to us you probably see me and the boys whizzing about the streets and we can regularly be seen adventuring around the streets of London, museum hopping. I've never really pushed myself on the scooter to use it for proper workouts, but 4 weeks ago that changed.

It all started one evening when I had nothing to do. It was dry outside and I'd picked up some lights so I thought 'what the heck I'll go for a scoot'. There is something so therapeutic about scooting, just me, the wheels and some great music to keep me motivated. I scooted 6 miles that night and although I tackled some pretty steep hills and had been out of breath a few times, the last leg back home had 10 minutes of flat, making it the perfect wind down, which meant that I was completely relaxed by the time I reached my front door.

It's safe to say that I was hooked from that moment and my evening scoots have become a regular thing. After arriving back home after the 6 miles I realised that I could have actually scooted a lot longer. So when I went out again I changed my route and added a little longer to the journey, coming in at just under 9 miles. This was then extended to a 10.7 miles route and then to 13 miles.

So this is what I've stuck with as it's the perfect route with a great variety of up hill, down hill and flat. Sometimes my route is a little shortened depending on how brave I am feeling as there is 0.5 miles of unlit road in a quiet area and sometimes I just don't feel like chancing it. Other times though I find myself with a little more time in the evening if I have started out early, so I scoot for longer. My top distance so far has been 15.3 miles and what is really interesting is that even after that I probably could have carried on, because scooting doesn't put the same strain on your legs as running.

 

This solo scooting fitness adventure started on the 5th of January. I weighed myself that morning and I was pretty disappointed by the fact that I had put on 2.2st over the last year or so. It was all the motivation I needed to make this change.

I weighed myself last week and was shocked to see that my evening scoots have taken 9lbs off of my weight which is a pretty amazing start I think. I cant wait to weigh myself in a few weeks to see if there is much change again. The great thing about this exercise is that I love scooting, so it's not a burden and I'm not having to force myself out of the house of an evening. Scooting with the boys on our home-schooling adventures has been a huge thing for us over the last few years and now these solo evenings are something to look forward to with a weight loss goal that is getting closer with each evening scoot.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

At least once a year I write about one of our favourite hidden adventure spots in Shropshire. It's not very often that I find a place that I want to keep going back to, but Shropshire has some really interesting places to hang out and has been perfect for Opeie's homeschooling. A friend of ours introduced us to Cosford Grange a few years ago and as soon as we turned into the secret looking drive that leads up to the B&B I was completely hooked by its curious sculptures and interesting looking trees.

The woodland walk sign doesn't really prepare you for what you are about to find as you walk down the steps. The over hanging rock face (if you know the area) doesn't seem like it belongs there, which makes the place really interesting. Add that with the interesting statues, hidden play house and various paganesque and other religious trinkets and you've got yourself a pretty amazing place to visit.

What I love most about the place though is how peaceful it is. In all the times we've been there we've never seen another person, apart from the chap who runs the b&b and because it is so quiet the woodland area is rich in interesting wild and plant life, making it the perfect place for a spot of drawing/painting which we had planned for that afternoon.

After walking along balance beams to get across the pond the boys found a quiet spot under some huge leaves and let their artistic flair run wild. I love those quiet afternoons when hardly anything is said because we're all busy doing something fun and are content in our surroundings.

I'm not sure if Cosford Grange woodland is extremely well thought out or completely random. The trees with all the shoes nailed to it does make me think the latter. Which ever it is though, it really works. Our arty afternoon was so relaxing and again not another person to be seen at all. Just us our canvas' and paint. It is local places like this that really make me feel lucky for being in Shropshire now. Since the day I moved here this place has felt like home and this very special place is the perfect place for adventuring with my two special boys.

"I'm inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age."

I love scooting!!! but despite all the amazing fun I have with Opeie and his friends I have been longing for another slightly unhinged parent who like me has no shame at all to go whizzing around with. When me and Opeie are out together scooting about there is a mixture of reactions we get from passers by, mainly a lot of "awwwww...", and rightly so, we must be the cutest scooting duo around. Occasionally though I can see people mumbling 'look at that idiot' or words to that effect. Honestly I couldn't care less as the only thing I care about is the huge smile on my child's face and I needed another parent to share that with.

We planned yesterday to meet up with our friends Emma and Matthew from Another Last Story. Matthew is the proud owner of a brand spanking new Mini Micro in celebration of his fourth year on the planet and we hadn't yet been out burning up the streets with him so we couldn't wait to get to the park and see what he could do. I still had my Micro black in the shed and it was a great chance to load it in to the back of the car so that Emma could scoot too.

The first 5 minutes of our scooting adventure was a little hairy when Matthew decided to tackle a hill despite not quite mastering the use of the brake. As we all watched him pick up speed and fly towards a brick wall I thought a hospital visit would be taking up the bulk of our afternoon but luckily those brown cords he was wearing slowed him down and the smile on his face as he looked back said 'don't worry, everything is okay!'

As always for a midweek afternoon play date we had the playground to ourselves, which gave the boys plenty of space to run about and for me and Emma to act like imbeciles. There was a moment where I covered Emma in a handful of dead leaves and was trying to use my phone so that she could use it as a mirror to clean herself off. Sadly the excitement was too much for me and as she looked at me like a mental case I realised instead of turning the phone around I had just flicked the screen and was looking at myself!!

Our scooting venture out soon turned in to an autumnal leaf fight and of course I got buried in leaves for the greater good of two smiling children. I love this time of year, cool weather and colourful leaves everywhere. I'm not sure why but Ive always loved that point where you need a coat or warm jumper, I think I just love that cosy feeling over being a sweaty summer mess.

It seemed that even after scooting, the playground and the leaf battle, the boys were still brimming with testosterone and there was some serious energy to burn off so we hit the park gym hard. It was time to go for burn...

Then it was time to jump back on our trusty scooters and do one last lap of the park before heading home. I'm so glad that Opeie has someone to talk Micro-Scooters with now and having an extra grown up (I use the term loosely) to scoot around with really made the day for me. I'm still thinking that a Shropshire Micro-Scoot meet needs to be taking place.

I had been looking for someone worthy to give my Micro black a new home, rather than it be left in our shed to only come out occasionally and Emma definitely looked like she was enjoying being a part of the action, so the scooter went home with her and Matthew ready for their own scooting adventures and hopefully many more wheeled adventures with us. 

Welcome to the team guys x

(great shot by Opeie i thought!)

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."

I am always so positive on the blog as my writing is for Seth and Opeie to read in the future. Its easy to stay positive when you have two extremely well behaved boys, who are happy most of the time and have impeccable manners. Sadly though no family is perfect and every now and again those sunshine rays of happiness are over cast my big dark clouds (if only for a few hours).

Ive probably made that sound so much worse than it actually was but at the time i wasn't a happy boy. Opeie's sleep has been all over the place recently and a few nights back he kept me awake for all but an hour and a half. It was a nightmare and the knock on effect for the following day was awful. which wasn't a great set up for the following night where i finally got him (and myself) down properly at 5am only to be woken up at 6am by a him, full of beans and ready to play.

I cant really describe how i was feeling that day, if you had have asked me in person you would have most likely received a mix of slurred words that didn't make much sense, it really knocked me for six. I decided that morning that enough was enough and he needed to be worn out in preparation for the following night. 

Physically i didn't think i had it in me, but i decided a walk up the Wrekin would do us both the world of good, crazy i know but it was for the greater good and all that. So i packed a bag with a picnic and water, gloves and hats and we headed out. On the way Opeie almost pushed me over the edge, i knew it was going to be freezing at the top so i packed Mrs M's (crazy expensive) ear muffs, which Opeie has worn many times This day though while in his hands in the back of the car i hear a SNAP! while driving a long. He didn't do it intentionally but i was already feeling crappy and now that had turned to furiosness (spell check says that's not a word haha).

On the way up Opeie shouted "CROCODILE!!!!" when we saw a tree trunk that looked like a crocodiles mouth...

... Followed by "Daddy the hills look like mommies boobies!!!" at this point i was starting to cheer up a little.

The fresh air was clearly doing us both the world of good. Considering Opeie didn't go on my shoulders once and tackled the whole thing on his own we shot up and back down in no time at all. We did attempt to have that picnic at the top but i think that was just wishful thinking, red freezing hands and being slapped about by the wind, soon stopped us in our tracks and we ate back at the car.

I'm so glad that these days don't happen very often, in fact it was actually the first time i have felt like that with the boys, it's amazing how bad a little sleep deprivation can make you feel. I'd love to be able to say that a walk up and down the Wrekin sorted Opeie out and that night was a breeze, but that would be a lie!!! I have no idea whats up with his sleep routine at the moment but i am hoping that it'll pass swiftly. Until then... YAWWWWWWWNNNNN!!!!!