I don't know about you, but after Christmas here it seemed like the kids went more than a little bit loopy. I'm not sure if it was all to do with life being really busy with lots of friends and family to see over the holiday, or going away, or the influx of new toys for them both, but this year it's really taken a while for life to get back to normal. I've often found that the only time of the day that's been more predictable was just before bed. That nice bit of time when all the stress of getting them upstairs for a bath is behind you, and all that is left is a good old bedtime story and ... read more
The magic of a white Christmas
Here we are on the first day of a new year. Mr C is back to work tomorrow, Master C back to nursery and I think it's therefore time to say that Christmas 2014 is over. The last ten days seem to have vanished in a bit of a whirlwind, but I think it fair to say we had a good Christmas. The emergency dentist appointment for me and both kids being at the GPs on the Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week made me wonder if we were going to be a house full of sick people for the big day itself, but luckily I think we dodged a bullet there. We just had my mum staying with us for Christmas itself and ... read more
Review: Pamper Parcels
It's is exhausting being a mum. To be honest I'm finding having a four year old and a two year old more exhausting than the newborn days. There are still some sleepless nights, but there's also all the stuff that needs doing in the daytime. Masses of laundry, school homework, forms that need returning, pre-school visits to do, school run, nursery run, swimming lessons, playgroup, shopping, cleaning, school uniform to mend, school shoes to buy, the daily routine of getting through meals and bath and bed time. It can feel like an endless treadmill. Christmas just adds to the workload. There ... read more
Understanding what loyalty really is
Today is the last day of Little Miss C's first half a term at school proper. As she'd been at our local infant school for her pre-school year I'd always assumed that it would be quite an easy transition into reception, and in many ways it has, but at the same time I'd also underestimated somewhat how different it also all is due to that extra year of age. LMC is now four, and will turn 5 later in the school year and that seems to be an age when children are so much more aware of the other children they're at school with and the concept of friends. There are children in her class that she ... read more
Embracing the real simple life
My recent trip to Amsterdam has been part of a longer process I'm going through looking at my blog, my blogging career, our family finances and lots of related things. I'm lucky enough to make money from my blogging. Not enough to pay the mortgage (unfortunately) but enough that it has been making a difference to our lives - whether it being extra money in the bank each month, or review products or events that we could otherwise not afford to do. This difference has come through hard work though. Lots of hard work, and work that doesn't necessarily always pay a good hourly wage. There are up ... read more
The weekend I went to Amsterdam and won a new kitchen bin
When you become a stay at home mum after years working in a career where you were actually someone with quite an important busy job it can be a bit of a shock. Looking back, managing multimillion pound projects with stakeholders with conflicting requirements actually seemed quite easy in comparison to trying to get a Duracell fuelled two year old to lie still whilst you change a particularly nasty dirty nappy. Even those arguments about conflicting requirements were a piece of cake compared to two children both wanting the same toy. Back in my working days I would have thought nothing about ... read more
September 1 – 1 Mrs C
On Wednesday morning I woke up to find myself in October. Now, I know it shouldn't be much of a shock after all the calendar has been in place for hundreds of years, but I still found myself a bit staggered when it happened. For the whole summer I was always assuming that life would calm down when it got to September and school started again, but instead the opposite has happened. Things have become more than a bit crazy instead. I thought things were going to be a bit more straightforward. Master C started going to nursery two days a week at the start or the month (instead of just the one ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 7 – Shopping and Classics on the Common
I'm still playing catch up somewhat with our holiday diary, but at the same time I'm determined to make sure I don't miss a day. Day 7, Wednesday, was one of those days where we didn't do a huge amount, but when we did do things we seemed to be so involved in it that there weren't many photos. Most of the day was spent at home with the kids, save for a precious couple of hours in the afternoon when my MIL came round to look after the children for a couple of hours whilst I went to Welwyn and spent a John Lewis gift voucher that she'd bought me for my birthday. It was very strange being out ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 6 – Birthday party, upcycling and vintage sewing patterns
As I feared, time is starting to run away from me somewhat and I'm already starting to wonder what it was we did a couple of days ago. After the excitement on Luton on Monday, Tuesday was intended as a bit of a quieter day at home, punctuated by a lunchtime birthday party for both children at the kind invitation of one of Little Miss C's school friends. The party was held in a Scout hut in a part of St Albans that I'm not at all familiar with (and hence I discovered a fantastic new playground next door too), and as we were still blessed with gorgeous hot weather here it was particularly ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 5 – Fun in Luton
Yes, you did read that title correctly, and no it's not one that I ever expected to write either. When I started keeping track of what we're getting up to this summer I did realise that we couldn't go out and do an amazing day trip every day, and nor did I want to. Sometimes the simplest of things can be the most rewarding, and sometimes something that might have appeared very mundane actually turns out to be quite exciting. We started today without any real plans and the only things that we had to get done were to get some food shopping in and to buy a birthday present for a little boy ... read more