2022: That was the year that was January to June

2022 started as most years do – with my daughter feeling sad that panto was over. Then it was back to school. My younger son had a busy couple of weeks with mocks and university interviews (all online at home, of course).

After pondering getting a dog for a long time, we took the plunge in the middle of January and got Hetty the cockapoo puppy. I’ll be honest, it was far harder than I expected it to be!

My son had his first indoor athletics competition in nearly two years and it didn’t go entirely to plan. We travelled all the way to London, then he realised he’d arrived on the wrong day! The organisers kindly let him jump with the senior women, but between the stress and the lack of warm-up time, he recorded four no jumps (he hardly ever does a no jump) and a very mediocre 6.32. My husband and I were marathon training throughout January and hit 14 miles at the end of the month.

At the start of February, I took my son for his second indoor athletics competition of the season. It was only slightly more successful than the previous one – with a best jump of 6.42. Two weeks later, we went to the England Athletics National Indoor Championships and he smashed it with a jump of 6.87, finishing in 5th place.

Storm Eunice caused a lot of damage across the country, including several trees brought down near us. Both of the kids’ schools were closed for the day. I had a terrible toothache for a few days and ended up having a wisdom tooth taken out at the dentist. My husband and I continued with our marathon training and were running 18 miles by the end of the month.

Covid was EVERYWHERE in March following the lifting of restrictions, but it had fallen right off the news agenda. My son had his last ever (excellent) parents’ evening and got offered his dream university place – medicine at Birmingham. My daughter had another set of mocks, which went very well. We got much-needed new windows. I was stressed for most of the month with work, puppy and marathon stuff. My eldest and Hetty were both ill at the same time (not Covid), adding to my stress. The marathon training hit a peak of 22 miles, then we started tapering. I did my final training run on 31st March. We had really warm weather towards the end of the month, then it suddenly went colder than winter.

On 3rd April, my husband and I ran Manchester marathon. It didn’t go entirely to plan (for him more than me), but we did it! He says he’s never doing a marathon again. After the marathon, I struggled with injury, so had to rest a bit and use ice on my leg every day. It was the Easter holidays, of course, and we had a couple of very small days out, but the kids were mainly revising. It felt like my daughter was revising non-stop, while my son just did a maximum of two hours a day. My daughter had her first GCSE exam at the end of the month – German speaking. We finally replaced our garden furniture – the only garden furniture we had was some our neighbours gave us that they were getting rid of in 2005 and it had been too bad to use for the last three or four years.

In May, my eldest went on a solo holiday to Sri Lanka. I always worry when he goes away, but this time he managed to get caught up in curfews and rioting and even had to have the police help him to get to his airport hotel! The younger two kids had lots of athletics competitions, mainly close to home, but one in Swansea. My son jumped 6.92 – just 1cm off his PB.

The younger two kids also had their last days of school – the last day ever for my son and the last day before GCSEs for my daughter. My daughter then had 10 exams before half term and she was happy with all of them. My son had just one – PE paper 1. He had his prom before half term too.

My husband, sister, brother-in-law and I all ran Tewkesbury half marathon. I celebrated my 250th parkrun, a big milestone in the parkrun world.

June was a very eventful month. My daughter finished her GCSEs on 23rd June and my son finished his A Levels on 24th. I was very proud of how hard they both worked and how calm they stayed.

At the start of the month, we went to Wychwood Festival for the first time since 2019, which was fantastic. A few days later, my husband and I went to see the Wonder Stuff in Bristol. Sadly, it seems that I picked up Covid there. I was ill for a week and in isolation in my bedroom for six days, desperately hoping that my kids could avoid it. I’m pleased to say that my younger kids did avoid it. My eldest had it, but didn’t have any symptoms.

My parents finally got to celebrate their golden wedding with the extended family a year late, which was lovely.

Sadly, my beloved yellow Mini broke down for the last time in June. It was replaced with a very nice orange Mini, although I was sad to no longer have a yellow car.

At the end of the month, my son finally achieved what he’d been working towards for two years – he managed a seven metre long jump!

Read about the second half of the year here…