Reflections on February 2019

I know that February is a short month: however, where has the time gone? This is ridiculous!

So how has this speedy month gone?

As per normal it’s been a month of ups and downs. When isn’t it?

Our ups have been the weather, well for the past two weeks anyway. The beginning of the month was cold, wet and horrible. The end of the month has been glorious. When I changed the sheets at the weekend, I put the clean washing on the line, and they were almost 100% dry by the time the heat had gone out of the day. The only reason they weren’t completely dry is that the longer wash cycle meant that they didn’t get hung out until about mid-day.

Today though, I did two shorter washes, hung them both out and they are ready for put away in the cupboard.

That’s a first for the end of February.

Another first for February

We mowed the grass today!

I KNOW!

The fine weather after so much rain has meant we could almost see the grass growing. Having looked at the weather forecast we knew we needed to act quickly. Rain is due tomorrow which will stick around for a couple of weeks.

So, Eric the mower had an oil change, his blades sharpened and a new drivebelt. It’s the first time we’ve serviced Eric since we adopted him in September. Then I put my big girl’s pants on and saddled up. It’s a long time since “Tom Dennis”, our previous sit-on mower when to the scrap heap in the sky, and I might have lost the knack.

I shouldn’t have worried. After a couple of energetic lurches when Eric attempted to unseat me everything went perfectly.

80 minuets later and both parts of the field plus the main garden had been cut. BY ME. Something that would have taken me 6hrs over three days when using the walk-behind mower.

So very pleased that Eric has performed well, and I didn’t disgrace myself either. It means cutting the crass twice a week during the main growing season will now be so much easier. Especially as that growing season might start two months early this year!

In other news

We’re at the end of another month of eating more healthily and attempting to lose weight. It’s going really well and not a struggle at all. Here are the headlines:

Andrew

February loss – 1.1kg

2019 total loss – 6.4 kg

Nicci

February loss – 1.1kg

2019 total loss – 6.8kg

That’s a little over 14lbs and a little under 15lbs respectively in old money

Well that’s the general update on our February progress. What about our reflections on the blogs that we have written?

Andrew’s easiest blog

As I have a fairly black sense of humour, my blog on humour was both the most difficult and most enjoyable blog to write. Why difficult.? Well Nicci still doesn’t get some of my humour so having to tone it down to make it acceptable reading was interesting. It was enjoyable for the obvious reasons of revisiting things that made me laugh in the past. I didn’t include loads of things as I could end up making a “mini guide to Andrew’s humour.” You can read my blog about humour here.

Andrew’s most challenging blog

Challenging is not quite the right word for the writing side of things but the reason for writing was. Turning our recent snakes into ladders was about having trouble with technology, which was very time consuming and frustrating. You can read that blog here. The Up Side of those frustrations are that they have made us revisit what we want our technology to do for us and what the “best” solution to that will be. This led to, The Canbace Life website gets staging, update blog on what we are doing. You can read that blog here. Luckily the support from our hosting company made this somewhat less frustrating than the problems earlier. Hopefully the frustrations will remain few.

Nicci’s most surprising blog

I think that would have to be the one about Seeley Booth and his socks. Andrew and I both enjoy watching Bones yet it hadn’t dawned on me that I would find it a source of healing inspiration. I am still wearing my colourful and patterned socks. Each time I pull my socks on, or take my shoes off, I smile. They remind me that I need more fun in my life. I’ve even bought some more designs, so I have more variety in my life too. The other advantage is that Andrew doesn’t complain that I am stealing his socks any more. He’s welcome to wear powder blue socks covered with purple dots on them if he wants too: however, he can’t accuse me of nicking his plain boring black ones now. You can read my blog about Seeley Booth’s socks here.

Nicci’s most rewarding blog

This is a challenge to narrow it down to one blog. During the last month I’ve shared a number of coaching or business analysis tools which I’ve found really useful while working out how to move forward. A number of you have contacted me to say how useful you’ve found the technique.

When you train to be a life coach you are taught that you aim as a coach is to empower people so that they no longer need your services. The sign of an effective coach is that they keep on “losing” clients. Sharing these techniques with you is helping to empower you in your own healing and that is incredibly rewarding. If I was pushed to single out one blog it would be the introduction the wheel of life. It’s such a powerful tool and one that I use on myself several times a year. You can read that blog here.

The result of all our reflections is that we still need to make some changes to our lives. Our work/life balance is out of kilter. Which is not good. It’s certainly not making Creating A New, Beautiful And Courageous Existence any easier. We will be sharing those changes in the future. Probably next week.

Saving the best until last

A month ago, I published a blog called The pampering of a long Zoom Call which you can read it here. It was all about spending a lovely couple of hours talking to my dear friend Sue Johnston (The Infertility Advocate). While Sue and I have chatted on a number of occasions it was the first time that we had met her husband Bob. One of the reasons for the call was to bounce ideas about when would be a good time for them to come and visit us in France. Shortly after the call finished Sue sent me a PM telling me they had found a GREAT deal and had booked their flights.

WOO HOO

Over the course of February, we bounced ideas around what we could do while they were here. Both Sue and Bob were keen to dropped down into Spain if possible. Andrew and I love Spain, so we suggested we joined them on a trip to Jerez de la Frontera. A girlfriend of mine owns a small apartment slap bang in the middle of the old town.

Three days ago, Sue, Bob, Andrew and I were on Facebook co-ordinating the purchases of our flights from Bordeaux to Jerez.

WOO HOOO HOOOO HOOOOOOOO

So not only do we meet Sue and Bob for the first time in person* we also get an unexpected holiday to one of our favourite places too. It will be lovely to explore the area through new eyes as we introduce our friends to the wonders of Andalucía. We are there during the annual Feria de Caballo (horse fair/festival) which is an added bonus.

person* No matter where you are in the world, I think you will be able to hear our squeals of delight when we hug for the first time. I hadn’t realised that an adult could be so ridiculously excited about something!

You can learn a little about the Feria de Caballo here.

These are a few of the photos we took the last time we went to the Feria de Caballo. Not many horses in evidence so we will have to rectify that this time around!

To see some more photos of the feria click here.

I have a sneaky feeling that when reflecting on our May that meeting our friends will be a major part of our “best bits” section!

To help you find all the blogs that we’ve published in February we’ve created a page of links for you. The blogs are groups together in their category sections. This way it will be easier for you to identify all of the proactive healing blogs or the ones about dealing with Snakes and Ladders. You can find all the links here.

Practice makes perfect

It’s all well and good writing about things in theory: however, we need to start applying what we learn. Your final task for February is to think about your response to our blogs. Please reflect on the following questions …

What blogs resonated with you most and why?

What blogs have been the most challenging for you and why?

To help you keep track of all your work for the daily activities mentioned, we have created a Monthly Diary for you to record your progress. To download your copy of “My February Canbace Diary” please click here.

Be kind to yourself …

In CANBACE friendship!

If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, please let me know. I will keep your words private.