Me, Him and Them

We are now on the home straight for back to school *sobs* and as much as I love the holidays and all the new memories that we make and fun we have I know it has to come to an end and after a pretty chilled Summer I know getting back into a routine is going to be a bit of a nightmare so here are my top ten tips to make the back to school transition just that bit easier. 1. Start your/their bedtime routine NOW! Undoubtedly you've had more late nights and lie-ins(I know I have) than normal so get yourself and your kiddos off to bed at their normal time and set that alarm for your usual wake up time. It will make life so much easier when next week it's no longer a choice! 2. Lay uniform and anything else needed for the next day out the night before. This is something I try to drum into my teenagers. There's no point shouting in the morning 'Mum, I can't find a polo' like they expect me to magic one up from out of my arse, when had you looked for one last night,

#silentsunday

Mikhayla-Jae THOSE NUMBERS DO NOT DEFINE YOU Whatever numbers are printed on that piece of paper that is sealed within that envelope on results day, do not define you. By the time that this letter is published we will have discovered the results of your GCSE exams. You were in a year of young people that were the first to sit exams of this kind. Gone are the days of A, B, C etc grades and with new ways of studying, assessing and marking there was a lot of pressure placed on your not too huge shoulders but despite it all you have come out the other side a stronger person.  You are the oldest of 4 and although you have never said it, I know you feel that you HAVE to do well to set a good example to your brothers and sister. You worked so hard, studied all hours and kept going even when you wanted to give up and I know because of that you will get the results that you deserve. We really don't always see eye to eye, in fact more often than not w

This is just a little note to say THANK YOU . I know I don't say it enough and I know that looking after 4 children we often just get swept along with being Mum and Dad. When I'm losing my shit and shouting at pretty much anything that moves in the house, you somehow manage to keep everything else calm. For all the times that you walk in from work and I'm tired, cross or trying to resolve an argument between kids...Thank you for diving straight into conflict resolution mode despite still having your keys in your hand, cap on and bag on your back. For all the times that we've forgotten to pick something up, run out of something or I say I fancy a little treat...Thank you for always being happy and willing to go out at anytime of the day or night to get it. For all the times that I want to catch up on my soaps and programmes that you really aren't into...Thank you for offering to sit and rub my feet while we watch them together. For all the tim

Down in our neck of the woods the fourth week of the Summer holidays is coming to an end and I have to say it hasn’t been what I had imagined. We got the kids involved in picking activities and days out for the holidays, creating a Summer Bucket List and put it all on our ‘Summer Holiday Post It Note Calendar’ so that everybody knew what we would be doing and when we would be doing it BUT the reality has been very different. We have so far stuck to our plans and completed all of the days out and activities from our list keeping the kids occupied but my goodness, it hasn’t stopped the constant  bickering, the “Mum I’m bored and hungry”, the steady flow of mess that keeps appearing no matter how many times I clean it up and the  arguments over what should be on the tv.   I started to secretly think that my kids may actually be demonic robots who were sent to just see how far they can push me before they see steam coming out of my ears but the more people I speak to, the more I r

When we are at home I’m usually THAT mum that tries to run a tight ship, with bedtimes, schedules, meal plans and any other kind of routine that keeps things running smoothly BUT when we go on a staycation to a UK holiday park all of that goes out of the window. 1. The bedtime routines go completely out of the window. 2. It’s totally acceptable for your kids to run around barefoot 99% of the time that you are away. 3. Healthy eating options are just not a choice at the full board buffet. 4. You find sand in places that you didn’t even knew you had and it will be a THING for weeks even after you return home. 5. The preplanned outfit choices that you packed before you left are a thing of the past. Your kids are wearing any random items together whilst they happily dig holes in the dirt with a stick. 6. You WILL be forced to get up on the dance floor every evening to do some dodgy holiday club dance routine that involves you looking like a complete an utter twat.

One of the things that was on our Summer Bucket list was baking a sprinkle cake. As my 9 year old wanted to make it by himself I wanted the easiest possible recipe so that he was confident. We started out by making a shopping list of all of the ingredients needed and popped into our local Asda. Armed with his list and some money, I dutifully followed him around the store watching him check things off his list. Shopping completed, we headed home and the baking began... Ingredients For the sponge 8oz butter 8oz caster sugar 8oz self raising flour 4 eggs 1 pot of sprinkles 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence For the buttercream 20oz icing sugar 10oz butter A few drops of vanilla essence 1 pot of sprinkles Colouring if desired Method 1) Preheat oven to 180C/160fan/gas mark 4 and grease and line 4 20cm sandwich tins(if you only have 2, halve the mixture and bake in 2 batches) 2) Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy 3) Beat in the eggs on

How many times have you just needed five minutes peace and quiet so stuck your kid in front of Cbeebies or given them the iPad? I'll be completely honest, I've done it quite a few times in my 16 years of being a parent and up until recently I've not seen any issue in it at all, but as  my kids have got older I have found it increasingly difficult to control how much screen time they actually have. With a new social media app launched every few months, homework being set via the Internet, games consoles, Netflix and what not, how are we supposed to keep on top of it? My three older children are in education so are out from around 8am until 4pm every day but when they get in they just want to chill either on the Playstation, watching TV or watching Youtube but when I ask them to switch off there is ALWAYS an excuse as to why they can't just yet - "I need to finish my match on Fortnite" or "Oh but the show is nearly finished anyway Mum can I just wa

# silentsunday

For years I’ve struggled with my weight and by struggled I mean I’ve not been happy with how big I am but not doing enough about it. Before I had my eldest(now 16) the average size of ‘the perfect woman’ was a size 10 so my 5’9” size 14 body was seen as fat....if only I could go back to that size 14 body. Over the years I’ve crash dieted, yo-yo dieted, joined gyms, eaten out more, drunk more fizz and guess what....gained weight. During the height of summer I wouldn’t leave the house without a cardigan or something covering my arms because of my ‘upside down biceps’ and I definitely couldn’t buy t-shirts because they would be too short and show off my Santa like tummy but the truth of the matter is, nobody cared. I was the only one bothered by my wobbly arms and round tum. Everyone else is too busy worrying about their own wobbly bits to have time to bother themselves with mine! What I came to realise over the years was that it wasn’t so much what I wore it was always m