February 2017

January 2017

Alphabet holiday

It all started reading a chance comment on facebook where a lady talked about how they sometimes work through the alphabet, a letter a day, doing things like eating beans and watching boats on B day.
I love the idea and wondered how we could do to make this holiday fun, without too much pressure or preparation. I worked out that we have enough days that we don't have to do a letter every day, and I decided that rather than stick to strict alphabetical order we could do random letters, and just make sure we did them all in the end. This meant that the day we visited our friend's dog, it was an obvious choice to make it O day as the dog's name is Ollie. (We were supposed to take him for a walk but he didn't want to leave his owner behind, so we ended up going for a walk without him. True story!) .

We also decided we would scrap book some of the events of each day as a way to remember the holiday-  The big events and the slightly more mundane!

So far we've had O, J, J continued onto the next day, and C day.
There has been seeing Ollie and eating oats, making jam, drinking Orange Juice, cuddles, chicken chips, cake, chocolate and so much more.
I've been taking photos too so hopefully I can share some of those with you soon too!

Meanderings

Does anyone else lie in bed at night, trying to go to sleep, but then have thoughts like "can you fart in your sleep?" Which then clearly have to be googled for an answer, or else you can't sleep. But then as you're typing into google, the autosuggestion bar comes down and now you're wondering if you fart in your sleep, but also marvelling at the fact that there may be a sign language for the word fart. Which is obvious now you think about it, but you never had thought about it before now. So you start writing a blog post, because you just promised random and rambling posts are coming, and this is clearly going to be both.

But for now, dear reader, I should pause and get some sleep. Luckily for you, the next thoughts that get written here are just a heartbeat for you as you read them. But for me I need some sleep to come up with something witty to finish this post with.

It turns out that actually I don't have anything else to add to this post. In fact, under normal circumstances I might just delete it and never let it see the light of day, but since I promised random, here it is.

Random January thoughts

Today is my daddy's birthday.  Happy birthday to "the other grandad" or "nana's grandad" as my kids liked to call him.

Jj is loving school.  He knows a lot of letters and a fair few numbers and is even starting to sound out CVC words like cat. He will be reading properly in no time.

Soph is also loving school.  Her reading is becoming more fluent and I'm trying to encourage her to read every day at home as well as what she does at school. This, of course, requires a good supply of books to keep her interested (as well as the favourites we go back to again and again) but luckily we have a lot of lovely charity shops around here, and one in particular has children's books for 20p each, so why wouldn't you buy them? And then when we are done we pass books on to school, so it's win win really!

I am enjoying my free time.  I even joined the gym! I never thought I would do that, although I enjoyed my treadmill so much in the past, but actually now I've  joined, I'm loving it.  I've just been frustrated by the amount I've been ill over the past couple of....

And apparently that where I stopped typing, six months ago!
But I am coming back! Just need to book in a slot on the computer - phone typing is hard!
And I can promise I will be more random and rambling than ever before!

Happy birthday...

... To my lovely big sister.

Life is pottering along. Still getting used to the new norm of the kids being at school all day. Time for me to start job hunting/deciding what I want to do next with my life, and bringing another income of some sort would be good too.

Rainbow party planning ideas

 This post is just a quickie to share the links I found most useful when I was planning and preparing for Soph's rainbow party.

Rainbow biscuits  - our recommendation would be to not make equal parts of every colour, there's been some mathematical debate as to the actual proportions you need, but basically, start small and make each section bigger. We ended up making extra dough to do the final two and a half layers.  We used mostly food colouring from Aldi and some old liquid colours, but I'm told some power colours that you get in cake shops may be brighter colours with less effort.  

 Coloured pasta. I looked at a few blogs' and then sort of did my own thing.  Rubbing alcohol was suggested, but we cant get that easily in the UK, so I got a bottle of white vinegar.  Cheap and cheerful! Put a quantity of pasta in a bag, ziplock is good, but we made do without.  Add a capful of vinegar and a squirt of colour and then rub and shake around until they're all covered.  Tip out onto newspaper to dry.  We found that the ones we added more liquid to ended up sticking to the paper and not drying out properly and we threw one lot away.

 

Fruit and veg platters. I used

Veg - tomatoes, carrot, yellow peppe, mange tout, and beetroot crisps.

Fruit - strawberries, small easy peeler citrus, banana, green apples, blueberries and purple grapes

Colouring the cake  - I wanted to use as many natural colourings as possible, but I did supplement a couple of them with food colouring.   Some sites I used to get ideas are here and here and here.

I think the things I used were as follows

Beetroot juice for Red

Carrot juice and a little beetroot juice for orange

Turmeric for yellow

Spinach juice for Green

Blueberries (cooked and sieved)(and a fair amount of food colouring) for blue (still turned out grey!)

Blackberries (cooked and sieved) and beetroot juice for purple

As you can see, the colours didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them to for a strict rainbow, so I decided to mix up the layers.

Other ideas - pin the tail on the unicorn. We didn't end up having time to do this.

Decorate biscuits - We made biscuits ahead of time and used icing sugar and water and a little food colouring to make a couple of colours of icing, and a bunch of sprinkles (buy from B&M store, if you have one, cheapest place I've found for them!), marshmallows and skittles (taste the rainbow!)

Pass the parcel - the prizes were a colourful notebook and a packet of felt tip pens. I did two parcels with 12 layers each and sent them both round at the same time (I wasn't sure how many kids there would be, turned out to be 18, so some people got a second turn)

Different coloured pots of playdough for game prizes. 

Menard printed off some pictures of rainbows, rainbow dash etc and we hung them on thread from the ceiling.  And some rainbow butterflies were stuck on the windows.  And I got some multi-coloured bunting and hung that. We had paper plates with lots of colours on.



Hope that's helpful to anyone wanting to plan a rainbow party!



Savoury, yet sweet

Today's prune delights are being cooked for my church life group, so I hope they enjoy them!


I'm making a Moroccan themed chicken dish to be served with rice and sweetcorn (because it's easy!) and then a prune cake which I made yesterday for those who gave me the giant prune tin in the first place, and it got such rave reviews that I thought I'd make it again for my group. It's a bit like sticky toffee puddings, I think, but less fiddly to make. I used milk with a squirt of lemon juice in to make homemade 'buttermilk'. I used a couple of handfuls of flaked almonds, not a whole cup of nuts, and I used honey in place of corn syrup in the icing.

Photos of things that have happened around here lately ish (now that I can post pics again!)

I found my 200th geocache

Soph got a happy birthday sticker at school and was very proud of it 

JJ sat on a swing with a book (school wanted places of kids reading in interesting places!)

Daddy added a cool cardboard den addition to the little bike shed.

hashtag prune week

Ok, so it all started when I was gifted a ginormous tin of prunes. We're talking 2.7kg of prunes, which is almost 6lb of them.  Well actually, it says drained weight is 1.7kg of prunes, so there's a fair amount of syrup too, but its still a lot.

Not to be someone who does things by halves, I came up with the concept of prune week. I post all about prunes on facebook, and share recipes that I've tried out and stuff like that, and then if anyone else wants to do it too, they can use my #pruneweek to label their posts, and that way they can be searched and found (probably by me, but anyone else who is interested too!)

So today kicks off the start of prune week with a prune cake.  I like the idea of this recipe because it contains no extra sugar. Because I'm using prunes in syrup rather than dried, I adjusted the recipe by using 100ml of water and 100ml of syrup and that made the batter wet enough.

It's just cooked through (checked and the knife came out clean) and is cooling on the side, verdict to follow in the next prune week post!


Edited to add verdict - we weren't impressed, I'll admit. Also, although a skewer pulled out clean, it still managed to not be cooked through in the middle. It was ok cake, but I think the prune taste was too strong for the kids.
We shared some cake and prunes with our lovely neighbours. 

rainbow party photos!

summer throw back

Baby wearing my beautiful niece whilst on holiday in Devon in the summer. I loved every minute

(There is a real baby under that hat, honest!)

 

Rainbow cake, or not

Busy baking.
Interesting results with my food colouring (natural and bought)
This is really just a place holder post!

Party prep

Yesterday was a busy day, I'd been in three shops, two of them supermarkets, and got home before half ten! My sister Bekki and niece Phoebe came for the day and we got busy busy busy.

We started off colouring pasta for the children to use to thread onto twine to make necklaces.
There's a photo on my facebook page here.

We baked practice cakes using natural food colouring to work out which will work for my rainbow birthday cake for Sophia, and which I'd do best to supplement with some not so natural food colouring gels!

And finally we made rainbow biscuit dough and made a few to try. They didn't turn out exactly as in the original post, and we ended up making extra dough for the final two layers.

Hopefully those links will work, not sure I've tried to do them on my phone before.

Experimental cooking

For dinner last night we had a random things out the freezer night. I found two 'white fish' fillets and decided to feed them to the kids.
We've made homemade chicken nuggets before so I decided to use a similar method with the fish. We coated them in cornflour (well, barely, I was running out). Then dipped into beaten egg and then into breadcrumbs (just some dry bread ground up in my ninja bullet with the grinding bland). Each child got to get messy and coat their own. Then onto a greased baking tray and into a hot oven and cooked until the breadcrumbs we're golden brown.

The verdict....

Soph - I like it a little bit.
(Mummy - that's better than "I hate it", I'll take that!)

JJ - yeah, good.

Mummy - no fish smell! Result! Would make this again for them (I don't eat fish)

Rainbow party

Can you believe it, Sophia will be 7 on the 7th. This very week! And this blog was going far longer than that too. I apologise for the huge inconsistencies in blogging (for the last two years that seems to be blogging in October and not much else!) and perhaps I'll manage to catch you up a little with our adventures along the way.

To celebrate her birthday we are planning a rainbow party. Now, I don't want to give everything away before hand, more whet your appetite for more updates after the event, and photos, I hope. My phone won't talk nicely to blogger but hopefully I can a device that will!

Cake - there will be multiple layers and there will be smarties. I also hope to experiment with natural food colouring.

Games - I still need to locate some rainbow themed (even just striped colours would be ok) wrapping paper for pass the parcel. I intend to alternate with newspaper because I'm still me thrifty self at heart!
We are also working on a variation of mr bear, your honey's not there. Possibly Mrs rainbow, your gold's not there?

Activities - I have a couple of activities I need to prep for, but which will hopefully let them create fun take home gifts at the end.

Food - I'm planning fruit and veg platters in rainbow stripes, and Bekki has found a wonderful recipe for rainbow biscuits so we might try making them on Tuesday when she comes to see us.

#PruneWeek

So it may be something or it may be nothing, but I totally just invented prune week. It's from Sunday 9th October until Sunday 16th.
The idea is, during the course of that week you cook or bake something with prunes in, or even just eat some prunes, take a photo and share it on facebook with the hashtag #PruneWeek and if you're friends with me, tag me too. And then we all get to see new exciting things to do with prunes and raise the profile of an often put down fruit.
Will you join me in celebrating prune week?

Culinary adventures

I've tried quite a few recipes/techniques lately, but because I'm sat on the sofa with the two kids, half watching Topsy and Tim, and blogging on my phone, you'll have to wait a day or two for actual links. But in the meantime I can tell a bit about what I've tried and you can wait in excited anticipation for links and photos. (If you're friends with me on facebook you may have seen photos or read statuses about some of them, so bear with me!)

Easiyog- this is a yoghurt maker kindly passed on to me from a friend. They're designed to be used with their branded sachets of powder, and I was given several of the sachets, but unfortunately they were past their best before dates and the good bacteria in them had obviously died. We had success with one of them by using a couple of spoons of live plain yoghurt to the mix, so that was fun, but yesterday I made a batch of yoghurt from scratch using some bought plain yoghurt as a starter, and skimmed milk powder and water. The first batch turned out tasty but quite thick, and I've made a few adjustments and a second batch is on the go. You have to let it sit for eight hours so I won't find out until bedtime tonight how it's turned out.

Slow cooker - we had almost two weeks without a working oven so I used it as a good excuse to cook a number of dishes in the slow cooker, savoury and sweet. More info to follow about banana cake, a dense brownie fudge cake, steak, chicken and bolognaise. I've been really pleased with how things have turned out, although I admit it helps if you read the recipe properly - I cooked the chocolate fudge cake thing on high the first time and it was meant to be on low!

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea

Today the children have the day off so we're heading down to see my in laws. We've not been there since Felix's big 80th birthday party in the summer, so I know they're desperate to see the kids, and maybe me and Menard too! (If daddy wakes up in time to come!)

I also need to take jj to get school shoes as the stop gap pair I bought at the end of the summer term are also well and truly scuffed through to a hole at the toes. What is it about boys and shoes? Soph is hard on her shoes too, but they've not ever been as bad as Jj's!

Other than that I'm just settling in for a nice quiet weekend with jj. We will leave Soph to stay with nan for a couple of nights and collect her on Sunday.
Hm, did I say quiet with jj?! We shall see. Perhaps we can locate some local ish geocaches and get the last three we need for me to hit 200.

Time for me

Now both children are at school six + hours a day I have time! I will be job hunting soon, but for the moment Menard and I have agreed that it's important for me to focus on me.

The past year I've been focusing on my brain - I've had some CBT and been on a ten week course about self esteem which have helped a problem to with my mental state, helping me find techniques to deal with and work through anxiety and negative thought patterns. I'm by no means 'sorted' but I think it's helping my thinking and keeping me on a more even keel. But next it's time to concentrate on the physical again. I've put a lot of weight on since I moved to new town, and although I've had various pushed towards losing it, all of that has piled back on again. Tomorrow I'm going back to a weight  loss group with a friend and it's time to face the number on the scales again. I'm also trying to move more. Working at making the little man on my pedometer cheer more (when you hit 10,000 steps). And Menard and I are also looking into going swimming together now we have time without kids around!

Autumn

Lying in bed fiddling on my phone and breaking back into blogger, I can hear the wind blowing outside in a slightly wild way, different to how it blows in the summer. There's a wildness, an expectation of things to come. It says, just you wait, things are changing.

And lots of things have changed around here. We still live in new town but JJ is now in full time education at the same school as Soph. This means a whole stretch of empty day awaiting mummy. I've filled some of the days and others I've enjoyed just being me, and others I've just clock watched, waiting for the moment it's time to go and collect them, not quite certain of what this new season is bringing.

It's exciting, it's scary, and it's going to be more than a little bit different.

peek a boo

Not forgotten about blogging, not dead. Just busy!

This time of year always seems to stress me out slightly.  I think its just the sheer onslaught of things to do and places to be, especially with Soph and JJ now at school (well, school nursery for JJ). There are craft sessions, nativity plays, parties, and various other events to sign forms for and send money to. There was the car MOT which stressed me out way more than it should have, but it's passed for another year, thank you God! Christmas shopping, which is actually mostly done, and just generally darker earlier evenings and later in the mornings which are just somewhat depressing.
Although we did go on a wonderful adventure to the post box the other day at 5.30pm with the kids dressed in high vis jackets and JJ had his hard hat on too. You never know what you might meet between home and the post box in the dark!
So I'm treasuring the empty moments when they do occur, to be some precious me time, and that means blogging hasn't been a priority.
If i ever work out how to make my technology agree with bloggers, I have some lovely photos to share. Maybe if i can remember how to hack myself into my flickr account I might manage to do it that way. Pondering....
Ok, bye for now, short and sweet, typing in the local library, who are wonderful and friendly, but I really ought to get on with my day now.

31 days - day twenty two

Hurrah, school is out, half term holiday is here, we made it through the first half term of this year.

I'm wiped out.  Need some time to rest and have fun and enjoy life and not have to get up for the school run.

I'm also getting a bit burnt out on blogging, and I'm going away this weekend, so I will attempt to be back on Monday with something exciting to say.
I kow that breaks my streak,  but I think it's better to have something to say than to blog for the sake of it!

31 days - day 21

Today is back to the future day - it's the day in the future Marty travels to in the second film.
Fun random fact for you, which you probably know already if youve been anywhere on the Internet today!

I'm not even going to try to come up with anything else in this post because I have writers block

31 days - day twenty

It's half term next week for us, so the kids are off school for a week. Looking forward to having some fun as Menard is off work too. I will be looking for fun things that we an do, but we don't plan to spend lots of money.
Autumn is the perfect time for layering up and getting out, especially if you've got welly boots for squelching in the mud! Im hoping we can explore some of the parks and adventure places in our local and area and slightly further afield. If we can get some geo caches too then I'll be a happy mummy!

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 19

Oops. Almost got to the end of today without posting.  Better write something quick.

Actually, when I was in Aldi this morning I stocked up on some of their super six offer veg since they'll be changing on Thursday, I believe, and since it's potatoes, onions and swede, they ought to last for a while, so it was worth stocking up.

It made me think abut writing - make use of sales and special offers. But don't buy things that you won't actually be using, because that's not really saving money at the end of the day.

Today's hint/tip - make use of special offers and buy fruit and veg in season because they'll be cheaper.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 18

In a week where money is tight, or you need to pay some unexpected bills, try living out of pantry rather than going food shopping.  By that, I mean work on running down cupboards and fridge/freezer rather than buying fresh.

This serves two purposes, using up stock before it expires - this is good, if like me, you're not always good at rotating stock in the cupboard, making sure you use the old packets up before you use the most recent ones.

Secondly, it's an adventure! You're limited by what you have, so it's like an episode of ready steady cook. Think outside the box, think of ingredient substitutions you can make to switch up an ingredient in a recipe for something you have.  For example, it would be fairly easy to inter change fresh tomatoes/passata/chopped tomatoes/tomatoe purée.  It might change the consistsncy slightly, but overall the taste would be similar.
If you have a go, let me know what interesting concoctions you come up with!

31 days of money saving and stuff - day seventeen

Happy Saturday!
I've been enjoying reading bits of The Complete Tightwad Gazette these last few days, and it's been reminding me that we all have different amounts of time and money, and it's about finding the money saving methods that work for you.

For me, I shop for reduced meat, veg and bread products. I compare prices and use coupons.
Don't feel bad if you can't do the same, but work on finding out what you do enjoy.  Do what you can do, without getting stressed and upset that you can't do it exactly the same way as I do. (although I hope I'm not reducing any of you to tears by my posts, but instead inspiring and challenging!)

31 days of money saving and stuff - day sixteen

Day sixteen! More than halfway through the month (just about!)

Hm, what to write about today?

A summary, perhaps?

I have a budget for my weekly shopping expenses. I make the most of supermarket price wars, supermarket offers, supermarket rewards and free stuff!

I think outside the box when it comes to things like present giving.

I like numbers.  I know in my head the cost of a lot of different items, but if you don't like numbers you can make a simple price comparison book (I say book, chances are a lot of you would want to use your phone, but I like paper and pencil lists!).  This can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be, but at its simplest, you'd write the name of the product and then what price it's being sold at in different shops, and add the date so when you look back, you can see how up to date that information is. I know I thought about blogging about price comparison books, but I can't remember if I ever did. Please ask questions if you want more info or help setting one up.
An alternative is to use a comparison site like My Supermarket, but Ive never had that much success getting it to work quickly when I wanted it to!

That's about enough for this post, right? What else would you like me to write about for the rest of the month?

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 15

Swagbucks

I can't talk about money saving without mentioning swagbucks.  Pretty much all my purchases on amazon are paid for with gift cards I bought from swagbucks using points I earned from doing simple tasks like answering the daily poll,and using swagbucks as my go to search engine rather than google.  You don't earn points every time you search, but they do add up. There are other things you can do like taking surveys, making purchases on other shop sites, but going through their site referral links.

If you follow my referral link below I will potentially earn some extra swagbucks for you doing so, but you won't lose out on anything :)
Http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/elephantdebs

31 days of money saving and stuff - day 14

Make the supermarkets work for you

Obviously you have to give supermarkets money if you want to buy things from them, that's a given (of course, there are other places you can buy stuff too, and I'm all for shopping local and supporting local businesses,etc, but today im talking about supermarkets)

If you shop somewhere, and are likely to return, sign up for the loyalty card. Sainsburys nectar, Tesco clubcard, etc
- this means you get to earn points as you shop
- you'll also get sent vouchers/coupons either in the post, or printed out with your receipts at the end of a shop

Work the system.  I don't shop in sainsburys that often, I find them more expensive for the things I buy.  But I have a nectar card and pop in every so often, then that means I often get print out vouchers enticing me back. Like spend £15 and get 400 bonus points.  I combine those print outs with offers on sainsburys my coupons and I'm quids in. (more on that below)

https://mycoupons.sainsburys.co.uk/ Can't get links to embed nicely.  You need to sign up for an account and link your nectar card, but once you have, you get a virtual wallet which you can fill with up to five coupons.  Next time you go, spend the money or buy the items that qualify you for those offers, wait a few days - make sure you leave the coupons in the wallet until you're credited with your bonus points.  If can be offers like 40 points if you buy a certain product, or say 450 bonus points if you spend twenty quid. If you ever shop at sainsburys, it might be worth a look.

Tesco orchard.  You'll need to google that, but it should come up easily.  Putting links in this post isn't happening today I'm afraid.  This is a site which runs campaigns.  Basically, you answer some surveys and then they'll match you up on campaigns that might interest you.  Currently I'm on one where they've sent me some vouchers to buy exotic fruit and then tell people about it! There's slightly more to it than that, but they talk you through it all in a friendly way.

Know your prices.  I know that sweet potatoes are cheaper at Aldi, so I generally buy them there. There are other things I can't get in Aldi, or prefer from Tesco that I buy there.  If you can, know prices and shop around.

If you shop in asda, always go online at least three hours after your shop and check the asda price guarantee. You may be entitled to a voucher if your compatible shop was cheaper elsewhere. There are a few terms and conditions, but super easy to do. You need to have bought at lest eight different items

31 days - day thirteen

Hm. Mid October writers block!

Happy birthday to my big sister, Bekki.

I'm attempting to get my eating back on track with whole30 program of eating.  This is my third round (although I only did twenty days on the last time, but that's better than none!)

Life seems to be getting crazy busy. Suppose I needs start Christmas shopping soon.

31 days - day twelve

The tale of Anna and Gill's apples.

Anna, a friend from school, who I'd reconnected with on Facebook, posted on facebook she had apples from her tree if anyone would like them - she wanted to spread some love and kindness and such like.

I'm a sucker for free stuff, and I thought it would be interesting to see Anna again after all this time (about 17 years on!) so I asked, may I have some?

Anna said, sure, come over, so we did.  JJ loved playing with Anna's son's train set. Anna and I had a lovely time chatting and I definitely plan to see her again.  One person loved and blessed.

I gave some apples to my mummy. Two people loved and blessed.

My neighbour brought round some pears they grew in her garden, I gave her some of Anna's apples.
Three people.

Gill popped round with bags of apples.  I was blessed again.

I asked on facebook if any friends wanted to come eat leftover party food and help me process apples from Anna (and lots from Gill). Good times working and talking together. Three more adults plus three babies/children loved and blessed. And I was blessed again by their help.

In my freezer there are several bags of peeled and chopped apples. I will use them to make jam, cake, and crumbles.  Many more people the apples will be shared with, loved and blessed.

A tale of a bag of apples. Friendships rekindled, friendships strengthened, people fed, people loved, people blessed.

31 days - day 11

More STUFF

Autumn is apple extravaganza time.

Lately I have made

Apple crumble - I don't have a recipe, but something useful I did try and it worked; I froze the butter and then grated it into the flour. Instead of having to rub it in with my fingers and get messy at just the moment my kids needed me, I could just use a fork to sort of mush/mix the grated butter into the flour.

Stewed apple in the slow cooker - just cut up a bunch of apples, after you peeled and cored them (and cut out buggy bits, if you're a realist and don't mind using apples with those in, so long as you cut them out).  I was using eating apples so I didn't add sugar. I just cut and cut and cut some more until the slow cooker was almost full and then cooked on high for a few hours or a bit longer on low, until it was yummy and mushy.  You can add a splash of water to stop it sticking and get it going, but remember the apple will probably release a lot of moisture when it gets going.  I've done it with cooking apples and added extra sugar.  I've also use the cooked apples from this to make apple crumble.  Means you're really warming through, browning top, rather than waiting for the apple to cook from scratch.

Apple pie jam -This will look horrid and messy, but I can't make blogger embed my links today, ad I'm running out of battery life and time to do it. 
http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2009/10/apple-pie-jam-i-fall.html

This may or may not be what I burnt my mouth n the other day, but it gates and smell yummy. Mine turned out a lot darker than the photos on there.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day ten

Present giving - give from what's 'in your hand'

This is about thinking outside the box, not wanting to give a present and immediately running to the shops (or the present box featured yesterday)

There are times that you want to show someone your appreciation, but your budget is already over stretched and sometimes that means you have to let the moment go.  But take stock for a minute what you have.  I don't mean give the shirt off your back, or out of your wardrobe, but that can be appropriate on occasion! I mean think outside the box and use your skills.
One of my favourites is giving jars of jam that we've made (sorry, if I've just spoilt the surprise for anyone expecting a gift from me soon!)
This year we have made jam from plums and apples that grew wild in our area. I've also been given rhubarb, gooseberries and apples from friends, blessing me out of their excess. (if you're my friend and you want to gift me with something like that, then honestly yes, it really does bless me. I don't think, oh they're a cheapskate for giving me that, I think, wow, I'm so lucky that they wanted to share their bounty with me!)

Other ideas
Look in your cupboards, do you have ingredients to bake a cake, cook a meal, share your homemade goodies (like jam/jelly/chutney, biscuits, cookies, cakes)

Share your skills.  Offer to cut a lawn, prune a bush, teach someone an instrument, offer to babysit, give your time.  Time is money.  You don't have to physically spend cold hard dosh to give someone a gift of value.

Give a gift of memories - homemade calendars or photos or pictures, handprints are always good from children cos they (the children) don't stay small forever.  Sew a cross stitch.  Knit a scarf.  Make a mix tape - I guess nowadays that might be an iplayer or YouTube playlist!

Let me know if you've given or are planning to think outside the box with your giving this year.

What else could you do?

31 days of money saving and stuff - day nine

A present box

This is a specified place to put things away to be given as gifts.
Generally people use it in one of two ways (or both)

For specific people presents - it's the January sales and I see something that would be perfect for my sister at a reduced price (sales!) or it's a one off that I'm unlikely to see again.  I buy the present, put it in the box. When it comes to the birthday, I pull out the present and deliver it. Job done.

Just in case presents - A box of potential presents, for a money saver these may be bought reduced or on a bulk offer. I use our present box like this. If I see age appropriate items at reduced prices or on a good offer, I stock up, then when Sophia is given a birthday party invite from someone at school, say, our first port of call is the present box, to see if there's anything suitable to give to the birthday child.  This allows me to take advantage of good deals (we recently gave a friend a whole collection of joke-present bits and pieces which I'd bought when it was on end of range prices. Sophie and JJ could give him a whole collection of fun joke things (like stick on moustaches, fake sick, pretend bugs..) and it didn't cost more than our budget could afford. Of course, you don't have to nly buy reduced things, but I'm mentioning those because that's one of our ways to save money on unexpected expenses - you can't always plan when the next party invite will arrive!

31 days of money saving and stuff - day eight

This is a 'stuff' interlude

Life lessons learned/reminded of today*

Laundry detergent has a much better chance of working if you add it to the machine.

Slow cookers will start to cook if you actually turn them on.

It's a good start to unlock the hob (safety feature), it's even better if you turn on a burner so your chicken can start to cook in the frying pan.

Jam scrapings are hot and probably shouldn't be put into your mouth without a little cooling.

What have you 'learnt' lately?

*today, the day I wrote this, which may or may not be the day it's published

31 days of money saving and stuff - day seven

Get to know your local area.

You may have lived there a few weeks or months, you may have lived there all your life, but I bet you don't even notice half the things around you (again, talking to myself!)

This summer I signed up to start geocaching.  Yes, ideally you need some sort of smart phone of device, and it was the not having one of those which stopped me signing up earlier. But all you have to do is go to the website, set up an account, which takes minutes, download an app (apple and android versions available) and stick in your postcode and start hunting.

The website explains it better than I, so go have a look. You get coordinates that help you find the rough area, then additional hints or clues in the description to find some sort of small box. It can be teeny tiny, or perhaps a film canister size, or a lunch box. There's always a log inside - a piece of paper you sign with your name, whatever username you used to sign up online. Then you additionally log your find on the app or website. That way the ower of the cache can check those who say they've found it on the website, have found it when they look at their paper blog.

Useful tools to help you with geocaching - a pen, a smart phone, tweezers (some of the caches are tiny and you need tweezers to pull out the log).

Let me know what you find/if you get addicted.
As at the 14th September I had logged  21 so far.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day six

Walk instead of taking the car.

You get exercise. You don't spend money on petrol. The world is a better place. Nuff said.

(this is totally a directed reminder to myself as much as anything else)

31 days of money saving and stuff - day five

Steal ideas from other people

Some, ok, most of my money saving tips have come from other people. Most of the posts I've written so far on this subject haven't been original in the slightest.  Other people have said it before, and probably said it better, but hopefully you're still here reading anyway, and not just cos you're related to me (hi mum!)

My family will tell you I've always loved reading household hints and tips books, and absorbing random facts. One I learnt recently (from my sister Bekki's googling, in answer to a question from Hannah) is for those who want to know how much gas is left in their gas canister (say for a gas BBQ or camping stove)
Pour boiling water over it, the area filled with gas will cool immediately as the gas will absorb the best, whereas the empty area will stay hot

But anyway, I've wandered from the point, if I had one?

Feel free to take any of my ideas and implement, but equally feel free to laugh at me and say "really? She does that? What a waste of time!"

Join Facebook groups, read budget blogs, read books from the library or the charity shop (you can even buy them new, but consider collecting points on swagbucks and exchanging them for amazon gift cards and then using those to buy books (referral link included) (bonus tip for today)

Ask me questions. Is there anything you'd like my opinion on, with regards to money saving or anything really, since I threw the word 'stuff' in the title of this series!

I'll try to add some more links to useful resources in the next few posts. But blogger isn't fond of my having more than one link in this post, so I can't currently add them here without something crashing.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day four

Today (well, it was actually during the August bank holiday weekend) we saw an ice cream van.

Classic quote from Sophia "I'm not going to be an ice cream lady (driving an ice cream van). I'm going to be a normal grown up like you, mummy"
A. No offence intended to those who do drive ice cream vans
B. No idea where she got the idea that I'm a normal grown up.

Anyway, we looked at the ice cream van, we admired the picture on the back and the tune it played, and we all agreed (Soph, JJ and I) that we didn't want to buy an ice cream cos we had lollies in our freezer at home. And that was that, no arguments, no complaints (and actually, by the time we got inside, they'd forgotten all about ice cream and didn't even remember to ask for lollies. I also forgot, so it wasn't an intention omission!)
I threw in the comment "we've got lollies in our freezer and they cost less than buying them at the ice cream van" and they both nodded agreement.

I guess I have two points/tips here.
First,  you don't have to do the big spend big treat every time. Don't get me wrong, sure, we've bought from an ice cream van, but as a general rule we don't. I buy cheap lollies or ice pops and we eat those and spend significantly less money

Second, it's ok to tell the kids "no, because that costs a lot of money" or "no, a different option is better value". I could rant about this for ages, and I'm not saying I'm totally right, but I'm so aware of living in an age of entitlement, where kids get everything they want, at the expense of other things. I think it's ok to say no, and explain its for financial reasons. It doesn't have to be all doom and gloom, but it can be in a way that teaches value of money,  (not, woe is me, we can't afford that. But look, if we go for this option, it's cheaper/we save money, and we still feel satisfied)

31 days of money saving and stuff - day three

This tip kind of comes before yesterday's post if you're starting to try to manage your money better
- know your income and outgoings
- have a budget

I'm going to focus on the second today.
We have a budget for household shopping. I have x amount of money for food, cleaning products, loo roll, and pretty much anything I might buy at the supermarket. Yesterday (by which I mean the yesterday to the day i wrote this, not actually october second, see confession in my first post) I bought JJ a packet of Fireman Sam stickers which cost a quid, this came out of my household budget.
It's a fairly realistic budget, as I said yesterday, we recently increased this by ten pounds a week (and now I'm having odds and ends to empty out into my jar at the end of the week, most weeks, so I think it's a slightly generous budget, but allows for the extra I was needing)
But it also does reign me in at times when I might be tempted to splurge for the sake of splurging.

There are a few ways to come up with a budget figure for your household
A. Trial and error. Pick a number and try to stick to it. Yeah, it's a simple method, but can be frustrating until you've got it fixed.

B. Keep your receipts for a few days/weeks/months and do a rough tally of what you're spending and average it for a figure for the week/month, whichever works for you. I do a week, cos I think I'd be in danger of splurging at the start of a month and running out halfway through if I had a months figure in cash in my purse at the start of the month.

C. Make a list of things you buy regularly, and price them. I tend to remember a lot of prices in my head, just because that's the sort of brain I have, but sites like your supermarket online store, or 'my supermarket' is agood site for uk users to compare prices at different stores.
Then use that price list and make a realistic guess how much of each item you need in a week. Do the sums and come up with a total. I'd prob add on five to ten per cent to allow for anything you forgot to put on the list.

D. Use an online budget calculator. I've not got any links at my finger tips, but I'll try to find some later in the month.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day two

My tip for today

Use cash.

Each week we withdraw the shopping budget amount in cash and it goes in my purse. As the money decreases through the week (yeah, I'm one of those shop a few times, not do a big shop sort of girls most times), I start to think "do I actually need to buy this, or is it just a want". We did recently agree to slightly increase the weekly budget as I was regularly getting to day five or six and realising oh, we still need milk/bread/loo roll (the three most bought items in our house, probably) and the money was gone, or nearly gone. But if I'd been buying on the debit card all the time it would be a lot easier to go over budget/not keep track of what I was spending (and I'm talking from past experience)

The other thing I do is when I get the new money (usually crisp notes from the cash machine) I empty anything that is in my purse out into a jar. If I didn't already spend it, I clearly didn't need it that week. If I leave it in my purse, likihood is I will spend it the next week. But if it's out of the purse I can't spend it. Those dribs and drabs add up and can be used for treats, or, ad I often do, to go towards other money needs, like we pay our water bill by having a card scanned at the shop and giving them x amount to add on to our account, so having cash around to do that is a bonus.

31 days of money saving and stuff - day one

I want to see if I can do 31days of posts in October, as many bloggers do. It's a 31 day thing. I think I've tried it before, but not sure if I've made it through.
I've been wanting to write some more posts about money saving and stuff like that, so I thought, hey, let's try to combine the two.

Confession, I'm starting writing posts on the 29th August, in the hope that I might manage to write enough posts by the end of October, but I will set it to auto post for October first. By the time the posts publish, I'll probably have forgotten what I wrote!

Every time I get in the shower I remember this one, and by the time I'm out and dressed, it's forgotten again, so let's see if I can actually blog it this time....
We went camping in the summer and I decanted my shampoo, conditioner and body wash into some of those little travel bottles, they're the ones with the lids that just click up a bit at the side and you squeeze out a bit of liquid. Well, at the time of writing this post, we've been back from camping 3 weeks and I'm still using those little bottles, I've showered almost every day. That's a lot of hair washes from little bottles I originally worried they wouldn't last the week. And then I realised, when I use my big bottles of shampoo etc, they have big holes and when I squirt it out on my hand, a lot comes out, and I just use it, but with the little bottles, you sort of have to apply a bit of force to squeeze the stuff out, and you automatically get a much smaller amount in your hand. But, and here's the important thing, the smaller amount of shampoo is enough to wash my hair. Sometimes I have to add a bit more water as I'm rubbing the shampoo in, to make it sud up and go all over, but it is enough. I'm using a significantly smaller amount at every hair wash, meaning the shampoo is going so much further. That sounds like a money saver to me.

I was going to take a photo of the little bottles, but I haven't, and I just remembered my tablet and blogger were not happy last time I tried to post pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination!

My Family (found this in my drafts, I wonder if it will work)

Charity shop shopping - be in it for the long haul

Today I popped to a local charity shop. It's one I've identified as a good place to buy school uniform. They have two big boxes in there at the back all year round and I've discovered it's worth having a look every few weeks. This time last week I managed to pick up several school dresses for soph, and several skirts. I had to buy her school grey pinafore dresses new from Tesco (but I used club card vouchers, which were on a double up scheme, as I used ten quid worth, doubled up to twenty, and got three dresses), but I didn't buy any of the skirts or summer dresses or the tshirts new, but got them all at fifty pence each mostly from that charity shop.

There's a drawer under my bed which is where I store out of season uniform (so currently, grey dresses and skirts, grey tights, and the cardigans which go with those dresses. Sophia has one drawer in her room for uniform, so currently she's got the summer dresses, lighter weight cardigans and white socks in there.  Additionally in my under bed drawer I have summer dresses in a bigger size, and some skirts in a bigger size, as well as the tshirts which are in a variety of sizes, and extra PE kit, all purchased in charity shops at fifty pence each.

Today I bought six items in the charity shop, one is a pair of shorts that will fit jj now, two pairs of bigger shorts, two trousers for JJ and a skirt that will fit soph in a couple of years. Because I'm willing to store some things,  and spend a little now, I am able to plan ahead and avoid big spends when my kids get bigger and need new clothes. I can shop in my drawer rather than the high street!

I'd really encourage you to do this if you can. (happy to share my shop location with local folk!). This principle can be applied to all children's clothing really, but school uniform is a biggy, in my opinion, cos they have to wear it. My other tip would be to buy the more expensive brands. Most all of JJ's trousers are from M&S or next, Soph has clothes from M&S too. I also made sure that I check the, over for wear - particularly at the crotch and knees for boys! And, I'd advise keeping a running list of what you've got already, so you don't end up with too much in one size. Final tip, if you do have too much, or your child outgrows an item before it's worn out, consider gifting to a friend with smaller children (not necessarily younger!), passing on to the school as spare stuff, which is particularly in demand in the younger years, or selling on your local Facebook group to make back your money.

Money

I want to blog about some of the ways I save our family's money and some of the ways I spend it, but I don't want to come across as presumptuous or preaching. Knowing what you know about me (many of you will have seen my reduced meat and veg hauls on Facebook) what would you like me to write about? Give me some questions to answer to get me started!

Where we are

Life in our house is noisy. Soph is five now, obsessed with school and writing and cutting and drawing and generally covering six million pieces of paper in mostly unintelligible scribbles. Actually, to be fair to her, they are becoming more comprehensible, as she puts her knowledge of phonics and blends to piece together words and sentences, although she hasn't really mastered the art of putting spaces inbetween words.

JJ is all boy, climbing, running, jumping and generally doing all the things you never even thought of banning them from doing, until he had done them. He's three, and goes to the school nursery at soph's school, he's ever so proud that he has a big boy uniform to wear too.

I am still being a stay at home mummy. Enjoying my time with the kids (mostly!) but also my time without them - oh how I love my time in the morning without them, although it gets rapidly filled with all the usual mummy stuff, volunteering in soph's class, and church stuff.

M is still around too, working all the crazy shifts his job throws at him, meaning sometimes the kids and I have to do weekends without him, but other times we have to put up with him around the place for several days on end. We mostly survive both. He's also really getting involved in church stuff, which is great, as that's exactly why we moved here about 14 months ago.

We've settled in well, more than well, and really enjoying being a part of this community.

Freezer survey

I've just done my freezer survey, I have a lot of pork. It's portioned up. If I'm cooking I'd probably use one. M usually uses two of the marinated ones

M curry for work o o o
Meatballs o
Fancy sausage pack of six o
Stock O o o (that means one big and two small pots)
Bolognaise tiny pot, and rice, tiny pot. Clearly needs to be a lunch one day!
Lasagne o
Soup o o o o o
Pastry o o
Quorn chorizo o o (not really sure what to do with this, maybe on a tart made with some of the pastry!)
chicken tikka masala o
Beef mince o o
Stewing beef o o
Turkey mince o o o o
Marinated pork portions o o o o o o o o o o
Chicken portions (boneless thighs mostly) o o o
Pork ribs o
Pork ( joint or chops) o o o o o o o
Chicken (whole) o
Wraps (forgot to count)
Sausages pack of twenty o o
Puréed veg sauce (for use with mince to make lasagne etc) o o o o o
Quorn 'mince' o
Quorn 'chicken' o
Mixed frozen veg o
Peppered slice (m will prob take to work) o
Curry sauce??? O
Fish fingers pack of ten o o
Pot of cooked chicken o
Daal o
Mashed bananas o
Ice cream
Ice pops

And there you have it, the delights of my freezer! ( well, freezer and freezer shelf in fridge)
Coming soon. Contents of my cupboards!

Ten Ten Fourteen

Well, I appear to have failed to blog every day in October, but I am getting back into the swing of blogging, so that's gotta be good,right?  Assuming anyone is out there reading!

Having done a couple of hops this week, preparing for Sophie's party tomorrow, I'm feeling that the bank account would appreciate a little less spending in the next week or two, so I'm having a minimal spend challenge for myself. And I welcome your support keeping me on track, or if anyone else wants to challenge themselves and comment or blog about it, that would be fantastic too.

I'm probably going to make the rules up as I go along, but so far I'm thinking
I'm allowed to buy
Milk
Bread (though I will be making my family eat wraps from the freezer, healthy muffins for breakfast instead of bread, and I may try to make some - I think I have some bread flour in the cupboard)
Loo roll. Nuff said!
Nappies
Baby wipes/tissues if we need them. I have a fair number in the cupboard upstairs.
Petrol
Any medication etc needs thst come up.


I need to do a freezer and cupboard survey,and I will post them here. So recipes/meal ideas welcomed! I know I have a lot of pork in the freezer, much of it marinated cuts like belly slices and chops.

Any thoughts?

October eighth

Blank mind.
Tired
Busy week
More busy to come - Sophie's party on Saturday, need to cook/decorate various things.
Ought to go to bed, but playing on iPad.
This is a nothing post, written cos I don't want to miss another post!

About October seventh

It was Sophia's birthday yesterday and then we had our first life group at our house which Menard and I are helping to lead. So it was a bit busy to post.

I did take photos from the day, but my iPad doesn't like talking to blogger, so it will have to wait until I can get on a computer.

Highlights of the day:
Sophia declaring it was the worsest birthday ever after being told off for hurting her brother a nd then daddy told her she had to put her shoes on to go to school (she really loves school, she just didn't want to stop playing with her presents!)

The hello kitty cake toppers I ordered late on Thursday, arriving on Saturday, meaning I could use them to put on top of cupcakes, which a) was like what Topsy and Tim had for their birthday, and b) softened the blow that the big hello kitty cake is being made for her party (so there are lots of people to eat it) and not for her birthday day.

Soph declaring it was the bestest birthday ever, after playing  with her hello kitty toy kitchen, play tent, and hoopla hoop all at once, and eating her hello kitty cupcakes!

October sixth

Tomorrow my Sophie baby turns five.those five years flew by! This time five years ago I was in labour, either on my way to hospital or sat on a birthing ball, or maybe the end of the bed, eating sausage and mash for the second time in a few hours. I hadn't eaten much all day, so they made me eat some more!

Tomorrow she'll go off to school as normal, and she's excited about taking sweets to give her friends at the end of the day. We'll do presents and cupcakes, and then on Saturday we're having her party with lots of friends coming over. She's very excited about the Hello Kitty cake I'll be making (I'm still working on my plans of exactly what I'm going to do!)

October fifth

Had a lovely afternoon. Menard was at work, but Sophie was being my kitchen helper. She mashed up some bananas which were very ripe, so we could freeze them. She helped me wash up and put things away, and helped me peel onions and chop green tomatoes for making chutney. She and I both cried from the onions! But that's another job from the to-do list ticked off, and gets the bowls of green tomatoes off the counter, and possibly that will be a step forward in the fight against fruit flies, which are everywhere today. If anyone has any good ways to fight them, let me know!

About October fourth

Yesterday we went to visit my mum and dad and to do the 'jumble trail' around their local area - people could sign up on a site to say they would be putting out a stall to sell all sorts of things, aka jumble. Americans would probably call it a yard sale trail.

Unfortunately it rained and some of the folks obviously decided to call off their stalls, but the hard ones were out with gazebos or similar make-do shelters!

I picked up quite a few bargains...
Two kids scooters to live at nana's house (unless our current ones fall apart) £3 each
Books. Which will probably be Christmas presents £1.50
George pig top for JJ 50p
3 in one puzzle set 50p
Plastic divided kids plate 50p
In the night garden figures 25p for six!
Dressing up outfits 25p for fireman jacket and another outfit, can't remember what!
Duvet cover and pillow case with cars and trucks on for JJ £2
Wonderful tiger hat and mittens 30p
Christmas tin we'll use to put sweets in to give as a gift 10p
Another book-hardback collection of stories 30p
A shapes pairs game 20p
Foam sticky letters and foam smiley faces 40p
A make a doll kit with ribbons, buttons etc to make the clothes. Retailed £15, lady sold it to me for £3
Plus for free - carrier bag of clothes for Sophie, two pairs of shoes, cars for JJ, two clip on lights
And there may have been something else, I just can't remember what!

Had a lovely time anyway. And didn't get too wet, well, I dried out afterwards!

October third

All I can think of today is oh. I want to go to bed!
It's Friday, we made it to the end of the week!
Unfortunately, M is working various shifts this weekend, so I may be happy when it's got to Tuesday and he's off again!

Sophie and JJ make me laugh. When I collect JJ from preschool he tells me all about it, well, he says "i play SAND, CARS!". But then when we collect Sophie and she's telling me about her day, he will continually interrupt with "me talk 'bout my school too mummy, my school!"

October second

Right now we are going through a terrible twos tantrum stage with JJ. He'll be three in December, so I hope they finish soon.

But the big thing around here this coming week is that my baby is going to be five. That teeny tiny baby grew and grew and grew and grew some more (seriously! She's in age 7-8 clothes, and many of her clothes are 9-10!).

My Sophia Louise is turning five on Tuesday. Wherever did that time go?! She started in proper school (rather than nursery or preschool) this September, she's learning to read! (still at learning sounds stage, but she's getting better and better), she loves books, playing schools, and a whole big bunch of imaginary play.

Over the years she's had an imaginary friend called Sophie (as confusing as you might expect it to be), she's had imaginary dogs, including one called pink dog, who was, you've guessed it, pink.
There's been Ollie, and he's still around. In fact the other day, Sophie's imaginary friend Ollie went to preschool with Jaiden. How's that for confusing?!  I love my Sophia and her imagination, although sometimes I wish she would stay in the real world a little more often when I'm asking her to put her shoes on or get dressed for school.

October first

Today was the first day where Sophie was at school all day and Jaiden was at preschool all day.
I have to say, I think Wednesdays are shaping up to be good days!
I did some chilling, some cleaning, some tidying, some walking with friends, a meet and great with Sophie's school parents association (now known as friends of... To be more inclusive to all adults who want to get involved)
And collecting Sophie (M got JJ. Collection is the only potential tricky point of wednesdays - collecting them both from opposite directions, with only a few minutes to get from one to the other. But it will be fine if M is not on a shift!)
Now we're sitting watching fireman Sam - JJ's choice! And I'm being critical of all the silly reasons they're calling Sam out for!

More clear as mud conversations

JJ:  I am a nee-naw man.
Me: Are you a police nee-naw man, a fire nee-naw man, or an ambulance nee-naw man?
JJ: I am a nee-naw man, a nee-naw man like my puzzle.

Ah yes, that clears that up then (the puzzle is 'rescue squad' and has fire engine, ambulance, police car, tow truck, rescue helicopter and a life boat.  My bets are on fireman though, as he's pretty obsessed with fireman Sam at the moment)

September goals

Been thinking a lot about de cluttering and making our house less full of stuff lately. I also need to work on de-cluttering some of me, but I think that would easily take its own post.

I've been selling stuff on Facebook, in my local selling groups, and in my own Facebook group. Plus trying to give things to people who could use them, and of course sending things to charity shops.

I'm also considering starting a business venture, as a de-cluttering and organising consultant. Dunno if that's gonna work or not, but it's something I enjoy doing, so if you know anyone who needs help tackling a problem area, working on loosening emotional attachments to belongings, or just fancy a bit of help cleaning out the under stairs cupboard, just give me a shout!

Aspirations

Me: whatcha gonna be when you're older, JJ?
JJ: I be bigger and bigger and bigger
Me: ok, but what do you want to do when you're older?
JJ: I be a tiger
Me: um, ok, but what job do you want to do?
JJ: I be tiger who goes work.

Well, there you have it folks! He then proceeded to spend the rest of the car journey practicing his roar.

Awesome God!

Had a blogging  break? Uh, yeah, so I did a little bit. But there's been so much going on.

In March we moved from outer London to outta London! Not too far, still near enough to visit friends and relations, but far enough for it to have a totally different feel to the town. Yeah, it's a town. Don't think it's big enough to be a city, so that's different for a start. One of my best friends lives across town, and even at busy times, if I pick the right roads, I could get to her house probably in ten minutes.

Why did we move? Well, mostly because God told us to. We talked a bit about that  in a talk we did at church, which was recorded. I'm not going to link direct here, but if you know me in person, you could probably find it if you wanted to!

We, well firstly Menard, felt God's call to come and be a part of a church plant - a new church , still in the setting up phase. It took me a while to feel it too, but once I did, we went for it! I don't talk a huge amount about my faith on here, I proble ought to do it more! But this I will say, our lives for the past year read like an adventure book of how God has done stuff to get us here, and really just shown us that He wants us here, and  He's the one who's going to get the glory for making it happen.

I have more testimonies of God's faithfulness than I can really remember.  Some big ones include getting us a place to live. Getting us a place in a school which was our first choice, despite a phone call which showed us thst she definitely didn't have a place there initially. A preschool place for Jaiden. A new job for Menard. Enough food to eat and covering our bills and financial needs in the over two month period where we had no income coming in from Menard's job (he didn't have a job/it was the period inbetween jobs/during the first month of his new job, before he got paid)

I'm actually tearing up, Just writing about it. I am truly overwhelmed and humbled by how awesome God is, and how clear it's been that we are in the right place. We're getting stuck in at church, have made some friends who will be friends for life, and have generally thrown ourselves into life here in new town.

When I'm grown up... A peek at the world of adults from Sophie's viewpoint

The other day we had some biscuits and I let each of the children have one. Sophie asked for another, and I told her no. This caused her to become distraught with frustration and anger (not an unusual occurrence round here at the moment, unfortunately). She was so cross that I would deny her a second biscuit.   She finally choked out "when I'm a grown up, I'm going to go to the shop and buy all the chocolate biscuits and eat them all myself and not share with you".  There was a pause, and then she added, " but mummy, you will take me so I know how to get to the shop, won't you?"

The highest compliment Jaiden can bestow

Yesterday JJ and I popped to tesco to pick up a couple of things. (We came out with five bags full, but that's another story!).
On the way out we spotted a man in a high visability jacket standing in line at customer service. JJ was very excited "look mummy, bin lorry man! Bin lorry man!" (garbage truck guy, for our American readers). When we got outside he looked all around and said "oh no! Bin lorry gone. Bad man took non lorry, Bin lorry man sad".  He cannot comprehend the idea that someone in a fluorescent jacket could be anything but a bin man.

Case in point. As we got in the car, we spotted a guy who works for the store, also in a bright tabard, pushing trolleys to go away. JJ shouted with abundant glee " 'nother bin lorry man  mummy, 'nother one!".
Absolutely no persuading otherwise, that guy was clearly a bin man, moonlighting as a trolley pusher, or maybe just being helpful in a spare moment. He was a bin man, no doubt about it, and most importantly, as far a JJ was concerned, it was the best thing ever!

Happy happy

Auntie cuddles today!
Hannah and her baby are here for a few days. Staying at my mum's, but they all came over today. I got lots of cuddles, first time since Christmas! And was far too busy to take photos! Aunit
Soph took some on nana's camera though, so if I can get a hold of any of those, I'll share.

I'm blogging over at my other blog, as I try to get a hold of my eating and weight, so I'm hoping to be there most days, though it will be mostly food diary type stuff.

Missing you

We're in the process of packing up our world and moving a bit further out of London, to join a church there.
I will be back soon with more.
We have a fantastic testimony of God's faithfulness in finding our new house and many other things along the way...

Sophia's Peppa Pig Birthday Cake

Before piped features

With features (excuse the shadow, it's funny light in my kitchen)

With candles

Soph blowing out candles will come later, cos Menard took those

melts my heart to see this

Soph

"Sophie, do you want crumpets for lunch?"
Sophie looks at crumpets...
"those aren't trumpets, they're drums"

heard just now...
"I'm dressing up to look like Jesus"

Beach fun

My babies

Soph Feeds Goats!

We went with a friend and her daughter to a local 'garden centre' which also has an animal area. 

('garden centre' cos it seemed to sell anything and everything)

The girls had a fantastic time feeding goats 

(food available for 20p a handful from a little machine)

And JJ missed all most of the fun by being fast asleep. 

Chicken photographed especially for Bren

Wednesday midweek mayhem

Why hello there, have you all enjoyed your vacation?
You weren't on vacation? And I wasn't on vacation. So why the long blogging break? Yes, you there in the back? Any ideas? Nope. Ok, let's just move along now then.

Life is plodding along here. We had 3 babies born within my circle of friends last week, so I've been busy assembling rotas to feed them, thanks to my "Meals for New Mums (and dads)" scheme I decided to set up to bless them with food, knowing how blessed we were when folk brought food over when we had tiny small babies. Ok, so mine were never that small, but I grow 'em big apparently.

Jaiden has more and more words everyday. And his cheeky personality is just shining through. We'd had a couple of nights where he was awake for aged in the night, so last night Menard got him up abut 9 and changed his nappy, and both Soph and JJ slept through til half 6 this morning, so that was a success, I'd say.

We need to get dressed in a bit and head out to meet a friend this morning, and this afternoon I've got small group which a friend has set up for mums with littles. The 3 pregnant ladies were all a part of that group, and still are, except now they're mums with littles too!