Life Lately | A House Move, Trying Days & Sweater Weather ♥

It seems like such a long time since I've written anything personal on my blog, which is a real shame because ultimately I want it to be a virtual scrapbook of sorts for my children and I to look back on in years to come - proof that I actually took them places and did stuff with them! 

I love looking back on our memories, but as of late these types of posts - which are actually the ones I like reading most on other people's blogs have to take a backseat because of work (which I'm super grateful for). So here's any up to date account of life lately.

In early October we received the news that the house we were living in was being sold - oh the joy of renting! Cue panic, fear and a constant worry of where we were going to live. I cried, a lot. You see when you're renting in Ireland you have a constant feeling that the house is not your own and can be taken from you at any time. It's not a secure way to raise children and the only regret I have about the timings of having my boys is that I didn't have my own home to raise them in first.

Twice now we have rented and twice the house has been sold. The housing market at the moment means that rents are sky high and unaffordable for most. I feared we would end up homeless, like other families I have heard of. 

Thankfully my stepfather has very generously allowed us to live with him. So, for now, our home is my childhood home - a 200 and something year old farmhouse in the countryside, and in a way it's lovely to see my children spending a part of their childhood in the same place that I did.

Thankfully he's allowed us to make the place our own. We're in the middle of redecorating, there are still boxes to unpack and lots to do, but we'll get there.

It was quite a novelty to be able to paint the boys bedrooms in whatever colour we wanted, since birth they've had boring magnolia walls. Their rooms are coming together slowly and are in beautiful shades of blue and white. The most important thing for me is that they're happy here.

With two big gardens to roam around the boys are spending lots of time outside and now are able to spend each day with Bruno the boxer dog, who they're besotted with. They sit by the lighting range at night, laying up against Bruno and they're all so happy. It's the simple things, isn't it? Even though we used to visit Bruno almost every day before, it wasn't the same and Tyler's just delighted to be with his dog now - we weren't allowed to have pets in our rentals.

We live a minute away from the woods now too, so have lots of opportunity to tire out the boys and go for a woodland wander or impromptu photo taken session - the photos in this post were taken during one them, whenever we want.

I'll be sharing lots about the house when we've some bits of it finished. I'm really into my interiors at the moment and love seeing how other people decorate, so hopefully people will like seeing our home too.

In the midst of moving, Jacek and Tyler went on a trip to South Africa. This also made me cry, a lot. I was so worried about Tyler after the horror stories I had heard about South Africa and how dangerous it was. I didn't help matters by tracking their flight - seeing them flying over places such as The Congo was quite surreal.

But all was fine of course. Jacek and Tyler enjoyed a day in London before heading off to South Africa - Jacek's first time home in 14 years. Tyler was delighted to meet his uncle, aunt and cousins for the first time and spend time with his grandparents. The child is only 6 and has already seen more of the world than me!

Their trip couldn't have come at a worst time though with the impending move and I had such a stressful time trying to entertain Beau - who gave up playing with toys and took up waking at 4 in the morning while they were away, packing up a house, moving boxes to the new house and everything in between. I think I'm due a holiday next!

In September I started to focus on my health and fitness again after a summer off - we were way too busy and always on our travels for me to actually get to a gym! I started personal training three times a week with @tristanwalshfitness and have so far lost 18lbs/8.1kg in 6 weeks by training with Tristan, going to the gym and on walks and watching what I eat.

I don't deny myself anything but try to stick to under 1650 calories a day and I'm surprised that I've actually stuck with it this long. This isn't a diet for me, this is a complete lifestyle change and I really want to succeed at this. I actually love lifting weights - strange I know! Working out gives me a chance to get a bit of me time and think of nothing other than what I'm doing at the gym, which is time I really need.

It's been a trying few weeks and there's lots more going on with family life, etc. but hopefully we'll have some things resolved soon and will be able to enjoy a lovely Christmas in our new home.

It's so cold here in Ireland at the moment so I was delighted with our lovely 'Sweater Weather' jumpers that were gifted to us from LP Custom Designs who have the most gorgeous products that you can personalise to your own tastes. I love supporting small businesses, they always have the most beautiful offerings.

So that's my update on life lately. Stay tuned for more on our new home, my health and fitness progress and everything in between.