Tuesday, 29 November 2016

What do you do ALL DAY?

This is a question I recently had posed to me.  What do you do all day long?  As a stay at home parent, it's something I've often imagined people wondering.  Usually people who don't have children.  Or partners who've never done the "stay at home" thing.  I'm sure, on occasion, my husband as wondered the same.  Especially now Felix has started at preschool.

The fact is, I do often wonder where the time has gone myself.  At present, Ethan is at school full time.  Felix is at preschool but only for the 15 hours which are funded.  By the time I'm back home from dropping both of them off at least half an hour of that precious time has gone.  Once I get in the house and gather my thoughts, tidy up from breakfast etc it is often getting close to 10 am.  Feix has to be picked up at 1:30 pm so at this point only 3.5 hours remain.  I have to fit my own lunch in at some point.  Quite often make a packed lunch for one or both of the boys the following day.  House work.  Washing/folding/putting away clothing.  It amazes me how "little" I seem to get done.  It has to be said that I do like to keep a very tidy home.   I'm sure I could write far more blog posts or drum up more blogging work for myself if I loosened my grip on the house.  Really, I should.  I do love a tidy home though.  I love that I know where everything is.  There aren't piles of clothing and toys and other items hanging around to be put away.  Jobs do get done in this house.  We do tend to get on with things pretty quickly.  DIY, chores etc.  I don't like to leave them hanging around and neither does Pete really.  We work hard at it.

A quiet moment

Some of my time at home I do chose to use to relax in a little.  Yes, I will have a coffee and read a while.  I've been a stay at home Mum for over 7 years now and much of that time has been exhausting, draining and hard.  It's been lovely too and immensely rewarding, but it's been a long time and I am itching for time for myself and to start to do something different.  I'll always be a Mum and I'd never change that.  My boys will always need me.  The house will always be there needing something doing on it.  But I need something else in my life.  So, what do I do all day?  A whole heap of things but also, right now, I'm job hunting and trying to figure out what I want to do and how that will fit in with everyone else.  And if that means I have the odd quiet coffee by myself, so be it.  There's enough judging and ill feeling in this world without begrudging me that!


My home.. always being tweaked! 

Friday, 18 November 2016

We're repping for Moromini!

This week brought some very exciting news!   Brand Repping is a big thing on Instagram.  We've repped for a few brands over the last couple of years.  This year I took a step back from all the brand repping.  Sometimes it can be rather soulless, the entering of rep searches, the way it can make you feel if you don't get picked, the way it feels if you keep seeing the same people being picked over and over.  It all gets a little bit... I'm not sure.  I was feeling jaded by it.

There's so much I love about Instagram.  There's a lovely community there and I feel I've made life long friends there.  I enjoy seeing what others are up to and I enjoy seeing amazing quality photos there.  Snapshots of life.  I didn't feel I wanted to keep "chasing" something that wasn't necessarily bringing me happiness. So. A step back from entering rep searches.  Until I spotted a brand I love, Moromini, searching for reps a couple of weeks ago.  And I just couldn't resist.  Rather like repping for Slugs & Snails tights in the last year, I knew this brand would be a perfect fit for us.  Bright, colourful, full of patterns, clothes the boys and I genuinely like.  Encouraged by Anna who owns Funky Little People to enter, I did.  This Monday the lucky reps were announced and we were among them!  It made me grin from ear to ear.  It will bring me nothing but joy to work alongside a brand we love and I can't wait to help them out sharing photos on Instagram, Twitter and over here.  I believe brand repping should be a joy.  Not something you do because you want some kind of "InstaFame" or just because you are desperate for "free" clothes (they aren't free though.  This is an exchange of clothing for your time, skills and audience).  I am so proud we will be working with a Mama created brand with a wonderful ethos, Europe made clothing, organic cloth, designed with children in mind, not mini adults.

Moromini, Scandi, Kids Clothing
Felix wearing a Moromini Fried Egg Top

Moromini, Scandi, Kids Clothing
Felix snoozing in his Moromini Trousers

I can tell this is going to be a wonderful partnership and I'm very happy to have some cool Mama's and kids repping alongside us, not in the least Hannah from Make, Do & Push!  High five missus!

Thursday, 10 November 2016

Keeping children entertained on long car journeys

We've just booked a weekend break for the end of February half term and are also thinking about summer holidays, where we want to go etc. We have been parents for over 7 years now and we know all about traveling with children. It's hard work at the best of times, even a short journey can be trying! Ethan, our eldest, suffers from travel sickness, so we have that to contend with as well.. Just as I was thinking about where to go on holiday and how to minimise the stress of journeys I read this post published on the woodentoyshop.com's blog. There are some very useful tips and great game ideas, I love the car bingo! I found it a good read so thought I'd share it over here! No harm and you might just pick up a new idea!


Travelling with Kids