Life

Running into 2020

January 8, 2020 by Penny Leave a Comment

A week in, and 2020 actually seems alright. Assuming you ignore Trump’s efforts to start World War 3 with Iran. Let me re-phrase that original sentence. A week in and 2020 in my little world seems to be going ok.

I had big plans for the year, bit to be honest I wasn’t quite as organised going into it as I had hoped to be. My master lists of plans and aspirations are still on pieces of paper on the kitchen table, but they are at least in that form rather than just being in my head.

My eldest two finally returned to school yesterday, and Christmas itself feels like it was ages ago. I’ve started to get back to work and I definitely feel like I’ve started to get things in order. So – what are my achievements so far?

Firstly – I’ve managed to get out for a run. A whole 4.58km under my belt, and although I walked some parts that I’m really pleased with what I’ve achieved. Admittedly I need to get outside for that difficult second run, but I enjoyed the first one so much that I’m determined to do so. Although walking downstairs the next morning was a tad painful.

I plan to make more time for me time in 2020 and a couple of ways of doing that are through crafting and reading. The crafting has been a bit slow to start, but I have managed a bit of crochet and I’m also starting a list of all the projects I need to finish before I’m allowed to start any new ones. When it comes to reading, I’m delighted to say that I’m already on my second book of the year. I finished *Still Me just a couple of days into 2020 and I’m now quickly working my way through *Floella Benjamin’s book about her life as a child, first in Trinidad and then here in the UK. Look out for reviews of both over on Penny Reads soon. Also over there is the first Ladybird Tuesday post of the year – Helping at Home. Something I could do with my eldest kids reading up on!

I’ve also been trying to make time to play board games with Bonn and just in general have more downtime with him. We both became addicted to Rummikub over Christmas, but we’re also making great efforts to work our way through the collection of vintage board games that seem to fill the house. We’ve picked up some real gems lately (both to play and to resell) and I’m trying to share as many of them as possible over in our vintage board game Facebook group and also on Penny Plays.

If that wasn’t enough – we’ve also relaunched out Hobbies and Interests podcast. Episode 2 goes out today (Episode 4 corrected) and we’re making a real effort to make it a weekly thing now. Our original plan had been to go out and do episodes on location, but three years later we’ve realised the reality of doing so and most episode will now be (home) studio based with a few excursions when time allows.

Add into the mix some DIY plans for the house and I think 2020 is going to be pretty busy. So far I’ve only got as far as removing bit of wallpaper and choosing a paint colour, but we are only on week 1 after all!

I’m going to leave you though with my charity shop find of the week. I’ve been after a vintage Fisher Price Activity Centre since LMC was a baby. Finally my charity shop luck was in!

Disclaimer: There are a few affiliate links scattered through this post. They are all marked with a *. If you buy anything through them it costs you nothing extra, but a small commission goes into my paint and wallpaper buying fund. Thank you for any purchases you do make. Readers’ support is very much appreciated. x

End of a decade

December 31, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

How do you sum up a decade that involved the birth of three children, the death of my father, divorce, marriage and two house moves?

Ten years ago I was pregnant, had just given up a stressful job and was looking forward to a future of motherhood and then a possible career change. I had no way of knowing that ten years later everything would be so different.

Job applications whilst pregnant weren’t successful (after all who employs someone heavily pregnant?) and then not long after Little Miss C was born my father was diagnosed with cancer. That news, along with what I now see was PND, meant that I never did go back to work in the same way. Instead I tried to make a go of blogging as a new career. It worked – somewhat.

A couple of years later Master C came along, but two weeks later my father died. Dealing with a newborn and grief is not easy. And even harder when your husband is in a new job, working stupid hours and going off to Belgium regularly.

I survived though. Sort of.

The kids grew older and I tried to find myself again, and in doing so made some amazing new friends (mainly thanks to joining the WI), and realised what really made me happy, rather than what others expected me to be happy about.

Once the kids were old enough to start school properly and I was less needed at home in the daytime I realised just how much things had changed. I also realised just how much I hated being belittled and how hard it was to love someone who had such a fundamental difference of opinion with me about the role of women in a family, and also about the role of disabled people in society.

I didn’t plan what happened next, but a chance meeting with what I now realised is the man I was supposed to be have got together with when he worked in my local pub twenty years earlier changed everything.

Very quickly we were heading for divorce and sold our house. Months living in a tiny flat with the kids was tough, but necessary at the time. The whole episode taught me exactly who my real friends are, and which “friends” were happy to hear only one version of events and make a judgement based on it. There are two sides to every story.

In the couple of years since then everything has changed again. We’ve bought a house together, got married and have our adorable daughter, who recently celebrated her first birthday.

This decade has taught me so much about myself. About how strong I can be when required. About how important my kids are to me, and how I will do absolutely anything for them. I’ve also learnt what real love is, and what really makes me happy.

Admittedly not everything is perfect as I go into 2020. I miss my oldest two acutely when they are with their dad and if I could, I’d have them with me full-time in a heartbeat. My house is more of a tip than I’d like it to be, and I really ought to be far more organised, but these are things I plan to work on over the next year. I’ve taken my eye off the ball somewhat when it comes to work, and that’s also something I need to turn around in the next year. However, I think I’ve found what I think I’d like to do long term though – working with SEND children or young adults. It feels a bit like going full circle by realising that when I consider at one of the things that changed everything. Realistically, a full on new career is not going to be until my youngest is of school age, but it gives me a goal for what I hope to be doing at the end of this decade.

For now though I’m concentrating on 2020. There’s lots I want to achieve and I’m determined to keep my eye on the ball and actually do things this year, rather than just talking about what I want to do. Expect lots of online updates – partly because feeling accountable to my followers weirdly motivates me to make things happen. Work is going to be online, in the form of more blogging and social media work, along with a sideline of reselling of vintage board games – something I’ve completely fallen in love with. I’ve a huge list of projects and other aims for the year, as well as planning lots of adventures with my family, now I just need to get organised enough to turn them into a reality.

Happy 2020 everyone!

September – the month that…

October 8, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

… vanished without a trace!

Somehow we’re in October. Worse than that, we’re already a week into October and I only just got round to swapping my calendar over from September this morning!

The last month (and a week) has been utterly crazy in so many ways. It was a month in which I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and Master C’s 7th birthday. Both seem somewhat unbelievable as time is going so fast.

It’s also been a month in which I’ve twice been over to Copenhagen with Bonn whilst he’s been working out there. The first time was mainly so that I didn’t have to spend our first wedding anniversary at home on my own, whilst the second trip was with the aim of gaining enough material to allow me to write several travel posts on both Denmark and Sweden. I certainly gathered everything I needed and visited loads of different places that I want to write about, I just need to find the time to actually do so now we’re back.

In addition to Copenhagen and Malmo I’ve also been up to Liverpool and the Wirral and enjoyed checking out charity shops at various other places around the country. We’ve been on the lookout for vintage board games in particular, but also other toy and game bits that we can use for a bit of a new business venture into the world of re-selling and reducing landfill. More on that over on Penny Plays when I get round to writing about it!

There’s also loads that I haven’t managed to get done in the last month – possibly because we’ve been away so much. The house hasn’t got much further forward over the last month, but at least I can now say that the downstairs loo is finished. Or at least it will be when the very final picture is returned to the wall. Once that is done I can finally take some photos and share the transformation with you.

The other thing that is hanging over me are the Clothkits kits that I bought when Tube Stop Baby was just six months old and that I planned to make for her first birthday which is the middle of November. I’ve now got just a month left and really need to pull my finger out and start working on them. I’ve managed to squeeze in a couple of craft book reviews, but finding time to actually craft is another matter entirely.

I’ve also been putting a lot of effort into my online blogging and social media work over the last month. Not as much as I would have liked to, but as much as I have been able to manage whilst still reserving a few hours every night for sleep. On the travel front I’ve started off my writing on Copenhagen and Malmo with details of how we managed to pop over to Sweden for dinner during our first Copenhagen stay earlier in the year. I’ve also teamed up with Three to write about how I make the most of their App when I’m travelling so that I can always work on the move and stay in touch with my kids.

Over on Penny Plays I’ve been desperately trying to catalogue and play all the vintage board games that came our way during the summer car boot season. Once we’ve played the games we’re looking to either keep them if they are ones that we can see us going back to again, or otherwise selling them over on our new ebay store. It’s early days yet, but we’re hoping this is a way to keep our board game stocks to a reasonable level so they don’t completely take over the house (and garage!). On the blog itself I’ve been writing about everything from a pre-electronics teach yourself chess game, through to Ghettopoly – a version of Monopoly set in a US ghetto. Somewhere in the middle I also wrote about a vintage Spears Game in which you are supposed to name things that begin with a certain letter of the alphabet – Tell Me. It’s certainly been varied.

In addition to all this I’ve also been trying to put some work into the Vintage Board Games Facebook group that we set up earlier in the year. It’s slow work, but with Facebook you need to really put the effort in to get the results out. I just need a bit more time for the effort part!

And lastly, but not at all least. Over on Penny Reads I’ve relaunched Ladybird Tuesday! This is probably one of the achievements I’m most proud of this last month or so. I’ve really missed my regular delves into my vintage Ladybird book collection and after losing various physical possessions during my divorce and subsequent house moves they are one thing that I am so glad to still have in my possession. There’s a huge body of work ahead of me to try and move all the original posts over from Being Mrs C, but I’m sure it will give me something to keep me out of trouble whilst the winter weather keeps us at home. The posts I’ve included this month vary from an original Uncle Mac book that I received for my birthday, through to a Learn to write workbook from the 1980s and the recent Climate Change book that was partly written by Prince Charles. Also in there was the Ladybird book about Denmark. It seemed somewhat appropriate seeing as I’ve spent so much time there lately.

What is nice though at the end of a busy month is sitting down like this and looking at everything that I have managed to achieve and not focussing on the things I failed to do. I’ve been pushing myself a lot lately with daily to do lists and sharing them on Instagram stories with the #KatyKicker hashtag to help make me accountable a bit for how much I get done in a day. It doesn’t always work, but what I have loved is reading Katy’s own monthly aims on her blog. One of the reasons I started blogging in the first place was as a way of making myself actually do things. Time to get back to using my blog like that and set myself some (achievable aims) for the month ahead.

Back to school…

September 2, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

September. How the heck did that happen? I’m pretty sure that it was only last week that I was bringing the kids and their PE kits home from school and asking them what they wanted to do in the summer holidays. Where on earth has the summer gone?

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only parent who has grand plans to be organised for September and yet when it rolls around you suddenly find yourself wondering just how you have failed to get done everything on your to do list. There are reports that need writing, name tapes that need sewing, skirts that need altering and a whole house full of mess that needs sorting out. This summer has been a bit of a whirlwind, even if the eldest two kids haven’t been with me for all of it.

The time we have had together has been fantastic. We managed a day trip up to Edinburgh, a long weekend in Norfolk and various days out. It’s also been lovely to watch the bond grow between Little Miss C and her baby sister. The two of them are so fond of each other and it’s given LMC a real confidence boost to have a little sister looking at her so adoringly.

Both kids seem to have shot up in height over the summer too and LMC just looks older in general – especially with her new haircut that she was very excited to go and have last week. I’m still struggling somewhat with the whole idea of her going into Year 5 on Wednesday. Master C starts his final year at his Infant school too. I’m sure he only just started there.

It also seems strange to be starting a new school year again with a little one who will be at home with me during the school day. Tube Stop Baby is now approaching 10 months old and is more adorable by the day. First words are coming already and there is nothing cuter than hearing her say “teddy” over and over again to her favourite cuddly toy. She’s also on the verge of walking. She is already cruising around the furniture and climbing everything she can. It’s not going to be long before my level of baby proofing the house needs to go up another level. She is the calmest baby I know and happily seems to go along with everything we had planned for her older brother and sister this summer. Quite how she’s going to cope with the school run and all the term-time running around I’m not sure.

So all this just leaves me and my plans for the new school year. Last year at this time I was busy planning a wedding and a new baby. This year everything’s a tad more settled and I’m starting to look more to the future.

This academic year is the one that I need to get organised in. I don’t just mean to make sure all three children are in the right place at the right time with homework done and all of them fed, but being more organised for the future. The house is a bomb site and whilst sorting out the usual end of summer carnage I’m determined to get it all into shape once and for all. I’m still waiting for the downstairs loo to be finished (surely it can’t be far off now?!?) and then I need to start on other parts of the house. There’s peeling wallpaper and 80s carpets everywhere and I’m dreaming of making the bathroom and kitchen more modern and rooms that are more than just functional.

This is also the year that I need to get my work in order. I rebranded my online presence nearly two years ago now, but with moving house and a new baby I still don’t feel that I’ve really made the impact online that I wanted to and I’m no where near back to where I was before. That’s therefore got to be my focus next year – partly so that I can actually afford to do the work on the house that is needed. I’ve grand plans for all the blogs I run and lots of exciting plans that I’m looking forward to putting into effect. Time is going to be my biggest challenge – hence the determination to be more organised with the little time I have. Striking that balance between work, rest and play is a hard one. I’ve failed to get it right in the past, but this time around I need to make it work. Any tips from working mums as to how to do so very gratefully received!

So – as the kids head back to school, what are your plans for the academic year ahead?

And breathe…

August 5, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

I’m alone in the house. Totally alone. There isn’t even someone upstairs having a nap, or playing in a bedroom. The oldest two are on holiday with their dad and the youngest member of the family has just been taken out by her dad so I can have a couple of hours peace and quiet to get some work done. I genuinely don’t remember when I last had a couple of hours completely to myself to concentrate on just one thing.

Our life (which I love immensely) is crazy. Knowing exactly how many children are staying here on any one night requires military level planning. Add into the mix not always knowing where my husband is going to be working from one day to another, an eight month old baby, a house to run and being self employed and you can see why most days of the week I don’t feel like I stop from the moment a child wakes me until the point where I collapse into bed shattered.

I love our crazy busy life, but I cannot deny that I do miss having a bit of downtime. A bit of peace and quiet where I can just sit on the sofa, relax fully and not be constantly thinking about the mess in the kitchen that needs sorting, the pile of laundry that I’ll need to put away (or at least move!) before I can get into bed, and the list of things that I have to remember the following day. There’s that picture doing the rounds on the internet where it says something along the lines of “my brain is like an internet browser, 14 tabs open and no one knows where the music is coming from”. That’s me. Well actually it’s not. There are about 50 tabs open in Safari on my laptop right now and a similar number in my head!

This morning though, to give the husband time to work in peace, I took Tube Stop Baby out and we headed to our nearest National Trust place for a walk and to blow away the cobwebs. It felt so good to be outside and to have time and space to let my mind wander a bit. I possibly let it wander a little too much though as I failed to notice the approaching storm clouds which meant that I actually ended up so soaking wet that by the time I returned to the car I could wring out the skirt part of my dress (much to the amusement of the elderly couple who had just pulled up next to me in the car park) and when I got home I had to have a complete change of clothes.

Despite the rain, it was actually exactly what I needed. The cobwebs weren’t just blown away, but totally washed away! That bit of time space and reconnecting with nature made me realise that I need to organise myself so much better to get the most out of this crazy life. I need to really time box things and try to concentrate on just one thing at once. Walking and having time to think is fine, but I need to not be spreading myself quite so thinly.

Right now I’m sat in the garden with my laptop and a mug of tea. That way I can ignore the mess inside the house and just concentrate on my work to do list and the mountain of emails that need answering. I’ve set the alarm on my phone so that in an hour’s time I will pop in (possibly make another cuppa) and get the washing out of the machine and have a five minute breather from work whilst I hang it on the line. In another hour Bonn and TSB are due home and I hope to then put down my laptop for a bit and spend some quality time with the two of them before then dedicating a bit of time this evening to some of the household jobs that need doing. One thing at a time. That’s what I need to do. Time to shut all those browser tabs and focus just on the job in hand. Although the next door neighbour just starting to cut his grass wasn’t really in the plan!

Life as a baby adventurer with #BepanthenProtects

March 24, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

AD. This post is brought to you in association with Bepanthen. Please see the end of the post for a full disclaimer.

It’ll come as no surprise if you read my last post to know that Tube Stop Baby’s life goes at about 100 mph too! I think that’s the way it goes though if you’re a third child. You basically get dragged along to everything that you older brother and sister are doing. She’s getting very used to spending rather a lot of time on the move, and also falling asleep in one place and waking up somewhere entirely different.

Third children just have to slot into busy family life and I think that must be why they can end up being so much more laid back than first born children. They have no choice but to go with the flow of things. It does mean that as a parent you need to have ninja like organisation skills and a lot of pre-planning.

When you’re out and about so much with a little one there are a couple of things that you soon realise you will have to do in all manner of places. The first being feed your baby. And the second being changing your baby’s nappy. With eight years of parenting under my belt I can guarantee that both of these will be required when you least expect it. And probably in the most inconvenient locations.

When it comes to nappy changes you develop speed with experience. Those annoying poppers on baby grows can be done in seconds and you can whip off one nappy, clean up baby and pop on another clean nappy with lightening speed. There’s one bit of the process though that I make sure I don’t skip. Making sure I care for her skin. The last thing I want is for a bout of nappy rash. That’s just painful for her, and horrible to have to deal with as a parent. I was thrilled therefore to be asked to take part on the Bepanthen Protects Challenge, especially when they sent TSB a lovely little goodie box. She’s just at the stage of wanting to interact with books and toys so this was perfect timing.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been using Bepanthen Nappy Care Ointment when we change her nappy as a way of caring for her delicate skin, and also protecting it from the causes of nappy rash. 1 in 3 babies is affected by nappy rash at some point in their lives. It’s far better to be proactive in trying to protect their bottoms from the causes if it than waiting until they actually have it. Nappy rash can cause them to be in pain, meaning that even just the act of cleaning them when you change their nappy can cause them to cry. It also might mean that they wake more during the night. Surely every parent wants to try to protect against that! After all, there’s only so much caffeine in the world.

One happy baby during a nappy change. A happy baby who just learnt to role over and so won’t pose for any photos lying there looking cute next to a tube of Bepanthen in a staged product shot. Who was it that said never to work with children eh?

The most common cause of nappy rash is a combination of soiled nappies and friction. It’s also more likely to occurs if your baby is unwell in some way, weaning (the different diet can change their nappy contents massively!) or if they are prone to hereditary eczema.

The good thing about Bepanthen is that it is gentle enough to be used straight from birth, including with premature babies, and you can use it at every nappy change. It’s also a good idea to put it on after their bath, or, as we did with Tube Stop Baby this week for the first time, after swimming. It forms a transparent, breathable layer, helping to protect baby’s skin from irritants and the rubbing that can cause nappy rash.

In the two weeks that we have been using Bepanthen I’m pleased to say that we’ve not had a red and sore bottom to deal with at all. Despite her best efforts at offering up some particularly “interesting” looking nappy contents on a very regular basis. When you’re out and about as much as we are, the last thing you want is a quick nappy change taking an age and for a poor baby to be screaming in pain whilst you do it due to nappy rash. It’s no fun for anyone.

We’re a family who love to travel and Tube Stop Baby has already been making her way along the length and breadth of England as well as all over London and the tube network. She’s turning into a right little adventurer. With a small handy tube of Bepanthen in our changing wrap when out and about, and a larger tube next to her changing mat at home, we know that we’re ready to protect her fro the causes of nappy rash wherever possible. It also means that I can develop my ninja like changing skills further. This baby is set to be an explorer!

This post is an entry for the #Bepanthen Protects Challenge, sponsored by Bepanthen. Learn more about how to protect baby’s sensitive skin on https://www.bepanthen.co.uk