Out With The Old, In With The Grin

I have just two weeks until my fixed braces are fitted to my teeth for the rest of the year and I’m both nervous yet excited at the same time. I can’t wait to have my teeth straightened and whitened to how I want them to look, and although I’ll never be perfect I can polish up what I have, after all our little quirks and flaws make us who we are don’t they. I see my little beauty fixes much like eating dinner, when it’s cold you don’t enjoy it as much, as it’s that little bit of heat that makes it taste how it should; the ingredients and portion size remain the same, but it’s the way in which it’s received that makes the difference. Just as when I have my hair trimmed or get a tan on a summers day, I’m still the same person, just with a little bit of heat to serve me at my best.

It's Only Two Weeks Until I Have My Braces Fitted So I'm Learning To Smile With My Mouth Shut

Love The Skin You Are In


I love summer because it’s the only time of year when you can get away with being natural, if you don’t straighten your hair people tend to think that you’ve purposely recreated the beach-bum casual look instead of just sparing yourself the hot irons, and if your nails are chipped or your jeans worn and ripped it suddenly becomes fashion instead of fault. I also love how the sun melts your makeup and leaves you feeling like a sweaty pig in clothes, so it’s a great excuse to embrace nature, cut your beauty regime down to just eyeliner and lipgloss and bust out the short shorts for some vitamin C. I’ve really learned to get to know myself this past year, from shaking off my concern for other peoples negative opinions to accepting my body as a mother of two. I’m lanky, I have stretchmarks, my hair goes frizzy for no reason and my left foot is bent, but I kind of like it, because nobody else has exactly what I have. Out of the millions of people in this world, nobody has their freckles in the exact same places as mine, nobodies teeth cross over like mine do, nobody laughs the same way I do, and nobody will ever be the same as me or vice versa. We are all beautiful within, from our fingers to our toes, our eyes and our smile because we were all created from love. What you see on the outside will only ever last so many years, as time ticks by our bodies age, change and fade away, but our heart and soul lasts a lifetime. So don’t spent all your time stressing about the things you don’t like about yourself or wishing you looked different; love what you have, smile through your flaws and if and when you can go and heat up your dinner, just never get sad about the things that you can’t change, because life is too short and we’re made to look how we do for a reason.

The weather started off pretty up and down this week with bouts of sun, rain and thunderstorms, I’d just got into the mood for a garden clear out when it started thrashing it down with rain as I attempted to clear out my shed. I’ve been hoping to get rid of the past four and a half years worth of garden gadgets from the shed to make way for housing some shiny new bicycles for the children and I. It is scary just how much I’d packed into my 6ft timber tardis, as not only do our three rabbits and a guinea pig have their hutches and run indoors, but they also share the rent with a lawnmover, strimmer, three scooters, a bicycle, hundreds of tins of paint, a ladder, two beds, a cot, a few sacks of compost, barbecue briquettes, trunks of seeds, grown up gardening tools, the children’s gardening tools, two paddling pools, several footballs, four chairs, two folding chairs, a BBQ, a dining table and a ridiculous amount of plastic plant pots in every shape, size and colour of the rainbow.

After A Garden Shed Clearout I Took A Car Load Of Wood & Pots To Be Recycled At The Tip

After A Garden Shed Clearout I Took A Car Load Of Wood & Pots To Be Recycled At The Tip

I scurried like a drowned rat in the rain with my hood up, running out to the car with handfuls of wood, canes, furniture and boxes to take to the tip. And no timber tardis would be complete without several hundred dog-sized spiders of course, casually lurking around under boxes as I unsuspectedly ploughed my face through their well established webs and nests. I squealed like a pig in swill, stamping and smacking myself like something out of riverdance at the prospect of a spider hiding in my hair or running up my back. And although I was absolutely petrified by the size of them, I didn’t let it stop me from getting it done, because that’s exactly how I roll! Loading up the car until I could literally fit no more in, Gabriele helped me by jumping into the front seat and turning on my headlights, window wipers and cruise control before bending my rear view mirror upwards. Every little helps I suppose.

Kissing the children goodbye as they waited at home, I set off in the car to the tip with a ticking time-bomb of spiders, bugs and cobwebs just inches away from me. My method of survival for the several minute journey was to remove my jacket and roll the front windows right down so that when I drove if anything tried to crawl onto me then the sheer force of the wind would blast it back into the car as I cruised along like a dog with its face out of the window, hair blowing and cheeks flapping. I made it to the tip in record time and emptied the car into the various skips of wood, metal and household waste, much to the amusement of the staff with my skinny jeans, white vest top and matching nails lugging rolled up rugs, wooden beams and bed frames over my shoulder. Who needs a man!? Not me!

After emptying the car, and with my windows still down, I then headed straight to the carwash for a valet leaping out from the front seat and begging them to suck, disinfect, and clear every inch of my car and boot for anything with a pulse. With hair like Sideshow-Bob, sawdust, dirt and cobwebs up my arms and legs, and hands as black as coal you could be forgiven for thinking that I was out of my comfort zone, when in actual fact I was really proud of myself. Not only did I do what most husbands never seem to manage, completing an organising/DIY task, but I also faced my fear of spiders and made room to park the children’s new bikes, which I now have to go shopping for. Excited much!

I Chose A Bright Yellow Bike & Child Seat For Gabriele And I

I Chose A Bright Yellow Bike & Child Seat For Gabriele And I

So I was excited to find a bike that is pretty good at going down curbs and potholes considering the state of the roads these days! I chose it in fluorescent yellow for safety primarily, and also as it was a nice warm sunny day I couldn’t resist a bit of citrus. I then ordered a child seat online which I’ve yet to receive. I’ve seen lots of people with seats that clip to the back of the bike for babies to bop along for the ride with a massive helmet and water bottle, but I really didn’t like the idea of Gabriele sitting behind me. Firstly if a car hit us from behind them it would go straight into him, and secondly if he got upset I wouldn’t be able to see him or calm him down, so when I saw this seat that clips onto the handlebars I was really excited. Hopefully it should arrive soon and fingers crossed that my bike is one of the one-size-fits-all handlebars! I’m really looking forward to some summer rides together out on the open road going for picnics and stopping at play parks. Bliss.

I Had Another Clear Out Of The Children's Things

I Had Another Clear Out Of The Children’s Things

And if I hadn’t had enough of a clear out already this week, I then decided to tackle the children’s bedroom which had become somewhat higgildy piggildy, with trinkets, socks and books gradually having migrated away from their home and left to stand on the desk, chair or sofa. After what started as the innocent action of folding away the washing and hanging the clothes, almost four hours later I emerged with five bags of unwanted toys and craft experiments that had gone wrong. The entire house, garden and car is spotless and I feel like flopping down onto the sofa with the biggest grin on my face. Life is perfect, and not a sausage is out of place. I’ve been feeling really OCD recently, wanting to change so many things, start a fresh and push myself to a new high. I have no idea why, but it’s certainly not a bad thing as I’d hate to fall stagnant in life. And after all of the DIY and clear outs, I got the children a bumblebee swinging bench for the garden which I built from flatpack with a fair amount of huffing and puffing and a smattering of French. Millie sweetly sat on the kitchen floor with me feeding me cheese puffs whilst I fiddled and twiddled with tiny spanners and allen keys and although it took me possibly twice as long as the average bear, I was so excited to finish building it and see the kids swinging out in the sunshine. I also attempted to cook fish for the children, as I haven’t eaten it in twenty-one years and have only ever served breaded fish for dinner. It was a massive step for me to actually de-skin a haddock and make a fish pie for the children, which they absolutely loved even though it made my hair stand on end and set off my gag reflex. It goes to show that just because you’ve never done something before it doesn’t mean to say that you’re not capable, give it a go and you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve.

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Tracy Kiss

Social influencer, Bodybuilder, Mother, Vegan
London, UK

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