Normal services will soon be resumed!

I am so sorry that I have been so quiet this last week. I have been so busy this last week sorting out Lauren for her prom this Friday and also sorting out my uni application, I have not had time to think and I just had to step away from the blog as something had to give. 

The prompt - Do you take risks?

The Prompt from the lovely Sara from Mumturnedmom for this week is a quote and it is:

Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is. 

Mark Twain

This is a quote that I can really relate to as to me this quote is about the benefit of taking risks. Now I'm not going to pretend that I am a massive risk taker, taking risks on a daily basis, as I am a parent and with that comes the responsibility to make sure that I take care of myself and my family. 

Meal planning Monday - June 23rd 2014

With a hectic week ahead I have gone for some very easy dinners as my week will be busy organising things for Lauren's prom which is fast approaching. 

Monday 23rd June.

Turkey burgers, chips and baked beans.

Themed family fun - week 15

The idea is simple - each week I will tell you a theme. It could be a colour, a shape, an animal, a holiday or anything. You then use the theme to have some family fun and write a blog post telling us all what you did. You might cook something or craft something or visit somewhere. Whatever you like as long as you are having fun.

The rules.

1) Visit my blog every Monday to see what the weeks theme will be.

2) Have fun using the theme and write up your post.

3) Make sure you include the badge or a text link to my blog so people can join in.

4) Come back on the following Saturday to see what we have done and link up your post.

5) Look at other peoples posts and comment on at least three so everyone gets some love :-)

You do not have to join in every week and if you are worried that you may forget then just follow me on twitter and I'll be tweeting reminders each week.

Each linky will be open for five days giving people plenty of time to link up their posts.

This weeks theme is

Mango

I hope that you have lot's of fun with this weeks theme and that you remember to come back on Saturday to link up your posts.

Word of the week - Renewed

Since the groovy mums linky finished I have been wondering what to do on Thursdays and how to sum up my weeks so when I discovered that there is a linky over at the reading residence which is called word of the week I happily decided that this would solve my problems so here is my first one.

Sausage herb crust pie.

Ingredients.

8 Sausages.

1/2 a chopped onion.

A tin of baked beans.

125ml water.

225g self-raising flour.

75g Stork or similar.

1 tsp mixed herbs.

A little milk.

The birth story of Chloe'

After having Lauren and enjoying being a mum so much, it wasn't very long at all before we decided to try for another baby. We thought it may take longer the second time around, but again I fell pregnant in the first month of trying. 

Meal planning Monday - June 16th 2014

This is my meal plan for this coming week, it is a week packed with old and trusted favourites and a couple from last weeks menu that I didn't make as I was unwell last week with a bug.

Monday 16th June.

Stewed stake, mashed potatoes and vegetables.

Themed family fun - week 14

The idea is simple - each week I will tell you a theme. It could be a colour, a shape, an animal, a holiday or anything. You then use the theme to have some family fun and write a blog post telling us all what you did. You might cook something or craft something or visit somewhere. Whatever you like as long as you are having fun.

The rules.

1) Visit my blog every Monday to see what the weeks theme will be.

2) Have fun using the theme and write up your post.

3) Make sure you include the badge or a text link to my blog so people can join in.

4) Come back on the following Saturday to see what we have done and link up your post.

5) Look at other peoples posts and comment on at least three so everyone gets some love :-)

You do not have to join in every week and if you are worried that you may forget then just follow me on twitter and I'll be tweeting reminders each week.

Each linky will be open for five days giving people plenty of time to link up their posts.

This weeks theme is

Rainbow

I hope that you have lot's of fun with this weeks theme and that you remember to come back on Saturday to link up your posts.

Themed family fun - prince or princess week

Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net by digitalart  

Welcome to prince or princess week!

Again it was very quiet last week so I would really appreciate it if you could help spread the word about this linky. 

The prompt - rules

The Prompt for this week from the lovely Sara at Mumturnedmom is a phrase and it is:

Rules are meant to be broken

This is one of those phrases which always makes me smile when I hear it. I have always been someone that belives in setting and following rules and I know that some people would rather there be no rules, so that we could all be free to do as we please, but when I think of a world with no rules all I can think of is complete anarchy!

Our day of shopping in Colchester

Last Saturday Chloe and myself went to Colchester for a day of shopping and some much needed one on one time as Chloe is a middle child that just gets on with things she can be easily forgotten in day to day life when I have a 6 year old that needs lots of attention and a 16 year old that for the last two years has had many problems and needed a lot of time and attention.

Low cost fathers day gift ideas

With Fathers day fast approaching I thought that I had better get my thinking cap on for gift ideas and I thought that I would share with you all the ideas that I have had in case you are also in need of a bit of inspiration too.

Meal planning Monday - June 9th 2014

I am a huge fan of meal planning as I wrote in one of first posts - The importance of meal planning. When I came across a linky called Meal planning Monday from At home with Mrs M, I knew that it was one linky that I would have to join in with. I also think that it is a good idea to share my meal plan each week as sometimes it can be tough trying to work out what to have each week so hopefully my plans with offer some inspiration to others and also inspire me as I read other bloggers plans.

Themed family fun - week 13

The idea is simple - each week I will tell you a theme. It could be a colour, a shape, an animal, a holiday or anything. You then use the theme to have some family fun and write a blog post telling us all what you did. You might cook something or craft something or visit somewhere. Whatever you like as long as you are having fun.

Post-it note holders.

Today we wanted to make something inspired by the colour yellow for my themed family fun linky and our first thought was the sun, quickly followed by post-it notes. With the summer holidays fast approaching I knew that it would soon be time to think of a thank you gift for Faith to give to her teacher so we decided to make a post it note holder for her teacher to put on her fridge.

Themed family fun - Yellow week

Welcome to yellow week!

Big thanks to the lovely new linker that we had last week although it is still very quiet at the moment. Come on people - help spread the word and get a few more people joining in!

My #shelfie!

Victoria Plumb and Tots100 are running a blogging challenge for us bloggers to share our shelfie on Twitter and share a blog post with you all about what we have on our shelve.

I have chosen my book shelve in my living room as that is my favourite shelve in my house. It is the only place that everyone in our house knows that they can not leave all their random things on and they can not take anything off the shelve as it is my shelve!

The prompt - Favourite smells!

This weeks Prompt from the lovely Sara over at Mumturnedmom is a topic and it is:

My favourite smell…

There are many smells that I love such as the beautiful smell of a new born baby, I remember when Faith was small and I would hold her up to my nose and breath in her delicate scent that was ever so slightly unique to her. 

How I plan my blog

You may remember last week when I posted about my blog planner, well today I will tell you how I actually plan my blog using my planner and one other tool. An index card holder and cards.

These are so cheap and for me such a great way to plan my blog, I love them. The holder only cost £1.50 from Asda and a pack of 100 cards is also only £1.50. I have three main categories for my cards which are; blog posts with deadlines, ideas for blog posts and linkies that I take part in.

May 2014

Another month of highs and lows, although I am pleased to say that there were many more highs then lows this month so things are improving!

This month has had some beautiful weather and I will remember a particular day in early May as a treasured memory for Darren and myself as I awoke to Darren telling me that he had made a picnic and wanted me to throw caution to the wind and drop all my plans for the day and accompany him on a romantic picnic on the beach while the kids were at school. Now as many of you will probably know by now,  I am a planner and I live my life by following my many lists as I like to feel in control of life but on this day I decided that I could move all my work to the following day and as Darren had gone to so much trouble I would not put up any resistance. I'm so glad that I went as it was such a relaxing day and the weather was so beautiful that I actually got a tan and that is normally unheard of for me! We sat on the beach and I read my book while Darren listened to his Ipod and we talked about where our life is heading and plans, hopes and dreams for the future and it was a really lovely day.

A pint of socks

Buying gifts for father's day or any celebration where you need to buy for a man can be tricky so making a pint of socks for the man in your life can be a great idea especially if you would like to get the kids involved to help make a lovely gift.

Chloe's 15th

On Friday May 30th it was Chloe's 15th birthday.

I didn't really have that much to do for this one this year as she wanted money so she could go on a shopping spree so we just got her some nail bits as she loves doing her nails and then put money in the card. I am not normally very keen on giving money as I think that it is much more thoughtful to choose a gift but I knew that Chloe would be much more happy with cash like most kids her age probably would and I know that I can trust her not to waste it on silly things as she is very responsible for her age.

Themed family fun - week 12

The idea is simple - each week I will tell you a theme. It could be a colour, a shape, an animal, a holiday or anything. You then use the theme to have some family fun and write a blog post telling us all what you did. You might cook something or craft something or visit somewhere. Whatever you like as long as you are having fun.