This last month I turned 40! It feels like a big milestone in a lot of ways. I remember my parents turning 40 and at the time they seemed so old! But I don’t feel old. In fact I remember my great grandmother telling me in her late eighties that, until she tried to stand up, she felt 18! In my mind I don’t feel any different and yet now people expect me to be properly grown up!

All of a sudden I realised that I’m not really in the young category anymore. Age, I’ve realised, is relative and getting older isn’t something I’ve ever worried about. What it does make you think is about is what you’d still like to achieve? What dreams have I still got shut away in my bottom drawer? A good friend of mine recently completed a triathlon and it got me thinking, firstly, wow, she’s amazing! But also is there anything like that I would like to do before it’s too late!

There are some dreams that take a lot of hard work and others that we have to just wait for. As I think about dreams I can’t help but think about the dreamers in the bible. Someone like Joseph with his technicolour coat. He dreamt about his brothers bowing down to him, but in order to get there he had to be thrown in a pit, made a slave and then put into prison. That all probably seemed like a massive detour! He may even have forgotten that dream as he sat in the dungeon. But ultimately, his faithful commitment to not becoming bitter, meant he saved a nation and eventually saw his brothers bow before him.

What about men like George Muller who dreamed of helping orphans to find a home. He started small, housing some girls in his home with his wife. This grew until he had built a whole complex of orphanages in Ashley Down in Bristol. If you have time to read his story, you’ll be inspired by his passion and his faith.

Or William Wilberforce, who saw the wrong that was being committed to men and women caught up in the slave trade. He dreamt of seeing those people set free, but it took his hard work and dedication to see that happen.

So as I turn 40, and Sean will turn 40 next year, we’ve begun to ask one other, what’s the legacy we want to leave? What are our dreams? Are we willing to put in the hard work to see them come about? Or will we look back with regret at missed opportunities? Whatever age you’re at now, these might be questions to ask yourself. It’s never too early or too late to look for those dreams to come about.

It’s been a while since my last post and that’s mostly because of the summer holidays, juggling children and work. But now I’m back in the office and enjoying seeing different people every day! It’s still a novelty and I get excited as I head in every morning.

This new season has made me really assess where I have good habits and where I’ve gotten lazy and into bad habits! It’s easy isn’t it to make excuses for why we haven’t gotten up early to work out or why it’s ok that you’re eating chocolate on a Wednesday afternoon!

So my evaluation has meant I’ve made some changes and has made me ask myself what helps me to stay disciplined. I’ve realised the biggest thing is getting enough sleep! At one stage in order to wake myself up with my alarm I made it so that my alarm would only turn off if I did an arithmetic sum! That was evil first thing! Sean didn’t appreciate it at all, as sometimes it would take several attempts to get it right all the while it’s beeping. My brain doesn’t work first thing!

Now what I do is sit up as soon as my alarm goes off. Don’t give my brain time to argue or rationalise that it’s too early or think of an excuse why it would be better to stay in bed! It’s always easier to stay in bed! I wish I could say it gets easier, I’ve heard lots of people say it does, but for me it never has! I love my bed! I don’t love to work out!

Whatever you choose to be your discipline, it’s important to be kind to yourself in it. If you don’t manage it one day don’t beat yourself up and don’t think that means you should give up completely. Every morning is an opportunity to start again.

Our minds are very good at thinking up excuses, so maybe it’s best to get ahead of them and decide to do it anyway! Whether that’s in terms of exercise, eating or reading. I know that my disciplines lead me to a happier life. Exercise makes my body healthier and reading my bible every morning makes by spirit healthier. Both are a choice and both mean I have to take action.

What are your disciplines and how do you keep them up?

You know that God has a sense of humour when you write a blog about having routine and planning and then your other son gets Covid and all that goes out of the window!

Our little two had colds last week and so we did lateral flows on them that came out negative. But as we had my father in laws wedding on the Friday we thought it sensible to do the PCR tests as well, feeling confident they would be negative, but meaning that if one of them coughed at the wedding we could put peoples minds at ease by telling them it’s not Covid.

I’m sure you can guess what happened! One of the tests came back positive. There ensued lots of tears and hand wringing over what to do. Do we all really have to isolate? Should we really miss such an important day in our family? In the end integrity won out. We stayed home and missed a lovely day with family.

There’s so much debate still about what the kindest thing to do is as I wrote in a previous post but I know that, however hard a decision it was, we did the right thing. We protected others and the wedding went ahead without a hitch.

Instead of being there in person we dressed up and stayed home. My littlest even wore a top hat for the occasion!

Here’s a photo of the happy couple. We know they had a lovely day even if we couldn’t be there and we know we’ll have another opportunity to celebrate with them soon.