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Showing posts from 2018

Rediscovering Books

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For as long as I can remember I have loved a good book. I used to enjoy random finds that once immersed would find me whizzed off into a world of romance, danger, plot twists and just a world that was completely different to my own and to be honest I think that was always the attraction. As I got older, moved out of home, had children and just basically grew up I found myself reading less and less until eventually if I managed one book a year it was a miracle. This year I got caught up in 3 books and it reignited my love of reading.  Now I'm not one for New Years resolutions( a few new school year ones maybe ), if  you have goals or dreams then there's no point in waiting, tomorrow never may come and all that, so you have to grab life by the horns.  Some may think that reading a few more books isn't that big a deal but it's what it means. It means setting a goal and sticking to it. It means showing willpower and determination and it also means prioritising

That Girl

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As the year draws to an end, like many others I find myself reflecting on the past 12 months. The highs, the lows, the good, the bad, the experiences and the lessons. This year there has been one thing that has stuck out more than anything and it’s seemed to reoccur the last few years, DISAPPOINTMENT ! I’ve always been THAT girl. That girl who will always be the first to call and text. THAT girl who will share the latest bargain or discount code. THAT girl who loves to make plans and invite everyone to make as many fabulous memories as possible but all too many times it has dawned on me that because I’m THAT girl people take me for granted. This year, more so than others, it has really dawned on me just how much effort I put into my relationships with friends and families and how complacent that those friends and family have become in assuming that I’ll just always be the one who will continue to make an effort. Truth is, I just can’t and won’t do it anymore. As someone

Guess Who's Back?!

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I know I know, I've been pretty absent of late but that's a post for another day.... Love it or hate it for the next month your social media feeds will be full of images of elves up and down the country up to their tricks as Elf on the Shelf is back! For some years now we’ve incorporated this into our Christmas traditions and the only way I can keep on top of it is by planning everything in advance. This year I’ve noticed that loads of shops have starting stocking ‘elfy’ items to help you and your elf in their antics and I along with what seems like half of the country have picked up a few of these things. Our elf, Kaboodle, named by our now 9 year old is a particularly tricky elf that usually gets up to no good and as such often leaves a lovely mess for Mummy to clean up! Traditionally, Kaboodle arrives on 1st December through his special elf door leaving snowy footprints bringing advent calendars for all of the family with him. This year he will also be bringing a cou

Chocolate and Sprinkle Coated Breadsticks - Recipe

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So for the annual BBC Children In Need school cake sale I knew we would donate some homemade goodies but I didn't want the mess and drama of weighing, mixing, flour and sugar everywhere and that's before we got to the icing stage so I thought there must be something a little more MESS and STRESS free we could make. After a quick rummage in the cupboards and a stroke of creativity we come up with chocolate coated breadsticks. Ingredients Box of breadsticks  Cooking chocolate (we used both milk and white chocolate) Hundreds and thousands Edible candy stars Method 1. Melt the chocolate one bar at a time. We melted ours in the microwave but you can do it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure you stir until completely melted. 2. Cover two baking sheets with parchment and cover one with your choice of sprinkles. 3.  Dip as much or as little of the breadstick in to the chocolate and then roll in the sprinkles on the  baking tray(we did try sprin

Dirty Little Secrets

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Since becoming a mum I often crave just 5 minutes peace or often try to find a shortcut to make some tasks just that bit easier and quicker so here are some of my dirty mum secrets that have kept me going over the last 16 years.... Sometimes I can't be bothered to pick up a piece of rubbish so I leave it and claim that I'm conducting a social experiment to see how long it stays there before somebody else picks it up #lazy I've been known to say that I am putting the laundry away when in fact I am hiding in my room watching Youtube or catching up on some reality tv #hiding I'll buy treats when I go shopping and then hide to scoff a chocolate bar or share size bag of crisps whilst palming the children off with a piece of fruit #secreteater Sometimes in the middle of the night I pretend to be asleep when the little one wakes up and needs to go to the toilet so that Big Sam will get up and do the honours #naughty When the kids are being particularly annoying I w

Travel First Aid Kit

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For as long as I can remember my boys have always managed to have some kind of accident, sometimes big, sometimes small but with those two there is always a bump, scrape or blood. I know it sounds really stereotypical but that's just the way it has always been, I have prim and proper girls and boisterous boys! As a family we love to travel, whether that be a day trip, short break or full on foreign holiday, but because I know how accidental these kids are I never leave home without my travel first aid kit. I posted a picture of it recently on Instagram and had a flurry of messages asking me what I keep in mine so thought I would share the contents in this post. I know you can purchase first aid kits that are already put together but I wanted something a bit more tailor made with everything that I know one of  MY LOT (or us adults) may need.......although there's no alcohol. Travel First Aid Kit Contents Anti-bacterial hand sanitizer 3+ months liquid paracetamol

Money Saving Challenge with Free Printable

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What's it all about? In short, the penny saving challenge is a way of saving money over a 365 days/annual period. How does it work? It's a pretty basic system, each day you put away an amount corresponding with the day that you are on in the challenge, so for example day 1-1p, day 2-2p, day 3-3p(or the equivalent in whatever currency is used in your part of the world.) As the days, weeks and months go on the amount you put away increases leaving you with a pretty nice little savings pot. *I actually put away random amounts each day and coloured in the corresponding square How much can I save? If you stick to the basic idea of putting away 1p more each day, then at the end of the 365 day challenge you should have a total of £667.95 saved up. If you and your partner do a joint one then double that figure. *I would often put any loose change in my pot too so had more than £667.95 When can I do it? The beauty of this challenge is as it is a 365 day challenge

Our Merlin Annual Passes

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Recently I have been receiving lots or messages and emails about our days out at Merlin attractions, the cost of visiting them and why we go so often so I thought I'd write a post on why we bought our passes and some other info. We have been Merlin Passholders for a few years now and the reason we decided to make the purchase was simply because of the amount of day trips and short breaks we take.  We are quite an active family and love a day out but even after all my bargain hunting and coupon cutting, as a family of 5(Sofia was free at most attractions back then) entrance fees, travel, food, snacks, drinks etc a day out was costing A LOT more than our big monthly shop. One of my cousins had previously been Merlin annual passholder and suggested that we look into getting them as we were visiting lots of the Merlin attractions anyway. The Merlin Annual Pass website is pretty straight forward. It breaks down the different types of passes available(standard, premium and VIP),

Meal Planning Recipe Ideas with Free Printable Weekly Meal Planner

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Like many others  up and down the country, I am primarily responsible for most aspects of meal planning; the planning it out, shopping for it, cooking it, dishing it up and the washing up afterwards. I’ve always enjoyed getting creative in the kitchen but with all the after school activities and my older children coming in at different times it has become more of a challenge to find meals that everyone enjoys, fits into our schedule and I actually enjoy cooking. My cooking has become very repetitive and I’ve lost the excitement I once had in rustling up family meals. I challenged myself to come up with at least 20 meals, some old favourites and some new and use this post as a reference for myself and anyone else struggling to meal plan or wanting to try something new or different. Mince Spaghetti bolognese Shepherds or cottage pie, veg and yorkshire’s  Chilli con carne with rice and tortilla chips Koftas with rice, salad and flatbreads Meatballs in tomato sauce

Just Slow Down

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These days there are so many memes, saying provers, quotes etc all over the internet and a little while back I stumbled across a poem. I agreed with the sentiment and really liked the poem and that was that, but today as I rushed back from town with my mind focused on the 101 things I needed to do before dashing down to the school for my 9 year olds end of topic presentation I started wondering about just how much as parents we miss out on with all the craziness that is parenthood and chores. I don't mean missing out on all the things that maybe our pre-child selves would do I mean missing out on things like watching your children fall about in fits of giggles over the smallest thing, catching them engrossed in a book and realising just how much they enjoy reading or something as simple as snuggling up to watch a movie. I know just how hard it can be to do everything that needs doing around the home and also trying to find time to play with the kids, give each of them quality time

Silent Sunday

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#SilentSunday

Loving My Natural Hair

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Growing up when and where I did I was either surrounded by my black friends with fancy corn row hairstyles or my white friends with their straight flowing European hair and I was always jealous. Jealous of the amazing corn row styles and jealous of the long flowing smooth and silky hair. You see I had very thick and coarse hair and my English mum with European hair herself always struggled to manage it. I so desperately wanted long straight ‘flicky flicky’ hair as I called it and absolutely hated my Afro hair. There was a seriously limited number of hair products on the market back then and even fewer hairdressers that knew how to handle my hair. and you can forget about blogs and YouTube tutorials of black hair care because they never even existed! As soon as I was old enough I began chemically relaxing my hair, this involved covering my roots in a potent chemical paste and washing it off after about 20 minutes. Once washed and blow dried I had the hair I had always longed for.

Rainy Day Activities

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This year we had an amazing Summer full of hot and sunny days which meant we were able to enjoy loads of outdoor activities and we're fortunate enough to live in an area that is densely populated with parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and other family friendly attractions, however, now Autumn is well and truly here with cold, wet and windy days we are getting creative after school and at the weekends. So with the weather set to get worse over the next few months, here are some of our favourite rainy day activities. Masking Tape Games Something as simple as a role of masking tape can provide hours of fun. Mark out a hopscotch on the floor using the tape. Using the masking tape stick a large circle to the floor followed by 2 smaller circles inside the largest one and an 'x' in the centre. Roll a ball and try and get as close to the 'x' as possible. Play Dough Despite what many think, making your own play dough couldn't be any simpler. There ar