I’ve mentioned this before but we’d love to move home. We are already very lucky to live in a nice home, but it’s a home we bought when there was just the two of us and now there’s four! We never imagined when we bought our first house together that we’d have our children here. We both thought that this house would be a starter home and that we’d be moving on before children but with the economy the way it has been the chance to move has never presented itself.
However fast forward 9 years and we would love to move soon.
Our current house was a new build property and we have looked after it. We’ve recently been looking around at other new builds and today I think we may have seen the perfect place. Currently the sales office isn’t even open at the houses so we are watching and waiting, hoping to get in early when it does. I just hope that we’ll have enough deposit for a new place, but if we don’t then we’ll look for something else and accept that it wasn’t meant to be on this occasion and where ever we end up will be the path the universe wanted us to take.
If and when we do move I’ll be sad to say goodbye to the house that has given us so much. We got married here (well not married but we left one day as two people and returned the next day as a married couple). I laboured for most of my first birth at home as I wanted a home birth but it wasn’t meant to be. Flixster was born in our living room and that means that the house will always be special, this address is on his birth certificate as his place of birth. He will carry that with him for the rest of his life.
We’ve had many happy memories here, too many to mention but they are just that, memories. Memories to look back on and smile. As we look to the future though, I’m thinking and dreaming of all the memories we are yet to make as a family, and no matter where we live as long as we have each other we’ll be happy.
Time is flying by and it’s already time for the second siblings pictures. This month my favourite was a photo I took of them both just as they played together. I didn’t intentionally take it with the project in mind but having seen the results I knew it would be the one for this month. They are starting to play so nicely together. It buys me a little time to run in and out of the room if I need to get something done.
I’m trying to teach the boy to hug Flixster around the middle rather than around his neck like he normally does!
Flixster adores his big brother, his face still lights up when he enters the room, especially if it’s a day when they have been apart from each other. I do hope in the future they will stay close friends.
At the moment they are loving a new toy that was kindly given to us by a friend. It’s a little playground with a slide, a ferris wheel and some jumping stairs, that large bean shaped objects play on. It’s a toy that they can both enjoy although it is aimed at babies rather than an almost 4-year-old but thankfully it keeps him entertained too, it features in many of my photographs! Although there are a few other toys that they can play together this is their main one. I’m on the look out now though for other things that are suitable. Once Flixster is toddling about though I hope that there will be more things like footballs and playing outside together.
I adore my boys and am loving watching them grow up together. My absolute favourite capture for this month though I have left until last. I’m looking forward to seeing the end results at the end of this year. What a fab project to be involved with!
I know we’re already in February but I do feel like 2015 holds lots of promise for us as a family, I feel excited and happy to be looking forward to the future. We really hope to move house in the next few years too, so that certainly will be a big change. In order to move though we need to do a few odd jobs around the house first as well as a big de clutter. De cluttering is something I love doing but never seem to nail it. Even when I spend ages doing it, a mere few weeks later the house is always a mess again. So this time around I needed a different approach and as if by magic the solution may have presented itself. I was browsing around Amazon as you do and up popped a book suggestion that intrigued me. The title was “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying” by Marie Kondo.
I was interested immediately, how could tidying up be life changing? I’ve always been a tidy person. I love nothing more than coming home to a tidy house, I love the feeling of looking around and everywhere being clean and tidy with all my things in the places they should be! So I clicked on the book and headed straight to the reviews, somewhere I always looks before I buy things. Four and a half stars from over 200reviews, this looked promising! Without further ado I purchased it (in kindle form obviously as I didn’t need more clutter in my life!) and read it pretty quickly over a weekend. It’s not that long and an easy read. It’s main theme being that all the things you own in life should bring you joy, if they don’t then you don’t need them! It deals with how to get rid of things that you feel guilty about getting rid of. For example presents from loved ones that you don’t actually like! There are a few far out principles in the book, but on the whole I really enjoyed it and couldn’t wait to get started applying the principles. The book suggests that although the the process can happen quickly it would take an average of six months to complete a whole house, this timescale did surprise me but it didn’t put too much pressure on either. Within a few days I had already got rid of two bin bags of clothes (that’s just mine!) and a big box of other items. Things I’d held on to for years but that actually brought me no joy, things that I thought one day I may use but who knows when that day will come.
The book also describes how to fold you clothes in your draws, I had to read the description a couple of times to try and get the hang of it. I also went to youtube to try and find some info videos. There are a couple but I thought perhaps that I may also be able to do one now that I’ve got eh hang of folding. I didn’t take a picture of the draws before (something I should have done!) But heres a picture of how mine and hubbies draws look now that I’ve finished folding them.
I’ve also made a start in the boys room too, it already brings me pleasure to look inside and see exactly what we can choose from.
Back to the book, is it life changing? I’ve yet to be able to comment on that as I haven’t finished the process. The author describes the exact way you should go about tackling your house starting with your clothes as they are the easiest thing to part with. Followed by books. I can’t remember the exact order of the rest but I’ll refer back to it when I need to. I know that sentimental things such as photographs were last on the list. I’m still working my way through clothes. I’m due to tackle the underwear any day now and I know there will be lots of bras to get rid of. Whats the point in keeping the ones that are too big or too small? I do feel that the progress I have made though has been great and I get great pleasure from going into the bedroom and it felling a whole lot less cluttered already.
If you’d have asked me if I thought I’d be reading books in my 30’s about tidying up I’d have laughed a lot but here I am doing it and acting on its principles!
I will be going back to amazon to review the book as I think it’s always good to put your own review on if you rely yourself on reviews and I’d be giving it 5 stars and would recommend it if you seem to never be able to part with things or your life feels cluttered. I do want to mention also that I have no association with the author and I haven’t been paid to write about the book. I paid for my own copy after just coming across it, but I’m glad it found me and hopefully it really will be life changing!
As a family we are currently counting down the days to our much anticipated trip to Center Parcs. I can’t wait to spend precious time with my family and especially my husband as we rarely seem to get quality time together. The time we do have is spent tidying up or passing each other on the way to the gym or work. I’m really hoping that this trip will give us the break we need and time to reconnect.
We’ve had this trip booked for quite a long time, it was first booked for last April before we knew that Flixster was growing inside me so having realised the trip would coincide with his due date we had to rearrange. For a small admin fee thankfully it was no trouble so that put my mind at rest. So fast forward another year and we are now just weeks away from going.
Travelling with a young family is daunting, just the sheer amount of things I will need to take for only a few days seems like a mammoth effort! I’m thinking of doing a blog post just listing the things I need to take as a helpful guide to other families who may be travelling with small people for the first time. Now that Flixster is on complimentary food as well as breastmilk the list just gets longer!
I have been to Center Parcs before and so know roughly what to expect from our break, but of course having to small people in tow changes the focus of the holiday. Before my first visit to Center Parcs about 7 years ago I wasn’t sure if it would be for me but having been a few times now I can say that it most defiantly is. It’s a place for everyone. No matter what kind of group you are travelling in, all adults or adults and children you will be able to find something to do.
This trip we are taking my mum and dad too which will be nice. I am desperately hoping that I will be able to have some time away from my beautiful babies with my mum. I hope that we will be able to visit the spa and perhaps have a treatment there. Something which at the moment seems impossible! I’d love to spend some time with my mum as although I see her on an almost weekly basis she lives about an hour from me so going out in the evening together is pretty impossible even if I didn’t have the Flixster permanently stuck to me! Plus when I do see her we always have both the boy and Flixster so holding any kind of adult conversation is tricky as anyone who has a chatty preschooler will know all too well! I’m also hoping that perhaps one night the hubster and I can get out together to perhaps have a meal or just go for a swim. I’d love to get him in the spa but I’m not too sure if he’ll be up for that?!
I hope to that I can write a few blog post about our experience at Center Parcs so that anyone who has not been will be able to see why so many people rave about the place, and why when you have a young family it can be a great short break destination.
For this trip we are visiting the Whinfell situated in the Lake district, it’s about 90 minutes to 2 hours drive from us with no stops so I’m going to allow at least half a day for travel with frequent toilet and food stops!
So let the endless list making begin and the countdown start, Center Parcs here we come!
This is my last photo project of the month, all new to me this year but looking forward to looking back at how our family is growing and changing. We are starting this year with a 3 year old (well 3 and 4 months to be precise!) and an 8.5 month old. By the time the years out my first baby will be in school (sob!) and my second little man will be over 18 months old. Where does the time go? So I’m joining in with Lucy from Dear Beautiful and the ‘Me and Mine’ photo project to capture a family picture of us all together. This to me is by far the hardest project to join in with as I need someone else to capture us or use a timer and with two monkeys it’s easier said than done! So to start the year I’ve gone for an easy shot, it wasn’t even taken with this project in mind but it fits perfectly into it. It’s a selfie of us all on a recent train ride. We don’t often use public transport as a family as we usually travel by car but on this particular weekend we were meeting up with some friends in Manchester The hubby already has an annual train pass for work and the children are free so we thought as it was only me paying we’d take the train. It wasn’t too crowded so we got a seat and sat the children on our knee. We were dressed up for the cold and rainy weather too but it captures us at that moment in time.
Mummy is currently enjoying
– A book called ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up’
– Getting back into work
– Getting back to the gym
Daddy is currently enjoying
– Reading ‘The Martian’
– Listening to ‘We have Concerns’ podcast
– Watching ‘The Flash’ TV programme
The Boy is currently enjoying
– Reading ‘The Dinosaur that pooped’ trilogy of books
– Glue and sticking….everything!
– Playing with big boy Lego
Flixster is currently enjoying
– Standing up all the time
– Trying desperately to crawl
– Using his pointer finger to touch everything!
I’ve been officially back in work for three weeks now although it’s not so bad as I’m using my annual leave spread out meaning I’m only actually doing one day week. I decided to go back earlier than planned as I was getting a little bored at home. I’ve never been one to just sit around doing nothing and being on maternity pay meant that I didn’t have any spare cash to just go for coffees or meet friends for lunch. I love my boys to the moon and back but I’m also cut out to be mummy 24/7 I felt like I needed a little bit of space back, being in work has given me that. I have a lot of respect for mummies that stay at home all the time either though choice or circumstances. Being in work, gives me time to use my brain again and feel a bit more needed and that I’m actually helping. It also gives me a chance to have some adult conversation and selfishly a chance once a week to drink a cup of tea with two hands which is still hot while typing away! Of course it’s hard to think of my boys being in someone else’s care all day and especially for Flixster as he’s my little velcro baby and always by my side, but I’m blessed to have places for them at a nursery I really like. Their nursery is in a large old cottage and is still lived in by the owners, so it very much feels like a home away from home. The preschool room often have their evening stories read to them in the living room of the house which is nice. To me having that time away is also important to keep me sane too.
Having returned to work much earlier this time though than I did with the boy I am breastfeeding more through the day so I’ve had to think about how I manage that. There is no way I’m stopping feeding him myself so in order to maintain my supply and make myself comfortable I take my breast pump to work. The maternity policy at my place of work mentions breastfeeding upon returning to work and the workplace manager taking this into account.
There is a really good information guide on the maternity action website about breastfeeding and returning to work which can be found here.
Before my return I informed my manager that I wanted to continue feeding and so would wish to pump milk a couple of times in the day. Thankfully my work had no problem with this at all. I can imagine that in some situations it may be difficult to ask work or mummies may feel embarrassed to even ask. I hope that’s not the case but I know speaking to a few mums at the breastfeeding group I volunteer at it can be, especially in situations where it may be difficult to find time to use a pump.
So once I’d got my head around pumping at work I needed to make sure I was organised. In the weeks leading up to returning to work I tried to take more notice of how often Flixster was feeding during the day. As he is in the process of complimentary feeding his milk feeds have dipped slightly. I always try to offer a feed before his meals but it depends on the situation as it was not always possible. He was however and still is feeding quite a lot throughout the night, which would remain unchanged as I’m still be there for him at night times.
So on his first day at nursery I sent in 3 bags of 4oz of my milk, when I picked him up, the nursery reported he’d drank just two lots of 1oz, the rest I presume was wasted ( I try not to dwell on all the lovely liquid gold going down the sink!) Unfortunately the whole day at work for me was spent with a painful blocked duct on one side, this was not due to Flixster being away as it had started the day before. I pumped a few times during the day after massaging the area quite heavily but nothing would work to clear it. Within 5 minutes of his first feed back on the breast it was almost eased completely. I was in awe once again at the power of a breastfeeding baby, after trying all day to clear it, it only took one feed! During the day at work I carefully placed my milk in the fridge to take home and freeze for the next week at nursery. The next two weeks at work I only had time to pump during the day which felt enough as I didn’t feel full and I was busy getting on with work. I was able to give lots of cuddles and feeds when I got home.
I think I’ve found a good compromise for now, I get to ease myself back into work while still being able to give breast milk to Flixster when he’s not with me!
Back in November 2014 I wrote a post about a campaign by Dettol who are working with Sparks charity to collect and redistribute baby blankets to less fortunate families, that post can be found here.
I recently found out that the campaign has been extended so thought it was worth mentioning again for anyone who didn’t catch the original post.
Laboratory tests commissioned by Dettol – on washed blankets donated by volunteer mum’s – show that baby ‘blankies’ carry a variety of bacteria even after a 40°C wash. In-fact, a third of the washed blankets harboured coliforms – a group of bacteria linked to faeces.
It’s horrible to think that something I use to snuggle Flixster in all the time may not be as clean as I first thought it was!
Rachel Stevens was the first to donate her blanket and is the new ambassador of Dettol Anti-bacterial Laundry Cleanser. She can be found explaining the campaign here.
So why not dig out your old baby blankets that are no longer used and donate them so that Dettol can hygienically clean them before redistributing them to families in need. They also donate £1 to Sparks for each blanket received. The freepost address is below:
Just as it was my first time joining in with siblings last week this week I’ve taken inspiration from ‘Me & You’ hosted by Lucy from Dear Beautiful last year, sadly she’s not running it this year. The idea is that each month I share a photo of just myself and my other half to remind us that although we are now mum & dad we are still us. We are still the same people who met and fell in love with each other. The same people who have walked beside each other holding hands through good and bad times. The same people who met at the alter and made promises to each other, and the same people who through love created two very special little boys.
I don’t really feel prepared for this months ‘Us’ picture and I thought I had loads of times to capture one but I guess time once again elapsed very quickly and I’m now stuck looking through for any pictures I can find that I’m happy to share!
This year see’s us celebrate 10 years of being us in March and 7 years of being married in April. It sound like a long time 10 years and I guess it is. It’s hard to remember a time before us a time when it was just me. I can’t imagine life without Neil being in it. For all my faults I know he loves me through thick and thin (and even when I’m moody!). So here it is, our picture, just us.
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