Me Time

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me-time
Infographic from happify.com

 

This weekend I have a night and day alone at home, my first in over 6 years since the children came to live with us.  This quirk came around as Little Miss is away on Brownie camp and there is a family celebration at Mr S’ sister’s this weekend which the boys are attending.  I was not comfortable with attending the event in case there was an emergency with Little Miss and she needed me quickly so I stayed at home.  This is the first night I’ve been away from my babies in 6 years, its strange and I miss them but its an important step for both of them.  I hope we’ve been able to give them the confidence and independence to be away from me whilst being secure and enjoying their time away.  Little Man is with Daddy and has had a brilliant day but its hard not knowing how Little Miss is getting on at camp.  For all her confident manner and bravado, she can be fragile and needs reassurance, I hid a little note in her pyjamas to remind her how loved she is and that we are all hoping she has a brilliant time away.  The cuddle I give her when I pick her up at 12 tomorrow will be one of the sweetest we’ve shared.

So, the day which I have dreamed of arrived today.  This week I’ve spent lots of time thinking about what I would like to do, although I have been restricted by my need to be local and ready to drop everything if needed.  I think an ideal day on my own would be at a spa or visiting some galleries in a big city.   I am somebody who spends all my time with people at work and home and am always busy, busy, busy.   I was looking forward to the solitude.  Today has taught me that for all I dream about being lazy and doing nothing I’m not really that sort of person.  I had imagined after waving the boys off at 7.30 that I would jump back into bed but I was awake and looking for something to do.  By lunchtime I had been to the gym, sorted out and organised my wardrobe, chatted to my mum on the phone, done some recycling at the tip, pottered around choosing a book in the library, driven over to the neighbouring town and done a little shopping!  Since then I’ve read, wrapped Christmas presents, watched Strictly and this is my second blog post written.  Its been a day of simple pleasures and to be honest not that much different from a normal Saturday just without the company of my 3 favourite people.  The bonus was that I’ve not needed to think about making meals!

I do think that having a little time to yourself is a real luxury and a nice way of reminding yourself of the things you like to do.  I feel refreshed and relaxed and know that I’m going to be a happier and engaged Mummy tomorrow when we are all home together.  I just hope that the little ones are not too tired to share their stories and adventures with me.

I am that woman …

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November 5th and feeling organised…

Whilst it is only November 5th, my plans for Christmas 2016 are well in progress and it makes me happy to be this organised and prepared.  I think this is partly because I grew up in a pretty chaotic family where Christmas eve shopping was part of the norm and everything seemed to be done quite haphazardly, I have happy Christmas memories but even at my young age craved some organisation in the season!  Now as a parent and teacher December is just a crazy, crazy month full of parties, events and concerts which I want to enjoy and not to feel stressed about other things I should be doing.  I should add that whilst I may not be running around the in the last week of term doing Christmas cards and presents, I’ll be making costumes, finding props and helping to create a grotto at work, so I will still have my share of Christmas madness.

I plan for Christmas from January, I do actually take time to reflect and record the good bits and what to improve next year and write them in my Christmas book.  This is incredibly useful and my Christmas book is a lovely momento of Christmas pasts, I record everything about our Christmas with a few photos. At this time of year, I start to plan menus, gift lists, decorations and cards and wrapping. This year, we are away so the menus have been deleted from the to do list, however given our holiday, my Christmas deadline for everything is December 17th, so planning is key.

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I take great care in my present buying, each gift is always about the individual I am buying for and I take some time at this time of the year to start perusing Christmas catalogues and websites for inspiration.  I actually keep a note during  the year of any ideas or conversations to help me with ideas.  Mum has made a few comments about my soup maker, so its on the list for her, whilst a book I loved and know my friend will love it too has been bought for her.  I try and do as much shopping as I can locally, we have a fantastic toy shop specialising in Lego so I have already been there to purchase some Lego advent calendars,  they are an expensive calendar and different to our normal chocolate version but we’ve decided to deduct them from the Christmas present budget.  I am making great progress on my present list and have started to wrap them up and label those to be posted. I don’t wish to freak my friends out so they will be posted sometime in December.  I really think that this organisation makes Christmas so much more fun and relaxed.  Christmas is not about gifts to me it is something more spiritual and family orientated, as illustrated in one of my favourite Christmas quotes is from Dr Seuss in the Grinch Who Stole Christmas

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Month in a Word – October, Nature

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outdoors

At this time of year, every sunny day is a bonus and to be embraced and enjoyed.  The past month has got cooler but there have been many bright, crisp days and we have been able to enjoy many longs walks and adventures outdoors.  This month we have done lots of outdoor activities, the advantage of staying at home for half term was the opportunity to explore and play outdoors everyday, we went to the beach, local beauty spots and country parks and it felt a very wholesome and fulfilling holiday.  I love being out it grounds me, connects me to our environment and inspires.

Halloween 2016

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Halloween in the 80s

Unusually Halloween lands on a school day this year and with clubs running we won’t be celebrating on Monday evening as a family.  I have such fond childhood memories of Halloween that on Sunday we will be doing some of my childhood favourites, bobbing for apples, swinging sticky pudding and dressing up.  Whilst we have so many family traditions, trick or treating has never been a feature of Halloween and again the children won’t be doing it for Halloween 2016, the Beavers are going on a haunted walk in the dark and the Brownies have a fancy dress party. Both the children are really excited by their planned activities.

Today we have been decorating the house for Halloween. I do love a decoration to add a little sparkle to a celebration.  A lot of my decorations have been collected over the years but this year we have our first  Halloween tree.  It’s a tree which gets recycled for Easter, Christmas and now Halloween! I bought some lovely felt decorations last year and with some new diddy pumpkin lights, the tree is gorgeous.  My lightbox has a seasonal message and some of Little Man’s Lego figures have been added to the display since the photo was taken. The little Frankenstein toy is a musical toy which plays Ghostbusters.  Mr S bought it for the children’s first Halloween and it is a much loved toy.  To retain the magic, I pack it away with the Halloween decorations so there is always great excitement when the children see it every year.  The Halloween table is in the living room and I will add a bowl of treats  for Halloween too.  The window display is in the kitchen by our table where we sit for our meals.  The haunted house light is new this year from a local shop, it can be programmed to change the light patterns whilst the pumpkins balloons and the pumpkin scarecrows were presents.  The candle holders are last year’s decorations and a battery tea light enables the flickering candle effect.  My decorations always reflect a cute side to Halloween. I don’t want to scare the children with guts and gore.

Halloween has always been a special time and I hope that the little treats we do over the weekend will make it so for the children too. 7127d129-b02e-4e8f-b056-94222a7d716c

 

Harvest Festival

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As a teacher and parent I tend to do school events twice, once at work and then repeated at my childrens’ school.  The work events are more stressful as I am usually involved in preparing and presenting the event, but at the primary school, I enjoy relaxing and watching the event as an enthusiastic and supportive parent.  At this time of year its harvest festival, our school event this year featured a scarecrow parade which was brilliant.  We simply offered some ideas and inspiration to our classes and the results were stunning, ten life size scarecrows accompanied me in presenting our harvest festival and the children dancing Dingle Dangle Scarecrow with their models was just a classic moment.  The primary school’s festival took place in our local church, a gorgeous and atmospheric setting.  All the children sat at the front in their classes and sang and did the actions to their well rehearsed songs.  There are some lovely harvest songs now, my favourite contemporary song is Harvest Samba, but the reception children singing Big, red combine harvester is always a super sweet moment too.  I do miss Colours of Day and Autumn days from my primary school days, I may add one to our school festival next year for a retro feel!  Thanks to some helpful advice from Little Man’s 1:1, we were able to secure prime position to see our little ones perform at the church.  Little Man needs reassurance and to be able to see us clearly at such big events, so it was a relief for us to be right in front of him and able to give him broad smiles, thumbs up etc.. Little Miss was two rows behind him.  For her, singing and performing come easily and confortably, she has a beautiful voice and loves to sing. It was wonderful to see them both perform and be proud of their role in the festival.  I do enjoy harvest festivals, they are a lovely autumn tradition and I’m lucky that even when my children leave primary school I’ll still be able to continue celebrating them annually at my work and to give thanks for our harvests.

Hygge

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At this time of year as Autumn draws in, I like to focus on creating a cosy, warm home. A home that from the first step in feels comfortable, relaxed and safe.  In the autumn, it may be the smell from a slow cooker recipe wafting through the house, the blanket on the sofa to snuggle into whilst reading a book, a candle or essential oils filling the air with a warm and spicy aroma .  Much of this is compatible with the Danish philosophy of Hygge which is very much in vogue at present.  I was introduced to hygge last year in the Simple Life magazine and recently read a book on the subject by Pia Edberg. Hygge is a difficult word to translate from Danish, Edberg describes it as ‘the concept of cosiness ….. the art of creating warmth, comfort and wellbeing…’ From my reading it’s creating a simple, purposeful life and a philosophy so much to my own too.  I think living in a small rural town, we have less materialistic  pressures, we have small, mainly independent shops and buy what we need.  When I visit big town I feel quite overwhelmed by the choice.  In a small town we create our own leisure time as facilities are limited, there is a culture of joining clubs and supporting local events.  Daytime activities are using and appreciating our environment whether it be for running, walking or water sports and evenings are for sports, drama and creative activities.  We live surrounded by the wonder of our natural environment, I love to walk along the beach in wellies, wrapped up in a scarf and woolly hat and just look out to the sea.  Until I lived at the seaside I never realised the different shades of blue for the sea, it really is different every day.  I tend to run off road in the fields and countryside and again the colours as they fade from green to brown show the changing seasons.  The beauty of spending time outside is the opportunity to warm up in front of a fire or relaxing in a warm, bubble bath.

I am interested in the concept of hygge and how it relates to our happiness, I think being with nature grounds us, enjoying simple pleasures relaxes us and being with friends and family in comfortable environments encourages good mental health, everything always seems better once discussed and problems less surmountable.

Resources for Hygge

http://www.thesimplethings.com/blog/hyggetalk

 

 

The little sparkles of Dad’s 70th birthday

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I enjoy the preparation and planning of celebrations, big or small. To me life is not about the big, brash displays but events created with love and effort. Today is my dad’s 70th birthday and part of the fun for me was being able to be at his house this morning to start the day with some sparkle. We were able to travel up to my parents’ last night as by some fantastic fluke the children had an Inset day at school today, such perfect timing.

Since we’ve had the children, I love the magic of the night before a birthday, decorating the kitchen table with balloons, bunting and cards and presents. Today was no different, although I had to wake early this morning to decorate as Dad would have spotted the surprise last night as he locked up. Along with the 70th balloons and banners, I had prepared photo table decorations. I colour copied a variety of photos, laminated them and then stuck them to coloured straws and displayed them in glasses. It’s something simple which brings back happy memories and is also a way of remembering those whom we loved. My dad could recall the details of all the photos this morning and told us his memories of the days, some of the stories I hadn’t heard before and it was lovely to hear the history of our family.

Normally I like to make a cake, especially for my dad who has always been a keen recipient of my bakes but I knew it was going to be a really busy week and I wasn’t sure when I would be able to fit in the baking and decorating. Instead I tried a photo cake, I chose a photo of my dad driving a tram, that’s his passion in life and was taken on a recent holiday with his tram society, and wrote a greeting, princie is a family nickname. The cake was delicious and an acceptable alternative to a homemade cake. We’ll be back visiting at half term and I’m sure I’ll take a homemade treat for dad then.

In addition to the decorations,music is important to me, I like a soundtrack to the important events in life, so I had also made a playlist for this morning. As my dad came into the kitchen, Congratulations was played and then over the cards and presents and a lazy, family breakfast we played the number 1 hits from his birthday over the decades, there were some cracking tunes in the list and I might have had a little dance in the kitchen.

Whilst a birthday is for cards and gifts, my dad is a really difficult person to buy for, he is not one for presents, he prefers treats which cannot be bought, for example time with his family. However at a birthday it’s nice to have something to open, so I had bought a Grandad’s special treat box filled with his favourite sweet treats from the children and a clock from Mr S and I, which I chose in a local art gallery to fit in with the style and decor of his study.

I really enjoyed our relaxed, family morning with my little family and parents and I hoped that my dad appreciated the little extras to make his 70th birthday sparkle.

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September’s Month in a Word: School

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An easy choice this month, September was all about school in our household. The children returned to school this month, joining Years 2 and 4, whilst I started a new role in my school.  I now work as an Assistant Head leading Key Stages 2,3 and 4.  I’m still working part time, one of the key themes of our ethos is creating a family friendly work environment and I am leading by example. It is demanding, exhilarating, interesting, intense and so much more.  It’s safe to say that thinking (worrying) about my little ones and their transition to their new classes and then my new role too, most of my thoughts this month have centred on school.

Yes I can, a new playroom and work clothes #littleloves

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So the routines are ticking along this week, the excitement of going back to school has passed and we’re back to clubs and the usual buzz of the week.  I’ve been on domestic goddess duty this week.  During the summer it felt we were hardly in the house just passing through and only the basic housework was done to keep the house clean and tidy, however this week I’ve been blitzing the house, washing curtains and blinds, sorting clothes and toys etc..  The house looks and feels refreshed now and ready for the coming month.  We even had our boiler serviced this week ready for those cold days.

 

READ

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Work is hard at present, so my reading needs to be light and fun.  Since I had my Kindle I have been trialling Kindle Unlimited and have downloaded a few books, one of which is Fat Chance by Nick Spalding.  Its about an overweight couple trying to lose weight through a local radio competition, I’m about a third way through and its just what I need at present.

WATCHED

This advert has been broadcast on Channel 4 during the summer and I love it.  On Wednesday I led an assembly at work on the Paralympics and we played this video and then after watching it and all feeling wowed our students communicated what they can do.  It was really one of those lump in your throat moments and I’m not sure how I managed to stay composed.  I work with Special Needs students and for them to see such a positive and inspiring video telling them yes they can definitely makes it my watch of the week.

Other watches this week are sitting on a bench at the quay on a beautiful sunny evening watching Little Man having his first go at kayaking with the Beavers which was a great success and of course, episode 2 of my current TV favourite, Cold Feet.

HEARD

My theme tune at the moment is Jess Glynne’s Hold My Hand, its not a recent release but its words resonate with me at the moment.

MADE

 I made space in the children’s play room this week, we are redecorating it this weekend and are trying to theme it to a more junior theme.  I’ve recycled some old games and the big lego has gone too, its rather sad as it seems they are growing up too quickly.  However I am excited about our plans and Mr S starts decorating tomorrow.

WORE

I’m still in my shorts and flip flops but have been smartening up for work in my new senior role, this week I enjoyed wearing a lovely full striped skirt matched with a smart black top and have also purchased a new navy smart skirt in New Look.  My work wardrobe has to be quite flexible, smart for meetings but I go to support in class a lot so I need clothes which can be cleaned easily, durable and will enable me to help in interventions.  New Look is good for reasonable priced work clothes. I tend to wear a lot of leggings and converse pumps at school too.

AND FINALLY

We’re busy decorating this week, I love the final touches and making sure it looks just right so I’m doing some browsing and buying a few sparkles.

This week I’m linking up with Morgana and her fab team of #Littleloves at http://coffeeworksleeprepeat.com

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A little Autumn style for Little Miss

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I really enjoy reading blogs showing different styles and looks for children. This weekend we did a bit of clothes shopping for Autumn and whilst I am unable to show Little Miss modelling her new clothes I thought I would show a few of my favourites.  I try to go for a colour theme to make it easier to mix and match, this year it’s an unusual choice for me ochre, grey and dark denim but I love this combination.  We had a little fashion show yesterday and it all looked fab together.  I love Little Miss in a dark denim pinafore for winter with a long sleeve top underneath, we’ve had versions from Boden and Next and both were durable, washed well and looked gorgeous. This year we’ve gone with the Next shift dress, same idea with a long sleeve top underneath but hopefully reflecting her age.  The denim is so nice and soft in this dress and at £9 was excellent value from Next. The afore mentioned long sleeve tops are from Tu Clothing, the photo does not do them justice the dog print is delightful and I really like the dotty version too.  The plain ones are useful against her London Boden pinafore from last year, I bought it big so it should be perfect this year and fits into the colour scheme. The grey quilted skirt is from Sainsburys Tu, again a choice to reflect her age, it’ll be paired with leggings or tights. My final purchase has been her Awesome hoodie it’s always nice to be reminded how great you are and can be worn with any of the outfits or jeans. Little Miss is delighted by her new clothes, although she had to be persuaded not to wear any today as we enjoy a bright, sunny day and a bonus shorts day!