Life

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

What’s keeping me busy right now

March 19, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

If you only read about what I’m up to here on Penny Blogs then it may well seem like I’ve not been up to much lately. But if that’s your thought then you couldn’t be further from the truth!

Life, as it always seems to be, is manic!

Having three kids, plus a part-time step-daughter, is pretty much a full time job in itself. Keeping on top of all their social arrangements, plus Brownies, Beavers and Cubs meetings (yep, two children but one of each!), after school clubs, swimming lessons and the various Brownie, Cub and Beavers trips and sleep-overs that seem to be going on at the moment, means I need some ninja logistic planning skills. Then there’s all the things that they seem to need. Dressing up outfits for World Books Day. Cakes for cake sales in aid of Red Nose Day, World Downs Syndrome Day and Autism Awareness Day. Remembering which day one kid needs to wear odd socks and on which the other needs to take a superhero toy with them. Ticking things off on camp packing lists. Sewing badges on to uniforms, paying for school trips and collecting plastic bottles for Arts week. No wonder I feel tired at the end of the day.

Add into the mix a four month old baby, who luckily is happy to be dragged all over the place, but one who still needs feeding at least once every night and that there is your reason I get through so much tea in a day!

There are a few other things that are keeping me out of mischief though.

Firstly, this week we are celebrating a whole year in our “new” house. In a way it looks like we’ve done very little since moving in, and there are still plenty of reminders of retro decor that need sorting. We have though managed to replace nearly every window in the house so far this year as well as getting the garage roof repaired. As I sit here now I’m waiting for a man to come back to finalise a quote for fixing the gutters and some problems with the main roof too. It can be hard sometimes to remember that things don’t just happen overnight. There’s plenty more that I need to crack on and do though. The decor in Master C’s room probably being top of the list. He’s trying to push tings on a bit by peeling wallpaper off himself whilst he lies in bed at night listening to audio books!

On the work front I’m being kept busy with various bits of writing work and some social media stuff too. Having created a whole new online presence does mean that some work has slowed down (which is sadly to be expected) but there are a few leads that I’m chasing at the moment so please cross your fingers.

I’m working away at both Penny Plays and Penny Travels on an almost daily basis. Bonn and I are slowly working our way through a huge pile of vintage board games that we are wanting to feature on Penny Plays as well as some new games and toys that I have been sent to review. We’ve also set up a Facebook Group for people to talk about vintage board games here in the UK. I’d found a couple of American groups, but no British ones, so decided to set one up myself.

On the travel front we’re slowly (see a theme here?) working our way through the 270 London Underground stations that we’re hoping to visit with Tube Stop Baby. We’re up to 28 so far. That’s over 10%! Last weekend saw us cover off the top bit of the Metropolitan Line and I’ve totally fall in love with how unlike London it feels there. Chorleywood (where we parked our car) felt like driving into a small village in the Yorkshire Moors rather than approaching a tube station. I’m a bit behind in writing up all our trips, but I’m hoping to have a bit of time over Easter to catch up. Her Instagram account is a bit more up to date though.

I’ve also realised just how much I need a daily dose of fresh air in my life. The days that I don’t get outside for a walk I find myself struggling with motivation to get anything done. I’ve recently discovered geocaching (and have written a little introduction to it over on Penny Travels if you don’t know what it is) and I’m finding that a great excuse to get outside and explore with Tube Stop Baby. It can sometimes be a bit of a challenge finding some of the caches when you’ve got a pushchair with you, but even if I don’t manage to retrieve every cache that I go after, I’m getting the fresh air and exercise which is making me feel better.

In between all this I’ve discovered just how addictive Netflix box sets are. Especially whilst you’re pinned to the sofa under a feeding baby. I’d honestly forgotten just how much I love a good crime drama on the telly. I’m desperately trying to make time for crochet, as I know that crafting is another thing that I really need in my life to keep a bit of balance. There aren’t enough hours in the day to do as much as I’d like, but small progress is being made.

Inspired by the Sewing Bee I’m also hoping to get my sewing machine out again soon. There’s a cot bed quilt that really needs finishing, but I’ve also got a load of clothes patterns that I’d like to have a go at. A recently trip to a local haberdashery shop had me finding some Harry Potter fabric that I know Little Miss C would love a quilt made from so I’m wondering if I can do something “mummy made” for her birthday in June…

Maybe I should just give up on sleeping as being too time consuming?

2018 – the year that…

January 10, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Did I blink? What the heck happened to 2018? How on earth is it 2019 already?

With the exception of Pregnancy diary posts here on the blog (and let’s be honest they petered out a bit as the year went on) it feel like an age since I last wrote a catch up blog post. It’s fair to say that quite a bit has happened in 2018 and it only feel fair to summarise it all. Partly for people reading, but also for me to realise just how much I achieved in a year.

Back in January last year I only really had one ambition for the year, and that was to find somewhere to live. The house we now call home was one that I first went to see on about the 9th January last year. Yep, a whole 9 days after I started looking! And it was the first (and only!) house that I actually viewed.

As soon as I walked in I knew it would make a perfect family home for us. I instantly called B and told him. We managed to arrange a second viewing the following day and met there as he came back from a job about 200 miles north. It was pitch black and right at the end of the day, but the estate agent happened to live just a round the corner and was keen to make his first sale of the year. Just a day later we had organised a mortgage agreement in principle, so we put in an offer and amazingly were accepted!

Of course house purchases are never that straight forward, but we still managed to move things along pretty fast and exchanged contracts in mid March and collected the keys and moved in a week later. Oh, and did I mention that the day before we exchanged I found out I was pregnant?

Yes, it was planned, but you just never know when these things are actually going to happen. Moving in whilst suffering from awful nausea was rough, but we managed. By the school Easter holiday we were actually able to have all the kids to stay in their own bedrooms. It was all rather rushed, and involved far too many trips to Ikea, but we finally had a home that was actually big enough for us. And better still there was no more black mould constantly causing me sleepless nights!

Four months of settling in and getting a million and one jobs done followed. Along with planning ahead for a baby and dealing with all the early pregnancy niggles that you get when you’re having your third child. In this period I also received my decree absolute. My time as Mrs C was officially over.

By July I’d obviously decided that things were getting a bit dull again, so I added a bit of excitement to my 40th birthday by heading off to Tea and Tents with my WI friends. How many women celebrate turning 40 with a spot of pregnant skinny dipping?

B also probably though that I was sitting there with my feet up enjoying daytime TV a bit much because he also used July to formally propose to me. We’d talked about it for ages, but now suddenly there was a wedding to plan. Oh, and did I mention that we wanted to do it before the baby was due in early November?

It turns out that you can organise a (small, family) wedding in under two months. And it can be perfect too. Who says you need month (or years) of planning and vast expense to have a perfect wedding day. We had neither, but there’s nothing I’d change about the day at all. Everything was just how I wanted it. Perfect.

Wedding out of the way we managed to squeeze in a couple of days of honeymoon up at Penny from ParentShaped’s barn in the Peak District. It was exactly what we wanted and needed and Penny made our stay special with loads of thoughtful little touches for us.

Batteries recharged it was time for the final push to the end of the year and the birth of our daughter. I know babies don’t work to schedules, but this one must have realised that we were a bit tight on time. Her due came came and went, but once they took me into hospital to try to induce me she realised we meant business. A full birth story will be written up soon, but the fact that I was in hospital for a total of 24 hours and discharged just six hours after she was born probably tells you that it all went rather well. Most importantly though, we were able to take home our gorgeous little girl.

The sleepless nights since then have been tough (I can’t lie about that. I think I must have blocked them from memory from LMC and Master C!) but so worth it when she flashes you one of her gorgeous smiles.

As we sat there on new year’s eve (with a screaming baby in our arms – that six week spot is flipping hard work!) it was quite mad to sit there and think about how much had happened in the previous 12 months. I’m exhausted looking back at it all, but it’s been an incredibly 12 months. Filled with so many memorable moments.

My plans for 2019 aren’t as involved, but after 2018 I feel like I deserve a bit of a rest if I’m honest with you. Let’s see how that pans out though. I’ve never been one for sitting with my feet up doing little!