BEDN: Unusual Hobbies

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

Unusual Hobbies

I’ve been trying to think of this one and I’m really struggling. I don’t think any of my hobbies are particularly unusual.

I love knitting, crocheting, sewing and other bits like that which when I was a teenager wasn’t “cool”. I would spend whole weekends working on a project with Mum or pottering round the garden with Dad both of which weren’t cool at the time (I think I would just concede that I would never be cool and I’d just get on with what I enjoyed doing!)

Now there’s been a sort of revival with knitting and crochet and now it is cool so in a way I guess I was ahead of the trend (haha!)

So do I have unusual hobbies – yes and no I guess.

How about you? Do you have unusual hobbies?

BEDN: Friday Night In

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

Friday Night In

Today’s night in was a bit unplanned. Earlier today my Mum took my Dad to a doctors appointment as he’s been poorly all week. She thought it was the flu but Dad still looks absolutely wrecked even though he’s slept for almost four days straight.

Mum kept my brother and I updated via text message (and a phone call) and Dad was admitted to hospital yesterday afternoon. I knew my Mum had a bunch of stuff to do and as she was going to probably see Dad tomorrow she needed to clear the decks a bit at home.

Her best friend was on the same track, and I think when she said “what can I do to help?”. Mum explained about a costume she needed to make for Open The Book and her friend said “Bring it round and I’ll sort it”. On her way back from her best friend’s house, she collected me and I headed round to her house to help make sheep masks also for Open The Book.

We worked our way through various TV shows including Rizzoli and Isles, Code Black and Grey’s Anatomy. Although when it came to Grey’s I had to explain what’s happened since Yang had to be cut out of her wedding dress when she almost married Burke. Well actually it was a more potted version and mostly consisted of what happened to George O’Malley.

BEDN: Guide Dogs

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

Guide Dogs

In the past I’ve shared stories about my friend E and her Guide Dog Isaac. My favourite has to be the time when Jaxon was about four weeks old and we went for coffee.

Isaac had worked his way under the table to be sat on my feet. He was being a guard dog as well as a guide dog. (more here).

Isaac is getting old and has been heading towards retirement age. He’s been E’s guide dog for seven years. She knew it was going to come but hoped that it wouldn’t be too soon.

Last week Isaac was poorly and E decided the time had come to retire him. Yesterday his harness was collected and a bunch of paperwork was completed.

E wrote about her gratitude over on her sparkly new blog here.

Our friend Jenny is running the London Marathon next year and is raising money for Guide Dogs UK. So if you can spare some pennies I know they would be really appreciated.

By having Isaac, E was able to find a level of independence that she’d “lost” when she had her white cane. As she says in her post:

I had begun dreading being out by myself in public. I am eternally grateful to Isaac for changing all that and giving me my quality of life back.

Check back tomorrow for my next post as part of blog every day in November.

BEDN: BedsHour Tweetup

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

BedsHour Tweetup

On a Monday evening between 8:30 and 9:30pm there’s a Twitter Chat called #BedsHour. Tonight was our tweetup. We met at The Pavilion in Bedford Park. I often go to The Pavilion now for Lemon and Ginger but hadn’t ever been for a meal. On arrival at the Tweetup we were given a name badge to add our Twitter Handles to so that we could put a face to the Twitter handle so to speak! It was good to have met some of the people there before so I didn’t quite feel like I was walking into a room of strangers.

Around 7:30 we all took our seats – they weren’t assigned but at the end of our main course we were instructed to switch chairs and sit with different people. (In this picture my chair is empty but has my navy jacket on the chair). I was sat with Claire from Addison Accounts, Kate from YouCanBook.Me, Tabitha and Paul from Tabitha Mary. We talked lots about how welcoming Bedford is and how we love independent traders like Rogan’s Books and Épanoui.

Tweetup

On the menu at the Tweetup we had gourmet burgers. There were various toppings you could have. I choose cheese and bacon. It was so yummy. When my plate arrived I was like “oh five chips that’s not many” but by the time I’d got through my burger I’m quite glad I didn’t have more than five chips lol.

Following our burgers, we played musical chairs and changes seats. I moved to sit with Paul from White Label Dev, Sarah from Sarah’s Doo Wop Dos and a couple of other people – really the conversation should have started with us all saying our names but I think we were all too busy to get started.

At the main course, I was sat with Tabitha and Paul from Tabitha Mary. We were talking about what we did for work and Paul got talking about Tabitha’s art work. Unfortunately they are out of our budget for this Christmas but I absolutely love these Christmas cards. It did cross my mind about ordering and sending to PenPals outside the UK. Might still have to do that if she has some in stock. I also love this print of the Suspension Bridge especially with all the wintery effects.

BEDN: My Little Monkey

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

Little Monkey

Today’s topic is technically Food Glorious Food but I got diverted from that one for now. Since Jaxon found his legs, he’s been climbing more and more. His new one is to get himself onto the Poang chair and then climb up the back of the chair so he can see out into the garden.

I was catching up on YouTube videos and Cori at The Reset Girl was on, then it switched to Ali Brown as she was next on the playlist. When Ali came on Jaxon stopped what he was doing, used the packed up play pen as a step and stood watching her from about six inches away from the screen. Look at those squishy legs!

Another climbing one. For quite a few weeks Jaxon loved playing with the coals in the fire so I moved the black box in front of the fire in the hope it would deter him a bit. In the end, I removed all the coals and have stored them away, sometimes though he either tries to reach round the box or stands on the box like this or like the one below he

BEDN: Currently

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

This post was originally started using the Currently prompt from RUKristin. You can get all sorts of You can find that here. Have a good week!

Currently… Watching
I’m almost all the way through Season 7 of Grey’s Anatomy – how did I manage almost two seasons in a week – oops! I found SuperGirl on NowTV too so that’s another program added to the list! I’m up to the Musical/Car Crash episode – I love the arrangements of the songs but just hate the story line to get to that point. The bit when Miranda sings “I need your grace, to remind me, to find my own” and it’s like a quick prayer. While I write this post, Chris has got Ocean’s Thirteen (I think!) on in the background but I’m watching How To Get Away With Murder on Netflix (some episodes are for the second time). Actually only about four minutes into the episode because Chris keeps talking to me or wanting me to focus on the TV.

Currently… Reading
I’ve not being reading very much this last week. Between feeling really tired and just not feeling it all the reading I’ve done has been FB comments, tweets and emails.

Currently… Making
I’m still working on the crochet squares – they are driving me a little crazy at the moment because the black wool is kind of boring but it’s a massive part of the project so they are needed. I just need to keep going, I’ve also got idea of what to do next but need to finish this project first.

Currently… Eating
Chris wrote the food plan and did the shopping again. It makes me feel loved when he does the food shopping because the supermarket is just so busy busy on a Sunday and it stresses me out a bit, especially if I need to take Jaxon with me because he needs a nap around that time so gets grouchy as well as wanting to turn round and take things out of the trolley.

#BEDN: Something New About Yourself

Blog Every Day in November

Blog Every Day in November is a blogging challenge for you to write and publish a blog post every day for the entire month of November. It’s as simple as that. You can find the prompts here.

Something New About Yourself

I’m really stuck with what is something new about myself. I had my hair cut short but that was back in the Summer so that’s not exactly new. I also started journalling more at the beginning of August too. I guess something that is sort of new is that I have started vlogging again. They are rough round the edges and I probably need to have lessons in camera work and editing but they are there all the same.

At the beginning of October when a few vloggers I watch started doing Vlogtober – I did think about joining in but some days I don’t move from my living room apart from meal times and so it would be really boring some days! I figured that I would look towards November and either joining in with NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo, as it happens I got an email from Elizabeth at Rosalilium introducing Blog Every Day in November and decided that I would join in with this one instead, so I guess other thing that is new is coming back to blogging – or at least trying to for a few weeks.

So here we go this is Blog Every Day in November and we’ll see how it goes.

Slimming World Sunday #14

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

You know some weeks where you want to hit pause and get off the planet for a bit or hide in the duvet for a while, this week was one of those weeks. I had stuff to be getting on with but some situations that have been happening around here meant that everything else sort of got pushed to one side or shoved in a corner to come back to. Anyway, it also meant that any good habits kind of went out of the window – I ate a rather hefty bar of chocolate across two days it was that kind of week.

And yet, some how I stood on the scales at our Slimming World group to half a pound loss on Thursday. At first I miscalculated how much I’d put on or lost because I forgot my book last week and forgot to update the chart when I got home so it was a lovely surprise to stand on the scales to half a pound lost. WOOHOO!

I’ve come away vaguely sort of inspired to get back on it. I had reached the 2.5 stone mark but have done a wobble round the 2st 3 sort of mark for a while – I get closer to the 2.5 stone mark only to drop back to the 2 stone mark. With a friend from a group on FB I’m attempting to design a food diary that can go in my diary – as I usually end up losing my food diary or it ends up chewed and folded in the bottom of the changing bag.

I’ve also decided to attempt giving up diet cola – again! I keep trying to give it up by the withdrawal headache makes me miserable and cranky so I give up on the giving up and go back to square 1 in a way. I read an article earlier this week that said by drinking diet fizzy you can put on up to 3cm around your waist within a year or something like that, so maybe that’s what I need to do. On Friday a friend suggested I try Green Tea – it’s not really my thing as I don’t like tea but given the fact that 40 bags is as cheap as a bottle of diet cola I figured I’d give it a go and one of the ladies in our Connect Group drinks green tea so she could use them if they were really weren’t my cuppa (haha!). I got Green Tea with Lemon and came home and stuck the kettle on. I downed a cup of squash as I was thirsty then when it was cooler I drank the tea. It was okay and actually within two hours I stuck the kettle on and had another cup, so it can’t have been that bad! Hopefully it might make a difference and I’ll see the results.

Do you have any tips where you swap some items that are Slimming World friendly for other items that are still Slimming World friendly but have better results?

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Currently…26th October 2015

Currently - 26th October

This post was originally started using the Currently prompt from RUKristin. You can find that here. Have a good week!

Currently… Watching
I reached the end of Season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy and I had to skip the season finale because I knew it would make me cry. I’m on episode 7 of Season 6 while I wait for Season 12 to start here in the UK – I’ve seen clips on YouTube but haven’t seen more than that, it probably doesn’t start here until after Christmas which is super annoying lol. I’ve also been watching lots of YouTube videos by Ali and Anna again. They are both the kind of people that you’d like to hang out with for a coffee and talk planner loveliness.

Currently… Reading
I’ve been reading the odd bits of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo but haven’t entirely got into it yet. I think I might go back and read The Happiness Project again and see if that inspires me to get the house sorted again. Tidying around the house seems to be a never ending battle but I also know that there are books and other piles of clutter that could just be chucked (or donated to the charity shop) that haven’t been touched for ages and could go.

Currently… Making
I’ve been working on crochet squares for a project at the moment as well as working on my journal. I got an email last week to ask me if I could make another sheep like I did last Christmas, I’m sure I can do it just need to get my butt in gear lol. Ooh also need to remember to print off the pattern so I can go shopping for the wool.

Currently… Eating
It’s Chris’s turn on the food plan this week. Some days this week it was really hard, I’d get to the meal time and not want to cook what was on the menu. On Friday, I was considering calling for a pizza as Chris was due to go out. Fajitas were on the menu but I didn’t want to have to cook them. Chris took over and sorted the food which was really helpful while I sorted out Jaxon. The fajita kit we had this time instead of the normal stuff we use were much better so I think we’ll stick with that version if it sticks on the menu.

Slimming World Sunday #13

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week, I’ve noticed that my jeans keep falling down. This would generally be a pretty epic win but I stood on the scales at the Slimming World group only to see that I’d put on a pound, I think that could have been because I actually ate on weigh in day. It’s really hard – clearly I need to eat to be able to function and keep up with Jaxon but when it comes to then standing on the scales, I have to account for what I’ve eaten in weight terms not just what I’ve eaten syn wise.

I’n 99% sure that I should start keeping a food diary again and trying to keep my syns down. I often have Mug Shots for lunch. They are also handy to fish out the pasta from and give that to Jaxon as a light lunch (don’t worry he normally ends up having fruit, some kind of crisps and then some other bits along with it).

I want to get myself sorted out because I’m fed up of bouncing around the 2.5 stone lost line and not getting any closer to my goal. I’ve been walking more and more miles since the beginning of October since Chris started his new job and at first didn’t see any change. I think if I can get my eating back on plan properly the walking that I’m doing would probably have a greater effect on my weight loss. According to my Fitbit I’m on 91.92 miles from the 5th to the 23rd October (110.47 from the 1st to 23rd) this is slightly crazy when in the whole of September I did 115.39 miles. If I keep at this pace I could hit 150 by the end of October (that might have to be a challenge lol).

I think I am close to getting my Slimming World Gold Body Magic award – I keep meaning to sit down and write down my numbers from my FitBit log and see what I’ve achieved in terms of my Body Magic awards. I had my Silver before moving book at the beginning of 2015 and am pretty sure I’ve been close to my Gold Award only to mess it up have to start again.

How is your Slimming World journey going?

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Currently…19th October 2015

Currently - 19th October

This post was originally started using the Currently prompt from RUKristin. You can find that here. Have a good week!

Currently... Watching
With the boys being at the residential this weekend, I pretty much had free range of the TV once Jaxon had gone to bed. I’ve been working my way through Grey’s Anatomy again, I’m up to Izzy having surgery for her tumour and is working on Meredith’s wedding. I watched Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who on Saturday evening, then when Chris was home on Sunday we watched Downton Abbey. Oh my goodness – okay if you haven’t seen it then be aware when they give the warning out at the beginning about the upsetting scenes heed the warning and take note.

Currently… Reading
I finished Wild Nights by Phoebe Smith but haven’t really read anything else since, quite a few nights recently I’ve got into bed and pretty much gone straight to sleep – especially on the nights when it was Jaxon and I because I knew I was going to be up in the night and up in the morning around 6am! I bought the Kindle version of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo

Currently… Making
I’ve been watching lots of vlogs on YouTube by Anna (aka Mrs Brimbles) and Ali Brown so have been working on journalling more. Also I’ve fallen in love with the Midori Traveller’s Notebook system and so have been playing and tweaking that. I’ve also been setting up ideas for a Christmas Planner. I’ve ended up with a set of printables by Mrs Brimbles and an A5 Paperchase folder that I bought a while ago. I did have a brief look on eBay for an A5 Filofax in something Christmassy but then didn’t feel like it was worth it – you know buying a Filofax just for Christmas Planning.

Currently… Eating
This time it was my turn to write a meal plan. I pretty much rearranged the last two weeks into something looking interesting lol. Trying to do low syn choices is really hard some days especially when I’ve charged round like crazy sorting out Jaxon and then have to start cooking dinner.

Slimming World Sunday #12

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

Well that was a lovely surprise on Thursday. I was hoping that all those miles that I have walked would catch up and they did. I stood on the scales and there it was 1.5lbs. We weren’t able to stay for Image Therapy for one thing and another but I did go home to a lovely SW friendly dinner thanks to Chris. He made homemade burgers with Slimming World Wedges. He also made Slimming World coleslaw. The coleslaw was okay but the cabbage was really strong and it would have been better on smaller pieces. Oh well it was made at speed and it filled a hole!

Do you have any favourite recipes that are Slimming World friendly but work to replace something that is full of syns like coleslaw. Please share as I’d love to try them.

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Bed Pop Fun Palaces

I’ve been meaning to write this post all week since we visited the Fun Palaces at the weekend but it’s just not been happening which isn’t good. I realised that I had been really unmotivated to blog even though there’s been lots going on. I spent part of this weekend erasing and reinstalling my laptop so hopefully now it’s going to run better which in turn will help me to be more motivated I think because my computer just has on it what I need instead of extra junk. I think it means that I have risked losing some photos along the way but I think the important ones were already backed up.

Anyway! So last weekend it what I’m actually going to write about. Chris and I headed into town with Jaxon to visit the Fun Palaces. We started off by popping by the HQ tent in Harpur Square.

Chris had a go at making a smoothie with the team from SusTrans. They had a bike that was hooked up to a smoothie maker so that you could make a smoothie by cycle power. Chris had a go and I filmed him. The smoothie was interesting – it wasn’t my cuppa as I don’t like bits in my smoothie but Chris drank it down and seemed to enjoy it.

We headed inside the library to take a look at the Fun Palace activities in there. There were coding workshops on some of the computers in the children’s library bit. I would have loved to have had a go but there were limited numbers of computers and they were technically only open to the kids. We wandered round to the local history tables. There was a stand from Wrest Park which is an English Heritage property.

In the library there was also a stand for creating a Fun Palaces quilt. Unfortunately when we got there, there didn’t seem to be anyone lead the activity (or written instructions to get on with it yourself).

I went to grab a drink while Chris nipped back to the car for something I’d forgotten to pick up. It got a bit complicated and I ended up killing time while I waited for Chris to come back to me. Jaxon got worked up and I decided that I’d decamp from where I was and head to one of the coffee shops I go to frequently to use the baby changing facilities but in the time it took me to get from my spot to the coffee shop, Jaxon had fallen asleep in the carrier so he had to wait for a change which was really not good. Once I’d finished my drink and Chris had tracked me down, Chris, Jaxon and I sat in the sunshine outside The Higgins Museum and came up with a plan for what we were going to do next. We popped into the gallery, to take a closer look at the Fun Palaces activities that were being ran by the Higgins team. In one of the smaller galleries the Higgins curators were hanging their latest exhibition of JMW Turner watercolour paintings. It was interesting but because there were so many people in that particular one, it was really hard to see what was going on. While Chris watched what he could of the Turner demonstration, I popped back to the reception desk to find out where the Mr X Stitch group was meeting.

Cross stitch is one of those things that My Mum taught me as a kid, it’s also one of those things that I can just pick up and get on with. I’d always done flowers or kits that I’d been given or bought with my pocket money growing up. Up in our bedroom we have a Hello Kitty cross stitch on the wall – in one of our flats there wasn’t very many pictures on the walls because it was a rental so I worked my way round trying to fill the nails that were in the wall. There was one in our bedroom that I wanted to fill and I was given a kit. I decided to do something different so having seen a pattern book across the table that had Pacman ghosts in it, I googled for a cross stitch pattern on my phone and got started. The image I found was almost like a Pacman sampler so I mentally chopped it up and stuck it back together again.

Over the next week or so I added to it. I completed three Pacman ghosts in various different colours and then decided to add the text as well. I think it might work for a Christmas present but I’m not 100% sure. I need to get my Mum to help me frame it.

While we were at the Fun Palaces Cross Stitch group, the boys went for a wander (including a nappy change – I think I got the good end of the deal!). Jaxon has been practising his walking more and more, so Chris encouraged him to walk all the way to the toilet and then walk all the way back to me, which apparently in the museum is a long way for his little legs!

We grabbed lunch at The Cappuccino Bar – Chris used to go for his fortnightly (maybe weekly!) lunch “date” with one of the guys from church so he commented how he wouldn’t be able to go as often now he’s changing jobs. They didn’t have a high chair so Jaxon had to sit on a “grown up” chair, it was fine but his forehead was just in line with the edge of the table so it was getting a little close to him head butting the table! I had Pasta Polpette but because there’s not a children’s menu, Jaxon had most of my pasta so I just had Polpette, I’m sure had I asked they might have been able to give me an extra portion of pasta so share between us.

Following lunch, we headed for to The Quarry Theatre via Gallones for an ice cream. I’d been past during the first week after they opened but there was such a queue and so many choices that I just didn’t know what to pick and decided in the end that on that particular occasion the syns wouldn’t be well spent. I choose on this occasion to have two scoops, I had chocolate brownie and banana. Chris had picked up a spoon from the counter so we gave a little bit to Jaxon – he loved the banana ice cream!

We then concluding our wander and headed for The Quarry Theatre. We got there just before The Frogs Chorus started their next session, so while we waited for that to start Chris and I did a smells quiz being ran by Orchadia Solutions – it was really good fun and it was funny smelling things and you knew what they were but couldn’t always put your finger on it but as soon as someone told you what it was you knew. One of them that we smelt was like bread mould (of all the things!) but actually it was soil, funny how your brain triggers one thing but actually it can be something else.

Jaxon, Chris and I joined in with The Frog’s Chorus but I think Jaxon by that point was getting frustrated and wanted to potter around and do his own thing rather than sit still and listen. We did enjoy The Frog’s Chorus but I think Jaxon was a little bit young to properly join in. Maybe next year if the same lady is back he’ll be into it more. While we were there we came to the rescue of another Mum, she came and asked us if we had a spare nappy, it later turned out that she comes to church at Christmas with one of the community groups – it was really lovely to see her again.

All in all we did really enjoy the majority of the activities, I think Jaxon was struggling by the end and we didn’t actually go through all the activities in the end. The majority of the activites were ran on the Saturday which mean when they clashed you had to really pick wisely as to what you wanted to do – especially if it was a set time slot like The Frog’s Chorus seemed to be. There was a drama workshop at the theatre around the same time as The Frog’s Chorus but it was for older children and teenagers rather than young children and/or adults. I haven’t taken part in drama workshops in a while and that combined with the coding workshop would have really interested me. But who knows, there could be more choices next year. I’m grateful to all the volunteers who worked their socks off to get the event up and running. They are all volunteers doing something to bring our communities together. Here’s a date for your diary…

Usual rules apply – images that aren’t mine should link to their respective sources. On some occasions I was too busy looking after Jaxon or enjoying the activities to take pictures so have adopted from elsewhere but have linked back to them.

Slimming World Sunday #11

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week was a heap better. Chris has been a whole heap more positive about a bunch of things and it’s meant that we had a meal plan at the beginning of the week. I did the food shopping on Sunday (which stressed me out a bit to the point that I gave in when chocolate was calling my name!). On Monday Chris started his new job which meant that he had the car all week so minus Friday when my dad played taxi for me, I’ve walked or taken the bus everywhere this week. I hoped that was going to show when I stood on the scales but it didn’t the scales showed that I had put on an extra pound not lost any. I figure this could because of developing those walking muscles or that my body is having a little panic and trying to store fat rather than burn it given that I’ve ended up doing so much exercise this week. Hopefully it’ll show up this coming Thursday and makes a difference. I do feel better in myself and actually getting out in the open air has made me feel better. Tuesday was a bit hard because of the weather change while I was out – Jaxon had his waterproof cover on but I didn’t have a coat and ended up walking home in the rain lol. I did even attempt running with the buggy on a couple of occasions but it doesn’t seem to be weighed enough at the front so it sort of bobs up and down – I think I need to pack the changing bag into the basket on the bottom so that it weighs it down a bit more. I guess if I had the money in my pocket I’d spend out on a running buggy or the nano one that folds up into a backpack sort of shape, oh well I can dream haha!

This week has more walking and some could be at a fairly decent pace if I end up meeting Mrs B on Monday again! Will do my best to avoid the cake and will try and take snacks for Jaxon with me so that I’m not tempted to go up to the coffee shop counter more than once lol.

Today’s job is to write the food plan and try to make sure they are Slimming World friendly or at least low syn. I’m fed up of this faffing about around the two and a half stone mark, three stone isn’t that far away but these last 7lbs are seriously alluding me. Could someone beat me with a stick when I try to eat chocolate or cake please?

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Currently…5th October

Currently - 5th October

This post was originally started using the Currently prompt from RUKristin. You can find that here. Have a good week!

Watching
Chris and I have been watching Downton Abbey on a Sunday night – I guess in a way it’s become a bit of an unofficial date night. We put Jaxon to bed and eat dinner (usually dinner first but it kind of depends what else is happening!) then settle down in front of the TV and work our way through various bits until 9pm when Downton comes on. Last night we actually did chores up until Downton came on instead.

Reading
I’ve been kind of glued to my copy of Wild Nights by Phoebe Smith. I keep ending up reading it while giving Jaxon his milk before bed and then reading it again when I get into bed. When Jaxon woke up in the middle of the night last night I was completely awake and was tempted to actually get up and read it then! I do keep going back to The Other Side of Silence but it’s a bit heavy for bedtime reading some nights. It’s main topic is depression and mental health in general and it was kind of getting me down, I think there was so much going on around here that i needed something that was a bit more lighthearted and happy rather than deep and thoughtful kind of thing.

Making
It’s all gone a bit bananas. I’m making granny squares for a Top Secret Mission that I am helping with. So far I’m up to about 10 squares but I’m aiming for like 30-40 I think (Actually it could be 50….had better check that one lol). I did attempt to vlog this morning but steering the buggy and attempting to hold my phone at the right angle so I don’t have a “triple chin” wasn’t really working for me. I’m tempted to buy a selfie stick because I figure that might help a bit but won’t solve the buggy vs camera sort of juggling act – I guess I need to get Jaxon in his carrier and do it like that even though he’ll probably be chatting in the background (literally lol). On Saturday we attend the Bed Pop Fun Palaces and one of the activities was cross stitching with Mr X (aka Jamie) (While looking for his website link I found this – 52 Challenge – so a different cross stitch pattern every week for a year. COOL!)

Eating
Chris the superstar wrote a list of all the food we have in the house, then wrote a food plan while writing a shopping list – he was on an epic mission yesterday. He did then dispatch me to the supermarket with Jaxon wanting me to do the food shopping. Jaxon was hungry by the time I got there and so he was getting more and more worked up which was stressing me out on top of the trolley rage that I get because of people standing in front of me or walking super slowly (yeah I know I think I should pray for more patience!)

Completing
I’ve added this one so that I can add things that I’ve actually completed. Earlier today I caught up with all the clothes washing – well now I haven’t because Jaxon needed to be stripped before his bath as he had sweet potato SW chips and carrots all mushed onto his t-shirt and trousers and then we have the stuff we were all wearing today but hopefully now that I’m up to date I can try and keep up with it properly. This evening I had then managed to clear all my photos off of my iCloud account onto the iMac so now I have over 3GB of space instead of it repeatedly warning me that there was no room for a backup and that I needed to purchase more space.

Slimming World Sunday #10

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

In all honesty I feel like I’ve lost my motivation. There’s so much going on at the moment between Chris changing job, Jaxon seems to be trying to test my patience by doing stuff that he shouldn’t be doing. There was the NCT sale yesterday so I had clothes to price up before taking them down and it was the Harvest Supper on Friday (they had Profiteroles – they are my favourite – it couldn’t be helped!). Those are just the bits I can think off from the top of my head.

Also I’ve not been blogging. I do this post and Currently for a Monday and that’s about it. I keep sitting down at the computer to work while Jaxon is having a nap and I just about get the essentials done and then end up having to get on with other stuff instead. Hopefully we can get through this weekend and things will settle a bit and I can form some kind of organisation in my brain rather than jumping from one thing to the next.

I stood on the scales on Thursday and I’ve put on half a pound. Not good. But when you think about the bad stuff I’ve eaten this week, we went to a funeral on Tuesday and then went out for lunch on Wednesday so that added quite a few syns to the pot – I’m going to try and keep a food diary this week so I can see where I’m going wrong outside of “meals that can’t be helped” kind of thing.

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The Last Couple of Weeks (Trip to Design Junction)

Morning! Hello, how are you?

The last couple of weeks have seem to be a bit crazy. I think part of it was getting back into the swing of Our Sidekick being back at school (well he’s at college now) and everything sort of speeding up again after it slowed down for the summer break.

We started the summer with a trip to North Yorkshire and I’ve ended the summer with a trip to London and a visit to Design Junction as well as JP Books (for Midori planner goodies).

Having already written about our adventures in North Yorkshire. I figured it was time to talk about my field trip to London before settling down to write a blog plan for October, to sleep and generally be a bit anti-social lol.

Once I decided that I was going to London and possibly meeting one of the clients I work with face to face for the first time effort. It probably would make sense to dress the part too. Most days I wear my scruffy jeans, a t-shirt and some form of jumper! So on Friday evening I treated myself to a new dress and new leggings. (I also got very excited as they were both Size 14. And I’m pretty sure a 12 dress might have fitted but I didn’t have the time to risk it). I dug out my boots and my brown socks. The boots were bought from a supermarket when Chris did Land’s End to John O’Groats because I hadn’t taken a wise choice of shoes for camping. My flip flops were fine for quick trips to the loo but when it was really wet they just took on water and I think my trainers were waterlogged too.

After a minor panic surrounding whether we’d have to take Jaxon to A&E or not after he attempted to knock himself out on the kitchen tiles we headed for the train station. The boys dropped me off and I headed inside. I got my ticket and grabbed a diet cola to take with me and headed onto the platform.

I caught the 9:47am service in the end. It wasn’t the first train out but it was the fast service. I got a window seat although I was sat next to a column so didn’t get much light! I attempted to cast on my knitting but when someone came to sit in the seat next to me I had to put it a way out of fear of elbowing them!

On this set of needles I’m working on a Big Knit hat. The new Lemon and Ginger knitting group are working on making at least 100 hats to send to Innocent Drinks.

After giving up on the knitting I decided I’d try and finish up a PenPal letter that had been about three weeks in the making. I managed to snap this picture of Midori Notebook, Lamy Safari and Parker cartridge pen before cracking out the letter and getting on with it. It was to one of the members of my PostCircle group. This particular member doesn’t seem to have any social media profiles so I have no idea that she’s received my letter until a reply appears – if and when it does!

Normally I would have wandered around the shops on my way through to the underground but this time I headed straight down to the Underground while I having a text message conversation with my Mum. There were some very loud and rowdy lads in the station who I think were on their way to the football. I jumped on the Piccadilly Line to Holborn. I ended up stood right next to the door because of how busy the train was. Seconds before the doors started closing a Dad pushed his child in the buggy onto the train but as he went to go through the doors they started to close on him. I tried to put my arm out the door to try and stop them causing him any more damage. Then when he’d got on the train the buggy had got wedged between the pole in the middle, him and the door. I put my handbag down on the floor next to the pole to grab the buggy wheel and twist it round so he could get out and we could get the buggy out of the gap.

As I squeezed through the people to get to the opposite door, the train jolted and I stumbled. I put my hand out to stable myself and caught a different buggy. I caught the frame of the buggy but also caught the lid. The mother of the baby had a bit of a go at me to which I apologised but I think she must have thought I was an ignoramus who was saying sorry but didn’t mean it. Had it been me I would have probably had a go too but at the same time I’d had been stood up guarding my buggy and the contained baby rather than sat on the seat next door reading my phone/magazine/book.

Anyway, I made my way through the station a little rattled by what had just happened but was determined to appreciate the adventure I was having without Jaxon glued to my side lol.

I went to the College building to register for Design Junction and get my wristband.

It was kind of funny how different I was treated because I had a Press Pass instead is a “normal” entry. It turned out that I was in the wrong building for the stand that I was looking for. I did go for a bit of a wander around the building to have a brief look, there were some amazing lighting installations that I’m sure that Chris would have enjoyed looking at.

I ended back up at the front desk and asked them to point me in the right direction for the stand I was looking for. I went across the road to Victoria House and had some more of an explore. I managed to find the stall I was looking for and also managed to find some other stands that excited me.

I loved that near the door there was a map with a huge list of stands. It meant that if you were really stuck you could head back to the main door and then head back in again.

I had been looking for the Hokolo stand anyway. So when I came round the corner and looked up, there was the bright blue and yellow walls. Jen who runs Hokolo was busy when I got there so I went for a potter round the others stands. I could have spend a small fortune on notebooks at Ola Studio and Alison Hardcastle. (Then again neither did Midori size notebooks. I found Octaevo who almost had one that was the right size but the back cover is slightly wider and so they weren’t the right size).

I also wandered past Crosstown Doughnuts and Nest. I was very tempted by a doughnut from Crosstown especially when the guy on the stand said that because they are made of sourdough they are lighter and take on less grease, but I was good. I took a leaflet and a postcard and walked away. At Nest, I chatted to a closely girl who had greeny-blue hair that matched the Nest colours. They were giving away a free tote bag and a discount voucher code if you signed up for their newsletter. The tote came in extra handy as my arm was starting to ache from all the brochures, leaflets and business cards I’d picked up for my scrapbook, for reference or for Our Sidekick’s college work.

I wandered back over to Jen’s stand and we got to have a chat. It was lovely to put a face to the name and meet in person properly. I think if Our Sidekick hadn’t been fighting off a cold it would have been a real benefit for him to have attended to get inspiration for projects at college and things like that. Jen’s stand at Design Junction was lovely and bright and you could hardly miss it!

Jen and I compared notes and talked about the products that she designs and sells. I am still loving the tote and if I had the pennies I’d be considering one of these gorgeous blankets for snuggling on the sofa or as an extra layer on the bed.

I had seen the Knit by Curver range while I was in The College building and really liked the baskets and other home accessories. It turned out that as a press person I could go and collect a goodie bag so I headed off back to The College for a wander to find the Knit by Curver display. The large shopping bag that was the goodie bag came in extra handy because it had room for the Nest Tote and my cardigan which had been a good idea when I stood on the platform at Bedford platform waiting for the train but having power walked around London a bit and then into a warm crowded building I was getting toasty!

Following the look aroun Design Junction, I headed up to JP Books off Shaftesbury Avenue for my Midori goodies. I’ve been debating whether to pay postage or not so when I was close I decided I’d pop in. Oh might have a new favourite shop! I can’t help it, I’m a bit of a Japanophile.

I hailed a taxi and headed back to St. Pancras to meet my Mum who’d been at a training thing. She knew I was on my way so when I got there, she had her pot of tea ready to pour out and a chilled Diet Cola for me. After all the charging round I was more thirsty than I had realised! Mum and I had a potter round the shops and then decided it was time to head back to Bedford.

Currently…28th September

Currently 14th September

This post was originally started using the Currently prompt from RUKristin. You can find that here. Have a good week!

Watching
Jaxon and I have been watching more Thomas and Friends. I think I need to find a list of all the episodes and start marking off the ones that we’ve seen so I can start looking for the ones that we’re missing because we’re getting a lot of duplicates – I’m sure Jaxon doesn’t mind but I get a bit OCD about it!
Reading
I’m still reading The Other Side of Silence, yep, still reading it. Because it’s a bit of a heavy topic sometimes I don’t want to be reading it last thing before bed. I’ve also started Wild Nights by Phoebe Smith – I say started but I have read near enough hundred pages of it already. Between reading that and watching Long Way Down/Long Way Round, I want to go an adventure somewhere. Got as far as pencilling dates in the diary for a field trip to see Hannah and Mr S, but thinking we need a further afield adventure before then. Where can we go?

Making
Still working on my journal, that’s clearly going to be an ongoing one. I’d got as far as pulling out a bunch of pages from different magazines that my Mum had given me but hadn’t done anything with them. I cut them up and stuck in bits and pieces into another insert I had for my Midori. The one I chose to use is the official Midori Sketchbook one. I’m not going to use it as a sketchbook and don’t get on with plain pages rather than squared or lined so used it for this. There are a few more pages at the back to fill in before I get recording another YouTube video. I’ve been stepping out of my box a bit more and trying to record more videos rather than getting self conscious and hiding. Video.

Eating
I’ve been trying to be good. Saturday was so busy that following breakfast the first thing I ate was a SW Hi-Fi bar on the way to JP Books near Shaftesbury Avenue before grabbing a taxi to meet Mum at St. Pancras Station. (More info about London trip to follow!). The HiFi bar was almost inhaled I ate it that quickly! On Sunday, Chris kept me in line with regards to eating well, even when he sat next to me and munched down a Big Mac (without a bun lol!). I need to stay on the good track between now and Thursday. I want to stand on the scales with a loss!

Slimming World Sunday #9

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week wasn’t a good week. Some days when we need an instant tea it’s really hard to find something low syn – does anyone else have that issue or is it just me?

In general it wasn’t a great week even though I’d started with such determination. I did a Crossfit class on Monday and I think that just made me feel a bit sucky for the rest of the week. My legs were killing me on Tuesday and Wednesday so getting out and doing any exercise was really hard. Even climbing up and down the stairs was making me wince. I’m not sure about doing the class tomorrow but I think as I’ll be driving in the morning rather than walking like last week I might feel better in general, I guess we’ll have to see!

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Currently…21st September

Currently 14th September

This post was originally started using a prompt from RUKristin. You can find that here. Have a good week!

Watching
We finished watching Heidi this week. I do hope there is a second series. I found Long Way Round and Long Way Down on Netflix so I watched them pretty much back to back. When I saw them the first time round I got super excited and even looked into getting a moped or a scooter (riding a motorbike would have probably been okay but Chris always got a little nervous when it came up in conversation. One day I’ll make a friend who has a motorbike and will take me out for a ride. I don’t mind riding pillion)

Reading
I’m still reading The Other Side of Silence. It’s a bit heavy to be reading all the time. I keep trying though! I’ve been reading knitting patterns too. About two years ago I asked Judit at Monster Yarns to help me find a pattern and to knit a jumper. By the time we’d figured out what I was going to make I’d signed up to Slimming World and then found I was pregnant so my body was about to go through a fairly massive change size and shape wise, so I put that on the back burner and left it there, I made lots of other projects in the mean time. It’s now two years on and I’m about half a stone away from target, so I’ve decided to try and make myself a jumper.

Making
I’ve been working on my journal some more. I got as far as casting on some stitches for the jumper that I think I am going to make but I need to undo them and redo them because they are just too tight and I’m not going to be able to knit into them. Also I think I did the wrong type of cast on so I might need to restart for that fact too.

Eating
I’ve been have a mixed couple of weeks and it’s still going. I’ve been feeling better this last week and that generally gives me back my drive to be focused on what I eat. However I do have a sore throat so that’s making me feel really unmotivated again and cold things like ice cream and ice lollies are working best to sooth my throat a bit. If it’s still hurting by Wednesday or Thursday I think I’ll be off to the doctors to see if it’s something like Laryngitis or Tonsillitis. The back of my throat is all red and inflamed but I can’t see if my tonsils are up so we’ll see about that.

Slimming World Sunday #8

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week I’ve been feeling a bit better. I’ve been ill with various things over the last 3-4 weeks and I’m finally feeling properly better. I’m hoping it’ll mean that I can get back on track properly. This week involved two meals “out” so on those days I knew it was going to be bad. At one of the meals I tried to have a lot of salad before my meal arrived so that I’d had a bunch of Superfree/Free to start with, I still managed to polish off my whole meal and have a third of ice cream sundae. Probably wasn’t the wisest of choices but I don’t see that particular group of friends very often any more so it’s lovely to have a good ol’ catch up.

Wednesday I took Jaxon swimming again. (That meant I had two swimming trips between a weigh in), when I take him I don’t do as much swimming as I would normally do but it’s still body magic that I wouldn’t be doing sat in front of the TV.

I stood on the scales with a half a pound loss so that was at least last week’s half a pound gain gone. Now to keep going for target. I’m feeling more positive as well which I think it probably tied to feeling better body wise too if that makes sense!

Friday was a hard day food wise because we were at Paradise Wildlife Park and then I was out for dinner with another group of friends. We were so busy making sure we had everything for Jaxon and that all the guys coming on the trip were organised that lunch for me wasn’t a priority – we’d just sort it when we got there. I ended up having an egg and cress sandwich from the restaurant. It had very little mayo in it and so was probably better than a supermarket sandwich that would have been swimming in the stuff.

Dinner was going to be another bad meal but I knew that was the case so tried not to snack and if I was going to snack then it would be good stuff rather than bad stuff. I also got Chris to drop me off on his way to the garage yesterday morning so that I could go for a walk. I started at the supermarket near Clapham and then worked my way back towards town with Jaxon in the buggy. I did some quite errands in town but then Chris caught up with us so I walked to meet him. It was good to get out and do something.

Hopefully this week will work out in my favour. I’m unofficially given up diet soda this time. I’m going to drink it when I’m out for a meal for example (it’s often cheaper than fruit juice etc) or if someone purchases for me in advance (like when I house sit for my brother). But the rest of the time I’m going to try and stick to water and squash. I’ve got some flavoured water for now that I’m drinking.

If you regularly join in with the link up I’m sorry it’s running late – I’ve opened the sign up window for a week instead of the normal couple of days in case that helps more people to join in.

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Things I’m Grateful For – Generosity

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

Actually this week I have one specific thing that I am grateful for.

Generosity

Generosity isn’t just about money. You say generosity and lots of people think about being generous with your finances.

When we were “poor” students, we were blessed by people from church by being adopted for Sunday lunch or something like that.

Yesterday afternoon Chris rang me. He was running a trip today for some guys he works with and his minibus driver had dropped out. He’d rang round a few people we know who have experience driving minibuses. Had it been next week or last week we could have tried my Dad but he’s been away on holiday this week. So onto the next idea: Chris can’t drive the bus because of various rules so that means without a driver he would have to cancel the trip. The last time I drove a minibus was four years ago when we had a group trip to Cambridge. Our Sidekick came with us and had a lovely time. I think that was our first day trip away from Bedford with him. Little did we know what was coming in those next six weeks.

Anyway, we chatted through the rules on my license and could I drive the minibus. As it happened I could, Jaxon and I were due to go on the trip anyway so it wasn’t like Chris had to find a space for him.

On a number of occasions today we’ve been blessed with different things whether it was a handful of baby wipes so we could change Jaxon’s nappy (there was a packet in the car that we both forgot to pick up) to a yoghurt, dairylea dunker and some there bits at lunchtime for Jaxon.

But also I hope we blessed those we were with. Chris had Jaxon and I took one of the little girls on a big slide. The first time she went down on my knee and the second time she went down by herself leaving me at the top. Another Mum suggested that we sat on a coat or jumper. So I took off my scarf and sat on that. I flew down the slide – I wanted another go but technically I’m 30cm too tall for the slide.

This evening I then went for a pizza and movie night with some girlies from church and just had such a good time. I very nearly cancelled because I was too tired but decided to go anyway. The hosts were so welcoming. We even had ice creams for pudding (Pink Raspberry Magnums oh my life they were yummy!)

But it’s not just us being blessed by those around us. Downstairs I have a plastic carrier bag with five carriers from different families who have donated them for us to send onto to Carriers for Kos. I was also so proud of those Germans who stood at the stations and welcomed refugees like old friends. The world is full of so much hate and so many bad things right now that to see those people taking time out of their day to organise food or drinks or just to stand on the platform and cheer made my heart sing. Thank you lovelies wherever you are.

I might be back to edit this one. It’s taken me nearly an hour because the WordPress app on my phone is so laggy.

Currently…14th September 2015

Currently 14th September

Currently… Watching
Chris was out at a church event on Thursday so I spent the evening blogging and watching TV. I started with an episode of Criminal Minds (ones I’d figured out which ones I’d seen and which I hadn’t!). Then I flicked over for Who Do You Think You Are? – Last week it was Gareth Malone which was really interesting, turns out he has music and show business in his blood.

Jaxon and I have been watching lots of Thomas and Friends on YouTube since Netflix took their episodes down. We’ve also been watching an animated adaptation of Heidi. It’s pretty good but we are running out of episodes now… need to find something else for him now – or start him over from the beginning.

Currently… Reading
I’m still reading The Other Side of Silence, it’s still really interesting but still taking me time lol.

Currently… Making
I’ve been working on my journal and then been making videos and posting them on my YouTube Channel (Yeah I have a channel!). Some of it is a bit “rambley” but I am working on it!

Currently… Eating
I stood on the scales at SW on Thursday and decided that I really was going to do something about it as I’ve stalled.

Currently… Working On
Various bits and bobs, mainly work bits, house work bits and then the journal and YouTube videos

Slimming World Sunday #7

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and we’d love it if you could leave your link below.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

Good Morning one and all. How are you all doing today? I’ve been fighting off a cold this last week, I’m less snotty now but I’m still coughing which isn’t so great. This really didn’t help when it came to eating – having a cold and being ill always makes me want to eat comfort food and often the more junky the better – issues!

I stood on the scales on Thursday and got all excited thinking I’d lost two pounds. I then reread my book and realised I hadn’t, I’d actually put on half a pound – not good – really not good!

I started mentally drawing a layout for a food diary to go in my Midori Notebook (think a Filofax but you can add whole bound notebooks instead of just singular pages – I think it works much better for me than my Filofax and I can fit more in it then a normal notebook – but no this isn’t about my clear addiction to notebooks and pens lol).

On Thursday I was determined that I would try and make sure there was an SW friendly dinner ready to hit the plate when I got in from group rather than the usually “What shall we do?” kind of question. I misjudged how long it would take me to make it but I attempted to make the Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake that Stephanie shared the other week. I didn’t have quite all the ingredients but I had the majority so I went with that. I ran out of time so didn’t get as far as cutting the fat off the bacon so that was bad. I ended up telling Our Sidekick to add Bowl 1 to the Pasta, tip it into tray 2 cover with cheese and bung in the oven when I text. It worked though and we all had stuffed tummies – it even worked as leftovers on Friday.

Friday’s tea was then again an SW recipe – we attempted the Pizza Topped Chicken but I didn’t entirely follow the recipe to the letter so I don’t think it worked as the recipe intends but it certainly again filled our tummies and we are all good. Also we had a mammoth potato, so I had two big potatoes and that was enough chips for three of us and spares! (I think the boys kept snacking on the chips on the way past the tray Friday evening before clearing up!)

I made the fatal error of buying chocolate yesterday morning, thinking it would be okay, I would figure out the syns and it would be fine, except I keep thinking about it and it’s there in my handbag next to me on the sofa as I write this and I’m desperately trying not to reach for it while I sit here, firstly because I know that Chris will tell me off or ask me how many syns are in it but also because I know in the morning I’ll be a bit like “Why did you do that? You’ll never get to target”.

Anyhow! Tomorrow is a new day, draw a line and start again, going to draw out the food diary pages in my notebook for this week and keep track. If any of you would like to tweet me to check up on me I would appreciate it. My Twitter is @HannahJBlogs.

Going to sign off here as I have things to go and finish but I hope you all have a great week and stand on the scales to a beautiful loss, if you maintain – at least it wasn’t a gain and if it’s a gain, turn over a new leaf/draw a line and keep on going you can do it!

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Five Swimming Tips from Huggies Little Swimmers

We first took Jaxon swimming when we were on holiday in Blackpool for a couple of days last September. Since then we’ve taken him a couple of times, but he’s not always been so keen on going. The most recent time Jaxon and I went to the outdoor pool at Woburn with The Fairy and Mini Fairy. He really wasn’t keen and cried nearly the whole time we were there, so part of me has been reluctant in taking him back. We used an own brand swimming nappy to start with because I didn’t want to spend out a lot on something we weren’t necessarily going to use. Back at the beginning of the summer I was sent a packet of Huggies Little Swimmers to try out. Normally I wouldn’t pay out for Huggies Nappies but I wanted to try them and see if they kept up. You can read that post here.

However we seem to be making progress on the bath front so I think I’m going to try him with swimming again. For the last two to three weeks we’ve been giving Jaxon a bath every day and each day he’s got more and more happier with being in the bath, to the point that if you let him (and guard the stairs!) he’ll happily crawl from the bedroom to the bathroom. If you start him at the bottom of the stairs and follow him up the stairs when he gets to the top he turns towards the bathroom every time! When I take him to the loo with me, he’ll often hold onto the bath and point at the toys while I chat to him. Yes I’d rather have that time to myself but you know sometimes it’s easier that way!

So on this note I thought I would share you some tips that I was sent by the team at Huggies Little Swimmers.

Olympic swimming champion and Huggies Little Swimmers brand ambassador Rebecca Adlington is already taking her baby daughter Summer swimming, and hopes to encourage other parents to take the plunge with their little ones. Here she shares her five top reasons to get in the pool:

I loved being in the water from a young age and my sisters and I were fortunate to have parents who took us swimming every Saturday. It was the most fun we had as kids and created lots of wonderful memories. And it doesn’t cost a fortune!

Swimming is a life skill everyone should have – it could save your life one day as well as being great for your health and wellbeing. I’d love Summer to follow in my footsteps but whatever she decides to do, I’ll be happy as long as she’s a confident swimmer. Just like my parents, Harry and I plan to take her swimming every week.

Getting back in the water is empowering for new mums as well as being a great confidence booster. It’s easier said than done, but women should try not to worry about their post-pregnancy figure and instead embrace spending time with their new arrivals. It’s also worthwhile remembering that swimming is a fantastic all over body exercise which can help tone your body. You actually burn 300 calories for every 30 minutes of swimming, which is why it is one of the most effective forms of cardiovascular exercise.

Swimming is one of the few activities you and your little one can actually participate in and enjoy together – it provides that real special bonding time for parents and children.

Once you’ve been swimming with your baby a few times you’ll realise that it’s a huge amount of fun and really not much hassle. Preparation is key of course and a well-packed swim bag can make it even more enjoyable. I never leave home without Huggies® Little Swimmers, which won’t expand or leak in the water, a change mat and oversized towels to wrap up in when we come out of the pool.

For practical advice, support videos and a step-by-step guide to baby swimming, visit www.littleswimmers.co.uk.

Currently…7th September

Watching
I’ve been working my way through random bits on Freeview and the odd YouTube videos. We ended up watching a couple of nature documentaries as they seem to be in the afternoons, there was one about penguins that was quite sad. It was all about Emperor Penguins and how they have to march miles and miles to get back to the sea while mum or dad look after the baby. It was really sad because the Mum made it back to the Dad and Baby after feeding, but when it was really cold she ended up in the middle of the huddle and overheated, she panicked and then it turned really sad. Like really really sad. The next bit was all about Rockhopper Penguins, which reminded me of Happy Feet even more especially when they were sneaking past the sea lions on the beach. I checked my data on my phone on Saturday and it turned out that I probably had enough data to watch the Strictly Come Dancing pairings show. I waited until Sunday (my data reset Monday morning) and then watched the important bits of the episode, like who’s dancing with who. I think Helen George from Call The Midwife will be pretty good (did you see her in the group dance she looked amazing!), it would be interesting to see if Ainsley Harriott is any good at Latin dances (also how he copes given how tall he is!). I’d like Anton to at least place higher than he has previously, it would be nice to see him finally win but who knows if that’ll happen!

Reading
It’s all sort of gone to pot. I received an advanced copy of a book called The Other Side of Silence, so I’ve been reading that rather than reading all the other books that I’ve started. It is a bit heavy given the topic is depression but it’s interesting seeing the perspective of someone who has been through it.

Making
A mess again! We took part in the Jumble Trail yesterday but it’s meant that the house is full of debris. We’ve decided that we’re going to try and do a car boot sale next weekend rather than pack everything away which means we’re living in a bit of a pigsty at the moment which isn’t so good. I’ve been inspired into making my own Midori inserts. I’ve been mainly taking Moleskine books and cutting them down to fit into my Blue Midori while I decide what I want to do. I even drew out a planner based on the 019 insert. It works to a certain degree but I’ve found a printable by Wendaful that I’m going to try out – it’s currently still sat in a printed pile. I’m going to order a long (ish) armed stapler – In theory it doesn’t need to have that long a arm given that it’s about 11cm reach that it needs. I’ve been wondering about trying to create some of my own inserts from scratch but need help with the digital artwork side of things so probably need to draw them out and then get Chris to help me create them properly.

Eating
I’ve been attempting to eat more on plan, when that’s not always working I am trying to drink more water which so far has been working quite well – well actually a little too well!

Working On
A never shrinking to do list! Hopefully once the internet is back on I’ll be able to get back on track properly rather than feeling like I’m just treading water again.

Slimming World Sunday #6

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and this is our second week.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week I attempted to be better and although I know I wasn’t 100% on plan it was okay.

I am the worst for this I stood on the scales and make a resolve that I’m going to be better this week only to then the weekend rolls round and it all goes to pieces. This week I stood on the scales and was grateful for the maintain. All week I’d not been feeling right and headed to the drop in clinic. I was seen by a lovely female nurse (or could have been a doctor I’m not sure!). She said I could do self care at home rather than take any medication. I headed home and made an effort to drink more fluids all week as per the self care instructions which seems to have worked but as it got closer to weighing in on Thursday I started feeling rubbish again. I got up Friday morning and felt a bit like death warmed. Turns out Jaxon gave me his cold. When I have a cold I just want to eat junk. A friend of mine once told me that it’s because your body needs more calories to keep you running while your sick because it’s using extra energy fighting the bugs.
(It’s a bit of a do in part post. Sorry!)

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LYBS: True Stories From Your Life

Over on Facebook I’m part of a blogging group. On the Wednesdays of each month we have a group prompt that we’re all going to answer. This weeks’ prompt is…

True Stories From Your Life That Would Make Great Novel Plots

Well not so much a novel plot but an episode of ER or Casualty was when I was 14. I’d been to the dentist for the regular visit then I’d wandered into town with my best friend. On our way home we waited at one of the pedestrian crossings on Bedford High Street. While we were stood there waiting for the signal to change, I looked over my shoulder and saw a guy running towards me, I didn’t think anything of it but I then turned back to chat to my friend.

At this point, even now I don’t remember what happened, I was on the kerb chatting to my friend and next thing I knew I was lying on the road looking up at the sky. Apparently the guy running towards me, had then pushed me into the road and I’d clipped the wing mirror of a passing car. The guy was running away from the police, so as he pushed me into the road, one police office carried on after him and the second police office stopped to deal with me.

There were a whole huddle of people who got around me to look after me. From what I do remember one was an off duty nurse. I remember someone commenting about my ankle and that my foot was at a funny angle. Actually my leg was under my calf and I’d managed to kick my trainer off, so my trainer was at one angle and my foot was at a slightly different angle. The people around me kept talking to me and when I tried to get up they told me to stay still. It seemed to take forever for the ambulance to arrive especially when I could hear it but it hadn’t go through. At some point my friend came and got my mobile from my bag. She went back onto the kerb and rang my Mum. I think the conversation went something like “Erm, Hi Hannah’s Mum, this is *insert friend’s name* and I know you don’t know me but she’s been in an accident and an ambulance is on it’s way”. My Mum tells me that she took the call and her boss (At the time) walked into the office and just saw the blood drain from my Mum’s face. Mum did the panicked thing and grabbed her handbag and keys etc. At which point her boss is like “You are NOT driving! I will take you”. They both jump in the car and head for the High Street. What is normally a 7 minutes 2 and a bit mile journey took them heading on for 20 minutes, apparently they even had to pull over for the ambulance to over take them.

The paramedics put me on a spinal board and then onto a gurney (I know that’s the american term but is it the same in the UK?) and were getting me into the ambulance as my Mum arrived. I think at this point my Mum’s boss went to make sure that my friend was okay and give her a lift home.

I was taken into A&E and that was very disorientating as you go through a different door to if you walk in. My doctor looked like Laurence Lewellyn Bowen which made it very hard to take him seriously when he’s asking me what hurts and how much. Thankfully I just had whiplash and a sprained ankle in the end but over about an inch and I’d have been over the roof rather than clipping the wing mirror.

The police came during the week to take a statement as the guy was going to get charged with GBH or ABH on top of the other charges he was receiving from running away from the police. Apparently once they got him to the cells he’d been really apologetic and wanted to know was I okay.

So, as you can read, it wasn’t so much a novel and more like an episode of ER or Casualty. I can imagine at the point that my Mum was talking to my friend the worse case scenarios were pinging through her brain so a sprained ankle and whiplash certainly were nothing to worry about!

Shillington Scarecrow Festival 2015

It’s an unwritten rule in our family that unless something comes up then Bank Holidays are family time. This caused a bit of a debate in our house this weekend along with a ten day grounding period. (Which was looking like it might be reduced until last night…)

We did sit down and have a proper discussion and discuss why it’s like that and things. We also discussed about chores around the house and how getting them done first time means that we don’t end up having debates about who should have done theirs and hasn’t.

On Monday, Chris did have to go to an extra slot at In2Beats but following that we were having a family day.

Jaxon, Our Sidekick and I got in the car and headed to the station via one of the corner shops to grab drinks for us.

We then went and parked behind the radio station to wait for Chris. Jaxon and I had been listening to his program since we had woken up, which for me is a bit of a sacrifice as generally I’m not a fan of the music being played. Thankfully the breakfast show tends to be more mainstream and so the Presenters can get away with a bit more chart stuff.

Following collecting Chris I drove us to Shillington for the Scarecrow Festival. The plan had been for us to walk it but it was really wet and at the speed we’d all left the house we hadn’t picked up our jackets.

By fluke I managed to switch the radio over just before Popmadrer which was good fun for me, I got 12 on the first round and nothing on the second round as we were too busy talking Scarecrows for me to play along.

We collected a program from the Village Hall after we’d pooled our change. We managed to make enough for the programme but couldn’t get the second quiz sheet. Chris was excited about it so he pottered off to the shop while I planned a route on the programme. It took him a little while but he managed to make the minimum charge in the shop to be able to get cash back or something like that. (If it had been Saturday he could have withdrawn at the Post Office counter but we hadn’t thought of it! Such townies!). It meant he did appear with a jar of coffee, a roll of cling film, a bag of doritos and a bag of chocolate buttons for Jaxon.

Chris played navigator and I drove. It tended to be a challenge to spot the scarecrows find somewhere to park within sight line of them and not annoy other motorists. We seems to get there in the end. Chris and I enjoyed it (although I got the answer to the quiz with 3 out of 6 letters. Certain scarecrows had letter attached to them. It meant that once we had those three letters I managed to get rest).

One of the houses had a scarecrow outside but they had also opened their back garden where there was a model railway and refreshments. Unfortunately because of the weather we didn’t spend long looking at the trains. Chris, Jaxon and I went inside where they’d moved the refreshments. Chris had a tea but I wasn’t thirsty. Jaxon was very well behaved and sat on knee and just looked around the kitchen rather than running wild lol.

Once we had visited all the different scarecrows we headed back to the Village Hall to hand in our voting sheets and quiz sheets. We grabbed a refreshment and a snack there. Our Sidekick had a sausage roll and Chris had a cake. I decided a ham sandwich was probably the lower syn option!

After our pit stop at the Village Hall, we got in the car and Chris suggested that we headed to The Mall at Luton for a potter round the shops. It was actually quite handy as it meant that we could get some basic bits for Our Sidekick’s first day at College. He hasn’t been issued with a kit list yet so we don’t really know what he needs to take with him on the first day. We got a sketchbook and notepad as well as some black gel pens and pencils so he has those basics to get through the first day even if he texts me with a panicked list at lunchtime and I have to shopping while he’s at college.

After shopping we headed home and chilled out for the rest of the day. I got a bit of journaling done although I did feel a bit like I should have been doing other stuff at that point.

It was a lovely trip out even if Our Sidekick protested for a bunch of it.

What did you get up to on your Bank Holiday Monday?

Currently…31st August

Currently 31st August

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching
Not a lot. Our internet connection has been cancelled by our ISP although they couldn’t tell us why. This means we have Freeview for TV viewing and some of it’s not all that good. Yesterday for example we ended up on a Police Interceptors marathon followed by the end of Great British Bake Off and Songs of Praise. I suppose at least with it being a Bank Holiday someone must be showing The Great Escape.

Reading
Blogs! Although a bunch of the challengers did drop out in the end I’ve been trying to keep up with their blogs anyway and comment where possible! I’m sure they will still love the comment love.

Making
Not so much making going on but have been journalling more which totally counts doesn’t it?

Eating
I’ve been trying to be good but it hasn’t always worked. Thankfully I’ve had Chris to keep me in line when I’m really unmotivated. Yesterday we had cheese and biscuits and whereas I was going to just take a knife to the cheese, he got the scales out and the Slimming World book and worked out how many grams of cheese I could have and how many syns it would be. What a superstar!

At the wedding on Saturday, it was really hard to make good choices as it really wasn’t Slimming World friendly. I did do my best to be good the rest of the day though.

Working On
My YouTube channel. I had been meaning to restart vlogging but hasn’t really got into it and then did. I’ve gained like 4 subscribers in the last couple of days which is crazy! Next video is recorded but I think my phone ate it.

Blog Every Day in August

Good Morning! It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Slimming World Sunday #5

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Stephanie from Raising Emily and myself “resurrected” the idea and this is our second week.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week had it’s hurdles. Although I’d started the week feeling super positive I spent most of the week feeling under the weather in one way or another (part of why I’m writing this at nearly midnight on Saturday)

I wasn’t 100% on plan this week and it kind of showed. I stood on the scales to half a pound gain which actually given how I felt was a small miracle! I thought I’d put on the weight I’d lost the week before.

It didn’t get much better since Thursday. We went out for lunch on Friday and lunch was a mixture of choices. I had jacket potato which was good but on the top I had BBQ chicken with bacon and cheese and then today we were at a wedding this evening so you had to go with what was on the menu kind of thing.

I’m drawing a line and starting again today. There might be a biscuit or two on the horizon on Wednesday but I think that’ll be only if I’ve done the majority between now and then on plan.

How’s your week been? Please share your link (direct link please not a general one to your blog. Thanks)

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LYBS: What You Learned From a Big Disappointment (BEDIA)

Over on Facebook I’m part of a blogging group. On the Wednesdays of each month we have a group prompt that we’re all going to answer. This weeks’ prompt is…

What You Learned From a Big Disappointment

Roll the clock back to June 2002, I’d got my GCSE results and was heading back from Revive@Soul Survivor and was so excited Sixth Form was round the corner and I wouldn’t have to wear a school uniform lol.

Move on a year, I’ve been in the Sixth Form and it’s seriously hard work. I spend most weekends doing Italian homework and I’m struggling – I can’t keep up even though I was at a B level for GCSE. Music Tech and Drama are both shooting down the pan too. I’m working my socks off but not going anywhere. It gets to results day and it’s bad, I’ve got Es and Us and if anything I should have been kicked out of the Sixth Form. My Mum stands with me in the dining room at her house and I cry and I cry some more. I have no idea what’s going to happen next. I go into school and see the Head of Sixth Form, he’s not convinced either and I’m sent off to see my teachers, I manage to find my Music Teacher but can’t find the Drama Team.

We hatch a plan, I drop Italian and pick up Music AS that way I can make up the numbers.

On the first day of term I go and see the Drama Team too. Thankfully the Drama and Music teams were really close and often worked together. I spoke to my two drama teachers (one of which was head of department too). They chatted to my Music teacher too and a bit more of a plan was hatched. I had two choices, 1) start the A2 courses although I wouldn’t necessarily pass with anything higher than a C or D. 2) restart Year 12 and resit all my course (or resit Music and Drama and pick up others to make up the numbers). I had an option 3 too which was to start a new course elsewhere. I even went to look round at the College and did a taster session (it would later turn out that I’d meet a bunch of students who would later be on the same course as me!)

I choose to carry on although it wouldn’t be that great in the end. I worked my socks off and even though I knew when I got that envelope on results day it wasn’t going to be great, I knew that I did what I could and maybe I just wasn’t cut out for those styles of courses. Again we stood in Mum’s dining room and I rang Clearing, they took a bunch of information and said they’d call me back once they’d spoken to the department staff.

I was really blessed that the Dad of one of the families I babysat for was Head of Department at DMU which is where I was looking to go to after my A Levels. He was able to sit with me and go through my UCAS application and give me some tips of what to change and what to add and things like that. He was also able to advise me on to apply for the Foundation Degree option (then taking a top-up year) instead of trying to get on a BA course outright (given that my predicted grades weren’t great).

Move forward to September, I had a place on the course and I was going to university.

This was when I learnt from my disappointment I guess. I met three of the bestest friends a girl could ask for. I wasn’t sure about the rules around parking cars so I took the bus from Polhill Campus to Lansdowne Campus. I got on the bus and a PE student sat next to me, we had that awkward nervous first conversation about which courses we were doing and who we were. As I was getting off the bus, the PE student shouted at me, it turned out the girl next to her was probably on the same course as me so it made sense for us to stick together. It turned out she was called Hannah as well and she’d become my best friend.

So from my greatest disappointment I discovered a group of best friends, I discovered that I wasn’t great but I was okay at Performing Arts (I finished with a 2.2 that’s better than a fail lol) and got a qualification.

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Jumble Trail and Chilli Festival (BEDIA)

Following Church on Sunday we headed over to Wixams Village for the Wixams Jumble Trail. I’d heard about the Jumble Trail idea via one of my clients.

A couple of weeks back there was a Jumble Trail is the Black Tom area of Bedford which then prompted conversations about having other Jumble Trails around the town. This weekend just gone there was also one in the Castle Road area as well as the Wixams one. In about two weeks we’ll be having one in Goldington. I had suggested it on one of the local FB groups and before I knew it there was already one set up.

I signed up my stall as a way of selling off books, DVDs and baby clothes amongst other things. I’d got a rough idea when I booked my stall but once Chris had seen what other stalls were doing at the Wixams Jumble Trail he’s come away with a bunch of ideas about how to make our stall look pretty and other bits like that. I know one stall is doing really nice wood fired pizzas and another is possibly having teas and coffees (and it’s proper coffee not instant! Oh yeah!)

We got a set of zoo animal toys and a set of egg toys from two different stalls for Jaxon, Our Sidekick looked at phone case but decided that he didn’t want it, Chris also got a jar of Wild Plum, Lime and Vanilla Jam – definitely sounds interesting so will have to give that a go once he opens it. We also got a couple of cakes and biscuits that we ate on our way round – they kept us going! At The Resources Cupboard table we stuck some coloured squares onto the rainbow picture that they were making.

The Goldington and Putnoe Jumble Trail is on the 6th September and there’s still time to sign up here.

On the way from Wixams we were coming down the Bypass and Chris saw a sign for the Chilli Festival at Frosts Willington. He had discussed going earlier in the week so when he was like “Let’s Go” I didn’t mind. The challenge was that Jaxon had pretty much only had some bits of biscuit for anything resembling lunch so we couldn’t be ages. There was all sorts of goodies on offer. I got my Dad a bottle of Fallen Angel Chilli Cyder (I’m not sure why it wasn’t Cider), I tried a bit and actually the sweetness of the beer outweighed any chilli spiciness – that’s the closest I’ll ever go to a Scotch Bonnet normally lol.

The guys from Edible Ornamentals were there again and I tried the Chilli Salted Caramel again (yep still very lovely but I imagine it’s rammed full of syns lol) and Chris tried the Blazing Bramley Chutney – I didn’t try that one so once he opens the jar I’ll give it a go. While we were at that stand Our Sidekick asked if he could buy a Ghost Chilli, that was the start of the fun for the rest of the afternoon.

Our Sidekick told his bestie that he’d got the chilli, so he came round with his video camera and they recorded another video for YouTube. It was hilarious, at one point Our Sidekick ran from the kitchen into the back garden then back into the kitchen then out around the green near our house – it was quite amusing although I think Our Sidekick was in a lot of pain. It certainly repeated on him when he burped during dinner and then again yesterday morning when he visited the loo! Oh dear! (If you want to see it you can find it on Kristian’s Channel)

Currently…24th August (BEDIA)

Currently 24th August

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching
I’ve been watching heaps of YouTube videos for inspiration for my Midori. I think it needs a nickname… It’s one of the lovely Blue Midori Notebooks. I’ve been watching the videos but mainly creating and making so more about that a bit further down.

I also ended up working my way through a bunch of random Netflix movies, I started with one and then they kept popping up on the recommended ones so I gave them a go. I ended up with a Christmas movie too but who cares! lol. So I watched Holidaze, Grace Unplugged, For Better or For Worse and Love, Rosie. Some were really cheesy and predictable but they were all light hearted and could play in the background while I did things.

Other vlogs I’ve been watching include Anna and Mr B from Mrs Brambles and other ones from my subscriptions. I also stepped out and made two videos – one has uploaded so far and the other is just rubbish and will be deleted instead.

Reading
Mainly blog posts like this and this but other than that not a lot of reading going on recently. I’m still reading “Ordinary Mum, ExtraOrdinary Mission” but also reading “For Such A Time As This” again because it focuses on the story of Esther which seems to be speaking to me a lot at the moment. She’s an ordinary girl who had an extra ordinary mission which she couldn’t do without God in her corner.

Making
I’ve been playing with paper, pens and rulers to try and create my own inserts which seems to have been working when I’m cutting down other books (like two (out of three) Moleskine Cahiers I think I was sent by Rickie in the past). I keep looking in town for a couple more of the ones with square pages as they work better for the variation on Bullet Journalling that I seem to have fallen into but I haven’t been able to find them. I have an Amazon Gift Voucher semi-scorching a hole in my pocket but still don’t 100% know what to spend it on. I probably should be sensible but would rather just spend it! My discovery was that you have to cut from the front or back with the book closed so that your pages are all the same distance from the staples or binding – unlike my first attempt that I did with scissors and well and truly murdered – thankfully Mum’s rotary cutter saved that one from the bin! (Yes I know, I watched a whole YouTube video and then choice to risk it anyway so it was my own stupid fault!)

Eating
Better! Focusing on being on plan, eating more fruit and veg, less junk and those pounds will hopefully go away! I bought a size 14 top from a charity shop on Saturday, it’s a little snug but it’ll be just right with a few more pounds gone.

Working On
All sorts, there’s about a week to go to the end of the month at which point BEDIA will be finished. I’m filling in the gaps that I’ve missed (I know what’s the point in doing a BEDIA sort of challenge if you don’t keep up!). Then trying to decide what to do next. Listers Gotta List looks fun but so does #30daysoflists. Then there’s other projects floating around too. Really I need to focus and get myself sorted. Also Slimming World Sunday, how do we get a link up to grow? Maybe I have to tweet as many people as I can find on the SW themed hashtags on Twitter and see who’s blogging about their journey. Oh well that’s one to go and muse over. Maybe during middle of the night Jaxon feeds.

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Slimming World Sunday #4 (BEDIA)

Hey there! It’s Sunday which means it’s Slimming World Sunday. Following a conversation this week with Stephanie from Raising Emily as well as Debs at SuperBusyMum, we’ve (That’s Stephanie and I) have adopted Slimming World Sunday to keep the link up going as Debs had previously stopped running it.

If you’d like to join in the button and code is at the bottom along with the rules for the Link Up. For now here’s my post:

This week in all has been better, I kept a rough food diary although it wasn’t always 100% correct. I made sure that my breakfast was on plan and then aimed for at least one other meal each day to be 100% on plan. Some days it didn’t work, some days because of what we had planned it went all a bit wrong but we got there in the end.

On Thursday Our Sidekick got his exam results and I’d pretty much cleared the schedule for the day to make sure I was around if he needed me when the results were released. However I also turned down going for a coffee with a group of friends. There’s a cafe/pub local to me that do monster sized pieces of cake, when the friend coordinating the gathering mentioned thats where they were meeting, I swiftly (and painfully) turned down the invite, I had to think light thoughts and avoid temptation at all costs. I HAD to stand on the scales with a loss – it had to be done. And it was done! Oh yes it was done! 2lbs were gone! BOOM!

That was good and I was so proud, then my tea happened. As part of the exam celebrations, dinner was Our Sidekick’s choice and I had pizza. Chris got me and him a large half and half pizza so I had my half and that was it kind of thing. I’m not 100% he realised it but it was super loving of him to do that, if I’d had a whole pizza to myself then I would have felt like I had to eat it and then I would have felt rubbish after and then I’d have probably written off the whole week there and then just from one bad meal.

Friday was a new start and I did what I could to get back on plan. I had a chicken kiev with my dinner but I had SW Chips and carrots to make sure the rest of it was good. (What did I have for lunch???)

Saturday we had a BBQ with some friends in the evening, I could have had SW burgers but you can’t tell the difference between them and normal burgers (Could they be square or something it might make it easier lol) so I ended up buying both normal and SW burgers but just taking normal burgers to the BBQ. But I had taken a pasta salad that had minimal syns in it to share with everyone (then spent all those syns on dessert oops!)

Having said that I walked round town and then home, Our Sidekick, Jaxon and I walked to the BBQ and then ran home (okay maybe 2/3s of the way but I was pushing the buggy as well as running which was hilarious!!)

So it’s a mixed bag but I also signed up for a water drinking challenge with Britt. I had already been trying to drink more water because it’s been super muggy and stuffy at the moment so I didn’t want to get dehydrated and then be ill like I have some summers. I read on Britt’s blog post the other day that her nutritionist informed her that you should drink half your body weight in liquid. Okay that sort of doesn’t entirely make sense but listen in a way it does too.

So if you’re 10st 8 like me you’re then 148lbs, half of that is 74lbs, so you should be drinking 74 ounces of liquid a day. (Direct from Britt’s page so i don’t get it wrong: “She mentioned that even though it is ideal to consume that much water a day, even if you want make 3/4 of your daily required liquid intake a day water, that you are still doing great!”)

Now UK fluid ounces are different to US fluid ounces so using that rule you have to play with the maths a little. I’m working on at least 2.3 litres of fluids, Usually 1-1.5 litres of this is good old tap water, I’m really bad and drink too much diet cola, although I am working my way off it, I went cold turkey around Chris’s birthday at the beginning of August and just felt ill. So I cut down instead and feel better for it.

So yeah it’s been mixed and I think this week is going to be mixed too but when I can make wise choices I’m going to do that, I am definitely going to do that and I’d like to be closer to the 10stone mark (140lbs) on Thursday when I weight in again. Let’s do it!

Rules:
Add your link.
Visit and comment on two other links (this might change if we have lots of people!)

This Linky goes live at 0700hrs every Sunday morning & will remain open until the following Tuesday. So you’ve plenty of time to link up each week. I hope you’ve all had a good week on SW and even if you haven’t we’re here on hand to make you smile and think positively again!!

Also feel free to GRAB OUR BUTTON and add it to your post!! (Originally designed by Debs @ Super Busy Mum – she’s fab go visit her once you’ve linked up!)

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Things I’m Grateful For…(BEDIA)

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

The weather A slightly random think to be grateful for but it’s been nice weather this week. It’s been sunny but not too hot which is good. At one point it was a bit muggy but it was okay.

Google Hangout Earlier this week I got to take part in a Google Hangout with Anna and Mr B from Mrs Brimbles and Georgie from Georgie@Home. It was so much fun. The Hangout website wasn’t 100% behaving itself and at one point decided that it had had enough and stopped us all commenting. Was lovely to hang out with like minded planner geeks like me.

Results When Our Sidekick got his mock results he was devastated. Between Christmas and now he’s worked hard to get his grades up and it’s definitely shown this week and we’re so proud of him and thankful for his hard work.

Friends At about 5 past 7 on Thursday evening my phone rang. It was one of the ladies from church which seems slightly random for her to be calling me so I answered the call. She was ringing to see how Our Sidekick had done in his exams. She’s been on holiday and I imagine she was probably stood outside waving her phone around to get a signal! It was lovely to hear from her and I’m so grateful for friends who go out of their way to do something like that.

Results Day (BEDIA)

The whole of August has been near enough counting down to today whether it’s been mentioned out loud or not. Today Our Sidekick received his GCSE exams results.

Before we went to bed last night, we prayed for Our Sidekick and I told him that no matter what went down today, we still loved him and we were still proud of him, because I know from when he got his mock results (and from sitting exams myself) you feel like you’ve not only let yourself down when it goes wrong but that you’ve let your parents, your teachers and your school down – I know it’s not really like that but in that moment that’s how at least I felt.

I woke up at 7am when Chris’s alarm kicked in and switched the radio on which is really unusual as normally I get woken by Jaxon and end up trying to feed him with my eyes closed lol. While Chris got up and changed Jaxon’s nappy I work out that Jaxon had only woken the once before we went to bed and then slept through. Then it dawned on me that it’s Thursday and today is the day.

We did our normal morning routine and Jaxon had his breakfast, I shouted up to Our Sidekick and asked if he’d like a drink or some breakfast – to which he said no (I think his stomach was churning and those butterflies were the size of eagles!)

About 8:30 we got into the car and headed for the school, the school wasn’t opening until 9 but we were sort of sat there twiddling our thumbs not exactly knowing what to do so at least waiting in the car he could be first in the queue to get his results. We barely spoke in the car part from when I commented that I would wait in the car rather than coming in and embarrassing him. I sat playing on my phone, listening to the radio and chatting to Jaxon.

Our Sidekick appeared at the car at 8:55am and commented “Well I won’t be re-sitting English” at which point I was on the defensive about to tell Our Sidekick that if he didn’t have the right grades the College might ask him to resit and all that kind of thing at which point he’d climbed in the car and responded with “Because I got a C”. At which point I gave him a massive hug. He let me read the sheet as it wasn’t in an envelope or anything like that. He had two passes,, 2Cs, 2Ds, 2Es and a F grade. It looked like he’d got onto his college course but I wasn’t 100% so I told him we’d ring the college when we got in to make sure that his BTEC passes counted in the entry requirements.

He got the house phone and rang but there wasn’t an answer at first so he grabbed some toast while I updated Chris and my Parents (who were all on the edge of their seats!). Then he rang the College, he was asked a bunch of questions about his results and things like that but in they confirmed that he met the requirements and could start the course in September. At which point I said I didn’t care how cool he thought he was we were going to have a victory dance. So we jumped up and down and round in circles for a few minutes while chanting victory dance!! Then when Jaxon looked up at us I scooped him up and made him join in too.

In that next hour after all that I told Our Sidekick three times that I was proud of him – you know just in case he had forgotten!

I emailed his Social Worker and our Support Worker so that they were upto date. I got a response back pretty promptly.

This afternoon, I checked my email and there was one from the lady who chairs one of Our Sidekick’s reviews. I know she’s a busy lady and so for her to take time out to email me to pass on her congratulations to Our Sidekick was a big deal in a way. I think if I’m organised about it I’ll get the emails, tweets and texts printed off for him to keep for the future.

Mum and I went off to Slimming World as normal for a Thursday. Then Chris met us and we dropped off mum on the way to get takeaway to take home to celebrate. While I was in the car waiting for Chris, one of the ladies from church called (from her holiday!) to check in and see how Our Sidekick was doing. Oh I love how blessed we are by those around us.

Today I even managed to publish my first Vlog in ages. You can see it here.

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Storing and Organising Duvet Sets

Storing and organising duvet sets like this is clearly not a new idea. The two articles I found were dated 2011 and 2012 so there you go! However it’s another revelation to me especially given the muddle I get in while changing the bedding!

I tend to end up with a mismatched bedding. This is because I often can’t find the matching pillowcases to go with the duvet cover and then the bottom sheet just gets eaten by the cupboard monster or something.

So somehow when I got inspired by the T-Shirt Folding Hack I also got inspired by this idea. When I was sorting out the laundry I started the first set but realised parts of the set were missing. This meant that the pillowcase didn’t move any further than a pile of clean clothes in the bedroom. When I changed the bedding on Sunday I found the additional pillowcase for the set I was stripping off the bed. Although, in theory, it was clean from being in the cupboard I chucked it in the wash too so we have a whole set together again.

We use fitted sheets on the bed because flat sheets untuck themselves too easily. However, I’m thinking that if I lay it out and then fold it into the inside of the duvet cover like a sandwich then it’ll lay sort of flat when I get it into the pillowcase with the rest of the set. For now, it’s going to be an “as I change the bed” kind of job but I think I will have to spend nap time one day just emptying the cupboard and getting it sorted because stuff doesn’t stay on the shelves. Need to figure out if there’s an optimum way of folding the towels too!

Making it Work in Our House

Our cupboard is slightly wider than a standard door however, the shelves aren’t deep enough for the sheets to sit like the pictures. However, I think if they turn 90 degrees and go on the shelf that way then it will work better. It also means that we can clear out what we actually use and what we don’t use. I’m pretty sure there are stray items from incomplete duvet sets. We have a double bed but king size duvet so we buy the fitted sheets separate to the duvet sets themselves. This means sometimes we end up with more stray items that way. We have “guest duvet” that we keep on top of the wardrobe, so we then also have a handful of double duvet sets in the cupboard too. Then we have single stuff for Our Sidekick’s bed but I can do the same thing for his bed and put them on a separate shelf if I get myself in gear. I guess it’s one of those long-term goals to achieve!

The image above is from the LifeHacker post explaining the same idea. You can find the article here or by clicking on the image above.

Currently…17th August (BEDIA)

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching
Our Sidekick has moved on without me so I need to go back to Season 3 and figure out what’s going on. I watched “What We Did On Our Holiday” starring Billy Connolly. It was really enjoyable and worth the watch. I did have to do a high speed catch up for Chris as I’d already started watching it.

Reading
For a while I had been trying to clear my currently reading list on Goodreads because it was getting a bit out of hand but that hasn’t really happened now. I started reading “Ordinary Mum, Extraordinary Mission” this week after I spotted it in the bookshop while running a Holiday Club errand last week. I had started re-reading a book I was given for my Secret Santa a couple of years ago called The Cause Within You as we’d been discussing about passions and what God has called us to at church and between Chris and I. At some point though Chris adopted the book so I wasn’t able to properly get reading so I’ll have to come back to that. Also the Women’s Group that I’m part of have decided that we’re reading Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. I want to get a bit further in “Ordinary Mum, Extraordinary Mission” before I started reading Men/Mars/Women/Venus.

Making
I attempted to get some more squares done but Jaxon attempted to help me and at one point my bright orange wool was stretched across the room and not much was being done on the granny square. I’m determined to get more of it done in August because I want it to be ready for snuggling on the sofa when the weather gets colder and rubbish, so I need to get a move on. Also when Jaxon is a little older I want to make a blanket fort in the living room and time it so we eat tea in the blanket fort (because I think that would be so much fun!).

Eating
Once Holiday Club finished on Friday I decided I would focus on getting back on plan. Yesterday worked minus the mince for tea that had the wrong fat content (it should have been like 5% and we only had 12%) so that’s not so good but the rest of the dinner was pretty epic. It was mince, baked beans, passata, sweetcorn and macaroni pasta. So it was epically filling. I thought there was some left over so that I could have it today but I think the boys must have eaten it… Yesterday, breakfast was on plan but lunch wasn’t as Jaxon and I were on a field trip to one of his friend’s first birthday party. It was a lovely BBQ including cheesy nachos! (YUMMY!) Dinner was more on plan, we had SW chips, carrots and a chicken breast, there were syns on the chicken as we added cheese and BBQ sauce so it was like a pretend Hunter’s Chicken. We also had stuffing, I had a tiny bit that Chris cut off for me, Chris then ate like half the dish!

Working On
I got a bit of a bargain on a new Midori in regular size and I’ve emailed a shop in London about the inserts and if they mail them out, it turns out that they do mail them out so that’s super exciting I just need to decide what to do. I’m also working on what to spend my Amazon voucher on. I was part of a Mailbox swap and my partner Sinziana (who writes Sparkling Shoes Girl) lives in Romania, so I think rather than posting something and risking it getting lost or having to pay a fortune in shipping, she got me a voucher which is super cool! We had a chat yesterday morning via email and I think I’m going to do the same just deciding where to get the voucher from…

Blog Every Day in August

Saturday Blog Maintenance (BEDIA)

Last night when I headed to bed I had a to do list of things I wanted to achieve while Chris was at work. Some were going to be easy like returning bits and pieces left over from Holiday Club and collecting some flowers for my Mum.

Mum's Flowers

Some were going to be a little more complicated and needed to be at least started while Jaxon napped. I managed to get various bits done while Jaxon was awake including finishing my first letter for #postcircle.

One of the asleep tasks was to tidy up my SEO on here. I started the task then realised that what was probably slightly more urgent was to get the categories tidied up so I decided to get on with some blog maintenance while I could. I’d somehow ended up at nearly 120! I worked through it on and off all day and got it down to 65ish. Now someone I spoke to on Twitter earlier suggested that I should have a dozen at the most. I worked on the idea that a category is the main subject, for example Food then tags are the subcategories for example Italian food, Chinese food, baking and so on and so forth.

I probably did about 4 or 5 hours work in it and it’s down to about 60 it is still too many really but having never entirely understood the difference now I’ve got a bit more of an idea on it I’ve been working to sort it out properly.

I also spent a chunk of the day watching various MTN flick throughs. It’s really exciting and my Blue Midori arrived in the mail today so I’m going to have a play with that. Also emailed a shop in London who do inserts so going to see how much they are and go from there.

What planner do you use? Do you have any plans or goals to tidy up your blog?

Blog Every Day in August

Slimming World Sunday #3 (BEDIA)

Today I’m also joining with Debs and Amy for Slimming World Sunday. (I discovered earlier this week that SWS was stopped but seeing as it was their idea originally I’m going to leave the links on the posts)

This week

As we had all the craziness with Holiday Club this week, I often ended up eating late and so having snacks which wasn’t always that great. We weighed in on Tuesday because of Holiday Club clashing with our normal SW slot. I had maintained which was good, not great but it was better than it could have been (especially as I had had birthday cake the night before!). Most evening meals consisted of SW ready meals from Iceland so that even if the middle of my day had been a disaster, my breakfast and my dinner were on plan. By Thursday I had given up with eating when I got home and tried to have something before I went out.

I really have found that I need to get back onto plan and keep a diary (and mean it!). It’s not exactly an excuse but I’ve been struggling to know what to make for us all, Jaxon is now getting more into eating proper food so where possible I’m trying to feed him that sort of thing. I did think ahead one day in the last fortnight and cooked his lunch the night before so that he could then just have it cold the following lunchtime but other than that I’ve been struggling to know what to feed him and then struggling also to know what to feed me,

In theory it’s not complicated – aim for something syn free and have lots of veggies and other super free choices. I did wonder about doing SP for a couple of days but I need to think about it properly and plan rather than wing. I wrote a food plan for us all but it’s not SW friendly in some places, I do have plain chicken breast in the freezer so when I do something for the boys that has syns (like a Garlic Kiev) I can chuck on the chicken breast.

I think I’ll stand in front of the freezer/fridge tomorrow and write a proper detailed me plan so that I know what to eat and stick in plan (If I’m going for a coffee date with you, please pummel me into submission when I reach for the cake!!)
Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Things I’m Grateful For…(BEDIA)

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

My boys This week it has been crazy with Holiday Club in the evenings. Two days I left lists of things that needed to be done while I was out. On one day Our Sidekick really didn’t want to help but on the second day when I commented that it would “count towards him being able to go see his girlfriend” he was very helpful and I think he did 75% of the list. (And started just after I left before Chris got in from work).

Mum Every year leading up to Holiday Club, she plans crafts and activities for the kids to do. Then when it gets to the Holiday Club week she works all day and then goes to run the group and any other tasks she had to do like puppetry this year. Two of the activities involved her taking home the completed items to bake them in the oven. (I grabbed two bits of Fimo that were left over and managed to make this)

Fimo creations at Holiday Club

Friends This morning Jaxon and I went off for an unexpected coffee date, while at breakfast with Chris, I got a message inviting us out for coffee so Jaxon and I pottered off to the local supermarket and waited for our friend and her little boy to arrive. It wasn’t a long coffee date but it was a lovely little stop off to break up the day. My friend’s husband is also into a lot of things that Chris is into so we’re going to plan a dinner party so that we can try and get them in the same room and get them talking about the things that they like.

My Brother Mum and I were tidying up this evening following Holiday Club so that we didn’t have to go back tomorrow when everyone else is tidying as Mum had stuff she needs to get done. Although Richard’s wifey had gone home, he stayed to help us finish up what we needed to do. He’s so lovely!

Just a short one today, so what are you grateful for this week?

Blog Every Day in August

Dear Jaxon…13 Months

Dear Jaxon…

The month since your birthday has flown by and I think that’s because it has been so busy. Following your birthday party, we loaded up the car and went on holiday. The plan had been that we would go away while the schools were still in session so that in theory it would be a little less busy than it would be following about the 20th July.

Ignoring our holiday in April 2014 when you were a bump, this was our first proper family holiday all together, it was also your first trip camping. I think you enjoyed being out of the house all week and having adventures especially when I let you have free roam across the grass outside of our tent. One afternoon Our Sidekick had his air mattress out to practice tricks on. I think you just liked how squishy it was. I think you enjoyed being able to have adventures but meal times were really hard work. You wouldn’t sit still and you were into everything. One day we ended up tying the Connecta to the camping chair as a makeshift high chair. This worked better but your dinner ended up all over the carrier and we couldn’t use it again while we were on holiday. We knew where the local laundrette was so if we had been really desperate I could have probably washed it down while we were in Hawes.

We got home and then the following week it was Daddy’s birthday so you and I went off to Milton Keynes to buy another birthday cake. This time Grandpa didn’t come with us although I’m sure he would have loved to come.

While we were on holiday we all climbed a mountain called Drumaldance. Technically Daddy carried you but you were still there with us when we reached the summit so we decided that your first birthday challenge was climbing the mountain. Daddy has been trying to figure out his birthday challenge for this year. I think he was really excited about doing The Tri-Peak Challenge only to be told that there were no spaces in the car. I guess maybe we have to start thinking about what we’re going to do for your second birthday challenge. Then again right now I keep encouraging you to start walking. You’re not convinced though and often prefer just to crawl or walk round the furniture.

About You
Eating: You love proper food. Somewhere between holiday and coming home we figured out that you were going off the baby food and wanted proper solid stuff more and more of the time. This has made it harder some days because I have to try and figure out what to feed you and always get a bit like “Am I feeding you enough?” I’m sure you would tell me if there wasn’t enough in your tummy but at the same time I don’t want to over stuff you every meal time so you feel miserable or poorly.
Clothes: You’re in between sizes. Your legs aren’t long enough and your waist isn’t round enough for 12-18 month trousers however your top half is in 12-18 months especially if the neck hole doesn’t have buttons or poppers.
Nappies: Size 4
Words: Still working on mama and dada but they are definitely there. You often get excited and rabbit on about all sorts although it doesn’t entirely make sense to us it makes sense to you.
Feeds: Milk wise you’re still on boobie milk, you’ve been having some formula as I’ve been at Holiday Club when Daddy takes you home for bed.
Teeth: Okay so I think at the last count you were heading towards 13 teeth. I had a check up with the dentist a week or so ago and he checked out your teeth too. He said we were doing a good job taking car of his teeth.
Bedtime: 7pm is still normal bedtime but this weekend with Holiday Club is messing with the schedule. Daddy collects you from the church, brings you home and gives you some milk then you go to bed. It does mean you’re waking earlier for a feed which is unusual but I think it’s your way of checking in and making sure I’m home.
Naptimes: You’ve been having a morning nap nearly every day but sometimes it doesn’t work. Today you had a short first nap so I tried to put you down for a second nap this afternoon but you weren’t really having it although you kept rubbing your eyes.
Likes: You absolutely adore the fire engine you were given for your birthday. I tend to give it to you in the car because then it keeps you occupied. On Saturday when we went to the wedding you actually fell asleep with your head resting on the Fire Engine like it was a pillow. In the end Our Sidekick fished the Fire Engine out from under your head and replaced it with your Penguin Octonaut that I bought you the other day.
Dislikes: I don’t think you’re liking the disturbed routine this week especially as some of our days are just as muddled as the evenings. It seems to be that as long as you get tea before we go out you’re a bit happier.

Blog Every Day in August

Currently…10th August (BEDIA)

Currently

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching
Our Sidekick and I started Heroes from the beginning. I didn’t watch past Season One when it was televised it Our Sidekick and I have completed Season One and Two and started Season Three this week.

The Great British Bake Off is back which is really exiting but seriously tempting. I made a carrot cake (premix stuff rather than proper from scratch) for Chris’s birthday (although I made it on Thursday) and managed to resist cutting into it before he got home from work.

Reading
I finished the last book of The Underland Chronicles and have stalled. I was recommended Wideacre by Phillippa Gregory amongst other books and authors. I’ve got as far as downloading the Kindle sample but haven’t started it yet.

Making
I’m still working on the blanket squares. Jaxon has taken to emptying the box of squares all over floor each day at least once. I’m intending to empty my corner and attempt to condense what is there as my wool boxes are in the kitchen and could probably be included in the rearranging. I actually jotted this down at the end of last week. On Thursday while dinner was cooking I had my wool out all over the floor and got it sorted. There’s one carrier bag of wool to be either be delivered to the charity shop or to sell at Jumble Trail on the 6th September. I’ve also been tempted to try and make a cardboard Midori Traveler’s Notebook so that I can at least get started and try it out before my eBay sort of bargain arrives this week.

Eating
Eating has varied this last week. The beginning of the week wasn’t great. It got better towards the end of the week and minus Saturday has been better. I’m determined to stand on the scales with a loss so from Sunday morning to Tuesday morning I need to be good. Really good.

Working On
Getting the house back in order it’s fluctuating between a bomb site and a mess. Hopefully I can get back on track. It started yesterday afternoon by actually putting time in the diary to put away clothes – I think I put more away that Chris but I did also sort Jaxon’s clothes a bit more. He seems to be in between two different sizes at the moment. His body is in 12-18 months but his waist is so little and legs are on the short side so he’s still in 9-12 month trousers. It does mean that we have a lot of clothes out and they won’t get cleared for a little while it seems.

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Slimming World Sunday #2 (BEDIA)

This week

Potato and Carrot Rostis with Poached Egg

I went to group on Thursday and it was definitely a case of that I didn’t want to be there as I thought it was going to be bad. I stepped on the scales and breathed out. I know completely mad, it’s not going to make that much difference really haha!

Half a pound off. Oh yeah! Better than on that’s for sure.

Food Thursday was bad. We had frozen pizza. Friday was better, still used a lot of my syns for the day but I made wiser choices. Breakfast was only a banana as we were short on cereal and other “good” choices. Yesterday was a bad day, I had on plan breakfast (2 x Weetabix, HexA Semi-Skimmed Milk and a banana) then the day went downhill from there. We drove to Norwich for a wedding and part way through the journey I was struggling I pulled over to take a break and get something to eat. We stopped at a lovely cafe/kiosk near Thetford. It’s got a lovely picnic area too. I ended up with a hot dog and bun and a Kit Kat. I gave Our Sidekick part of the Kit Kat and a chunk of the hotdog bun to Jaxon. There was a “sweetie bar” at the wedding which was too tempting. Dinner (around 5/6ish) was a pie with mashed potatoes, mushy peas and gravy. Well I turned down the gravy but had the rest. It was lovely food (by Flaming Galah’s) but very bad for me.

On the other hand on Friday I had a managed to drink nearly 2.5 litres of water and less than one can of Diet Cola. So at least from that point of view I feel like I achieved something.

Either way I’m drawing a line and restarting today. I have until Tuesday to get rid of the badness so far and stand on the scales with a loss. The plan is to go to Iceland today or tomorrow to get ready meals for this week coming as it’s Holiday Club so need to make wise choices.

Any suggestions? My biggest struggle is sandwiches and toast. What can I do instead?

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

My Wishlist: Midori

My Wishlist - Midori Traveler's Notebook

I’ve recently been watching lots of YouTube videos about planners and often about Midori Traveler’s Notebooks. They are a similar idea to a Filofax in at you have the basic binder and then you add your inserts or notebooks to create the sections you need. It’s a little easier than a Filofax in the sense that you can use multiple notebooks which then hold them self together rather than lots of loose leaf sheets which can get lost easily.

Again similar to Filofax they seem a little on the steep side to get started. I have found a “pretend” Midori on eBay which is on it’s way to me but I would quite like a proper nice black or tan one rather than the pink one I’ve purchased. With it being a Midori Style notebook rather than an actual Midori it’s a fraction of the price while I see how it works for me, there was a post on Facebook of a cardboard version made for temporary use to see how the user got on with it. I need to go and see if the Malt Wheaties box in the kitchen is finished with so I can cut it up. (That was still in use but I have a piece of cardboard that was used for Amazon packaging.

In theory, all the images above link to their original homes. Be sure to visit The Mintgreen Polkadot – it could be a new favourite!

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Things I’m Grateful For…(BEDIA)

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

Time with Our Sidekick it’s the school holidays at the moment and Our Sidekick has been off for the best part of two months if not it must be nearly three. We’ve spent some of this week hanging out and watching Heroes and on one occasion we watched Pretty Little Liars which has been good for us to hang out.

Our Sidekick this week he stepped up and babysat Jaxon so Chris and I could have a date night together without the boys. My parents were on standby at their house just in case he needed advice or help but Jaxon was a superstar and didn’t wake up until we got home so Our Sidekick pretty much got the evening to himself. Then this evenings I rang him to say I was walking home with Jaxon but could he come meet us as I was struggling to carry Jaxon as he’d been in my arms got about half an hour and the carriers were locked in boot (see below for what happened!). He came and met me then carried Jaxon all the way home even when Chris caught back up with us in the car.

Grandad My Grandad is such a superstar. Earlier this evening I was really dumb. We’d been in the supermarket and when we came out I opened the boot, put down the car keys. Loaded the car and shut the boot. Where were the car keys…? In the boot! I rang Grandad and asked could he come rescue us. I felt so stupid for doing it. Chris was asking me questions but also normally I put Jaxon in the car first before unloading the trolley or the buggy. With Chris occupying Jaxon I think it threw me and I just didn’t realise what I had done.

Two Strangers Actually in the end like five people stopped to offer advice but there were two guys who gave up their time to stay and help us. They’d stopped on their way into the store and were like “we’re going to get our shopping but if you’re still here on the way out we’ll see if we can help”. Well clearly four brains is what it needed. They were both removal men and had been at a job so had their “kit” with them. They went and got a selection of bits from their van and came back to the car. They all worked together and managed to get the car open. Superstars!!

My Parents they are just super helpful. Whether it’s printing bits off for us or looking after Jaxon they are just amazing and I’m super grateful.

Blog Every Day in August

Chris turns 30 (BEDIA)

Chris's Birthday

This isn’t quite the same picture that I posted on FB yesterday and also it’s quite Jaxon heavy (oops!). Yesterday was Chris’s 30th Birthday so he had the day off work and we spent the day as a family. Even Our Sidekick had made sure that he had the day clear and was prepared to hang out with Chris which was really sweet of him. (I guess it helped that his girlfriend was here today and not yesterday lol).

A couple of birthdays ago Chris commented that the he was sad that nothing had been organised, so I was determined to fix that. He’d already had his party so that was already counting towards it. I nipped into the supermarket and grabbed some balloons, a banner and a massive badge. Our Sidekick was so good. Chris was pottering around doing stuff so I grabbed Our Sidekick and was like “this is the plan and this is how we’re going to do it. It’s all here and we’ll do it when Chris goes to bed before I go to bed”. Chris went upstairs and I finished up downstairs and started on the balloons. Jaxon woke up for a feed so I ran upstairs and sorted him, then I made some excuse to Chris that I needed to go back downstairs, so charged back down the stairs and got on with blowing up the balloons and tidied up Jaxon’s toys. We blew up 30 balloons and I blue tacked the banner out in the hallway as it was about the only place I could do it. The funniest moment was when I was trying to blow up the balloon and something happened but all the air blew back into my face and it made the biggest raspberry noise which made us blow laugh hysterically but had to laugh quietly at the same time.

We started Chris’s birthday with the one present that had to be opened first. It was the badge which I guess isn’t entirely a present but had to be done. He was off to breakfast with our friend Simon who is also one of Jaxon’s Godparents. They headed off for breakfast and Jaxon and I did our normal breakfast sort of routine. While I tidied the kitchen Chris’s Dad rang to wish him Happy Birthday but Chris was out so I asked him to call back.

I decided that we’d try and keep Jaxon’s routine even if the day wasn’t entirely normal, like a lot of us he functions better when he’s had his proper amount of sleep. I took him upstairs, changed him, gave him a feed and put him down for a nap. Well within about ten minutes, Chris had arrived home.

Once Chris was home we got Jaxon up again as he wasn’t settling. Chris opened his birthday presents. He was given money by a few people as he’s saving up for a Pebble Time. He was also given gift vouchers for different shops.

Once presents were opened and I had written a list of thank you notes he needs to write, we got ourselves all organised and loaded into the car. Chris had decided that we were going to explore the shops in Wellingborough. I had packed some of my crochet to do in the car but then I ended up driving us to Wellingborough.

We parked the car at Swangate (free parking oh yeah!) and then wandered round the shops. Chris had a look in a couple of shops for his Pebble but they only had the original one rather than the Time which is the one that he’d like. I went into Colemans and got a couple of pens. I am loving the Pentel Energel pens at the moment – they are really lovely to write with (Even though my notes for this post were scratched out in a biro that I found while feeding Jaxon lol).

We grabbed lunch at the local supermarket. I was trying to choose wisely but there definitely was a lack of choices. I picked Hunter’s Chicken Stack thing in the end with chips – I know terrible! But I’ll touch more on that on Sunday for SW Sunday. I had tried to order Macaroni Cheese for Jaxon as it would be easier for him to handle (and for us to feed him) they were out of it though so we changed to Spaghetti Bolognese except it was almost one lump of spaghetti.

Chris decided he wanted an Egg Custard Tart but the one in the cafe looked like someone had stuck their finger in it and then put it back on the shelf. He decided he was going to get one from the bakery instead. He had let me break off a tiny little bit – I really wanted like one to myself (haha) but I did try to be good.

Following Lunch, Chris wanted to go and play Laser Tag. It’s not my cup of tea so the boys went and did that while Jaxon and I sat in the Laser Tag’s place cafe/lounge. I worked on blog posts and Jaxon played.

We headed back to the car via WHSmith to look at the magazine books they do. Chris was given one for his birthday last year (or it could have been Christmas) about Web Design so he went to look for another one. I got one about Social Media Marketing and he got one on Web Design again. I did look at one about blogging but it was pretty much all the stuff I knew for WordPress.

We came back via Thurleigh and I crashed out on the sofa, I have no idea what it is but since I’ve had Jaxon I get motion sickness when in the car, usually I’m fine and if I’m driving I’m fine but when I was on holiday it was getting worse especially bouncing around country roads and then again yesterday it was really bad. I had a headache coming on too so I did wonder if it was worse because of the headache. I guess if needed I’ll have to start taking anti-sickness or those wrist bands thingies (Maybe I need to research and see if anyone would send me goodies in return for reviews).

My Mum got the new Slimming Word book last week which is Veggie Feast or something like that so I took a picture of one of the recipes and when I saw her earlier in the week she gave me a photocopy of that particular recipe. I’d been putting it off all week but decided that this was the day for the recipe so I despatched Our Sidekick to the shop for some eggs and got started on the potatoes and carrots. Oh my life – note to self if you’re making rosti’s again make sure you leave enough time to grate all the potatoes and carrots.

Well I got there in the end and they were really good. Jaxon tried poached egg – he wasn’t convinced but it was a new thing so I don’t think he was really feeling it also it was heading towards bed time so he was tired.

Chris wanted to go to the cinema and Our Sidekick was lovely enough to babysit and my headache was getting worse. UGH. Well I took painkillers and drank more water then posted a prayer request on The Peony Project. So much had been organised for us to have a date night that I couldn’t cancel and head to bed.

Thankfully all that did it’s job and by the time the film started it was clearing. Unfortunately by the time we were heading home it was coming back again but on the plus side it was bedtime once I got in. We went to see Inside Out which I really loved – I think I am going to add that to my Wishlist once the DVD comes out.

So that’s that, Chris turns 30! Next up my Sister in Law turns 30 but I don’t think she wants a big deal made about that so I might be next hehe.

Blog Every Day in August

Good Morning! It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

LYBS: My Favorite Blogs to Read (BEDIA)

My Favourite Blogs to Read

I’m sure there are more than this but these are some of my favourite blogs to read

Let Your Blog Shine - August Prompts

Ashley writes Hello Nature and she’s so lovely! She set up LYBS and another group that I’m part of. She’s such an encouragement when it comes to blogging but she’s also an inspiring blogger too. I love reading her posts. She often shares recipes too. Her and Her husband run Gnarly Whale – they do some lovely soaps and lip balms that are vegan friendly. My favourite lip balm is the peanut butter and my favourite soap is Oatmeal Milk and Coconut (yes I went to check!). I’m not normally a fan of bar soap as I find it leaves my skin feeling all funny but I really do like the Gnarly Whale soaps so might have to order a couple in.

I “met” Joanna via The Peony Project on Facebook. Her husband, her and their three gorgeous boys are getting ready to follow God’s calling and move to France to be missionaries – how exciting is that! They aren’t sure where in France yet but know that God is calling them there. At one point her and her husband lived in Chorleywood, England so we bond over the English connection and our francophile ways lol.

Another beauty I met thanks to the internet! Shelby lives in California although she’s a Texan girl at heart. Chris and I got married about a month and a half before Shelby and her husband got married so we bond over that fact as well as the fact that we are both Christians and Bloggers. She blogs about fashion which isn’t necessarily my cup of tea but it’s lovely to see what’s she’s excited about (like this week she’s posted about cowboy boots and different ways to wear them. I love cowboy boots although never found a pair comfortable enough)

Hannah is up next. Now I’ve known Hannah for 11 years now. In fact in September it’ll be exactly 11 years as we met on the bus on the way to our first day at University. I lived off campus and she was in the halls of residence on the campus nearest my parents house although all our classes would be at the other campus pretty much. I’d been hiding with my headphones on attempting to avoid anyone until I got to the class, I got off the bus and

Kaelah writes at This Charming Life. I’ve been following her blog for quite a few years and then for a little while I stopped reading. Not sure why though. Anyway I headed back over there and started reading again. Her birthday y “The Littlest Flynn” was born around the same time as Jaxon so we often compare notes. He’s just turned one too so plenty of cute baby pictures to look at over there too.

Brittney is another blogger from the LYBS group. (She’s also the main admin person and she works super hard!). Britt also has a shop creating beautiful stationery called Yellow Umbrella. I could spend a small fortune in her shop as I love pen pal letters and pretty stationery lol. She blogs about all sorts including social media, small business and health.

Debs is a lovely Irish blogger. She’s a mum of five and three of her kids live with her. She blogs about it all sorts but one of her current projects is a bit of a competition with her husband to be. The challenge is for her and her hubby to shed those extra pounds and look AHMAZING on their wedding day which is this time next year. Debs has been following Slimming World as well so we can compare notes.

Mrs Shilts a.k.a Emma is another Slimming World Blogger. So far she’s lost nearly five stone in a year! WOW!! She looks so good for it too. She blogs about her journey as well as family life and her adventures with her gorgeous little boy. He has the cutest curly blond hair.

Mrs Bishop and I met via the Scone Roses WI group here in Bedford at that point in time she was President and expecting her little boy. Well her little boy is now almost two years old. She’s also blogging about her weight loss journey. She’s lost six and a half stone!! She’s now a size 12 and looks gorgeous! I love her blog especially all the goodies that she bakes and blogs about.

Jessica is another Blogger that I’ve met via the various groups I am part of. She’s a new one on the favourites list but I’m loving her blog already. She shares lots of yummy recipes.

Blog Every Day in August

Tuesday (BEDIA)

August 4th

Today didn’t go to plan. Jaxon went down for his nap around 10am and had this full two hours and yet did I achieve what I needed to do within that time…nope.

That’s why this post isn’t what was planned.

You see I was working on the stuff I get paid for first then working on the non-paid stuff.

Jaxon then wanted to explore every corner that he pretty much shouldn’t have been exploring. His new skill is to climb on my bag and then stand looking out of the window. (I think Our Sidekick has the photographic evidence of that one!)

On the other hand Jaxon is loving proper food rather than jarred baby food. So he had pasta for lunch yesterday and then again for tea today. I cooked a pizza last night so he could have that cold at lunchtime. That seems to be working so far but it feels like it’s not the right things to be feeding him and that I should still be feeding him some variation of baby food. He likes Shreddies as long as they aren’t in milk or at least he can leave them to dry a bit before eating them.

Rubbing his meals across his face is a regular occurrence. He then usually rubs whatever I don’t clear off his face arms or legs properly across my shirt. Today he had two full changes of clothes. Pyjamas to outfit one. Following breakfast he changed to outfit two and then after tea he changed back to his pyjamas. No wonder it feels like a never ending task with the watching.
Tomorrow is Chris’s birthday and he had the day off so Jaxon will well and truly be confused I think. I’ve managed to get enough done so that I can have the day off but Chris is off for breakfast with one of his friends so I reckon I might be able to squish in some blogging first thing if Jaxon will play by himself for a little bit.

Blog Every Day in August

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Currently…3rd August (BEDIA)

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
I had a bit of a blast from the past and so watched 13 Going on 30 and started watching 27 Dresses. Also been watching DIY SOS, a handful of TED Talks (including John Green) and Agent Carter.

Reading:
My friend lent me the The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins before I went on holiday – I’m now on Book 4 (Gregor and the Marks of Secret). I’ve got one more to go which I’ll be starting today.

Making:
I’ve been learning and making Pinterest friendly images for my blog. Hence the redesign of the Currently image. The background is a Canva default one but I figured while I’m still getting the hang of it I’d start with the defaults and work on my own ones in the future.

Eating:
Last week was a real mixture eating wise. I was trying to be good but there were leftovers and we were living on tinned stuff left over from holiday while I sorted out the food shopping. I missed the cut off on Monday so the food order could be delivered until Wednesday. However now we have lots of Slimming World friendly food in the house which is helping. I’m determined to stand on the scales with a lose on Thursday. Since Run Bedford I’ve been meaning to walk the 10k route, for one or another reason I keep putting it off but the weather is predicting that August is going to be drier than July so hopefully I’ll be able to get out and do it. I can walk a 5k in 50 minutes ish so I should be able to do it in 2 hours in theory so should be able to chuck it in one afternoon after lunch, just make sure Jaxon is lathered in sun cream and had some toys to play with in his buggy.

Working On:
So having learnt all about Pinterest pins, I’m going to go back and work through my posts hopefully creating some better pins as I go. I’ve also learnt about improving SEO so now my links have the titles in them rather than by date (apparently this was a better system to use than how I had it previously).

It’s August and I’m joining a few of my blogger friends to blog every day this month, at least around here you’ll be able to find all my posts under BEDIA. Be sure to check out their blogs too.

Slimming World Sunday #1 (BEDIA)

Two years ago yesterday I started my Slimming World journey. I was fed up of looking like I was pregnant even though I wasn’t. I was fed up of not being able to climb the stairs at work without feeling like I was out of breathe. My friend Jess had been round to hang out with us and Chris commented how good she looked and how much weight she’d lost.

Summer 2011 – not quite my heaviest but close.

So on Thursday 1st August 2013 I headed up to Bedford Athletic Rugby Club and went to see Kim who I used to go to school with. Following the birth of her daughter she’d been a Slimming World Consultant. She explained it all to me and got me signed up. I stood on the scales and was filled with dread that she was going to judge me on the numbers that appeared on the scales. (Think of that sketch that used to be part of Little Britain).

But she didn’t judge me. She encouraged me. She answered any questions that I had and sent me on my way. I could do this – couldn’t I?

Around a stone lighter than in August 2013

Needed a new dress. It wasn’t quite a size smaller but there was more room!

I ended up moving group to join the same one as Jess and another friend who had also decided she needed to do something about it all. By the end of October I found out I was pregnant with Jaxon. I decided to let my Consultant know so that she could tell me what I needed to eat. Because Slimming World is about making wise choices rather than dieting it’s approved by the Royal College of Midwifes so you can do it while pregnant and breastfeeding. You do have to notify your Midwife too so that if you’re losing too much or it’s affecting baby they can advise you to stop or change what you’re doing. Because I was nearly three stone overweight to start with I was encouraged by my Midwife to keep doing it as in the long run if I could get my weight down or at least keep a handle on it, it would benefit Jaxon and I in the long run.

Fast forward to Christmas and I collected my Stone and a Half award. I was really chuffed but it was going to be a hard one. Between Christmas and Jaxon being born last year I put all the weight back on that I had lost. It was nearly all baby and fluid etc but it was really hard going to group and trying to discuss what choices I was making when I was often eating really bad because I was hungry all the time!

It’s now two years since I started. I have lost just over two stone and I’m struggling. That fire I had in the beginning has gone and I need encouraging to lose those last 12lbs and kick some butt.

I bought a pair of Size 14 jeans last weekend and already they are too big. I want to stand in the charity shop and have to buy a pair of Size 12.

I have nearly a stone to go I can do it. I started as I mean to go on and started yesterday with a mammoth walk also food wise tried to be good for the majority of the day as I was out in the evening at a Hen Do.

Blog Every Day in August

Today I’m also joining with Debs and Amy for Slimming World Sunday.

My August Goals (BEDIA)

Today is the first day in BEDIA, that’s Blog Every Day in August and it does what it says on the tin so to speak. I figured I would start the month by sharing my August Goals. I used to do this on a monthly basis but stalled a little while ago and then didn’t do it any more.

Get to my target weight.
- Today I have been doing Slimming World for 2 years. I’ve lost 2 stone 2 pounds (that’s 30 pounds) since I started including having Jaxon in the middle of that. I was getting there but I’ve started to become unfocused and now I’m putting weight back on again. I’m around 12lbs away from my target, if I get on with it and focus there’s no reason why I can’t get to target or almost be there by the end of the month.
Eat on plan for more days than off (Aim for 20 out of 31 days)
- This sounds like it should be really easy but somedays it’s really hard especially if you’re invited out for a coffee date or a meal. Hopefully I can manage to do it and be focused.
Walk the Run Bedford route.

Back at the beginning of June there was a new running event here in Bedford that had a 10k route around the town. Part of the course runs close to our house so rather than starting on the start line like they would have, I am starting at my house and walking to the course then joining it and following it around the town.

Drink more water – I’ve got really bad at this so time to fix it.

Blog Every Day in August

Five Tips for Camping with a Baby

Before we went on holiday I looked around for tips about what to pack while camping with a baby/young toddler. What I did find didn’t always answer my questions so while I was away I started on a list of tips for camping with a baby.

1. Layers
Depending on where and when you’re camping along with what the weather is doing you may find you need extra layers at night. We found that Jaxon would go to bed really toasty but by about 2-4am his hands would be cold because of the drop of temperature in the tent. The temperature in the day usually around the low 20s (Celsius that is!) which was warm enough to go out without a coat but need a jumper. Although baby will seem really warm and not need the layers at bed time, around 2-4am the temperature drops (even in Summer!) and so I would advise that you put them in the extra layers at bed time. If you’re restricted for packing space, day layers can double as night layers – if the onesie is clean (or only a tiny bit dirty) it could still be worn overnight. Keep a jumper or coat handy should it turn cold and/or wet unexpectedly. Even in the summer it might be handy to put on a vest under normal clothes.

Towels and blankets can be used under the baby’s bed to insulate them from the cold ground – even if during the day the towels serve their intended purpose (just make sure the are dry before they go back under the cot/bed.

2. Babywear
Four of us, three tents, three sleeping bags, three air beds, four bags of clothes plus all the kitchen stuff soon added up in our car so we were unable to fit our buggy in there too. We took our Boba 4G and Connecta carriers to use in place of the buggy, in the end the Boba was used as a carrier and the Connecta got tied round one of the camping chairs to try and double as a high chair while Jaxon ate his meals. On quite a few day trips we found that if we had used the buggy we would have really struggled. By carrying Jaxon it was just like carrying an extra backpack.

3. Toys
If your child is like Jaxon and is into everything you will probably find that they keep trying to play with the things that you don’t want them to play with. Jaxon liked pulling himself up on the camping chairs and the camping table and trying to walk round the tent. He also liked moving the food tins around too. We had take a selection of toys but it turned out that I’d picked the wrong ones. I’m not sure what would have been the right ones but it seems the fire engine he got for his birthday would have been a good starting point.

4. Storage
Back to those tins, okay we might not have had space for storage boxes but if we had, had a storage box with a lid it would have removed the temptation for Jaxon to play with the tins. Also it would have been handy for packing away other bits that it shouldn’t have been playing with.

5. High Chair or Alternative
Some children will sit still at meal times and so sitting on someone’s knee or on a camping chair will be fine. Some will even sit on the floor and stay still to eat their meal. Others like Jaxon are wriggles and so won’t sit still. Some days he was cooperative but on the days that he wasn’t it was a real challenge. At one point I attached the Connecta to the camping chair so that Jaxon could sit in it while he ate his dinner – it wasn’t ideal and I don’t think he was entirely comfortable but it did work. We had planned to take our IKEA high chair to bits and then fit it in with all the packing but in the end it just wasn’t possible. (I guess if we’d had the buggy that could have also doubled up. I had suggested using the car seat but Chris said in this case it would have probably ended up stained with food!).

Bonus: Okay so when I was sharing this on social media it suddenly occurred to me that I’d missed one and it was all too much to change it so this is a bonus tip! In the summer in a tent it’s going to get light around 5am, clearly you don’t want your baby getting up that early if you have a busy day exploring. Jaxon has a Little Life Travel Cot (this is the newer version) which has a zip up top with a fly screen, we found that if we put a blanket (one of those spare ones mentioned above) over the cot it meant that he couldn’t see us in the main part of the tent and then get worked up and bed time, and because it went over the top of the cot too it kept it a bit darker in his cot so he was sleeping until around 6am instead.

Image from here. Text additions my own.

Book Review – His Endless Love

His Endless Love

Another book I read while on holiday was His Endless Love by Samantha Sali. In comparison to the other two books that I read while on holiday this was very different (I read the rest of The Boatman by Jonathan Holt and The Underland Chronicles: Gregor The Overland by Suzanne Collins).

In 2011, Samantha Sali created a simple blog to help her family and friends see the importance of love in the world, specifically God’s love. Within months, the blog went from 2 readers to 2000. The words that she wrote inspired thousands to start living a love-filled life. Read her personal testimony of how she overcame pain, hatred, guilt, abuse and started living a life filled with love, compassion, kindness, and empathy. Follow her journey as she learns what love is, who created love, and what it feels like to be loved. *Includes exclusive interview with Dr. Buck Blodgett, founder of The LOVE > hate Project.

The book was interesting. It was interesting to read Samantha’s story and what she had been through. Hearing about Buck’s experiences following the death of his daughter and how rather than holding onto negative feelings and the pain he put all that energy into the positive and came up with The LOVE > hate project. It’s really inspiring.

There was a lot of information as far as personal experience and other people’s experiences but I think there could have possibility been a little more biblical content but other than that I did enjoy it.

You can find Samantha’s blog here. You can find more information and purchase His Endless Love on Amazon US, Amazon UK and Goodreads. (affiliate links)

Currently…20th and 27th July

Currently - 20th and 27th July

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
While we were on holiday, I saved a lot of links to videos to watch when I got back and had wifi. We watched a couple of clips of Wallace and Gromit while we were at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes – it was set up so it was in black and white but they still looked just as good as when they are in colour. Did you know they’ve been working together since 1996? It all started with a postcard from Aardman Animations to the Creamery telling them to tune into the new Wallace and Gromit on Christmas Day – I think by the New Year or at least by Easter they had the Wallace and Gromit branded Wensleydale cheese. I remember my Grandparents bringing my Dad a lump of Wensleydale one year when they got back from their holiday – we repeated that by bringing Dad back a packed of branded cheese.

I finished Season 3 of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries thanks to YouTube. I’m also up to date on Pretty Little Liars. There was a really interesting documentary about the centenary of the WI presented by Lucy Worsley. She’s a historian and TV presenter and I imagine having a coffee and hanging out with her would be seriously good fun – we could be history nuts together.

Reading:
I finished reading The Boatman while on holiday. I also read Gregor The Underlander (Book 1 in The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins) and His Endless Love by Samantha Sali). I started and finished The Prophecy of Bane (Book 2 in The Underland Chronicles) and so far it’s okay. It’s technically YA fiction so it’s fairly easy to read. Then I started Book 3 of the Underland Chronicles.

Making:
I’m still working on the granny square blanket – it seems to be getting somewhere now, I’m working on edging the squares so that I can sew them together soon. I’m in two minds whether to start putting them together now and keep making squares or to make all the squares and then sew them together so that I don’t end up with lots of one colour together.

Eating:
We came home from holiday and it was a bit like Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard – however we’re living off left over tins and bits from the freezer. I needed to go shopping but I was trying to stall it so that I could do a proper shop and restock. It was Chris’s birthday party on Saturday so we now have even more birthday cake floating around. Rather than take it home we left it at church so that it could be handed out with refreshments.

Working On:
Now that both the birthday parties are done and the house is back to some kind of order following the camping trip, hopefully this week will be calmer! Back to work, back to being a WAHM mummy!

Yorkshire Dales: Day Six and Seven

Last week we were on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales. There was signal but it was minimal and patchy so when it come to blogging it was a bit impossible. I made notes so I could share of our adventures once we were back.

Day Six (Saturday)
It was a bit of a mission on Saturday morning, having slept really bad last thing I wanted was to have to get up and do stuff. On one of the times that I woke up there was a loud bang, I thought I had imagined it so didn’t think any more of it but while I was lying there trying to motivate myself to get up, Chris had got up to check the tent and the whole porch of the tent had collapsed. I think because we were almost on a hard standing bit rather than proper grass it meant the pegs hadn’t gone in far enough to secure the tent properly.

Chris decided what would be best would be to pack as much as we could into the car, take down the big tent and squish us three plus the stuff we needed to keep out into a two man tent. Some bits went into Our Sidekick tent given that there was just him in a two man tent (Actually I think Chris told me it was a three man tent when we got home).

After moving the tents round we went into Hawes for a wander around the shops. We then headed back to the campsite so that we could get some lunch. On our way Jaxon had fallen asleep in the car so I sat with him while Chris sorted lunch for us. I actually ended up dozing in the passenger seat and Chris made me jump when he tapped on the window with my food.

Following lunch we went to the Dales Museum. I think had I had more sleep I would have been a bit more receptive and interested in what I was seeing. There was a whole section about the Wesleyan missions around the area which was quite interesting. When we finished at the Dales Museum we went across the road to the Chapel Gallery. I got a bit excited as they had wool dieing kits. I have a couple of balls of undyed wool and it would be nice to do something with it rather than it just sitting there taking up space. I also watched a lady turning roving into wool that could then be crocheted or knitted.

Chris and I then went to the sweetie shop while Our Sidekick stayed in the car with Jaxon. The lady who was serving us was so friendly. She used to be a teacher and then gave that up to run the sweet shop. Chris got super sour bon bons and a bag of chocolate buttons for Jaxon. I had Thunder and Lightning Ice Cream. It had caramel sauce and piece of cinder toffee – it wasn’t quite as good as the chocolate brownie one earlier in the week but it was still yummy all the same.

We headed back to the tent for tea – I cooked pulled beef sweetcorn and new potatoes. I’d misjudged how much food we needed to Our Sidekick and I also had pasta as well. Chris and I had pineapple for pudding.

Day Seven (Sunday)
Today was all about packing up and getting on the road. By the time Our Sidekick surfaced we were getting on with packing things away. It seemed to be lots less stressful than when we were putting the tents up when we arrived. On our way home we were driving via Chris’s Aunt house, because she lives in Yorkshire we don’t see her often as we’d like. She’s so lovely. She had ham sandwiches ready for us and chocolate cake. Jaxon was being very good and eating what he was given but when Auntie offered to stew an apple for him you could have thought it was Christmas – he loved it and wolfed it down. Clearly it had a good effect as Jaxon slept for a chunk of the second half of the journey. He started to get grouchy towards the end of the journey and we just thought he was fed up of being in the car, we later figured out what the actual problem was and realised it might have made sense to have tried that on the way home.

Once he was in bed, Chris and I worked on putting the tents away. Then the mass clear up operation started.

Passing the time on the A1(M)

A video posted by Hannah J (@hannahjblogs) on Jul 19, 2015 at 8:29am PDT

Yorkshire Dales: Day Five

Day Five (Friday)
Following yesterday’s crazy long walk we decided we’d have a sort of chilled day.

Well sort of chilled. Chris decided a drive round the countryside would work.

We started in Hawes with a quick visit to the chemist as Our Sidekick needed some lip balm. It was really cool while I was in there. Another customer came in and she must have been a local or a regular because the lady behind the counter called her by name. Now to me that’s the cool thing about living in a village. Yes I go to the Post Office in Renhold or specific cafes in town and people know me but I can go in other places in town and people don’t know me.

From Hawes we took the B6255 and then the B6479 towards Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Our Sidekick got really excited when he thought it was the one from Harry Potter. I couldn’t check them but when I did check it turns out it’s not the one from HP although it looks like it. (The one in Harry Potter is Glenfinnan Viaduct near Fort William).

We headed around the local area stopping off at interesting places like Malham Cove – we were going to get out the car and go to have a proper look but it was really busy and we could kind of see it from a distance from the road.

In Kettlewell, I spotted these and some other bits of yarnbombing and got a bit excited. They were all group in colours for example these two were mainly green and red. On a bench in the middle of the village they were all pink. I’m not sure if the yarn bombing was for something specific but the village do have a wool and ale festival in May. They also have the Scarecrow festival coming up in August – would have been interesting to see it but we were there too early. We stopped for a coffee at Zarina’s Tearoom. It was really lovely and the staff were super friendly – although it seemed to be a tourist spot I can imagine that in off season all the locals pile in there for a cuppa lol. Although it was tearoom it really felt like we were in her living room or kitchen rather than being in a shop. I believe we were served by Zarina who was lovely and welcoming. When we asked for a high chair, Zarina explained that they did have one but it was a fabric one that you tie on the chair. We said that was fine and she brought it to us promptly. Jaxon was wiggling around in it so in the end I took him out of the chair and let him explore a little. The service was so friendly even the other customers were lovely and welcoming. One gentleman was there with his daughter who was a similar age to our son, they stopped and said hello. When four older gentlemen arrived they were welcomed in like old friends. It was lovely! I had a scone and it was served warm with butter, cream and jam! Chris loved the range of gluten free choices and at one point asked if we could get one of each option. I guess if we’re in the area again we will definitely be stopping. Maybe I’ll have to see if Zarina would do us a take away portion of something too! I posted a review on the FB page when we got back to the campsite and genuinely couldn’t believe that out of all the reviews on there 1 person voted a 2 whereas everyone else had voted a 4 or 5. Oh well each to their own – you can’t keep everyone happy.

All in all it was good fun to have a look around the local area, the country roads were making me feel queasy though so I think in future we might need more walk around stops rather than spending that long in the car (how strange is this – prior to having Jaxon I would have been fine!).

It was a lovely drive and it was really good weather too – it wasn’t too hot or too cold and it was dry so if we wanted to stop and look at the scenery and things like that then we could. The wind was getting up but we figured it was because there were no buildings to shelter us. Also because we were in the car Jaxon could then nap when he wanted rather than fighting it.

When we got back to the campsite, Jaxon’s end of our tent had collapsed due to the wind. Chris worked on putting it back up and securing the guide ropes some more. We had dinner and Jaxon went to bed as normal. Between being tired and just cold we headed to bed around 9:30. I really couldn’t sleep and so laid there reading or watching the tent ripple in the wind. (haha if ripple is even the right word!) The wind got up even more to the point that it woke Jaxon and he was quite scared by it. In the end I made the choice that he’d come and sleep in between Chris and I in our side. I moved around some blankets and bits to make sure that Jaxon was insulated from the cold floor. Unfortunately Chris was already asleep by this point so I was struggling to get Jaxon and I back in the slot where I had been lying. I slept really bad between trying to get comfortable, trying to block out the wind and generally trying to sleep on a camp bed.

Yorkshire Dales: Day Four

Day Four (Thursday)
A while back I asked Chris about climbing Snowdon this Summer, I think my brain must have been separated from my body or something like that because it’s nuts and so not me

Chris had picked up a map earlier in the week that had walks around the local area, mostly using footpaths and bridlepaths. He came up with a slightly crazy plan that included climbing to the top of Drumaldrace.

We headed out of the campsite and headed along the road. Chris worked out that we then had to cross the road and then find the footpath. The slightly confusing thing was that the footpath ran through someone’s garden and you then crossed into the field behind the house via a gate in the bottom of the garden – so random!

On this first field, we were following Chris who hadn’t noticed he’s just stomped through a puddle until we followed him and I yelped that I had muddy water filling my shoe! Yuck! Chris decided it would probably be better if we took a different route so we made our way back round the muddy bit and back into the person’s garden.

We got back on the road and walked a bit further. At that point it was all on the same level so you really couldn’t see where you’d got to.

I ended up being navigator so each fence we crossed I’d be checking which way we needed to go across the field. In this next picture, our campsite is virtually right in the picture – if you look at the people, then there’s a barn just above their heads and then a house a bit further above. That’s our campsite. I was stood up the hill from the couple in front of us. They were really lovely and each time we overtook them or they overtook us we’d say hello and have a bit more of a conversation. At one point they were so far in front of us that we couldn’t catch them. Our Sidekick was impressed at how quick they were going given how slow we were going!

I didn’t manage to snap many pictures given how little battery I had remaining. I wanted to save my battery firstly to snap a picture at the top but Chris said a sensible thing which was to make sure I had enough battery to try and call out if we needed to in an emergency – he is a clever sausage isn’t he? I managed to snap this picture, we were almost at the top and I was shattered but also excited to be able to be at the top of what is classed as a mountain! (EEK!)

The only picture I did manage to snap at the top involved Our Sidekick (and because of foster care stuff I can’t really post the pic – I did think about cutting him out and then posting it but that seemed really mean). All the way up and most of the way down we’d been going on about how we needed chocolate cake! Like NEED URGENTLY! We headed back to the tent so we could each grab a shower before heading out for dinner. We went through Hawes and had a look at the pubs to see if one would be good for dinner but they all ended up being kind of pricey (like £10+ for a Main Course). In the end we tried the local YHA in case they had non-residents for dinner but they didn’t even answer their reception door for me to ask the question – I did get a response via Twitter but it was like two days later!

In the end, while Chris drove us to Kendal, I was on the phones ordering Clubcard vouchers to pay for our pizzas at Pizza Express. I gobbled my whole pizza down without needed to take a breather which is unusual as I usually stall in the middle or towards the end and that didn’t happen. I stuck with my usual margarita pizza – I am so boring. I would have Quattro Formaggi but they don’t do one. I knew Jaxon was a bit rosy but in these pictures he looks *really* rosy! Although we put sun cream on him we didn’t do it prompt enough and he ended up a little pink. We got after sun on our way home and lathered it on his face. (Note to Mummy and Daddy – cake the baby in sun cream regularly!)

Yorkshire Dales: Day Three

Day Three (Wednesday)
On Wednesday we headed for Aysgarth Falls. Our Sidekick and I kept saying it wrong so between us became Asgard Falls which regularly made us fall about laughing.

Aysgarth fall is a set of three waterfalls over about a mile stretch. It’s part of the River Ure. The rain that had fallen in the days before we were there meant that the falls were in full swing – Chris commented how when he’d been in the past it had been really dry and it was the middle of summer so the falls were a bit rubbish.

We started with the Lower falls and then worked our way back up to the top. It was good we did them this way round other wise I think we would have been disappointed when we’d made it down to the bottom.

When we got to the top, the boys all had fun paddling in the river. I held Jaxon so he could try and paddle but he wasn’t so sure – I guess the water was a little cold for his tastes.

Babywearing came in so handy during our yorkshire dales holiday

Day Two is here. Day Four is here.

Yorkshire Dales: Day Two

Day Two (Tuesday)

We decided that we were going to go to Hardraw Force today – not only that Chris thought it would be a great idea if we walked it. Turns out that it was about 8 miles in total from the campsite in Gayle (near Hawes) to Hardraw Force and back again. After a bit of research when we got back it turns out that Hardraw Force is used in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – well I didn’t know that – will have to share that fact with my mum!

This onesie from was Grandad and Nanny for Jaxon’s birthday – I managed to squeeze it in to Jaxon’s bag before we left and in the end it came in extra handy!

Our Sidekick was so good and carried Jaxon nearly all day including an extra bit that he decided to explore. He asked about climbing this extra bit of hill and Chris was like “Yeah sure go for it” and I half expected him to them put Jaxon down and go explore but instead he explored with Jaxon still in the carrier.

We found a couple of rocks to perch on while we ate our sandwiches. Jaxon and fallen asleep and was all snuggled into Our Sidekick’s back (very cute!). We carried on the rest of the way back and spent the afternoon back at the tent. Chris curled up on the floor and accidentally fell asleep there in the middle of the tent.

Our Sidekick, Jaxon and I played outside the tent, including practicing back flips onto the airbed (probably not the best option but sure was safer that the alternative without the bed!). One Chris had finished napping we had Pulled Pork and cheese on toast for tea. Our Sidekick even walked to the village to get ketchup and mixed herbs so we could make toast pizzas.

Day One is here. Day Three is here.

Yorkshire Dales: Intro and Day One

We arrived on Sunday having driven up after Fun in The Park in Bedford. Chris has been site managing the event so we had to hang around pretty much to the end. Including that, going on holiday and Jaxon’s first birthday party, there’s nothing quite like cramming it all in.

It was around 9pm by the time we arrived. Thankfully being that bit further north it seemed to have worked in our advantage (at least on that first night anyway!). It was all a bit of whirl trying to get camp set up, Jaxon was tired and quite unhappy when we arrived. Add to that we seemed to be a feast for the midgies and it was really stressful. The boys managed to get up the main bit of our family tent so I could sit in there with Jaxon and get him ready for bed. After getting him sorted and settled for bed I set about getting the rest of our tent in some kind of order.

Day One (Monday)

We started the day in Hawes. First thing of order was breakfast. Because of how packed our car had been we’d planned to take what we needed for breakfast and then sort the shopping after that. Unfortunately that didn’t work so we needed to find breakfast before setting off on the day’s adventures. We went to The Wesleydale Pantry. The boys both had cooked breakfasts and I had scrambled eggs on toast. Our Sidekick commented that his was greasy. He didn’t mind the grease but it was that greasy I’m surprised it didn’t slide off the plate. When Chris asked about gluten free options from the reaction I could see I don’t think the girl on the till understood what he meant. Jaxon had a variety of bits from our meals. He had mushrooms off Our Sudekick’s breakfast and loved them. Now I don’t like mushrooms but Chris does so clearly he’s not as fussy as I am (at least not at the moment anyway!)

It’s a lovely little village with a variety of shops. I think I fell in love with one of the shops. It’s called Herdy and it’s right up my street!

Nearly all their products feature Herdy the Herdwick Sheep. They also support rural community projects around the Lake District (and maybe the Yorkshire Dales?). They have three shops, Keswick, Hawes and Grasmere.

Following our potter around the village, we went for a drive. The plan was to find Deepdale and go for a wander. Later in the week it would turn out that there are two Deepdales in the vicinity and the one we were looking for was a tiny huddle of houses rather than an actual village.

We took the windy roads towards Kendal. The ultimate goal was to collect our food shopping from the supermarket there but first we went for a wander round the shops and get lunch. Last time we were all in Kendal there was a hiccup with car keys so we didn’t see very much of the town (unlike the time before when Chris and I was in the area). We had a potter round the shops and I went into one of the wool shops. It was called Iz Knit. It was lovely in there and they had what I was looking for but unfortunately it was on the expensive side (I knew I could get the wool I was looking for cheaper elsewhere especially as it was a branded one rather than just a general search for DK).
We bought a road atlas as the signals as patchy and splat nav wasn’t keeping up in some places. If you need one head for The Works. We got an AA 2016 one for half the marked price. Bargain!

Following the shopping trip we headed to the supermarket. I waited for the shopping while the boys went in store to get some bits we had thought of after doing Click and Collect. There were like six substitutions. They were all logical substitutions but Chris had done the shopping so I wasn’t entirely sure of his thinking.

We headed back to the campsite to unload the shopping and sort into some kind of order. We hadn’t packed enough storage box kind of things so the tins ended up lined up along one side of the tent. Much to the entertainment of Jaxon!

Chris did stir fry for tea as we had fresh chicken as well as fresh vegetables. It was a nice meal to start the week with (and I think munis the sweet and sour sauce was Slimming World friendly which was good as the week hadn’t started on a good food note and it wasn’t going to get better!)

Bedtime for Jaxon was a little disrupted but he settled in the end, thankfully the other family near us on the site had a girl toddler so knew to a certain degree we were doing what we could! Jaxon is pretty good when it comes to bed times at home so we had to find solutions for different bits and pieces that are different while camping.

And that was Day One. Day Two to follow.

Jaxon’s First Birthday

I guess in a way Jaxon’s birthday celebrations started with our trip to Legoland at the beginning of July.

Today I am One Year Old!

I had meant to write about it all sooner but in all the craziness following Jaxon’s party I didn’t make it to it until now.

With help from my Mum, we’ve been plotting and planning all the bits for what seems like months now! We had two or three to do lists going at one point between Jaxon’s party, Chris’s party and our holiday.

The invites were created by Chris. The balloons were from Up. I love how it’s all about sharing life’s adventures and although Jaxon doesn’t quite get it at the moment but hopefully in the future he’ll understand. The number 1 was then inspired by Thomas and Friends as it’s one of Jaxon’s favourite shows. I gave Chris the rough idea that I wanted and then went away to do something else. I love what he came up with. What do you think?

Decorations were a bit of a mismash but they were around the theme of primary colours.

The balloons were by Forever Flowers. Karen was really lovely and helpful. We were able to collect the balloons on the day of the party so that they were freshly inflated.

The marquee went up on Thursday with help from my Grandad, parents and brother. Jaxon had been sat on the patio and while we were trying to put it up he face planted the floor and grazed his head so I headed inside to give Jaxon some milk (boob to the rescue!). Mum then came in and gave Jaxon tea and then put him to bed.

Friday was then all systems go. Dad and I ran errands to collect crockery, cake, drinks and other bits. He even took a bunch of stuff to the recycling centre for me. What a superstar!!

We were so blessed by all the presents Jaxon received. My next job is to write his thank you letters. How many years until he does it himself?

I had mentioned how I’d love to do a cake smash with Jaxon but had intended to probably do it when we were the only ones home so I could scoop him straight into the bath! Well with some egging on from Hannah and Cat I let Jaxon go for it – and oh he loved it! He’s like his mum and loves his cake!

Book Review: The Boatman by Jonathan Holt

A while back I was sent a copy of this book and to be honest at first I didn’t get into it at all. Crime fiction is normally one of my go to books but at the time I don’t think I was so much into it.

Recently it was rebranded as originally it was released at The Abomination, now it’s been named The Boatman.

This book is part one in The Carnivia Trilogy by Holt. The second part is called The Dancer and part three is The Traitor.

THE VICTIM: On the steps of Santa Maria della Salute lies the body of a woman, wearing the robes of a Catholic priest. In the eyes of the church she is an Abomination.

THE INVESTIGATOR: Captain Kat Tapo has matched the victim’s tattoo to graffiti in an abandoned asylum. Now she’s been ordered to close the case.

THE HACKER: Carnivia.com is a virtual Venice that holds all the city’s secrets. Only it’s reclusive creator can help Kat unearth the shocking truth.

THE ABOMINATION has arrived.

In the end I figured out that I started this book two years ago. That’s a long time to try and remember what happened way back at the beginning but actually even though I’m now around 13 chapters in, not that much seems to have happened. Maybe it’s me but it’s slow going. Lots of words and not so much plot if that’s possible.

There seems to be mixed responses on Goodreads with some people giving it high praise like “Dan Brown meets Stieg Larsson….but don’t let that put you off.”

Having finished it I can definitely see the resemblance to Dan Brown. There’s a lot of conspiracy theorist sort of ideas along the way often tangled in with the Catholic Church including the ordination of women priests, which I thought was a made up idea for the plot line but having been off and read a little bit it seems that there is a group who are ordained women priests, they have a different name now but the original group was the Danube Seven. However the Pope doesn’t seem to recognise their position and anyone who goes ahead and ordains women as priests is automatically excommunicated.

All in all it was okay but did seem to take a long time to introduce the characters and get the story moving however in the end it did move at a better pace. There were some bits in the story that I’m not sure were entirely necessary and the “epilogue” of sorts seemed to drag a bit. If you like Dan Brown I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Jaxon’s Trip to Legoland

Legoland Windsor

A couple of weeks ago we were offered tickets to Legoland by Chris’s Auntie and her housemate that appeared in the paper that they read. We figured that if we selected particular date ranges then Our Sidekick could come too given that school would be over following his exams and he wouldn’t start college until September. So for the price of one adult all four of us could go. In the end it turned out that Our Sidekick’s Introduction/Induction day at college clashed with the trip – he said that we could still go.

At the end of June, Chris, Jaxon and I got in the road for a day at Legoland. It was the day before the hottest day off the year so far and I was melting by the time we snapped this picture outside the gate. Last time I was outside that gate Concorde flew over. That was the last time I went to Legoland.

We started with Lego Star Wars section. A friend of ours told us that even if we couldn’t do the rides we should make sure we saw all the “galleries”. I really liked the Star Wars ones given the amount of different scenes from the movies they had depicted.

We pottered round the park. Chris had a go on a couple of rides although it was a challenge to find the ones that had a low enough height restriction that Jaxon could have a go.

At lunch we had pasta and pizza. It turns out that Legoland is now owned by Tussaud’s Group who also own Alton Towers so Chris said although it was a little more money we should eat there because they had gluten free items on the menu. Part of our park ticket gave us a “Kids eat free” voucher so although we did have baby food with us we figured we could try Jason on the pizza and pasta as well as some salad bits. Well he loved it all. I think given the choice he would have just pizza (wouldn’t we all?).

Chris discovered that the Legoland app lets you sort the rides bu height restriction, this meant we could focus on doing the rides that Jaxon could do.

Following lunch we did Miniland and some of the rides. My phone had ran out of battery by that point so I ended up taking lots of pictures on Chris’s phone.

Lego Rugby - Miniland

Jaxon loved being able to see the fish through the glass bottom of the submarine ride however at one point the shark turned directly to look into the sub and Jaxon got a little freaked out.

All in all we enjoyed the day out. Had we been paying for our tickets I think I would have waited for Jaxon to be a bit older so that he could have enjoyed more rides and things but we had a lovely time all the same.

Currently…13th July

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
I’ve been watching more Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries. It’s about 1929 now so still in the 20s but you can kind of tell that things are changing. I watched Season 1 and 2 on Netflix but managed to find Season 3 on YouTube.

I’ve been watching more Periscope videos and also posted a few more of my own. Still getting the hang of holding my phone at the right angle and far enough away so I get all my face in the picture lol.

Reading:
I’ve been carrying on with reading The Boatman as I’m trying to clear my currently reading list. I ended up starting a new book yesterday. I’ve been lent the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins (same author as The Hunger Games) so while sat at Fun in The Park manning the H.Q. Tent, I kept an eye on Jaxon who was playing and exploring the tent and read the book between questions and visitors. We became an unofficial crèche/changing room too. At one point there were two babies and three mummies in this tent lol.

Making:
I’ve been working on a granny blanket. We were given this big blanket by Chris’s Auntie. I fell in love so decided that I would make one of my own. I’m aiming for a proper double size or even king size blanket so that we can all snuggle under it when winter comes. Strange to be thinking about that in the middle of July.

One fabulous blanket

Eating:
Jaxon had his birthday party this week so there was a lot of cake and desserts. I was trying to be good and just have little things like caramel squares but by the end my willpower had left the building and I ended up having a chunk of chocolate gateaux for pudding. Oops! Hopefully the walking I’ll be doing this week will make up for it.
Working On:
This week is supposed to be chilled but we’ll see so I’m working on the crochet projects, we’ll see how much I get done by the end of the week.

Dear Jaxon…One Year Old

Dear Jaxon...

Dear Jaxon,

Happy Birthday Special Precious One. Today you turn one and I’m questioning where the last year has gone to.

Today I am 1 Year Old

You’re inquisitive and always on the go. We often mention how Uncle Richard would keep going until he crashed out usually in the middle of something. I think that’s going to be you. Daddy and I will find you asleep in the middle of the living room floor, toy in hand, fast asleep or something like that.

You’re going on your second holiday soon, although it will be your first camping trip which will be exciting. I am trying to be excited but every so often I start fretting that you’ll be cold or won’t nap well or something like that. Chances are it’s nothing to worry about and you’ll be as chilled as usual and will fly through it.

This morning we opened some of your presents. At first you were more interested in getting back to your morning drink but then you got into it. You got some lovely new clothes and toys from Nanny and Grandad. You got some lovely cards too from different members of Daddy’s family as well as a couple from people he knows from work.

It’s so exciting to see you learn new things. Something you probably shouldn’t have figured out was how to climb the stairs. I had left you at the bottom of the stairs at Grandma”s house and when I turned round you’d started climbing. I made sure I could catch you and set up my phone to start recording. Then I came up behind you and followed you up the stairs. At least at Grandma’s there is carpet at the bottom rather than tiles like our house.

You’re a right character and you’ll laugh if we pull faces at you or blow raspberries but we’ve not had an independent laugh or giggle yet. Maybe it’s coming. I imagine that I am going to be the butt of quite a few practical jokes when you and Daddy get going.

Happy birthday baby boy.

We love you so very much.

Mummy
Weight: I’m guessing around 23lbs but we need to go get you weighed. That’s part of the birthday fun today I think.

Clothes: I think you are still fitting in 9-12 clothes but Daddy says he thinks you’re in 12-18. I think it depends how many times the outfit has been washed to whether it fits or not.

Nappies: Size 4

Words: we don’t have formed words but we definitely have Dada and sometimes even Mama.

Feeds: You are still having jars some meals but we’re trying to give you more proper food. I need to check that this is okay but so far you’re enjoying it.

Teeth: 10 teeth! We were up to 9 and then yesterday I noticed that another one was poking through.

Bedtime: 7pm minus a Thursday where bedtime gets messy. You’ve been struggling a little bit with bedtime at the moment. I think because it’s still light outside. If we can get through it now the clocks will change before we know it and it’ll be getting dark again.

Naptimes: you’re still napping during the day. You have a 2 hour nap in the morning but some days I can stretch this out and push it into the afternoon. A few occasions you have just skipped it completely.

Likes: your new toy telephone. It came from one of the regulars at Chris’s work.

Dislikes: being apart. Some days you’re fine but there’s been a couple of occasions where you’ve been fine when I’ve been away but when I come back you cling to me for a little while.

Huggies Little Swimmers

A few weeks ago I was approached by Huggies to review their swimming nappies. We’ve been taking Jaxon swimming on and off since he was about 8 weeks old. The first time we took him swimming he really wasn’t happy and spent most of the time clinging to me. The second time I took him with two of our friends to the local pool and he was much happier especially as I had taken the floating seat/rubber ring thing for him so he spent a lot of the time moving round under his own steam and I could be in his sight line but still feel like I was getting a good swim too.

On these occasions I would use own brand swimming nappies – at least to start with I didn’t want to pay out lots of money if it turned out that he didn’t enjoy it. Thankfully we have friends with smaller babies than Jaxon so when we’ve had spares we’ve just passed them along for the next baby to use. Just like we’ve had hand-me-downs from other babies, most recently we ended up with a carrier bag stuffed full of 4+ nappies – Jaxon isn’t quite in them but they came in handy when I miscalculated how many nappies we had in the house and we had an emergency!

Normal nappy wise we’ve settled on Mamia nappies from Aldi but we’ve tried various brands as were given different ones when Jaxon was little as well as trying cloth nappies (We love Charlie Banana ones but decided at least for now cloth nappies aren’t for us).

Last week we were invited to go to the Woburn Lido with some friends and with the heat rising here in the UK due to the heat wave, it was a good idea. I wasn’t entirely sure about having Jaxon outside in the heat but after Tuesday at Legoland he seemed to be okay with the heat. I made sure that he’d had a nap and eaten (with enough time for it to go down before we went swimming) and when we got to the pool I covered him in sun cream.

Boys Sunsuit

On the way to meet our friends we popped into Matalan and bought Jaxon a swim suit – when we go to the pool he’s just in the swimming nappy but as we were going to be outside in the sunshine I thought it might be better to try and keep him more covered. When we got there and felt the water temperature I’m glad that I’d sorted Jaxon something extra as it felt a little chilly – actually it probably wasn’t but with the air temperature being in the mid thirties and the water temperature being in the mid twenties you could certainly feel the difference.

The benefits of the Little Swimmers nappies is that they don’t swell when they make contact with the water and they have stretchy sides that move with baby so they have the freedom to splash around in the water. They have bright pattern with Disney characters on them so they can be worn with or without a swimming costume. The nappies are nice and absorbent like normal nappies so when baby gone to the loo while you’re enjoying your swim, it doesn’t have to stop the fun.

The swimming nappies cover two standard nappy size so you don’t have to worry about baby growing out of them between trips if you’re like us and go infrequently. I liked the resealable sides as it made it easier to make sure that the nappy was on comfortably for Jaxon and when we got changed at speed after our swimming session it was easy to undo the side and get the wet nappy away from Jaxon (Especially now he’s so wriggly!)

You can purchase Little Swimmers at most supermarkets and online.

Summer is here, and what better way for you and your little one to keep cool in the sun than with a dip in the pool, a splash in the sea or paddle in the garden?
HUGGIES® Little Swimmers®, the UK’s number one swim pant, are the easiest way to have fun in the water. Expertly designed so they won’t leak or expand, HUGGIES® Little Swimmers® contain little accidents to help prevent embarrassing mishaps.
The colourful Disney® designs mean parents can use them just like a swimsuit and the tear away sides make for a hassle free change time.

This is a sponsored post, Jaxon and I were supplied with a pack of Size 3-4 Swimming Nappies in exchange for my post and a review.

Currently…6th July

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
I discovered a show called Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries. It’s an Australian show set in the late 1920s. The lead Miss Fisher often gets herself into sticky situations while trying to “help” solve crimes. She adopts a few lost sheep along the way including Dot and Jane. Dot was a maid at the house that is involved in the first episode of season 1, then she adopts Jane along the way in the next episode or two.

I’ve also been watching Persicope videos. It’s good fun and I did attempt another Periscope video but I’m still not sure what to do exactly. Need to get a selfie stick or something like that so that I can make my phone stand up a little easier.

Reading:
I’ve gone back to reading The Abomination by Jonathan Holt which I was sent a copy ages ago and then downloaded the Kindle version – the book was too heavy to read comfortably. It’s been renamed as The Boatman now. I decided it was about time that I started to clear my Currently Reading pile rather than just complaining about how that and the TBR pile were both growing.

Making:
In the last four or five days I crocheted 25 squares for a blanket – they only contained 3 rounds so didn’t take too long. They are all for a project I’ve been doing with my Mum. I’ve also been working on another blanket too based on the one that we brought back from Auntie K’s a couple of weeks ago. I loved it but it had been a present to Our Sidekick so I figured that it was a good project to work on using up some of my stash of wool. I have SO much! It’s not good.

Eating:
Food! Haha! Better, still not great though. We’re off on holiday in the next few weeks so going to have to figure out how to do Slimming World while camping – either that or I just surrender for the meals at the tent and then when I’m out and about I try to make wise choices or something like that. Given the amount that will need to be tinned, fresh or dried rather than frozen I might surrender for the week but it actually can’t be that hard can it?

Working On:
Well I found a notebook to start Find Your Voice but all the craziness around Jaxon’s birthday and figuring out what to do for holiday means that I’m being really rubbish about doing it. I keep joining in the conversation bits especially as I am a Facebook Ambassador but I haven’t got on with it. Not good! I do however read the workshop tasks and think about them so I kinda have some idea about what other people are doing and what’s inspiring them.

Things I’m Grateful For

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

Parents They pretty much come up every week when I do this list. This week my Dad babysat Jaxon while I went to a meeting with my Mum and one of her clients. He also babysat last Friday so I could discuss a website with another client.

The weather Yes, it was a little on the hot wide but at last it was dry. I do like it when it rains and I love thunderstorms but after a certain point it’s just nice for the sun to shine and to be able to get out and about rather than being stuck inside or doing the minimum outside.

Friends and Invitations This week Jaxon and I were invited to go swimming at the Woburn Lido on Wednesday and on Thursday we had a walk in the park and then coffee and cake with two other lovely mummies and their children. Swimming was fun but Jaxon struggled with how cold the water felt. It was 24C in comparison to the air temperature which was low 30s.

Weddings Probably a random thing to be grateful for but we went to one wedding last week which was one of my ex-colleagues marrying his girlfriend (actually I think he calls her his partner or lady friend rather than girlfriend) then tomorrow there’s a wedding at church as our friend is getting married.

LYBS: If I Were President…

LYBS July

Over on Facebook I’m part of a blogging group. On the Wednesdays of each month we have a group prompt that we’re all going to answer. This weeks’ prompt is…

If I Were President…

Well first of all it would be Prime Minister here in the UK rather than President.

Hannah might tell me off but I would (attempt to) reform education. In my opinion, I’m pretty sure that longer days, longer terms and/or more exams and testing isn’t going to improve the education system. I think the overhaul needs to come from the teachers rather than government. The current Minister for Education is Nicky Morgan, she attended a private High a School followed by Oxford and qualified as a Solicitor. The guy before her went to state schools and then went to an independent school, after which he went to Oxford too and then qualified as a journalist. Neither seem to have roots in education and yet clearly someone thinks they are the people for the job…

Each to their own I guess. I’d get a minister who had a background in education or had an idea of what they were on about. Maybe it would need a “back to the floor” sort of process.

We are blessed here in the UK to have the NHS but unfortunately it’s running into the red. The government keep coming up with suggestions and ideas about getting more doctors into General Practice or changing the way hospital works like bringing in Primary Trusts. They want to make it so that rather than running on a basic/skeleton staff in some departments they would run at full capacity – but if it’s anything like when we were in hospital this time last year when Jaxon arrived, even on a day when they were supposed to be fully staffed they weren’t and were struggling to deal with all the mums and babies who were on the ward. Anyway, the NHS needs an overhaul in someway – is there a right way? Who knows.

If you were president/prime minster for the day what would you do?

Currently…29th June

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
Feel like I’ve been watching lots of TV which isn’t so good but it’s really hard to get work done when Jaxon is awake. He’s been *obsessed* with my phone or my laptop when i try to get bits done so I either have to sit at Chris’s iMac so that I’m still in the living room but not at a level Jaxon can reach although I then feel kinda bad for facing the wall rather than facing into the room. TV programme wise I’ve been watching more Switched at Birth, I’m up to Season 4 so sort of had to slow down as Season 5 is probably ages away! Rich and I were discussing Game of Thrones earlier. I think I’m going to try Season 1 again but skip the remainder of Episode 1 and start with Episode 2. Then again at the same time I have plenty of programmes to be keeping up with. I really don’t need another!

Reading:
I’ve been reading blog posts and news articles but haven’t been reading books at all. Today I read chunks about the history of the Byng family. Chris is somehow reacted to Admiral John Byng and so we spent a chunk of the weekend working on the family history side of things and also ended up visiting All Saints Church at Southill where some of the Byng family are buried. I also added some more relatives to our sort of group family tree. Although it’s technically classed as Chris’s tree, with Jaxon being our son the tree starts from him and goes off in various directions. Turns out that I’m 1st cousins 1x removed via my sister in law to a lady at church who is like 1st cousins to my sister in law’s Mum or something like that. It is really fascinating to sort out out family history but I wish it was easier to do. Quite a few websites try to charge you a small fortune to try and find out about your history (is it me or is that a little unfair?)

Wondering:
Where I feel I stand regarding the SCOTUS ruling. Okay I get I’m here in the Uk and so it doesnt affect me in the same way but I still feel conflicted and not sure now to vocalise how I

Making:
Been working on the blanket some more. I received the first ball of wool, pattern and a new crochet hook from Little Lamb Wool which was super lovely of them. I then had to purchase extra balls. I found some on eBay where someone had bought extra balls for a project and then not used them all. It was quite handy but now I need to see if I can get some more as I think I will need some more for this blanket.

I’ve also got a second blanket on the go. It was an idea for one version a while back. Then I decided I wanted a full on large double bed size blanket that I could snuggle under on the sofa. It’s in progress and could take a while but I’m getting there.

Eating:
Better! I honestly could have cried on Thursday when I stood in the scales. It was horrible. That’s 3.5lbs that I’ve put on in 2 weeks. I want for them to all be gone when I weigh in on Thursday. I’d like to be back on track so I can keep trying to get to target while I’m on holiday.

Working On:
Getting bits ready for Rukristin’s Find Your Voice Class. Very exciting. I guess we’ll have to see what I think.

Let Your Blog Shine: 30 Interesting Facts About Me

Let Your Blog Shine - June Prompts

Over on Facebook I’m part of a blogging group. On the Wednesdays of each month we have a group prompt that we’re all going to answer. This weeks’ prompt is…

30 Interesting Facts About Me

Next year I will be 30. On my pre-30 list there are a whole bunch of goals that I haven’t achieved yet and probably won’t achieve in the next ten months. I think I need to rewrite with things I can achieve.
I have been a foster carer for almost four years. I have been a bio-mum for almost a year.
My favourite colour is probably racing green followed by Dairy Milk Purple.
You know it’s an important event it I’m wearing a dress. It doesn’t happen very often. It comes by like a blue moon. June is going to have two blue moons. One was for a thanksgiving service, one is for a wedding.
My two top love languages are words of encouragement and acts of service followed by thoughtful gifts.
I can play more music instruments than I have fingers. I play with varying levels of skill. One of those instruments is the Piccolo. My favourite piece to play on the Piccolo was the Sailor’s Hornpipe. It’s from a piece of music called Fantasia on British Sea Songs and is played on the Laat Night of the Proms.
I love to babywear. Jaxon is heading toward 23lbs but I’m still going. We had a little bit of bed sharing when Jaxon was younger as I wasn’t always managing to stay awake through night feeds. I did try cloth nappies but we surrendered on that front and went with disposables.
I really hate CIO but sometimes there’s nothing I can do when Jaxon won’t surrender and sleep. He’s too nosey to the point that he ends up overtired and still won’t give up.
I’m nearly thirty and I still love Disney. It can’t be helped.
I still don’t quite know what I want to be when I grow up but I’m a Mum and that was one I’ve always wanted to do.
I’m self employed and work around looking after Jaxon. Some days it works and other days it doesn’t. Right now it’s a mixed bag. (My company is called Daisy Media).
Two of my friends at university were both called Hannah as well (well one was Hannah and the other was Hanna). They are both bloggers now too. Hannah is here at Little Golden Daffodil and Hanna is here at Mummy of All Trades.
Growing up I hated PE. I loved dance and gym but hated netball, rounders and especially athletics. Now I am following #C25K and hoping to run a proper 5K race later in the year. I’m thinking of doing it for charity and have one in mind already.
The charity I think I am going to run for is Ann Conroy Trust. They support people who have been diagnosed with Chiari or Syringmyelia. My bestie Hannah has been diagnosed with Chiari. You can read all about it on her blog.
I have 11lbs to my target weight. Time to be extra focused and kick that bit off now.
I am short sighted. I’ve worn glasses pretty much every day since I was 13ish. I wore contacts for my wedding and for a uni performance and that’s about it.
I love crochet and knitting. I just love to be able to see something I’ve mad grow in front of my eyes. My current project is a Sirdar Crofter baby blanket. The pattern is here and I got the first ball of wall from Little Lamb Wools.
I attend a church where in Bedford which I love.
I’m blessed with a heap of friends. Some are closer geographically than others but we can be closer by hearts rather than geographically and still have great relationships.
I am part of The Peony Project, Find Your Voice and Let Your Blog Shine. (I’m even an ambassador for Find Your Voice. As if I needed something else to do right now!)
I love making lists. I just to. It makes me calmer when I can see what I need to do (probably explains why I am writing this at 2am on my phone….). I currently keep adapting my to do list to try and find a system that works.
I graduated university 8 years ago with a 2.2 (I was about 4 marks off a 2.1 or something tiny like that). My cousin graduated this summer (she got a 1st oh yeah!)
I love colour. Usually all at the same time. For a long time when the “if you were a wax crayon what colour would you be?” question came up, my response was black and sparkly because I couldn’t make up my mind because I liked them all.
I have sort of wishful Wunderlust. You see there are heaps and heaps of places that I want to visit but have zero idea if I’ll make it to any. I’m currently looking forward to exploring the UK more. I’d like to do more day trips with just me and Jaxon to do the tourist thing around local places.
I love Lego. When I was a kid I’d regularly try to “help” my brother when secretly I wanted to do it all myself.
I asked for a box of Lego for Christmas one year. I was 21/22. Chris and I built a whole town of houses across the floor of our living room. Hopefully when Jaxon is older we can get away with doing it and keeping it out for days.
I find genealogy fascinating. My Grandad has done heaps to research our side of the family, so that’s kind of already done to a certain degree. I figured out that I’m related to one of the ladies at church. It’s something like first cousins once removed via my sister in law. It’s a bit of a stretch but we are related by marriage. Chris and I are working on how Chris (and Jaxon are related to ) to Admiral John Byng who was related to Viscount Torrington. Admiral John Byng has links to Southill which is a village outside of Bedford.
I’m a stationery addict. I spent a couple of nights back on April drawing out a sort of diary. Now it’s June and I’ve already decided the system doesn’t work and I need a new diary. I think I’m going for a week to view as long as Sunday is big enough for all the church events!
Next week we are off to Legoland. We were offered free tickets and we accepted. It’ll be Jaxon’s second trip to a theme park and he’s not even 1 yet.
I love the song Layla by Eric Clapton. However it has to be the proper version with the guitar solo and piano solo. The acoustic version will pass but it’s all about those extra touches.

Currently…21st June

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
Chris and I caught up on the latest part of Humans, I’m not entirely keen on it as they Synthetics still give me the heebies but he seems to be enjoying it so I can put up with it – I think I sat and crocheted my way through it the other day while he watched. According to NowTV I’m up to Season Four of Switched at Birth but on the Wiki page I’m still on Season Three so that’s a bit confusing (Oh well I know where I’m up to and I’m about to run out of episodes!). Our Sidekick and I watched the Season finale of The Big Bang Theory and I shouted at the TV.

Reading:
I finished reading More TV Vicar? by Bryony Taylor. I haven’t really got to reading anything new. I’ve found by the time I’ve got to bed this week I’ve struggled to keep my eyes open to read.

Making:
Have managed to do that thing where I get distracted mid project so I am working on the blue blanket while sat in bed for example then working on a second project downstairs around fighting Jaxon for my wool or trying to make sure he doesn’t climb the furniture or something like that.

Eating:
Another bad weekend on the food front. I went out twice on Friday followed by the ladies meal on Saturday. Although they were all really lovely times and made memories, they really didn’t help my waistline.

Working On:
Determined to make sure July is more organised than June has been. We’re away for a little while so need to be organised and on track.

Let Your Blog Shine: What I Wore Today

Let Your Blog Shine - June Prompts

Over on Facebook I’m part of a blogging group. On the Wednesdays of each month we have a group prompt that we’re all going to answer. This weeks’ prompt is…

What I Wore Today

I pretty much live in my jeans apart from when I’m out attempting to do some exercise or they are in the wash. As you can see they are a bit over loved to the point that I’ve had to trim the straggly bits off the bottom and now I have one leg longer than the other. These are by Next and the style is Boy Fit – I really like them as they are comfortable and baggy but now I’ve lost weight they are actually too big and I can take them on and off without needing to undo the belt or the button. I keep trying on new jeans in the right size for now but I can’t find any that are comfortable enough. I’m guessing there are probably some out there I just need to start having a proper look. I tried on a couple of pairs in Primark the other week when I took Our Sidekick shopping – the 14s were okay but a little baggy so I tried on the 12s and they nearly cut me in half. I guess it’s going to be a challenge even when I am a smaller size. My Very Trashed Jeans

I love Breton stripes – Wiki Fashion, and because of the version of nerd that I am, I love the history too. Technically this isn’t a Breton shirt but it’s that idea. Breton stripes should be navy blue with white in between (and there should also be 21 stripes on the shirt but that’s a technicality). The French Navy uniform consisted of a Breton shirt the idea being it was easier to spot sailors when they fell overboard because of the stripes. This particular shirt is a Primark special, I did have a couple of tops that were specifically maternity wear but the rest of my shirts were normal T-shirts a couple of sizes bigger to compensate for my bump while I was pregnant with Jaxon – it was definitely a cheaper option. As you can see it’s a bit stretched round the tummy but it’s quite comfortable and easy enough to feed Jaxon while wearing it.

Stripey T-Shirt

On Monday I attended a thanksgiving service. I didn’t have any suitable shoes to wear so ended up wearing my flip flops. I grabbed this nail varnish and painted my toe nails so that they at least looked a little nicer than they normally do! This is Tempest by China Glaze, I’m not quite sure where I got it from but I really like the colour. It’s a blue purple when on, as you can see in the picture below. (I got some feedback from some friends about my blog and the comment was not enough pictures – so here we go with trying something new).

China Glaze Nail Varnish

China Glaze Tempest

Jaxon and I both have cold which is really rubbish – his keeps getting to the point that he ends up with his nose running all the way down his face! I keep trying to blow his nose but it really upsets him as he doesn’t like the tissue being in his face.

Do you have a particular outfit that you reach for when you’re chilling out at home?

Currently…15th June

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
I’ve watched all sorts again this week. I watched Episode 2 of Pretty Little Liars on Wednesday when it went live on Netflix. I finished Season 1 of Switched at Birth and started episode 2. Chris and I watched a documentary about kids who are excluded from school for bad behaviour and aggression and attend a Education Unit/behavioural school. Yesterday evening while getting some posts written I watched a documentary called The Secret World of Lego then watched the first part of Humans (the new drama on Channel 4). (Just over half way through the episode – it’s okay but the Synthetics give me the creeps).

Reading:
Still reading More TV Vicar? by Bryony Taylor. Almost at the end then trying to decide what to read next – ideally I need to get some of my “Currently Reading” list cleared before I start anything new. Then again the new Giovanna Fletcher book comes out this week – maybe I need to clear at least one book before starting a new book…Dream a Little Dream.

Wondering:
I added this category thinking it would be really easy to answer but actually I don’t really know some weeks what I’m wondering.

Making:
I got through about four or five rounds of the blanket pattern only to find that it was curling because of my tension. Mum suggested what to do next so I followed the steps, except when I finished the ball on Saturday I realised that something was wrong. It was curling up

Eating:
This weekend has been a disaster for eating – we went to see Chris’s Auntie which meant we were definitely well fed. I guess it balanced out a bit having done Race for Life on Sunday Morning but still not great – guess I better get more walking in this week before I weigh in again.

Working On:
Getting blog posts organised and planned rather than trying to attempt to keep up each day.

10 Ways to Use a Muslin – Babymoov Muslin Challenge

I’m sure at some point I must have questions what a muslin cloth was for. I’m pretty sure I must have used one when I was younger and got to feed my cousin. However, I think when I was writing the list of things to purchase for Jaxon’s arrival I was never 100% why I would need muslin cloths (and how many I would need!). blanket-sets

A bunch of bloggers and myself were challenged by Babymoov to find 10 uses for their muslin squares. Their lovely muslin cloths come in a wide range of designs but I chose the DandyChic patterns as they were fun and seemed quite masculine. I did like the rock design too. I did find alot of the other designs were kind of girlie. The set of 3 is £19.99, for that price you get 3 muslins. Within that three, there is one larger one which is 80cm x 80cm and two smaller ones which are 60cm x 60cm. It’s more than I would pay for just buying a pack of muslins but the set would definitely make a lovely present for a Mummy to Be. 1 and 2. Muslin Superheroes!

This is a silly one to start with. With some thinking, we came up with this idea. Because of how wide the muslin cloth is, it works perfectly for a superhero cape. In our house, my nickname is SuperHan, so a cape was perfect! Well, I had to join in the fun too then…

Super Jaxon's Hero Cape

SuperHan

3. Swaddle with a Muslin

With Jaxon being a summer baby and arriving in the middle of a heatwave last year we would regularly swaddle him in a lightweight blanket or swaddle in a muslin. For the best part of July when we were at home he was living in a nappy and no clothes, he’d have a muslin wrapped around him to keep him “warm” (that sounds sort of strange in the middle of a heatwave!) He wouldn’t lay still for me to swaddle him so teddy had to assist. I couldn’t find my baby doll she must have grown legs and ran away in a Toy Story kind of way.

Swaddle

4. Sunshade (in the car)

We have the adjustable window shades so normally don’t need the muslin too but sometimes on long journeys you find that the sun comes in around the shade and you need the extra cover to block out the sunshine. We also found this worked really well on a long road trip. I would sit in the back with Jaxon, then lean over his car seat and give him a quick top up. It would only be for a couple of minutes but it meant that Jaxon got a feed and Chris wouldn’t be distracted by a crying baby. Sunshade

5. Sunshade (on the buggy)

Sunshade (on the buggy)

Back to July last year, as I had ended up having surgery, I wasn’t allowed to drive for six weeks. This meant that I had to rely on Chris and My Mum to play taxi to me, which drove me nuts! I’m so used to being able to drive myself that it was really hard. I did however get out and walk heaps – this probably assisted with losing the baby weight which is good. As part of that I started carrying a handful of washing pegs around with me to peg the muslin onto the buggy because the sun kept going into Jaxon’s face but if I put up both the hoods on the buggy then he’d cook because of the sun shining on it. The muslin meant that a breeze could get in and uncook the baby (but it did need to be pegged on securely – I guess safety pibs might have also worked well). If you do this – make sure that you check the temperature inside the buggy – if it’s too hot, baby can get overheated.

6. Nap Time For Toys

Well if it can work for baby why not for the baby’s toys? (Yeah I know sort of scraping the barrel here!). Funny that I picked two musical toys that would probably keep you awake rather than help you sleep.

Nap Time

7. Spaghetti Dinner!

When I was younger, my dad use to joke that Mum had done spaghetti or tagliatelle for dinner because he was wearing a white t-shirt. So that was my inspiration for this one. It works as a bib for babies – it also doubles up as a bib for Mummy (or Daddy) on spaghetti night. I also found it works well while eating heaps of pineapple to try and encourage a baby to appear (however be prepared, the enzyme in the pineapple does interesting things to your lips!)

8. Breastfeeding Cover and Burp Cloth

Those of you who know me know that Jaxon hates being covered so now I just get on with feeding him rather than fighting and most of the time when I was using a cover it was an actual cover made for the job (I had two but my favourite was the cover by Faye and Lou).

However, I have a mental to do list as long as my arm so sometimes I would take the muslin and use that. I’d sling it over my shoulder like in my rubbish awkward picture below and hold Jaxon and feed him. It would also then be in the right position to move him round and use it as a burp cloth.

9. Changing Mat

Here is teddy being a cloth bum, I decided for the sake of Jaxon’s sanity when he’s older, I wouldn’t take a picture of him in the near nuddy and share it with the internet. He can do that by accident in the future or something anyway, teddy is being very good and remaining still while I snapped this one (he’s sporting a Charlie Banana in case anyone wondered hehe). Boys (and I’m guessing girls too) have this way of holding in their pee until you take off their nappy and then they go for a wee then and there. Boys also have this way of making it go everywhere!

Muslin or a terry towelling square work really well, you lay it down before baby and then if baby decides to pee, you scoop up the muslin/towel and chunk it in the wash. it also means that baby doesn’t get a cold behind on the changing mat. When you’re out and about it’s handy too because although a lot of changing mats have those pockets for the disposable sheets they are often empty.

10. Fashion Statement

Now I don’t have an image for this final one, but lend me your imagination just for a second. When we were on holiday and Jaxon was about twelve weeks old and still 100% breastfed. So his nappies were often very runny. On this particular occasion, Jaxon had broke wind, followed by the tell-tale smell that he needed to be changed. Somewhere between our table and the baby changing room, the nappy had leaked. And it had leaked down the front of my t-shirt. I had at least one change of clothes for him. But all my clean clothes were back at the hotel over 2 miles away!

In the end I came up with an idea. I grabbed the muslin and tied it around my ribs (just under my chest). I then turned it round so that it sort of looked like a really random apron. It did look a bit silly and it definitely clashed with my t-shirt. However, it worked until we could get an alternative. We ended up at a well known high street store to purchase a cheap t-shirt. Followed by a supermarket with a customer toilet so I could change.

Note to self: if Jaxon has a younger sibling, always pack a clean shirt/vest top in the changing bag

This is a sponsored post. I was supplied with a pack of 3 muslins in exchange for the post and my challenge ideas.

Let Your Blog Shine: Collection

Over on Facebook I’m part of a blogging group. On the Wednesdays of each month we have a group prompt that we’re all going to answer. This weeks’ prompt is…

Collection

I’m not sure when it started but I’ve been collecting VW Campervan and Beetle bits and pieces for a while now.

I think it was some time around when I learnt to drive because I wanted an old style VW Beetle (think Herbie). The chances of me ever having an actual one is very small so for now I collect toy cars and memorabilia.

This is almost all my collection minus about three bits which are stored elsewhere because of little hands that like to play with things.

I have two VW Campervan planter tubs for the garden and a RC VW Campervan as well. They were both for my birthday this year.

Salt and pepper shakers. I’m sure they could be used in the kitchen but I think I’d stick with them being looked at rather than used.

These three can be played with as they are actual toy cars. The two VW Beetles are by Matchbox. I’m not sure about the Campervan though.

So this is my collection, what do you collect?

Maybe it’s You Are Here mugs from Starbucks like Shelby or maybe something quirky and strange. I’d love to know so please share in the comments.

Dear Jaxon…11 Months

Dear Jaxon...

Dear Jaxon…

So that month was short because I messed up with the posts. Today you’re 11 months old which means it’s your birthday in a month! There is so much to do. Thankfully Grandma is going to help me with a big to do list so that my brain doesn’t melt in a puddle!

Most nights you still have a feed around midnight. It’s just for a few minutes and enough for us to have a last minute snuggle before bed. You tend to sleep pretty much from that feed to around 6am. Sometimes a cheeky quick drink sneaks in around 3 or 5am depending on what’s happening. I think the lighter evenings are confusing you a little especially when we put you to bed.

This weekend was a little crazy and in four days you saw Nanny, Grandad and Auntie RaeRae twice and Grandma and Grandpa once. When Nanny, Grandad and Auntie RaeRae came round you ended up having a second nap but it was almost 4pm so you were really not happy. You’d been with Nanny and Auntie RaeRae. I think you were maybe a little overwhelmed but I was in the garden so couldn’t entirely tell. Because of the extra nap you really didn’t want to go to bed and you ended up staying awake about an hour or an hour and a half later than bedtime. Daddy was sneaky and gave you some pineapple and ham off the pizza that we had, had for tea. You really liked it (I promise it’s not a normal thing!)

This month it all seemed to go a bit mad in your mouth. You added two more teeth to the collection. They were both on the bottom. One is your lateral incisor on the bottom and the other is your first molar. Now according to the chart I read – you’re not supposed to have your first molar until at least 14 months! Then again by the same chart your lateral incisor is due between 10 and 16 months so you’re speedy on that one too.

You’ve been getting more confident with your cruising and occasionally let go with one hand and turn so you can assess where you’re off to next. You did have a bad bump on Friday and I got a bit worried that I might have to take you to the doctor but Grandpa and Grandma came to my rescue and we all decided that seeing that you were smiling from ear to ear and were busy playing with your toys rather than exhibiting any symptoms of concussion we wouldn’t rush to the GPs immediately.

We’ve done lots more walking now that the weather is getting better. Last week you spend some time in the garden with our friends. You loved playing with the ball pit balls. However I think you did think they were food at one point!

Love you baby boy

Mummy x

Weight: 22lbs 4oz
Clothes: you’re in 9-12 months but do wear a couple of 12-18 outfits as standard.
Nappies: Size 4
Feeds: Just breast milk and water with meals unless you’re somewhere without me. Food wise you’re eating more. For ages you refused to eat the 7+ jars. Then earlier this week I bought a 10+ jar and you gobbled it all down minus whatever is let to repossess.
Teeth: 8! You have 8 teeth now.
Bedtime: 7pm minus a Thursday where bedtime gets messy.
Naptimes: It tends to be 2 hours in the morning followed by a shorter map at some point in the afternoon when needed.
Likes: Thomas the Tank Engine and the rubber ducks we got or were given for the bath.
Dislikes: You don’t always like naptime which means sometimes we have to put you down and leave you but we do make sure the radio is on or there is music playing.

Currently…8th June

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
The new series of Pretty Little Liars started this week and although it took me three or four attempts I managed to watch the whole episode. Also been watching Forever – Season 1 has just ended so that’s another show that I’ve watched recently and it’s been cancelled (the other one was Taxi Brooklyn) and also started Switched at Birth from the very beginning as I found it on NowTV.

Reading:
I’ve been reading More TV Vicar by Bryony Taylor, I’m up to the “bad” TV Vicars currently about Father Ted but in the previous section about The Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells mentions an Eddie Izzard joke which I found really amusing but I didn’t explain the context very well to Chris so I’m not sure he got it. (Here it is on YouTube – excuse the bad language!). I love the idea of a bible study with Eddie Izzard. (from here originally, read and quoted from Bryony’s book)

‘If nothing else, Eddie Izzard actually engages with Scripture. That’s got to be an improvement on leaving it shut away in splendid isolation. He gets that there’s plenty of interesting stuff in the Bible, whether or not you’re a Christian. And his playful approach means that he’s often exploring more dimensions of Scripture than you’d get in a rushed ‘I know the right answer before I even start’ reading.’

I’ve also been reading a bunch of blog posts, June is Chiari and Syringomyelia Awareness Month so Hannah at Little Golden Daffodil has been sharing about when she was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation and how it’s affected her (so far she’s blogged 3 posts and they can be found here, 1: Chiari and Syringomyelia Aware Month (And an elephant?)!, 2: Chiari Blog: What’s Wrong with Me?, 3: What is Chiari Malformation?), Also read this challenge that Elizabeth and Raj from Awesome Wave are going to attempt to complete. So far I’ve visited a massive chunk of the counties. I’m currently counting up and might have to blog about it… and fill in the gaps of course.

Wondering:
If my brain will turn to mush and drain out of my ear soon – it’s just been a bit crazy in the last few days and I’ll be glad to catch up with myself and get into some kind of mental order again lol.

Making:
I received a ball of wool, a crochet hook and a crochet pattern from Little Lamb Wool (Review to follow), so I got the squares finished for the project with my Mum and then cracked open the new ball of wool. I’ve been following the pattern but I’ve found that it was curling up so I’ve had to go off pattern and add a few extra chain stitches in. So far it looks okay and hopefully it’ll keep going that way. I need to price up the rest of the pattern though and see where I can get the wool for the best price.

Eating:
I’m being better, if I do have a bad meal I’m trying to do extra walking to counteract it – I’m not sure it always works but some days I’m walking around 5-7 miles so that’s got to be doing something for me. (And clearly it might be working – I very almost got in a size 10 dress today……I did try on a 12 and that did fit but it was a really floaty one so that was probably assisting!)

Working On:
Currently fairly near the top of my list is getting Jaxon’s 1st Birthday Party and Chris’s 30th Birthday Party organised – especially as we’re going to be going on holiday around the same time.

Wishlist: A Tote Bag

My Wishlist

I love handbags. I used to be worse than I am now – I recently donated like 5 handbags to the local charity shop. Occasionally I get really specific about what I’d like. Currently I’m thinking about a tote bag, I’m looking for one to put my work stuff in when I’m not working rather than my things breeding along the sofa.

This tote is by Oscar Francis, they are a prints and textiles company based in London. They are going to be part of a pop up shop called Katalog at Craft Central in Clerkenwell at the end of June. I’m tempted to try and get the train down to take a look round but it’s a bit far to go if that’s all I do.

This tote is by a UK based company called Spotty Lottie. She also does one that has Supergirl fabric instead of the Wonder Woman fabric. Very geeky but very cool!

This tote is by Jessica Hogarth – I found this one on Etsy. How cute are the little cottages – they remind me of the little seaside villages in Cornwall but it also remind me of the Lilliput Lane houses that my Mum collects.

Also love this one by Hokolo – then again for all these it could be a massive dent on my wallet….

Do you have any favourites? Do you have a wishlist on your blog?

Let Your Blog Shine: The Hardest Part of Growing Up

The Hardest Part of Growing Up

How am going to narrow it down to one thing…..

The hardest parts of growing up are…

Voting – at the beginning of May we had a General Election, because of the way it fell we had to make like four decisions all at the same time. There was a local referendum with regards to the Police Commissioner wanting to raise the council tax contribution for the police force, the mayoral vote, the two local councillors and then our MP vote too. I had a rough idea of who I wanted to vote for.
Paying Bills – After tithing our bit, paying bills comes next. When I was 16, I was grown up enough to have a part time job but I was still in full time education so I could keep my own earnings. When I was 17, again grown up enough for the job, still in full time education but my pay went on driving lessons and adventures. At 18 it turned to petrol for adventures and sometimes I wasn’t very good at planning for it. On at least two occasions I am pretty sure that my Mum or Dad had to come and rescue me because I misjudged how much full was in the tank once the little orange light came on. Once I had a full time job and was living with Chris, I tried to set up my bills to all go out pretty much as soon as I’d been paid so that I didn’t frittle away the rest of my pay cheque on things I didn’t need when bills had to be paid. Following the Police Commissioner’s Referendum and the vote being a no, we got a substituted council tax bill so it took off what we’d already paid against the charge for the whole year and recalculated what we have to pay over the rest of the year. It’s nicer to know that we have extra pennies in our pockets in a way but how much will we be affected by not having the extra officers that the raise was supposed to cover (see what I mean growing up is hard!)
Going to Work – When I was in my late teens I was on a radio quiz show and when asked about what I wanted to do when I “grew up” I commented that as long as I was with Chris then I didn’t mind. Okay so that was a bit twee and probably a little puke inducing but to a certain degree it was true. When we got married I was a temp then I was unemployed for a bit. Those days were pretty hard because I had very little motivation to get out of bed. I then had my first proper full time grown up job. I lasted about four months and then for one or another reason I left. The next job started as a temp job and I ended up staying for like five years, in the end I left because of various things but a massive part of it was, it was making me ill. I was so stressed about it and it wasn’t helping me. You can read all about it here and then all about my next job search here. I found a temp job working in a residential home, then I ended up at my most recent job and then I went on Maternity Leave and became self employed rather than go back to work. Some days it’s really hard work but I enjoy being my own boss and being able to spend time with Jaxon rather than put him in daycare or with a childminder.
Meal Planning – Somedays takeaway is so much easier. Even frozen pizza and garlic bread is easy. But some days I get excited about what I can create. I see food pictures appear on Instagram like Lucy‘s homemade sausage and egg muffin (like the fast food chain one but homemade oh yeah!) and the cogs start whirring and I come up with ideas of what I can make. Then again sometimes it’s like the other day when I stood in front of the pantry, grabbed a tin of beans and chucked them in with the sort of spag bol sauce. It was really yummy and extra filling because of the baked beans. Genius – why hadn’t it crossed my mind before.
Friendships – Okay so just hold onto this trail of thoughts while I explain. So when you’re at school, you’re in this sort of bubble, yes there are the school rules but then there’s the internal scholastic politics too. Who’s the Queen Bee? Who’s the dork (in our case it was a group nicknamed Science Club)? Who are the band geeks? etc etc. But when you leave school and university there is no longer that. Finding and being you in theory at least should be so much easier and yet some days I wish I was still at school and where being me was kind of hard lol. The whole odd socks thing sort of happened by accident. I started wearing them rather than pairing my socks because it was too much effort to find the matching ones and before I knew it, it had stuck. There’s a lady at church who every time I see her she asks to see my socks to make sure that they are still odd. I love colour and this is part of why I’d like to dye my hair like this, this or this. But the chances are very small – firstly I can’t do it myself and secondly my normal hairdresser would probably have a fit if I asked her to dye my hair any of the above colours lol.

Currently…1st June

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
The lack of internet has affected all sorts mainly running my business and watching TV. Chris and I spent Saturday evening catching up on Elementary, having spent most of the day working on chores around the house. It was nice to chill out and not do anything after the crazy day that we both had had. Grey’s Anatomy and Bones – had a bit of a catch up. I’m pleased that someone gets a happy ending for once on these shows. Well I guess the people/person in question gets a happy ending for now, come next season the writers could kill off the happy ending without warning.

Reading:
I’ve been trying to finish Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller but then I got distracted and started More TV Vicar? by Bryony Taylor, well you know when your friend writes a book you have to read it, it would be rude not to.

Wondering:
What I think of the new header. I was having a bit of a play with Canva and decided I liked it but now I’m like “What has a city skyline got to do with this post?” and “Does that font go with the image?”. Oh well, maybe I shake it up and have a different one each week until I find one that I like.

Making:
You know what. Minus a handful of squares I made while sat at Slimming World on Thursday, I haven’t picked up any crocheting. I’ve either been chasing Jaxon, working or cleaning it seems. I need to get a move on with the squares that I’m supposed to be doing. I might do them tomorrow afternoon before the week kicks off again.

Eating:
Food wise, I was determined to be so good. And most of the time I have done that. Our Sidekick gave me about half a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and even when I really wanted to eat the whole (half) tub, I didn’t. I worked out how many syns there was in a whole tub and then worked out how much ice cream I could have. I got it out of the freezer and weighed it. I ate two bits of cookie dough that were on the top and then went back and weighed it again. I scooped onto my spoon the small amount I could then have to make it up to 25g and took the tub back to Chris so that he would eat the rest. That way there is no Ben and Jerry’s in my house now hehe. (I decided I would eat it on Saturday after doing Park Run in the morning, chores for most of the day and then walking to the supermarket and my parents house in the evening).

Working On:
What am I not working now write now. I need to get my butt in gear and sorted out, I keep writing to do lists and then misplacing them or not paying attention to them.

Just so you know, this post includes affiliate links. It’s just a few pennies each time but they all count along the way. Thank you.

Let Your Blog Shine – 5 Trends You Will Never Wear (BEDM2015)

Let Your Blog Shine -- May Prompts

Five Trends You Will Never Wear

five trends I would not wear

Okay so I’m sure in some circles these are acceptable trends but for me I really wouldn’t wear them!

Shell Suit
Shell suits were really trendy in the late Eighties – although it looks like a tracksuit it’s not. A tracksuit tends to be sweater material or polyester kind of fabric that you wear over running kit or your swimming costume (think athletes lining up before a competition). The shell suit tended to come in really garish colours and was made of a waterproof PVC or Nylon and unfortunately because of that they were really flammable. They are noisy too lol. You could always hear someone coming as the fabric almost crinkles.

Hot Pants
I prefer shorts that are sort of board short length, I might wear above the knee but they are still long shorts. Why won’t I wear hot pants? Because a lot of the time they are so short that you’d probably be able to see my underwear out of the leg holes! (And what’s with the hot pants over tights? Maybe I just don’t get it)

High Waisted Jeans
I do like high waisted jeans and if I could carry off the look I might wear them but because I’m kind short, I look like I’m wearing tall fit rather than normal or petite fit jeans if I wear High Waisted – also because they have to then go round my tummy I have to got for a larger size.

Drain Pipe/Skinny Fit Jeans
Our Sidekick has a think about skinny fit jeans. I imagine he’d be the kind of person who would have to put his jeans on lying in the middle of the floor so that he could get them on. I have a pair of straight cut jeans but they were heading towards being skinny on me anyway. Some drain pipe jeans you used to have to put on while they were wet so that they stretched into the right shape for your legs. Talk about a faff!

Strapless tops/dresses
Firstly unless it fits really well, you spend most of the time hitching up the dress/top. Secondly, the problem with strapless anything is that you can’t always wear your comfy underwear lol. I did have a strapless bra at one point but I spent so much time hitching it up that it was just uncomfortable.

BEDM2015: Currently…25th May

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
We have internet so I had a bit of a mass catch up on Grey’s Anatomy. I knew a certain event happened anyway but it was just a case of catching up with the actual episodes. I started The Other Woman and now watching The Fault in Our Stars. I had been meaning to go and watch it at the cinema but it came out on the 19th June and I figured that if it was as upsetting as the book then that plus the pregnancy hormones would probably have me in an epic messy puddle on the floor.

Reading:
Mainly articles and tweets. Some weeks seem to fly by with very little reading done. I also read some blogs posts.

Wondering:
If I make the effort to plan what happens on my blog do I get myself more organised or do I just get in a stress when it doesn’t happen that way? Also whereas my blog used to be a bit of a splurge and see it’s now settled into a pattern and maybe it’s time to shake it up – but how do I do that? What do I do?

Making:
Not a lot. I finished the diary pages and Jaxon’s Jumper is still piled in the corner. I should get back to it but so far have sort of lost the love. For now there are other bits to work on so I can always do them and come back to Jaxon’s Jumper.

Eating:
This weekend wasn’t great – we had a picnic yesterday and it was really bad planning and decisions on my part. I guess they may sort of balance out against the whole doing ParkRun#3 thing but I’m sure I can only drag that out a certain number of times.

Working On:
Website for one of my clients. I want to try and get it launched sooner rather than later but the mobile version is really messed up at the moment so need to get working not that too.

BEDM2015: I DID IT! (ParkRun #3)

ParkRun organise free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world. In the UK there are over 44,000 events.

BEDM 2015: Blog Every Day in May

Last night after dinner I decided that I was going to go to ParkRun, so as quiet as I could (Chris was napping as he had started his day around 5am!) I had a look for my barcode – I saw it a few weeks ago but it wasn’t where I was thought it was. I think I must have thrown it out thinking I’d never do it again! I checked the same place again and it really wasn’t there. Well I could try and blag “Oh I must have lost it” but at the same time was there any point going if I didn’t have my barcode to record my time.

ParkRun Fail

I kept getting distracted by other things while trying to come up with a plan so in the end, I went through the resetting account bit and got my barcode but really needed to print it. I read the information to see if there was anyway of recording my time without the barcode but that wasn’t possible. My Mum became a superhero again. I emailed her to ask if she could print it for me. She was still awake so she did print it for me, when I asked if she would be up in the morning for me to collect it she didn’t reply. Thankfully when I got there this morning she was awake. I headed down to Bedford Park and was there was 20 to 9, apparently this made me really early. I went for a bit of a wander to start warming up and then found a spot to wait at near the start line. At this point my stomach started churning and I was getting really nervy. (Thank goodness for the cheering via social media otherwise I think I might have chickened out!). I decided to try and start in the middle of the field – of course people were going to overtake me but then I could be like “Right I’ll try and catch up with that lady/man/dog” rather than just being like “oh I’m at the back I’ll give up”.

Let's do this. My Shoes at the start line for ParkRun

I knew I was going to get lapped by the “elites” and that was fine, I knew that was going to happen but what was kind of disheartening was when I got to the Pavilion and I had another lap to go and there were people finishing. I asked the steward a quick question just to check how much further I had to go. He said “You can do it!” and smiled. I got on to the next section of the path where you head back towards the lake and I got all choked up, I was beginning to struggle but knew I was over half way and closer to the end. I did the “bottom” section of path that runs parallel to the road and a couple of people cheered for me and said how I could do it. It wasn’t helping with holding onto the tears that were brewing but I was really excited. I could see the finish line and it was coming – it was within my grasp so to speak. I got back round past the park and heading back towards the friendly steward, he saw me coming and started smiling then clapping and when I was closer he was cheering me on. As I turned right into the finishing bit all the stewards had stopped what they were doing and were clapping me. YAY!

The chap who was on the barcode scanning bit didn’t quite know what to do with me. I was stopped just in front of him, handed over my barcodes and then doubled over with my hands on my knees, I felt sick and genuinely thought I was going to throw up. I burst into tears and he kept asking was I okay. I managed to pull myself together enough to explain that it was the first time I’d done ParkRun by myself and that I’d actually finished and was happy not sad.

Finish line at ParkRun

I timed it on my FitBit that I was around 45 minutes. I had wanted to beat my PB which was 51 minutes, so 45 was amazing. When I’ve walked Race for Life in the past I’ve been around the 55/60 minute mark so anything faster than that was an achievement in my eyes lol. I grabbed a bottle of water, a celebratory gluten free brownie and can of diet cola. I had meant to stop and chat to some of the lovely We Are Bedford people but I was still teary and knew that if I didn’t get home then I could collapse in a puddle of tears. I sipped my water on the way back to the car and drove home. The fact that I’d completed it was still settling in as I drove home.

I got home and the builders had finished putting the final touches to the external walls which meant I could get in the shower without having to worry about mooning anyone lol. I sat with Chris and finished drinking my water. Jaxon was due a nap and wasn’t very happy about it. He had a drink too and then I attempted to put him down. He really wasn’t happy and it took a long time for him to nap. I grabbed a shower and then got on with some chores around the house (including selling two sun loungers on FB and posting a third on Gumtree).

The official results came in and I was 330 out of 340. My final time was 43.11 which was nearly 8 minutes faster than my PB. I think I was last in my age bracket (then again the first person in the age bracket was around 18 minutes so I’ve got some training to go before I get that fast if I do that at all! And the overall women’s record is 15:55 – Paula Radcliffe’s PB over 5k is 14:51).

Will I be there next week? I will try to, especially as I think I’ve inspired a bunch of my FB friends to join theirs and I think one of my US friends is going to see if there is a local version to where she lives.

Dear Jaxon… 10 Months

Dear Jaxon...

Dear Jaxon…

You’re actually nearly eleven months old. We’d had so much on and the issues with the internet that it all went out the window and we had to start with a new plan.

At first you managed to walk if someone held you up by your hands. You could also stand at the sofa or the coffee table if someone helped you up but then all of a sudden overnight you just figured it out and managed to pull yourself up to the coffee table, sofa and one of the shelf units. I had to charge round the living room and move everything up a bit higher so that you didn’t damage anything you weren’t supposed to touch.

We spent a large chunk of time with Grandma which was lovely but being at her house so much meant that you didn’t always get a proper nap time. Some days you would give up and nap in the travel cot but it usually involved a bit of a fight and I ended up working on the landing or downstairs on the sofa.

As the last month and a bit have continued to pass, you’ve got more stable on your feet. You’re still not entirely sure but often will stand up rather than sit down – which sometimes causes issues because you won’t sit down when I need you to, but when I want you to stand up you insist on sitting down.

We made quite few new friends this month and hopefully we’ll continue to make new friends.

Love you baby boy

Mummy x

Weight: 22lbs – that’s 10kg exactly. When we went to your review you were 10.1kg
Clothes: You’re in 9-12 months but occasionally you wear 12-18 months depending on where we’re up to in the washing.
Nappies: Size 4 (although we were given some 4+ so you sometimes end up in one of them – especially the other day when I misjudged how many nappies we had left – oops!)
Feeds: We stopped with the formula as you seem to be sleeping much better now at night.
Teeth: Still on six but pretty sure between now and you turning 11 months something is going to happen.
Bedtime: 7pm, although you’ve been going a little earlier if it’s been super busy or the days that you skip your second nap and struggle with the rest of the day.
Naptimes: have gone a bit out of the window but we’ll get it sorted.
Likes: You love Thomas the Tank Engine (especially if you get to watch it cuddled up to Grandpa).
Dislikes: You’re still not a fan of the lumps in the food but we found that if we feed you the food you do like along with proper solids like bread sticks, bread, fruit and vegetables then you’ll quite happily munch those bits.

BEDM2015: Top 10 Foods You Could Eat for the Rest of Your Life (LYBS)

Let Your Blog Shine -- May Prompts

Top 10 Foods You Could Eat for The Rest of Your Life

I love food.
I really do.
So working on the idea that these foods wouldn’t make me extra fat or probably make me ill in other ways over a period of time these are my top 10 foods that I could eat for the rest of my life.

Full English Breakfast

As a kid we had a holiday tradition of sorts. On the way home we’d stop for lunch at Little Chef. Once I was old enough and could eat it I would get an Olympic Breakfast which was probably my calorie intake for the day! Two rashers of bacon, one sausage, chips, mushrooms, beans, two fried eggs and a grilled tomato. Now I haven’t been in a long time so wouldn’t surprise me if it’s changed. I believe the prices went up so they were pricey for what was often a microwaved meal (yeah I know right!). If I was to have a Full English now it would have to not be swimming in grease. It’s possible to do a Slimming World friendly cooked breakfast so that would fill the hole and satisfy the wish lol.

Lasagne then again Pasta (full stop!)

Sometimes I do wonder if I’m part Italian. I love pasta. Absolutely love the stuff. Spaghetti Carbonara, Spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne, Penne, fusilli, I don’t mind what shape the pasta is or what sauce it comes in (within reason!). I’ll eat it.

We had pasta for dinner yesterday and I created a sort of concoction. It was beef mince, sweetcorn, carrot, onion, baked beans and passata. It was very tomatoey and yummy. And all minus the mince were free foods. Oh yeah!

BBQ Pulled Pork

This is a new one of sorts. Somewhere along the line, I tried Pulled Pork and it stuck. I really like it. We’ve attempted supermarket versions but it’s still not quite right. I think we need to keep trying so we can figure out what’s wrong. It’s possible we are trying to do it too quickly and really we need to slow cooker it like in this recipe from Lucy’s Blog. Either way, Pulled Pork is yummy and I’ve been told by various people that if it’s done right then it’s very low syn on Slimming World too.

Fajitas

As long as they aren’t too spicy I’d happily tuck into Fajitas most days. It’s become a bit of a family trend to have Fajita Friday. I think because it’s fairly easy we can just chuck the mix in a pan and get on with it. If we have the extra vegetables in the house I might chuck in extra peppers or something like that.

Roast Dinner

I love roast dinners. Preferably chicken but will eat lamb or pork. I like to have stuffing and sausages wrapped in bacon too but they all add syns on so I just have the full blown dinner like that at Christmas and then make a recovery over New Year.

Cheesy Nachos w/ guacamole

Nachos aren’t so healthy because of all that cheese on top but you’d think with all that guacamole it would balance out a bit. I did look to see if an avocado was a speed food and then it turned out that actually Avocado isn’t even a free food. It has syns in it! WHAT??

Bread and Butter Pudding

I love bread and butter pudding. My Mum would often make it on a Sunday to have after our roast dinner. She’d sprinkle sugar and raisins or currants on the top. I wasn’t always a fan of the cooked fruit as it could be quite bitter once it had been cooked but occasionally you’d get one that had been under the bread and so it was really squishy and yummy.

Sweet and Salted Popcorn

I love popcorn. I usually go for sweet and Chris usually goes for Salted so a bag of this where it’s a mix is perfect for us. At the cinema I often ask for a “half and half” if we get a bag to share – although you then find that you have one lot at the top and one lot at the bottom.

Chicken Chow Mein

Go to choice at the Chinese takeaway. It definitely seems to vary how nice it is depending on where you go for it but it’s a safe bet for me if you’re going to a new place.

Profiteroles

When choosing our wedding menu we decided in Profiteroles as one of the puddings as they are on of my favourites. The caterer knew of this fact as I think it has been mentioned. On the day of the wedding she saved me a second helping because she knew how much I like them. It was a lovely thought but between everything that was going on and how I was flagging by dinner I didn’t have the second portion.

They are best served with warmed chocolate sauce. The cold version you get in the supermarket yoghurt aisle does work just as well but there is something about the warm chocolate. Yummy!

BEDM2015: Rambles – hi there…

This is a bit of an unpolished post – I think I spend so much time trying to polish up the posts and made them publishable that I don’t blog and disappear for over a week! So this is just a spontaneous ramblings around what I’m thinking and feeling…

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anybody home?

I’d like to say that I looked up the Pink Floyd version of Comfortably Numb for that one but actually, I didn’t. I looked up the Scissor Sisters version.

Why am I quoting that….well I wanted to see who was out there. Are you a lurker? Are you reading from Bloglovin or other place that doesn’t agree with the comment box?

Do you stop by and read and then run away before typing in that comment box at the bottom?

What makes you stop and write a comment? If you even get that far that is….

I’m working on the layout etc. following some feedback. Including tweaking my crazy header image. Might need to get creative on that one.

The Internet is due to officially be back on this week so hopefully I can get some proper tweaking done as well as completing thos tasks that I’m struggling to manage from my phone.

BEDM2015: Currently…18th May

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:
I’ve been working my way through all sorts of random shows that I’ve found on Freeview. Including Police Interceptors, Motorway Cops, Top Gear, QI, and while writing this I’m watching the next stage of the World Triathlon Series. This week’s race was in Yokohama, Japan. Now I’ve flicked over to Really to watch River Cottage: Summer’s Here. They are talking about bread and butter too. Oh yummy!

Reading:
Again not been reading many books but have been reading blog posts. Yesterday I read Hannah’s post about Maybelline make up and ?? I’ve also been working my way through my Pinterest board attempting to put some Bullet Journal ideas into practice.

Wondering:
If it will stop raining today. I’m due to to head into town around lunchtime. I had planned to take the bus or use on street parking a bit further out of town where it’s free but so far I might have to pay to park right outside the building I’m going to.

Making:
I haven’t got back to Jaxon’s Jumper yet. I have felt a little unfocused the last couple of days so have spent more time doing chores, watching TV or colouring. I did spend time drawing my “template” pages into my Bullet Journal. I wanted to have diary pages even if I then created the lists etc after that. It’s taken a couple of days to draw out 30 something week pages.

Eating:
Food wise I have been trying harder with eating on plan. On a couple of occasions it hasn’t worked all that well. In balance though I did start C25K last week so two days I have been out exercising lots.

Working On:
Working on catching up with my to do lists. I feel like some weeks I spend most of the week desperately trying to keep up while other things get added.

BEDM2015: Things I’m Grateful For

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

(Seems to be a short post this week. It’s always possible there is other things that I am grateful for)

Chris

At the end of April, we were in London for Sherlocked which happened to be on the same day as the 2015 London Marathon. At some point in that day I was inspired to get my trainers on and go running. Okay I’m not going to be fast or technically right but it would be a starting point. I installed the C25K app on my phone and had the best intentions to start.

It didn’t quite go smoothly and I ended up pausing for a week or so. On Wednesday I decided it was time to do, so I got dressed in my “running kit” and got my trainers on. Chris had finished work early so took over from me looking after Jaxon and I headed out. I surprised myself by completing more than I thought and also to a level that I didn’t expect to be able to do. On Friday there was a different plan but I managed to get out and felt like I did better even if it was only fractionally better than Wednesday.

I’m grateful for Chris because he cooked twice this week so that I could go out and kept an eye on boys as needed.

New Friends and Old Friends
Recently a new family have joined church (like in the last fortnight!). On Sunday I jumped out of my comfort zone and invited the mum and the baby of the family to come out for a coffee or other drink. Well she said yes and off we went. The weather was indecisive but we enjoyed our drink anyway and a potter around a bit of the park too. It was lovely to confer and share tips about being Mums, having babies and our histories (and probably all sorts of other things too!). We also chatted by text message during the week as she got settled and did lots of admin bits like signing up with the doctor and things like that.

Old friend wise, this afternoon I caught up with a friend. We have seen each other in passing at church but because of the two services and general craziness that ensues on a Sunday we haven’t always been able to have a proper conversation.

BEDM2015: 20 Facts About Me…

20 Facts About Me…..

I’m a Christian, I’ve attended three different churches. I regularly go back to one of my old churches on special occasions and the monthly coffee morning.
I have a degree in Performing Arts and Professional Practice.
27 is kind of my favourite number although I did have to think about that as I don’t think is actually have a favourite number…
My favourite colour is dark green. Think moss/racing green.
One of my majors in my first driving test was completely messing up my bay park. Funnily enough I pretty much always park nose first rather than risk it.
Big Brother started this week. I watched the launch episode to see what the point of the “TimeBomb” idea is but I’m fed up already (that’s less than 40 minutes into the episode….) The first couple of years I watched it every day! I think the last time I watched all the episodes was when Cameron won.
I became a foster parent before I became a biological parent.
I love colour. Whether it’s my very odd socks or my pen collection. I hope to dye my hair a wacky colour soon just debating what colour and when.
On that note I bought myself a colouring book and was given another this week. I love colouring but I suck at drawing!
I love listening to podcasts. Part of me wants to record my own. I just have no idea what to talk about and where to start.. Currently listening to Create If Writing by Kirsten Oliphant.
I watch way too much TV. For example today I watched an episode of The Mysteries of Laura and two episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. (Finally watched *that* recent episode even when my Mum told me not to watch it after getting on my soapbox oops!)
I also like vlogs, again want to do it but don’t exactly know where to start. I did try in the past but that was it.
To a certain degree I am ambidextrous. I can just about write left handed although it’s still not entirety legible. I eat with my cutlery the “wrong” way round.
I love musicals and the theatre. I tried to tally up and was getting stuck. The Lion King (2x), We Will Rock You (2x), Cats, Rent, Les Miserables (West End), Les Miserables (School Production), Grease (2x School Production), Riverdance: The New Show, Oklahoma (most of the show, I was actually there as a chaperone for a friend of mine), and Fame.
Following on from that I’m a Shakespeare nerd. I’ve been in a couple of productions either of Shakespeare plays or based on his works.
I love music but have been to very few gigs. My first concert was Phatfish at Revive@Soul Survivor (either the summer or two summers before I would see Statis Quo for the first time) and I have some great memories from those concerts but I think my favourite would have to be either KT Tunstall at Cambridge Junction or Cerys Matthews at The Stables. At the Cerys concert, I was right in the middle on the front row and due to the layout/size of theatre it was a seated concert so it was almost like Cerys and I were just hanging out.
I love crocheting and knitting. I’m currently crocheting a jumper for Jaxon. I’ve been asked to run a workshop at a community day in a couple of weeks too. What to do what to do??
I am a book worm although since Jaxon has been born I haven’t read as much. According to my Goodreads account I have something like 22 books on the go…
I’ve been on Twitter 8 years! (Discovered that this evening while listening to a podcast) my first tweet was “Watching King of Kings with my Mum and Dad – about to go get some fairtrade cookies out of the cupboard” yep that exciting lol.
My best friend is also called Hannah, she blogs, she crochets and she’s musical. Now go read her blog.

I’d love to know 20 facts about you. If you write your list please tweet me the link or put it in the comments.

BEDM2015: Us @ 8

BEDM 2015: Blog Every Day in May

Us @ 8

Hi Chris,

Eight years ago today we got married. I still tell the story of how I watched Flubber with my bridesmaids plus Hannah on the morning of the wedding. We don’t do stress as Mum said leading up to the wedding.

At 8:

We’re foster carers and parents. I certainly didn’t expect that when we got married. Okay hoped for the kids bit but didn’t expect it to ever come to us in the version that it did. Thank you for being an amazing daddy to Jaxon and an amazing foster carer/foster dad to Our Sidekick. I know he doesn’t always say it and doesn’t always pay enough attention to his surroundings but he does really appreciate what you do for him. Haha that’s Our Sidekick not Jaxon.
Jaxon can’t say thank you yet but you can tell by his massive smile when he sees you that he’s grateful. As I write this you’re sat on the living room floor playing with Jaxon.
I’m my own boss. Eek! You’ve always been the “Entrepreneur” out of the two of us. It was that spirit that got The Fountain off the ground in the first place. Now you’re running The Fountain under YMCA Bedfordshire and I’m running Daisy Media while caring for Jaxon.
When we can we watch Elementary together, with the issues with the Internet we can’t watch it at the moment but we’ve been watching other things that we can find on Freeview.
We watched the election results together – I tried to be excited as I know you wanted to watch it and also this time you’d got very excited about one of the parties, so although it didn’t entirely work I did try to support you with your excitement when I could! On occasion I did joke that if you planned on voting for one of the parties I would kick you out and make you sleep in the garden.
You still love going for walks and exploring. Still not always my cuppa but I do try and walk more now with Jaxon even if it involves parking further away from my destination or even walking from home (or back home). I have definitely noticed a difference in that I’ll happily walk to and from our house into town or bus one way and walk the other.
You encourage me to beat my step count on my Fitbit most days and often laugh at me when I’m marching round the house trying to get my step count. My PB ever is 32,516 which was when we went to Blackpool last September for your birthday challenge. My PB so far in 2015 is 26,511, I achieved it back in March but I can’t remember what we were doing that say to make the numbers that high!

Here’s to the next year, Happy Anniversary.

BEDM 2015: Currently…11th May

Currently...

Each Monday I start with a sum up of what’s currently happening around these parts – especially when some weeks seem to fly by quicker than others!

Watching:

Election Results – we put the TV on dos the start of the results coverage at 10pm when the polls closed. We watched til about 12:30am and then headed to bed. At 5am when Jaxon woke for a feed and a cuddle I checked the results one handed. Bedford still wasn’t in although it had been estimated for 3:30am. I ended up having the coverage on in the background for most of Friday. There were mixed responses and rioting broke out this weekend because of it. My question would be how many of the protestors actually voted?

VE Day Coverage – this weekend was the 70th commemoration of VE Day on the 8th May 1945. I watched the memorial service on Friday followed by the celebration concert feom Horseguards Parade in London. Lovely concert, my favourite had to be Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy covered by Pixie Lott, Rebecca Fergson and Laura Wright. I did turn the volume up a little bit and had a boogie round the living room.
On Sunday I watched a chunk of the Great Manachester run. It’s a 10k race so a lot of the Elite Men were finishing around 20-30 minutes (I can walk 5k is about 50 minutes)

Yesterday evening I went to see this concert at the Grove Theatre. More to follow on another post.

Let's Hear It For The Boys

Reading:
I’ve not really been reading books again this week. When I have got into bed I’ve been almost dozing while attempting to get into the book so surrendered in the end.

Wondering:
How this week might pan out. Today I’m taking Jaxon to get weighed at a different clinic to normal so we need o be up and organised in morning. We’re then off for a coffee date with a new lady from church and her daughter. (I’d actually been rehearsing in a sort of cheesy way most of the week. She’s lovely and friendly but I was so worried that I’d come off like a weirdo or something! I even said to Chris before going to speak to her “I’m going to step out my comfort zone. Be right back”).

Making:
I’ve done a little bit more on Jaxon’s jumper. I’ve got further than this picture shows but of course now I can’t find any up to date ones, it’s now that I need one.

Jaxon's (in progress) jumper

Eating:
When someone sees my willpower please return it promptly to me. I feel like I’ve been eating appaulingly. I start my day good with an “on plan” breakfast but by lunch it’s deteriorated. Yesterday was really bad. My tea was like 50g of sweet popcorn at the theatre. Need to draw a line and start properly in the morning.

Working On:
Focusing! I started The Fired Up and Focused Challenge by Rachael Cook. Am determined to stick with it and get it done.

BEDM2015: Let’s Hear It For The Boys…

BEDM 2015: Blog Every Day in May

Let’s Hear It For The Boys

Last year I was invited by a friend of mine to go to a concert at The Grove Theatre called “Here Come The Girls”. It was a charity gig in honour of Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity (I believe….I could be wrong). Because it was the day after Mum and I went to see We Will Rock You in London and I was very pregnant I turned down going.

When the opportunity was offered to go to this year’s version I had a look to see if I could go.

This year it was “Let’s Hear It for the Boys” and it was in aid of The Alzheimer’s Society. I immediately recognised some of the names on the poster but some I didn’t know.

Because of a hiccup with the Sat Nav we were a little late but thankfully just arrived during the intro rather than missing any of it. The first song was like an introduction to the night so Louise Dearman who was playing MC for the evening opened the night by singing “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”. It’s possible it was adapted to “Boys” in plural given the title of the night but we only caught the end.

All the singers who performed were currently or had performed in the West End. Some were “big” names like John Owen Jones and Lee Mead. Others I hadn’t heard of but once they’d mentioned what they had been in it’s possible that I had seen them in action.

All the songs were from musicals or were well known chart songs. Hugh Maynard sang Kiss from a Rose and got everyone to join in which I thought was good fun but I think some people were a bit like “We don’t like this audience participation lark!”

I’m glad I was sat next to Mini Fairy’s Mum, she gets me and when I get a bit hyper she often laughs with me, at me and eggs me on to misbehave lol. Also we got very excited trying to guess the songs by the introductions given by Louise.

Before the interval, Ben Forster sang Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar. Oh my goodness I think he didn’t just raise the roof he actually blew it off the place.

Lee had managed to get stuck in traffic on his way so they’d had a change of order so that all his songs appeared in the second half. I really wanted him to sing something from Joseph but that’s because it’s one of my favourites lol.

The penultimate song was sung by John Owen Jones. He sang Bring Him Home from Les Miserables. It’s something about the song but I did get a bit teary. What a dope lol.

We had a complete ball and hopefully will be able to go next year.

If you get the chance to go next year then do it! This year the council were able to supply the theatre free of charge so all the money raised from tickets and programmes goes to Alzheimer’s Society.

BEDM2015: VE Day

Five years. Eight Months. Five Days.

That’s how long World War Two lasted. Neville Chamberlain announced that following the invasion of Germant into Poland, Great Britain was going to go to war against Germany.

Five years, eight months and five days later, Winston Churchill announced that the war was over. 70 years ago yesterday, VE Day (Victory in Europe) was celebrated.

In the Second World War, the death toll is in the millions (bearing in mind that around 11 million lost their lives in The Holocaust).

There has been mixed responses to the election that took place yesterday, about whether the right person was put in the job but right now I sit on my sofa with Jaxon cradled in my arms grateful for those who fought so that I could have the freedom I have now.

Thank you.

Thank you to the soldiers on the front line.

Thank you to the Wrens, Land Army and other women who balanced caring for their children and doing their bit for victory.

Thank you to all those who “adopted” evacuees to keep them safe during the fighting.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

BEDM2015: Things I’m Grateful For

Vintage slate chalk board hanging on wooden background

Each Friday I join with Ashley from Hello Nature and Laura from Ginger + Co to share the things I’m grateful for this week.

Freedom to Vote
I’ve complained some days about the amount of leaflets coming through my door and local candidates knocking on my door but I’m grateful for living in a democracy where I can freely choose who I want to vote for. At the moment Bedford is yet to declare, they were due to at 3:30am but apparently they were still verifying at 2am so wouldn’t have met that estimate also they had a couple of recounts and then around an hour ago a bag of votes was “found” so they had to count and verify those too.

VE Day
70 years ago today, VE Day was celebrated. Five years, eight months and five days after war was declared. In the Second World War, the death toll is in the millions (bearing in mind that around 11 million lost their lives in #theholocaust). There has been mixed responses to the election that took place yesterday, about whether the right person was put in the job but right now I sit on my sofa with Jaxon cradled in my arms grateful for those who fought so that I could have the freedom I have now. Thank you. Thank you to the soldiers on the front line, thank you to the Wrens, Land Army and other women who balanced caring for their children and doing their bit for victory, thank you to all those who “adopted” evacuees to keep them safe during the fighting.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.

Friendly Builders
The two builders who have been working on the external insulation are a right double act but also they are really polite and friendly. When the guy came from Environmental Health to sort what we thought was a wasps nest they all worked together to get it resolved which was really helpful.

Our House, New insulation in progress

Let Your Blog Shine: Your Dream Vacation (BEDM2015)

May has arrived which means today is the first day of BEDM 2015. That is Blog Every Day in May. I’m hoping that I get ahead of the curve and I manage to blog every day in May. Some days I’ll have the prompts from Elizabeth’s blog. Other days I’ll be back on the normal plan.

Your Dream Vacation

This is actually a LYBS prompt rather than a BEDM2015 prompt. I got stuck on completing today’s prompt from my phone so decided to shake it up. (BTW we have a landline!! Hopefully it means that the internet won’t be too far behind! Yeah!)

Dream Vacation…….

Okay this is a toughie because I have a humungous list of places I want to visit.

I want to do a trip like The Long Way Down or The Long Way Round. I can’t ride a motorbike so it would have to be by car and some bits are really not car friendly. I guess I could to something more like By Any Means.

Another pretty amazing trip would be taking the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia. It starts at the Yaroslavsky Station in Moscow and travels nearly 10,000km to Vladisvostock on the east coast of Russia. I imagine the tickets could be a small fortune so that might be one we have to do in chunks or something like that. (On the map above, the red line is the historical railway).

There are more “standard” adventures I’d like to do.

Route 66 across America – clichéd I know but I want to do it.

Final trip to discuss is Land’s End to John O’Groats – Chris has done it on a bike twice. I did Land’s End to Birmingham before I had to head home. Chris carried on from Birmingham all the way to John O’Groats in Scotland on a bicycle. You can read the posts that we did manage to write here.

Another road trip I’d love to add to the list is the North Coast 500 (NC500) for short. The more I see it on Highlands2Hammocks the more I am tempted by it. But I think I will also take in some advice about how to enjoy a road trip like this from Anne. There is just so much to see that I don’t want to rush it and miss something I wanted to see – the challenge can be working out what works and what doesn’t I guess.

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Unusual Hobbies

Friday Night In

Guide Dogs

BedsHour Tweetup

Little Monkey

Something New About Yourself

Generosity

True Stories From Your Life That Would Make Great Novel Plots

What You Learned From a Big Disappointment

Making it Work in Our House

My Favourite Blogs to Read

August 4th

If I Were President…

30 Interesting Facts About Me

What I Wore Today

3. Swaddle with a Muslin

4. Sunshade (in the car)

5. Sunshade (on the buggy)

6. Nap Time For Toys

7. Spaghetti Dinner!

8. Breastfeeding Cover and Burp Cloth

9. Changing Mat

10. Fashion Statement

Collection

The Hardest Part of Growing Up

Five Trends You Will Never Wear

Top 10 Foods You Could Eat for The Rest of Your Life

20 Facts About Me…..

What Makes You Feel Beautiful?

Let’s Hear It For The Boys

Your Dream Vacation