A Fortnight of Firsts #FirstTimeFriday

No matter how old we get, there’s always the opportunity to learn. I’ve always said I’m a fan of new experiences, challenging myself and trying something for the first time. Having kids does help with that too – You have to throw yourself into whatever comes. How can I expect my girls to break boundaries, if I won’t try anything different? I’m introducing my own #FirstTimeFriday.

At the age of 43, I have found myself having a fortnight where I have experience a lot of firsts. To be honest, they are not all good but I’m trying to see the positive and learn from them where possible.

I just didn’t realise how many things I was experiencing for the first time, until I have looked back at the past fortnight. I thought I would share some of my recent first with you:

Losing a Pet

Yes, I know I’m incredibly lucky to have not been through this before but Darren was my first ever proper pet. (There was a cantankerous bunny when I was really small, but he had to be rehomed as he simply hated us and was downright evil). You can read more about our lovely cat, Darren over on my other blog here.

2 weeks on, we are doing ok (ish). Harder for the adults than it has been for the children, showing how adaptable and resilient kids are. They are currently enjoying googling pictures of pretty kittens for when the time is right.

Bus Lane Ticket

Considering how much driving and travelling we do, I’m amazed that I haven’t had a parking violation before now. Particularly irritating as I was following the Sat Nav and got guided up a tiny road in Nottingham at 5pm on a Friday when some selfish git wouldn’t let me in! Hardly life changing, I know – but all of a sudden I feel like a grown up driver. Pah!

Attending a School Appeal

We are still not certain which high school Violet will be attending. We attend the second of 2 appeals tomorrow but last week was our first ever. We weren’t successful (we actually didn’t expect to be but feel we have to do everything possible to fight for her education and welfare) but it was absolutely fascinating. I will probably do a full blog post on what to expect at school appeals soon but in the meantime, I can tell you that it was such an experience. Really got the brain cells going and compelling to see how the education appeals system works. Can’t say we are looking forward to our second one tomorrow though!

Driving a convertible

Oh my! What on earth is the appeal? Our mini went in for a computer reset last week. Our courtesy car for the day was another Mini but convertible. I declined the opportunity to drive it back from Warrington on my own down the motorway – Anyone who has every watched Bridget Jones will have an idea why with my wild mane.

When the kids came home from school though, I couldn’t deny them the opportunity so down came the roof (Super cool Millie was dying in case anyone saw her!) It was horrible!! I felt like I was so exposed. Any cars or lorries that came past felt just too close and I couldn’t wait to get home. Glad I did it though, the sound of the kids’ laughter was awesome!

There have been other firsts too – All things that have come to me as I have been writing this post …

• I read my first ever Sharon Bolton (I’ll tell you what I thought of it in my monthly reading roundup).
• We used a cordless vacuum for the first time – How have we managed stairs with a cord all these years?!
• There’s parents on the school run that I’ve never spoken to before this week – I now make a point of saying Good Morning to near enough everyone as I pass them (they are normally on their way out of school, I’m running in!)

What about the rest of the Costello family?

Tara attended her first ever tennis lesson. I’m well known for encouraging my children to do inside sports so thought it was very motherly of me to allow her to attend a taster session for an hour (Who am I kidding? I had absolutely no choice!) The outcome was that even though she knew some friends there and I had a wonderful time catching up with my friends in the sun, Tara has decided that tennis isn’t for her. Oh well.

Violet ran her first 5k – She has discovered a love for running and it appears she is a natural runner. Lovely style and Dermot is thoroughly enjoying the chance to spend some time with her when running the streets. As long as they don’t try to get me to join in!

Millie has got loads of first coming up – She sits her first GCSE’s next week including one of them in a foreign country (Definitely one for a future post!) The past couple of weeks has seen Millie’s first British Synchro Championships – the first year she has been old enough and we are so proud of how well she did. As a result, Millie has been invited to attend the Junior Europeans in Serbia this June. Eek!  This week has seen delivery of Millie’s first full Team GB kit in a HUGE box – Fantastic to see how excited she was.

After 5 years hard training, the teen finally gets her official #teamgb kit. Thank you @tyrukireland, you have made this teenager very happy!

A post shared by Helen Costello (@casacostello) on May 16, 2017 at 9:49am PDT

And so back to the whole point of this post. I’m thinking of trying to incorporate something new, no matter how small, into every week. I’ll feed back how we get on with tomorrow’s appeal very soon! Have you done anything for the first time lately? Please share with me – I’d love to know x