Since Kate was born I have been taking a picture of all four of us together on Father’s Day. This year was our third year and that definitely makes it a tradition in my eyes.
I cannot tell you how much I love this photo. We are all smiling and looking at the camera. Which is even more impressive when you know that difficult children and a slightly grumpy Mr C meant I was only allowed 2 takes. I can’t see it normally but Piran and Kate look so familiar facially in this picture. It is just lovely seeing us all together as a family.
I cannot remember the last time I managed to join in with The Gallery but this week I just had the perfect picture.
This wonderful man is not only the one person who can keep me going, understands my craziness and is always there for me. He is also a brilliant Dad. He is the one that will ROAR like a dinosaur. And “play fighting”. And hide. He is the soft touch when it comes to getting what you want. He can be grumpy but these two can always put a smile on his face. He is strong and loyal and soft hearted. I am so glad that we found each other and made these two marvelous creatures.
Inspired by Che and Fidel – one picture of each of my children a week for 52 weeks.
Noisy, cheeky, has very selective hearing.
Funny, adorable, screams when she sees her brother for the first time each morning.
I am in a very odd mood at the moment. I don’t feel able to commit to anything, I drift from one thing to another not really putting any effort in at all. I feel like I want to be doing something but can never decide exactly what I should be doing. It frustrating and annoying and I end up being really cross with myself.
I think that it is the usual case though of one thing itself not being so straight forward. For example I want to write a blog post but our computer isn’t working (thankfully Mr C had fixed our old laptop a couple of weeks ago so I am not computer free). The pictures I want for my post are on my computer though and not yet backed up. I have realised that some are still on the camera so I am making do. All of this has taken hours to do rather than my usual 30 minutes. So frustrating. And everything else is the same.
I have been thinking a lot about what I love to do – basically making beautiful or useful things for people. But I really need to collect my thoughts and decide exactly what I want to make, how I am going to make it, where I plan on selling it. I need to think about marketing and costing items and taking pictures. I need to find ways to show people my fabric stash so they can pick what they want.
The house gets cleaned eventually but I wish I had the get up and go to just get it all done at once but I am nowhere near that organised and energetic these days. I am lucky to have a fair amount of child free hours in the week so that I can get everything done – looking after the house, the shopping, the cleaning. But because I am in a muddle all the time I just don’t feel like I do anything WELL.
I made a decision today – all day Wednesday will be devoted to endeavors that could earn me money – so blogging and replying to my files of emails, and then sewing and designing things. Today I have spent three hours doing the computer bits but once this post is written I am going to break out the sewing machine and try something completely new. Wish me luck.
Oh and let me know if you have the same troubles and let me know what you do to stay organised and feel on top of things. I used to be uber organised when I worked in an office, having children and working from home seems to have broken me!
Inspired by Che and Fidel – one picture of each of my children a week for 52 weeks.
Excited about ‘Big School’, full of questions, usually a dinosaur.
Learned the word “why”, has no fear, charms everyone she meets.
This is a guest post written for my website by Credit Expert. More information on this type of post can be found on my Disclosure for Readers page.
It’s never been harder to buy a house – and prospective mortgage applicants will know that trying to finance getting onto the housing ladder these days is not an easy feat. While the March Budget offered some favourable news for house buyers, if you’re planning on buying a house in the foreseeable future, now is the perfect time to start looking into your personal finance and giving them a bit of a spruce up!
The 2013 Budget included interest-free loans worth 20% of the value of new homes, as well as government guarantees for 3 years and funding for buy to rent schemes, which will likely be good news for the seemingly stagnant housing market – but if you’re serious about applying for a mortgage, you need to take the necessary steps to give you the best chance of a positive result, starting now.
The easiest way in which you could give yourself a fighting chance is to find out more about your credit scores. It can have a massively undesirable effect on your chances of a mortgage if it’s a little on the poor side. Find out just how healthy your credit reference will be at http://www.creditexpert.co.uk/credit-reference-agency.aspx. Here, you will find all the information you need to know about your credit score, which will give you an indicator as to just how hard you will have to work to make it better.
The best mortgage rates are normally reserved for those with higher scores and while there is no immediate fix for a poor credit score, there are several ways in which you can boost your rating. Click here to find out your current credit rating and read on for more information on how to improve it.
• Sign up to the Electoral Roll as soon as you can, because this is one of the easiest ways in which you can give your credit rating a quick boost. When you move home, you’re not automatically tracked, so make sure they know your current whereabouts.
• Pay off your credit cards quicker by paying more than the minimum payments each month. If you can, pay off the balance each month in full to show you’re a reliable user.
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• Make sure your information is all up to date on your credit report.
Don’t let what has happened in the past affect how you live your future. Buying your own home is a huge step, but one that can be taken a little easier with a better hold on your personal finance. While it’s not easy to buy a house these days, spring cleaning your credit scores will improve your chances of getting on that housing ladder rung.
Dear Kate,
You are Two.
And you really, really are. You are a talking, running, shouting, demanding, loud, silly, fearless, determined, charming, clever, tantruming two year old.
Everything you do is full on. No middle road for you. From the minute you wake up you are UP. We are woken to your shouts at around 6am every morning. Sometimes you call MUMMY, some times DADDY. Sometimes you just start demanding things – like JOOSE or CEREAL. Other days you manage to get out of your room without help and you wander in to see your brother or me. You always have a GOOD MORNING for everyone. I would like it if you could work on your volume control!
You don’t really walk anywhere anymore – you run. It is a very strange run, all flailing arms and legs but you have great balance and rarely fall over outside. There is excitement in everything you do. You scream with happiness all the time. You jump up and down instead of just standing still. You always want to play with everyone else, and love your brother and older children so much. You have moved out of the baby area at nursery without a second glance and love being free to join in with everyone. You follow your brother around a bit and get on his nerves but he only has a few more weeks there and then you will be on your own. I wonder if you will be as confident without him there.
Your speech is amazing. I don’t like to boast about my children but enough people have said it to me that I know it isn’t just my motherly bias. You use whole sentences, can always tell me what you want. No tantrums for you because I couldn’t understand you, we have gone straight to the big eyes and “please mummy”. You have learned that from your brother. You sing whole songs – you love music and melodies – you pick them up really quickly.
You love being outside, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dinosaur train. You love to play with your dollies putting them to bed and waking them up. You love books and music. You love to listen to Old Jack’s Boat podcasts in the car and always shout “Come on Salty”. You are afraid of dogs and cats. You love the park and after ages of not being bother ed you now want to stay in the swings forever shouting “higher, higher” all the time, until my arms drop off from tiredness. You will always climb the highest slide.
You had a brilliant birthday and loved having a party with your friends and a cake and lots of new toys to play with. I felt so proud of you that day and so very happy. You refused to nap all day and was still going strong even when your brother and I had fallen asleep together in the chair!
You copy and mimic everything your brother does. You speak like him, act like him. You give him cuddles when he is upset. I worry what it will be like when he goes to school at the end of the summer. I am looking forward to being able to spend time just the two of us though – I promise lots of interesting adventures.
This picture sums you up perfectly – crazy hair, full of happiness and joy and bounce. Playing with your brother. I love it.
I love you so much that it takes my breath away. I find it so hard to match your sunny self with the baby that had such a hard time adjusting to the world, but in the end that is what makes you so miraculous. Everyone says that you are like a completely different child and I am so happy that finally everyone else is getting to see the glorious girl that I knew was there all along. I am so looking forward to all the fun that we are going to have this summer.
All my love,
Mum x
With summer holidays fast approaching MoneySupermarket set the Inspect a Gadget challenge for bloggers to review cheaper versions of all the most popular travel gadgets, like tablets, e readers and MP3 players. These items don’t come cheap, so they were looking to find great alternatives that will be kinder to your bank balance.
I was given a choice of 5 different gadgets to trial – from e-readers to video cameras and tablets. I chose the Kobo Mini e-reader. I am a book lover – you cannot beat the real thing in my eyes so I have been very resistant of going hi-tech in my reading habits. However I have come to realise that since becoming a mum my reading habits have not only changed considerably but I just don’t have space in my bag for a heavy book all the time.
First impressions: It is really tiny! It fits in my hand quite snugly. The back is soft to touch instead of hard plastic so it is really comfortable. Getting started was really simple and I was reading books as soon as the reader was charged. I have downloaded lots of free classics and purchased myself a book to get me started.
I liked: It is so small and convenient. When I was younger half my holiday luggage would be books as I basically spent the whole holiday reading! Now I would only have to take this. And it seems that I am able to borrow ebooks from the library and read them on this device which we are unable to do on my husband’s Kindle. It is perfect to slip in my bag and I have read it at the park, when I am out alone with the kids and they are happy playing, in bed – everywhere. It does everything that I would want from an e-reader. It is easy to read inside and outside in bright sunshine so great for your holiday.
I didn’t like: The e-reader is charged via my computer and I thought that this would cause issues when traveling but it seems that the battery can last up to 1 month on a single charge so no need to worry about that. If you were going to be away for an extended period of time this would be a factor to consider. I found quite often that the pages either didn’t turn or were too sensitive and turned when I just brushed the screen which could be frustrating at times. One or two times the e-reader crashed while I was using it and I had to restart it.
Overall: This is my new favourite thing. I am converted to the way of e-readers and it has the added benefit of being so small that I can take it anywhere. I think that for £50 this is great value fgor money and would be the perfect addition to anyone’s travel luggage. Obviously there is the added expense of buying books but most people would do that anyway and do check out your local library to see if you can borrow ebooks for free.
Further information: You can follow @MoneySupermkt on twitter and see the other reviews using the #InspectAGadget hashtag. It makes for interesting reading, I was so tempted by the mini camcorder but I am glad I chose the Kobo!
Disclosure: I was sent the funds by Money Supermarket to purchase this item for the purpose of this review.
Inspired by Che and Fidel – one picture of each of my children a week for 52 weeks.
Best things about camping: Sleeping in the tent and having his friends there all the time. Loved being with the boys.
Chatty & happy. When camping and being outside all the time became too much she just sat in the tent and kept herself amused.
Inspired by Che and Fidel – one picture of each of my children a week for 52 weeks.
A little worn out and wanting loads of cuddles this week.
New saying: “I don’t know”
