My Birth Experience

It has been a while since I posted, and while I’m spending many hours feeding my child these days I’ve been reflecting on keeping a record of my experiences. So my plan is to write up some more to this blog.

Where better to start than with the birth of my son, just over 2 months ago.

It wasn’t straight forward but I guess no birth is. My due date came and went, and there were no signs of his imminent arrival. I’d gone the whole pregnancy without stretch marks, but at 40 weeks a little web of purple began to grow around my belly button. I assumed this was where he was getting so big and I joked he had my sense of direction and was trying to escape the wrong way! I said this to the midwives I saw and they each smiled.

One time, my bump was measured smaller on the chart, but my midwife said it was probably where the head was engaged. The next week another midwife saw the chart and said she would’ve sent me for a growth scan if it has been her, but as her measurement was following the growth line she didn’t send me either.

At 41+5 weeks the day of my supposed induction had arrived. I was quite emotional about it the night before, I’d really hoped he would arrive on his own. It also meant going into hospital alone, with the current Covid restrictions partners were only allowed in at 4cm dilated.

The morning came and I called the hospital at 8.15am, they were busy so would call me later. I called again at 1pm, they confirmed I was on the list and they would call me back. At 5pm I was about to ring again when my phone buzzed.

The midwife explained that there wasn’t enough space for everyone who was giving birth and also due in. I was asked to attend the assessment centre so the doctor could advise what to do next. It sounded like there were a few of us all in the same situation. I got to the centre at 5.40pm and was seen by a midwife at 7.00pm.

I had the usual checks and everything seemed fine. The midwife mentioned I had been for a growth scan, but I confirmed I hadn’t. She assumed I had from the chart. She thought I should’ve gone in on two different occasions. Given what happened next, I wish I had too.

The midwife kept me updated, but I had to sit and wait until 9pm for a doctor to be free. The doctor was called Heba (I didn’t catch her full name) and she explained she was going to check on the baby then decide what would happen next as there was no space in the labour wards. Everything seemed to be going fine, then she asked me to wait a moment while she got a portable scanning machine.

She wheeled it in, and I was none the wiser this was anything unusual. Heba scanned me belly and then said:

“It is what I thought, this baby is breech, his bum is engaged.”

I was in shock, so many midwives had been sure he was head down. And the pressure around my belly button then made sense. Heba gave me three options: 1) Caesarean (safest for the baby), 2) Induced vaginally (though she would need to check if the hospital allowed this) or 3) wait for Monday to try turning the baby around – but she was concerned there wasn’t much space left inside for him to move.

I was given 15 minutes to call James and make a decision. I remember pacing the corridors in shock, explaining all this over the phone to James He said he would go with whatever I thought best. There was no way I could go through labour knowing that my baby could suffocate at the last minute, so the Caesarean seemed the best option.

Returning to the assessment room, I gave my choice through watery eyes and had some blood taken. Naively, I had not prepared myself for this option at all. But fortunately, everything happened so quickly that I didn’t have much time to think about it.

I sat and waited outside the assessment room, and then around 10pm a midwife took me to a delivery suite – they had found a room for me considering the situation. (It wasn’t until later James pointed out it was half painted, something a midwife had apologised for when I first arrived, so the room must’ve been under construction during the day!)

In the delivery room, I was tested for Covid and then given a gown and some compression socks to wear. James was allowed to join me not long after, so he would be with me when my surgery came up. They were having to slot it in somewhere in the night, so now it was a waiting game.

A little later, we were moved out of our own room and onto a ward, the private room was needed for someone else and I didn’t mind at all. We were in the end bay, all the blue curtains were drawn.

James reminded me that after this operation I would have a baby to look after, so suggested I tried to get some sleep. At approximately 2am the bay was filled with a midwife, a doctor and an anaesthetist.

The doctor was asking if I had questions and asked me to sign a consent form, and the anaesthetist was asking about allergies and asked if I had questions, all while the midwife was sticking needles in my hand. I was half asleep so kept looking to James to check if we had questions. The midwife told me I was next, then left for a little while.

When she returned, she told me to get a nappy and hat for the baby and follow her. This was it.

James was led to another room with a very nice midwife, who pointed out to the one who walked me to the theatre that I still had my knickers on! James was taken to get scrubs and a hat on. I walked into a very bright room, with a big bed in the middle and tables of equipment around it.

The bed had steps up to it, and I was told to sit on the edge ready for the injection. The nice midwife who we’d met outside was comforting me, patting my hand, and I asked if it would hurt and she said only a little bit. Another midwife was hooking me up to something from the tube in my hand.

They were both telling me to lean forward, shoulders down and back arched out. The one comforting me had said the wrong thing and the other corrected her, I wondered if this midwife’s sole role was to comfort because she was very good at it! I was shaking so much, part nerves and part cold.

I was watching other members of the surgical team rushing around preparing equipment, I couldn’t believe how many people there were there – with the sole purpose of helping me and my baby right now.

The injection didn’t hurt as much as I thought it might, a bit like a dental injection, and I was then directed to lay down. The anaesthetist asked me to lift my legs, which I could at first, then he asked me again and I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel anything.

A sheet of blue paper was placed just in front of my face, and I could no longer see my body or all the people involved.

James joined my side, and in his pink scrubs and green hat I didn’t recognise him! It was very disorientating.

I felt some tugging and pulling in my body, and was so relieved to have James there to comfort me. I heard the midwife say he was coming out, then I heard him scream. It happened so quick and it was the most surreal moment of my life. I could hear him but I couldn’t see him.

He was taken to be cleaned up, checked and weighed. I told James to go to him, which he did and took a few photos, but came back to me. He said there were lots of people helping our son so he wanted to make sure I was okay. The midwife had my phone with her, and also took lots of photos. I remember shouting to James, “Does he have hair?!” The team stitch me up.

James was led out of the theatre while the surgical team moved me out. They rolled me onto another bed, about three people each side of me and they started singing “Rocking all over the world”, and they discussed rocking and rolling me over!

I was amazed by all the people involved. It was 2.30am and they were so energised and buzzing, it was a great atmosphere to give birth and I am thankful to everyone.

I was taken to a recovery room, where I was met by James and our new baby. The midwife helped me to feed him, though he wouldn’t latch, and we had 40 minutes with James while the staff were doing tests and completing notes.

Then it was time to say goodbye, and T and I were wheeled off to a ward and James went home to contemplate his new life as a father! I spent the next three hours cuddling my baby and trying to calm him from crying (mainly because I couldn’t move and didn’t know what else to do!)

Meeting my child was an incredible, amazing experience. I was completely overwhelmed by the whole thing.

It was not the birth story I hoped for, and while I knew some things wouldn’t go to plan I never imagined by this much! I did feel grief for the experience I hoped to have, but was so grateful that my baby arrived safe and well.

New Girlguiding Programme Initial Views

It has been two weeks since the big reveal of the new Girlguiding programme, I’m surprised it hasn’t been longer! There has been so much discussion online about the changes and I’d like to share my views too.

At this stage, I have only seen the new books, read some of the skills builders and browsed through the new books. I’ve also done all the e-learning modules to get my head around it all, but none of this has been put into practice yet!

I’m quite excited to get started on the new programme. I want to try it out and see how the Brownies get along with it.

Unit Activity Cards – Pros & Cons

Last year we were given a set of Unit Activity Cards, the new in unit activity instructions that we need to plan time for to allow the Brownies opportunity to earn their Theme Awards. So far our Brownies have run three of these activities and they’ve been a major success. My favourite thing about these cards is that the Brownies can lead themselves. There is little need to prep, aside from sourcing resources. Just go into the unit, give the card to a couple of girls ready to lead and let them loose.

The downside, in terms of the activities going toward Theme Awards, is that they have a preconceived amount of time allocated, and that is all the time the Brownie will get toward their four hours. We did Soapy Solutions last year and I’m sure we spent a lot longer than 15 minutes on it! It also means there actually isn’t that much by way of girl-led guiding, at some point we will need to do all the Unit Activity Cards, whether the Brownies like the idea of not, to fit in their four hours. As more cards come out we may have more than the four hours per theme.

Skills Builders – Pros & Cons

I like that the badges are set up like the Unit Activity Cards, that the Brownies will be able to lead themselves. For our unit and the number of leaders we have I cannot imagine us running more than two skill builders at a time though. I’m looking forward to giving this a try in January, and it is a good excuse to mix the Brownies up into different small groups. (It can be difficult having disruptive Brownies, their six members can get tired of their antics!)

I unfortunately have a lot more cons for skill builders at the moment, firstly the design seems rather boring in comparison to the interested badges. There is so much colour in everything else! It may have been too many different choices, but I picture young women with blankets filled with Skill Builders unable to remember if they earned their First Aid Stage 3 in Brownies or Guides, separate colour edging per section would be nice.

More importantly, my major concern is the five compulsory activities. When we ran badges in the past we would offer more clauses than required to ensure girls who missed one week could still earn the badge. Or a clause is sent home to be completed. The Skill Builders are not set up for either scenario. Having a catch up night will only work if only a handful of Brownies miss a week, and preferably the same week so they can work together in a small group! Five activities, possibly over five nights in the case of Innovate, with two groups, that is potential for ten activities to be repeated. I cannot see us keeping up with that. I also wish the five activities totalled to the same amount of time in each topic and stage, it would make planning a lot simpler.

Interest Badges – Pros and Cons

I like the design of the new badges, the fact that they’re smaller is a bonus too. It is good to see some progression with the sections. I really hope units stick to the new rules and do not run these as programmes within the unit, that’ll take away from the work of those Brownies who do make the effort to achieve something for themselves. I completed my Look Wider a few years ago, my own choice and it gave me the freedom to try new things and build my self motivation. It is exactly what I wanted to see Girlguiding implement. I wish the topics were wider ranged, so the young members could govern themselves more, it’d fit a lot better with being girl-led.

At Rainbow and Brownie age it can be difficult for some to take part in these without their parents’ support. I envision having a district badge event, where girls can use a local meeting place and resources to work on their badges on their own, with local leaders to help support with reading the syllabus and answering queries and questions. The Brownies could also then work in small groups to earnt he badge together, as mentioned in the badge book.

How will we introduce this?

Our Autumn term is taken up by a project that will fill around half the term, with the other half not being long enough to introduce the programme and run a skills builder we will probably save our first one of those for January.

Instead, we will start by talking through the new themes. I’m thinking of using the dice to get the Brownies shouting out about the topics within each theme. Then running some games around which badges & skill builders fit into which theme, like the one in the Guiding magazine. Plus an evening looking at the interest badges, explaining how they are earned and giving them a deadline for ‘badge night’, should they want to bring work in. Then doing some small activities based on the new badges to get them interested. I’m sure we will fit in some unit activity cards, led by our older girls, and then choosing which skills builder each group would like to work on in January!

How to make slime with Brownies (UK!)

I don’t think you can spend time around a Junior school aged child and not hear about slime at the moment. It seems to be everywhere!

At Brownies we have a tradition that the girls moving up the Guides attend one final evening at the start of term and stay on for Guides straight after, a double session. We also use this as an opportunity to let the leaving girls decide the meeting’s activity, whether it be something new or repeating an old favourite.

Last summer I asked two girls due to leave at Christmas what they wanted to do, and they were excited to make slime! I was nervous as I’d tried a recipe the previous year and it did not work at all, but I wanted to be able to give them a special last session.

I did some research and found an awesome UK recipe (For lack of a better word!) using items easily found in a local supermarket.

How to make slime at Brownies!

Per four Brownies you’ll need:

• 150ml PVA glue
• Couple drops of food colouring
• 1 heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• Eye lens solution / eye drops (check the ingredients for boric acid/sodium borate)
• 4 food containers
• Plastic spoons / wooden lolly sticks

The links will take you to the exact products I used, you’ll probably find similar in other shops. We gave the choice of green or pink food colouring.

1. Split the Brownies into groups based on what colour slime they’d like to make, then group the Brownies into threes or fours depending how many bottles of glue & eye solution you have.
2. Give each group one food container box to create their mix. Start by giving each group the 150ml of PVA glue to pour into the food container.
3. Supervise each group as they drip a couple drops of food colour into the mix (less is more! Most of our pink slime turned out brown!) and instruct the Brownies to use the plastic spoons / wooden lolly sticks to mix the colouring into the glue.
4. Give each group a spoon and let them put the headed teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into the mix and continue mixing.
5. Finally, a few drops at a time, add the eye lens solution / eye drops. Mix and then add more as needed. As the Brownies mix it’ll become thicker to the point they can pick it up and squish it. Keep going until it looses stickiness and becomes a solid mixture you can stretch and mould.
6. Split the mixture between the Brownies and give each a food container to take it home in.
7. Warn the Brownies that the mixture will become watery in a day or so unless regularly moulded, so keep it in the container!

This was such a brilliant evening, much better than I’d imagined. Many of the older Brownies had made slime at home, and were surprised at the amount of bicarbonate of soda they needed to add. But they were very pleased with how it turned out, saying it was the best slime they’d made, and were thanking me for introducing this version to them!

I wish I could show you images but they all have the Brownies very shocked and excited faces in them!

At our Brownies we split it between groups of three or four due to the cost of the eye drops, you might find cheaper so that the girls can have more slime, but I also felt working in groups helped the Brownies learn about team work.

15 Months of the Bullet Journal

At the start of September I will move into my new Leuchtturm 1917 after filling up my first with Bullet Journal greatness over the last 15 months.

I’ve organised my life through diaries for years. In 2015 I got myself a day-to-page view A4 diary and loved it, and it was necessary for noting down all my plans to complete my Look Wider challenge. In 2016 I bought another day-to-page but an A5 one, which I never took too. It was too small for all the this I wanted to note down. Then I discovered the Bullet Journal system in May 2016.

You can read up on the initial birth of this organisational phenomenon here:

Bullet Journal 101

And you can find amazing layouts, ideas and ways to decorate a bullet journal all over YouTube and Pinterest.

But I’m going to write about my experience, since the brilliance of the system is that you can tailor it to suit your own needs. While I do enjoy my art, my Bullet Journal is purely a item of productivity, motivation and organisation, there isn’t much art in mine!

What works for me:

• A four page spread split into three months per page, this I use to keep everyone’s birthdays, annual reminders such as car tax and MOTs, and appointments and events too far ahead of my calendar.
• A four page spread of the year,  my calendar, this is where I note down every event, appointment and day specific items. At the turn of 2017 I rewrote this into my Bullet Journal to add a further 6 months.
• A monthly spread, the month drawn out as a standard calendar month. I input anything from the birthdays spread and the yearly spread onto the appropriate days. Plus my Brownie sessions and any annual leave.
• I now use four different monthly pages too:
  • A spending log to note down where I’m spending, on what and how – at the end of the month I compare this to my bank account and I use this as a way of seeing at a glance my spending habits.
  • A line a day journal; every day I write one thing down about that day – it is really fun to look back on!
  • Habit tracker – each day of the month has a column and I track habits such as working out, drinking enough water, reading and no sweets. If I complete the habit that day I fill in the box. This is a good at-a-month glance of what I’m keeping up with and what I’m not.
  • Monthly goals. Lastly I make goals for the month, usually based on my long term goals or on my master to do list. This usually includes something to do with my career, finance, health and girlguiding.
• A weekly spread on one page, on Sunday I draw this up and plan out what tasks need to be done on which days, anything from my monthly log for that week, and I have a spare box for to dos and reminders. I usually write my workouts into here also.
• Daily pages, I’ve gotten into a system where I have the weekly spread on the left and the dailies for most of that week on the right. It is good to see the week at a glance while I write my daily to do list. I also have a water reminder, sometimes my weight and anything else I need to remember to do daily on here.

I sometimes have other pages too. I used to do gratitude logs which were nice, but I fell off that habit. I sometimes have pages for specific goals to track such as planking or drawing, I have a page to write all the books I’ve read in 2017, one time I left a blank page so I filled it in with a motivational quote.

When I go through my bullet journal I don’t usually leave blank pages, I like to use it as intended and just use the next blank space for whatever I plan to write next – but I also found it rather productive to have the weekly spread next to the relevant dailies so now I try to plan it slightly in advance.

It took a year of testing to get myself to the system that works best for me. In the beginning I never had goal pages but began those a few months in. I started the line a day journal in January and love that addition. I only started using it for my budget a few months ago but this is a habit I should really stick to now.

Funnily enough I’ve been using the same monthly, weekly and daily spreads since I started, I used to sometimes write about my day under my dailies but I didn’t keep this up. The line a day journal pages work a lot better. I know some people like to try out different spreads, which is one of the benefits of using a bullet journal, but if it isn’t broken don’t fix it!

So what is new for my second bullet journal? To get myself started I’ve created a vision board across the front two pages, taking images from Pinterest of things I want to see myself as and quotes of who I want to be. I included my name within it so I can visualise that I’m thinking of myself when I see this page.

I’m going to try and use the index a little better in this one. I kid myself that I don’t need it as I remember where everything is but that isn’t always true!

I’ve been listening to the audio book ‘ Getting Things Done’ by David Allen, so I have included some pages at the front for my master projects list which I can review each week when deciding on tasks.

It is a little sad to say goodbye to the notebook I’ve been carrying with me everywhere for the last 15 months, just to see it relegated to the book shelf. But it’ll be a fun one to pick up in a few years and look back on. Onwards to my exciting new blue bullet journal!

 

International Pen Pals!

For Thinking Day 2017 I organised a pen pal exchange from our Brownie unit with some American Girl Scout troops. Being in the UK it is very easy for us to find international pen pals as there are so many more groups in America having the same idea. I found some troops by placing a post in the appropriate WAGGGS forum and leaving my guiding email address. It didn’t take long to receive floods of requests, more than I expected, and set about selecting 2 units that would add up to the same number of girls (American troops tend to be a lot smaller than ours) and sending my apologies to the others.

We were now linked with a Brownie troop from Georgia and a Junior troop from Illinois and we all set about writing letters! Having run a pen pal exchange before I had experience with girls missing the sessions, girls leaving mid project and new girls starting so requested that instead of writing to a particular girl all the letters were addressed ‘Dear New Friend’. This also worked well in making sure girls who write very long letters are linked with a likewise girl!

Of course we had a mixture of letters. Some of our older girls wrote full a4 pages with careful handwriting and drawings and lots of information about Brownies. Others it was a little more of  struggle to get a letter out of but it was a great excuse to chat with the girls about their favourite things at Brownies, and lots drew their favourite things as well as a bit of writing. One of the troops introduced us to SWAPS. Little crafts with a safety pin in them that are often exchanged between groups in America. I found a simple cute trefoil craft that the Brownies spent 15 minutes making for their new friends.

I also wrote up some information on Girlguiding and what we do at Brownies in the UK, and we also sent over badges from our county.

Then in late January we received our parcels! It was very exciting to see what they sent over. The Brownie troop sent us letters, badges and swaps (some cute red, white and blue gems), they also sent us some American currency and a ‘Try Its’ book of American Girl Scout activities! The Junior troop sent us long letters, photos and more badges!

It was such an exciting evening to give out the letters. The Brownies spent a lot of time reading their own, sharing them with their friends and comparing who’s pen pal was friends with who! We also prepared a print out with a drawing of a girl scout so they could colour in the uniform, and space to write down where their new pen pal was from and their troop name. The evening passed so quickly we forgot to even take photos! We were so happy to receive some photos from the Junior Troop with the letters we sent. them

Overall I felt it was a fantastic World Thinking Day activity, and one where the Brownies have a special memory to keep of a friend they now have all the way around the world. I’d highly recommend this experience!

Independent Living Octant – Phase 1

Phase 1 of an octant must be about trying new things and should last for a couple of hours. These are the adventures I had to achieve Phase 1 of the Independent Living Octant…

Phase 1: Budget for buying a house

The very first aspect to work on when we considered buying a house was setting a budget. Setting up the figures on a spreadsheet I set a budget based on our net incomes, and researched the likely costs for utility bills, council tax and insurances.  I also considered how the costs would differ in two different towns, looking at travel, house insurance and council tax. Also on my budget was the cost of running two cars, a food budget, TV licence, healthcare, mobile contracts, clothing, gifts, and a reasonable amount of savings.

I then researched how much we would need for the cost of moving. This included the deposit, stamp duty, possible conveyancing costs and homebuyer survey.

Once we knew how much we could pay monthly for mortgage repayments I started to research how much local banks and building societies could lend to us.

Phase 1: Research solicitors and conveyancing

Having never needed a solicitor before, researching one was completely new to me. I started by finding names of solicitors that family and friends have used. I then called around these companies to get quotes for conveyancing. I found other local ones and could receive online quotes to compare the prices. We wanted to have all the possible searches so I ensured the quotes we were given included these.

The first house we put an offer in on fell through, and this gave us the opportunity to review the service we had received from our chosen solicitor and decided to research again to find someone more approachable. This time we chose a solicitor who was not recommended to us by family but someone I found myself. This solicitor kept in regular contact with us, answered all our questions and helped us through to buying our house.

Phase 1: Decorate and furnish new home

On moving into our home we needed furniture. As affordable options, I bought a range of flat pack items from Ikea and spent the first week building them. This included a TV stand, a dining table, six dining chairs, a sofa bed, a coffee table, two chest of drawers, two sets of bedside tables, a shoe rack and three bookcases.

While the room was empty we also decided to paint a wall of one bedroom. We chose the colour, bought rollers, masking tape and a step ladder, and prepped the room with plastic sheets and newspaper. The wall took one day to paint two coats.

Will boys be joining Brownies then?

The Scouts were in the news today for appointing their first female chair in its 108 year history. You can read one of the articles about this topic here:

Scouts’ first female leader vows to get more girls round the campfire

Queue the comments. There are few positive ones, but many negative and usually from those who do not understand either organisation. Some ignoring the fact that girls have been able to join scouting for 20 years and telling them to go back to Guides. Others dismissing the values guiding has to offer and suggests it should close down. Very frustrating read following an awesome fun day with a group of Brownies just yesterday.

My view may be controversial, and having not been a part of Scouting may be biased, but I do feel there should be an option for all boy Scout groups. Not to take opportunities away from girls but to give extra opportunities to boys. There may be many boys from very female oriented homes who would prefer the all male space, that is the opinion of my boyfriend who went to an all boy scout group. But the obvious difficulty here is the lack of volunteers to run so many different charity groups. I worry with Guiding already being the larger organisation, and with so many girls also join the Scouts, the number of places for boys is decreasing.

However, my main topic for this post is as the heading says, will boys join Brownies? No. Not right not, no. For those who flippantly ask this, please consider the history of girls getting Girlguiding to begin with.

When Robert Baden-Powell starting the Scouts it was boys only. Many girls showed interested in the groups but were turned away. Some girls even formed their own Scout groups themselves, they completed all the work required to earn Scout badges and they wrote to the powers that be to receive their badges. And they did receive them, but only by omitting their first name and using their first initial instead. They were only allowed to achieve these badges if they were boys. The powers that be became aware of this ‘fraud’ and demanded the girls return the badges they earned – they were not even allowed to keep them!

In present day Britain I am not aware of boys desperately taking part in their own Guide groups, sneakily working at badges not designed for them and pretending to be girls to own their badges. They don’t really need to, the Scouts have what they need. If I heard there were boys doing this I would be outraged and willing to see what we are offering the the Scouts don’t.

I looked into both programmes of Cubs and Brownies to see the difference. Both have three main themes.

Cubs: Outdoor and adventure, World and Skills.

Brownies: You, Community, World.

So both groups have a theme of ‘world’, so that should be quite equal. In Brownies this would encompass the ‘World Traveller Badge Day’ we attended yesterday and the ‘Space Adventure Night’ we’re having next week.

I imagine ‘Skills’ and ‘You’ to be of a similar thread. In Brownies ‘You’ also includes friendship, confidence and learning about yourself – your interests, skills and beliefs. Cubs focuses more on building skills, which depending on the leader could incorporate some of the things I listed above for Brownies.

So the main difference is the third theme, ‘Community’ Vs ‘Outdoor and Adventure’. Firstly, in Brownies we often go on walks around our local community so I would group these activities together. In our community actions we are often outside helping with the Church garden, or visiting the local police station. There isn’t too much by adventure we can fit into our weekly meetings so am interested to see what Scouts offer that covers this. I also believe many Cub groups would also take part in community action and visiting their local community too.

A reason Girlguiding is girl oriented is because it is led by the girls. They choose their activities and choose what sort of organisation they want to be a part of. The surveys show that girls would rather keep their all girl environment for now. And while we still live in a world will all boy schools and all girls schools I cannot see how it is sexist to have a club that functions just the same.

From my perspective, both organisations offer similar activities but to a slightly different audience. Both are relevant, both are beneficial, and both require to hard work of volunteers to allow it to be offered. Those who like to post negative comments about either should really experience either of them before the cast judgement. I hope both organisations continue to go from strength to strength and work together to give children even more opportunities to develop into well rounded citizens, rather than the ones who enjoy leaving nasty comments about people bettering themselves.

Boys won’t be choosing to join Brownies right now, when the boys start demanding something of their own the same way the girls did 100 years ago perhaps perceptions will change.

The Bucket List

While I’m on holiday with plenty of time for my mind to wander, I end up considering all the things I want to achieve. Coming home from holiday, I find myself very low. The thought of having to continue on with my precious little life. To get past it I need to consider again those things I had been thinking about – what I still need to achieve. So here lies the bucket list.

Done

Visit Rome and the Colosseum

Ride a segway

Complete a scrapbook

Buy my first home

Run 10k

Climb the Eiffel Tower

Try white water rafting

Go to Florida

Swim with dolphins

Try yoga

Get a tattoo

To Do

Write & draw my graphic novel

See the Northern Lights

Visit Iceland

Get a nice hairstyle

Learn Spanish until fluency

Develop my wardrobe of clothes

Learn to meditate

Develop good posture

Create a family cookbook

Right, no more time today wasted on fantasies, time to get to work!

Look Wider. The challenges I’ve taken on in my life so far…

I’ve toyed with the idea of Look Wider for a few years. I never figured out doing it as I had many other responsibilities. Look Wider is The Senior Section programme for 14-26 year olds. It is about personal development and should be filled with personal challenges.

Next term one of our Brownie Helpers (a Guide) becomes a Young Leader so we have purchased her TSS top, badge tab and the booklet for the Young Leader qualification. Included in the booklet was space to complete Look Wider. Reading through it I remembered some of the weird and crazy stuff I’ve done over the last few years. So I dug up my very first blog post and will fill in the things I have done.

Personal Values:

Phase 1: Donate blood

Phase 1: Understanding the new Promise with Brownies

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

Phase 3:

Community Actions:

Phase 1: Stall at Church summer fete to raise money

Phase 1: Organise Bring and Buy sale with Brownies to raise money for local animal shelter

Phase 1:

Phase 2: 

Phase 3: Peer Education

Creativity:

Phase 1: Try writing reviews of places I’ve been on blog

Phase 1: Try creating ‘feltie characters’

Phase 1: Try scrapbooking

Phase 2: Make a range of ‘feltie’ characters including my own designs

Phase 3: Improve illustration through lots of practice!

Fit for Life:

Phase 1: Learn to play Table Tennis

Phase 1: Tried Archery

Phase 1: Try Davina McCall Fitness DVD

Phase 2: Complete couch 2 5k programme and continue running 3 times a week

Phase 3: First Aid Qualification and refresher courses

Out of Doors:

Phase 1: Tried segways through the forest

Phase 1: Planting flowers with Brownies

Phase 1: Nature day with Brownies with Wildlife Trust

Phase 2:

Phase 3: Brownie Holiday Qualification

Independent Living:

Phase 1: Budget for buying a house

Phase 1: Research conveyancing and solicitors

Phase 1: Learning to sew (via camp blanket!)

Phase 2:

Phase 3: Buy a house! (Well, I hope so soon)

Leadership:

Phase 1: Assist on a Guide trip to local campsite

Phase 1: Organize trip to Paralympic Athletics for Brownies

Phase 1: Create a unit website with input from Brownies

Phase 2: Organise a district Star Quest event for 4 local units

Phase 3: Adult Leadership Qualification

International:

Phase 1: Start a new pen pal exchange through Guiding website

Phase 1: Brownie meeting on Japanese culture

Phase 1: India Project with Brownies including friendship bracelets to Sangam World Centre

Phase 2: Complete Together We Can Volunteer with Brownies – Backpack Project (Millennium Development Goal)

Phase 3:

So I’ve completed a lot of it (the leadership part was the easiest, could think of a lot more challenges I’ve undertaken for this!) This is just the stuff I can think of this morning. Will have a think about this and decide whether to actually go for it.

3.3km run

So I need to start writing about running again. I read an article on staying motivated that said keeping a diary reminds you of your past efforts and achievements and this can keep you going. This works. By coincidence I started writing this blog again last summer when I first started the couch 2 5k plan.

There was a long lull of non running this year. My work pattern made it difficult to run more than once a week, and with one run a week I lost all motivation to do it. However I am back to my old working pattern and can schedule my three-four runs a week into my diary.

This is my third week back running and I’ve restarted the couch 2 5k plan to get back into it. I started on week 3, but running four times a week. I just completed four runs of week 5, although I had an incident this morning that hindered it a little.

Before sleeping last night I checked my ipod as I knew there was little charge on it. There was just enough, so I turned it off and fell asleep. This morning, 6:30am, I threw on my active gear, tucked my keys into my wristband, tied my trainers and ran my ipod down my back into my waist pocket and switched my ipod on. Nothing. I’d accidently run the battery down overnight by NOT turning it off!

I hadn’t exercised without music for a long time, I knew it didn’t work well for me. But surprisingly I kept going this morning. I planned a route in my head that I imagined to be roughly 20 minutes. It was too easy so it may have been shorter time, but without a watch I will never know.

What I did do though was plot my route on google and found I ran 3.3km. A little way from the 5k target but I think I must be on track to get back to my 30minute 5km run.

So that is why I’m back on the running blogs, I must stay motivated this time.