This weeks HomeEd set up

I finally pulled my finger out and rearranged the activity shelves for Ethan as well as putting out Butterfly Lifecycle corner together. The boys have been attending our local Montessori Preschool but they finish on Friday. Nathan will be turning 5 in August and will be the official school age and Ethan, well he just doesn't want to go anymore and would rather have fun being out and doing things.

With this all in mind I need to make sure we have plenty to do at home. Here are our shelves at the moment.

Transferring activity

Colour sorting and fine motor grip

Lacing card

Transferring, control of pestle and mortar and will smell amazing!

We have also been observing our caterpillars as they have rapidly grown and are now in their Chrysalides. With this is mind I set up a nature/science corner with a few activities.

A selection of fiction and non fiction books, the butterfly garden which we will transfer the chrysalides into tomorrow and their magnifying glasses.

Here we have the Butterfly Life Cycle cards and booklet purchased from here and also a Spielgaben nature card which helps with control of error.

We'll see how this week goes but with their daddy away working I've made sure we're pretty busy going out and seeing friends so it may be that these activities last longer than a week. Once these butterflies hatch out we're going on a new caterpillar hunt to start all over again.

Heres looking forward to an amazing week.

L x

Ethan turns 3!

Wow what a busy week. Our days seem to merge into weeks and before you know it we're halfway through summer!

This week saw our littlest boy turn 3. He's such a beautiful person, so kind and caring but also a little tornado as well full of energy and mischief.

This year has seen us have terrible financial strains due to all of our predicted work contracts being pushed back until the end of the year. This has meant us living off of our savings which have just about run out. Luckily it is now picking up and there is light at the end of the tunnel. It did however make us re-evaluate how we have been with money the last few years. Pretty frivolous. 

For Ethans birthday I had to look hard at what he would like, shop around and keep it to a minimum. He received his bike, this was in the sale and a fantastic price, a couple of Peppa Pig books and puzzles and the blanket that I had made for him. Do you know what? He was ecstatic and it was the best birthday/christmas celebration we have had. Nathans birthday is a couple of weeks away and the same will happen for him. If I'm honest I've always over bought because I thought more was better. How wrong I was. I can't wait for Christmas this year because instead of scrabbling to buy them loads of stuff they don't want I'm going with:

Something they want

Something they need

Something to wear

Something to read

One more thing to please

I've also reduced the amount I spend on my food bill by at least half if not more. That used to be outrageous, as was our wasted food. I will be meal planning every week, and even once our work balance is back to normal and we have managed to get out of the debt that has unfortunately built up around us we'll never go back to how we were. Do you know why? Because we're happier. We've had more fun and been more appreciative of everything we have.

I hope you've had a great weekend.

L x

Amelia-Lilly Mia Rye

Ahhhhhh she's here. Our beautiful daughter was born on the 2nd June via Caesarian section. She weighed a perfect 7lb 9oz and is doing so well.

Here's one of my favourite pictures taken at the birth.

We're all doing well and both boys are besotted with their baby sister. I'm happy to say that every single ailment I had in pregnancy stopped completely after her birth. Amazingly I have more energy even with the night feeds!

Have an amazing weekend. We will :-) xx

And now the end is near.......

Ahhhhh my third and final pregnancy is drawing to an end. I haven't posted about it really. In fact I haven't really posted at all over the last 9 months. Why? Because I haven't wanted to post a constant stream of negativity!

I always said that I really wanted to enjoy this pregnancy as it was definitely my last. In truth I've enjoyed 5 weeks out of the 38.

Plagued with sickness, exhaustion, stomach issues, the most awful insomnia I've ever known and sciatica has all given me the shortest fuse known to man thus leaving my poor boys with a grumpy irritable impatient mum. So then I have the guilt.

To end it off I ended up in hospital for a couple of days last week contracting only to discover I had a urine infection. To say I was hoping I was in labour would be an understatement.

I've recently discovered the Law of Attraction and watched a program called The Secret. It focuses on positive thinking and your thoughts being your outcome. Maybe if I'd found this months ago it might of turned out differently. Who knows.

I'm hoping any damage I've done with my boys can be undone.

I'll leave you with a picture of me at 38 weeks. The next time I post I'll be a mum of 3 full of positive happy energy. Let's face it I can't feel much worse!

Meal Planning Monday 07/04/14

Last week we stuck to the meal plan every day apart from yesterday. Yesterday I ended up having the boys on my own for most of the day so I took us off down the beach and we had fish and chips.

This weeks meal plan looks like this:

Monday:

Boys - Omlette and Beans
Us - Chicken Balti - Hairy Bikers recipe

Tuesday

Homemade Pizza

Wednesday

Chicken Traybake - Recipe Delicious Magazine

Thursday:

Meatballs and Spaghetti - Jamie Oliver recipe - Ministry of Food

Friday:

Vegetable Biriani and Lentil curry - Hairy Bikers recipe

Saturday:

Pick and mix tea (party tea as the boys would call it)

Sunday:

Definitely roast lamb!

Hope you have a happy week. What are you eating?

Lisa xx

Baking with my boys.

I see many pictures on blogs and social media with parents lovingly baking with their kids. This always appeals to me as I love to cook and bake.

My thinking is if they're involved then I can a) bake more and b) get some hands on fun going with them. Win win. Or not. The reality is they're super active, don't stand still for more than 5 minutes and expect whatever we are making ready for consumption within the space of time it takes before they are bored/hungry. This is never a long time. Cue melt down, strops and stress. How did I combat this? I stopped cooking with them.  Until this morning.

This morning I decided we'd bake chocolate chip cookies and we'd have homemade pizza for tea. So I chucked them in the garden this morning for a run around. Whilst they were out there I weighed everything and got it all ready for them. They came in, were delighted to be cooking and delicious cookies were indeed made. Happy campers all round!


Then this afternoon I got the pizza dough ready (read the bread machine) I got a selection of toppings prepared and again called them to the table to do as they wished with their own pizzas. Again everyone was happy. Genius!

We made good food, had fun and were all happy. A good day was had by all.

No Spend April.

Money has been a lot tighter for the beginning part of this year. I have somehow still managed to keep spending though and it's taken it's toll.

I've seen various people on my Instagram feed doing a no spend month and have decided that this is what I will do in April.

I have limited commitments (by that I mean birthdays) so this is achievable for me. I am going to limit my spending to £100 to include all food and once it's gone it's gone. I need to drastically reduce my food shopping bill anyway as it's gradually been creeping up and now I'm back to popping to Waitrose every couple of days to get a few bits which always hits at least £30. Couple that with spending £100 on a home delivery shop and it reads just as ridiculously as it should.

I'm going to be meal planning on Mondays again and this will keep me on track.

I'll pop a post up weekly to see how I'm doing but this will definitely be a challenge for me, albeit a good one.

So £100 each week plus roughly £40 for my sisters birthday present.

Here we go!