lifestyle Our Adventure – Disney 2020February 3, 2020So our adventure began on Saturday 25th January. We left home at 12pm, caught the train to Reading, then on to another train to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport we had a small walk to the hotel. Our first issue was, we didn’t know how to exit the airport on foot. After doing a few circles and being mum shamed about the way Tahlia was sat in her pram (she had fallen asleep sitting up) we finally found the way out. The small walk turned out to be, a mile and a half walk with a pram, a four year old, 2 large suitcases, 4 rucksacks and a weekend bag, down a muddy alleyway, round the houses, along a main road and finally into a type of industrial estate. Only to find out there was a bus that could have taken us! Dan really wasn’t in the best of moods and my constant preach about it being an adventure, that we should embrace it and that we will be laughing about it later, wasn’t helping.Once we had checked in and got all the bags into the room, we went down for some food which was surprisingly tasty, So we decided to have breakfast there too! The girls where a nightmare getting to sleep! Aella has always loved staying in hotels, so was ridiculously excited and it was all a very new experience for Tahlia but we managed to get them down and head to bed ourselves for around 9.30pm! I’m really not a great flyer, the whole process from getting to the airport all the way to getting to the hotel at the other end overwhelms me, I find it really stressful and I can never relax but despite all that, the flight went well and the girls were great! Aella enjoyed time on her tablet, watched a film or two, did some colouring, whilst Tahlia, napped, hogged my screen and used me as a climbing frame. Obviously my favourite part of the whole day was getting to the hotel, I had a head ache starting and needed to sit down! The girls needed to have a good run around after a 9 hour plane journey and a half hour transfer and Dan was itching to get unpacked and settled in. Our plan was to stay up until around 9pm which would be 2am in the UK but myself and the girls could only manage until 8pm (we were both pretty impress with the girls!). Which still worked out perfectly as none of us suffered from jet lag!... Rosie The Elf Riddles Advent!November 30, 2019This is the first year I feel like we can really start feeling the magical side of Christmas with the girls. Aella is definitely of the age where everything is exciting.So, this year we have brought in the elf! Our elf will be with us from the 1st December to the night of the 24th when Santa will pick her back up. We have decided to use our elf a little differently to the normal ‘Elf behaving badly’ things I have seen over the past couple years. Our elf will be riddling out the girls advent. Which saves me from having to move the elf each day or having to rush downstairs before the girls of a morning, to tip over a bag of sugar and sit the elf on it, whilst crying about the fact I’ll have to clear it all up later in the day! So how is our riddling elf advent going to work?Well, each morning the elf aka Rosie will be holding a piece of paper, which will have a riddle written on it. Aella will have to solve the riddle to find where her (and Tahlia’s) advent gift is hiding. In the hiding spot she will find a little red and white box with a number on. Aella will need to be able to tell me what number it is, for the box to unlock! In the box there will be a chocolate for each of the girls, a little note with a Christmasy activity that the girls can do that day and a note with a film suggestion for the evening. I am so excited about this and i’m hoping that the girls really enjoy it every morning.... The Diary│6th October 2018October 6, 2018It’s been a while! So I guess I should just go straight in with an update on life.Dan is back from France, I may not have even mentioned it… it was all very sudden, Dan and I were thinking about going to France for 3-6 months, Dan had work over there and that amount of time apart just wasn’t something we wanted to do. Being a stay at home mother with 2 children and neither in school, we thought, why not just all go! When it came to it, work only needed Dan for 5-6weeks, so in the end Dan was the only one that went. It wasn’t the easiest experience, having Aella ask everyday when Daddy is going to be home whilst feeling lonely most evenings was pretty rubbish and from what Dan has told me, he felt the same! Moving on, Tahlia will be 7 months tomorrow! Despite her still being a baby, I look at her and wonder where our newborn has gone. She is crawling and super curious! Anything Aella is playing with, she wants a go of. Already I see Aella getting protective over her toys.Yesterday I saw Tahlia attempt to push up and stand for the first time, I think she has a little way to go until she is sofa surfing but it was great to see her becoming so adventurous.We are still going strong with the breastfeeding and she’s slowly getting into a routine of napping once, sometimes twice a day. I’ve managed to get her into a great bedtime routine, usually bedtime for her is 8pm which a couple of times she had slept thought until 5am, although usually its a 3am and a 6am wake up. On to Aella, she has been trying to push a lot of boundaries recently, it’s exhausting! She can be such a sweet and loving girl, then she can just switch and the tantrum hits. When Dan is home this side of her doesn’t often come out, so its hard for Dan to see how hard she can be at times. I think the hardest thing to hear this week was Aella saying she doesn’t love me, I just wanted to cry but instead I reminded her how much I loved her and told her I always will! Right now there isn’t much else going on in life but there is a lot going on in my head. I really should give myself the time to sit-down and write about it, to get my thoughts straight! Simone-x-... The Diary | 20th June 18June 20, 201820th June 2018 Hello! (So, apologies for last weeks diary entry, I only realised 2 days ago I put the wrong date! Oops!) Our week started of really great with Tahlia rolling over for the first time! We knew it was going to happen, every night when we go to bed, she has been rolling onto her side but very close to laying on her front. Sadly we all missed the first time, Dan was at work, Aella was in the garden and I had was making a coffee. The second time Tahlia rolled over, only Aella saw. She came running into me and said “Mummy, Mummy! Tahlia has come off her mat”. I wonder in to put her back and there she was chilling on her tummy. Finally I managed to catch her rolling and now she doesn’t stop! Aella had a lovely Daddy Daughter day with Dan. They visited London, I have to say I was really jealous. I would have loved to have gone but I think it is so important that they get their quality time, plus it gave me a chance to have a little break! During my little break I decided to face the cupboard of doom. A cupboard full to the max of stuff we barely use and when we do use something, we turn everything over trying to find it and make a bigger mess in there. Anyway, it was a dreadful decision! The cupboard looks fab unfortunately our bedroom (which is where this cupboard is) looks dreadful! All I basically did was take everything out and only put back a few things, leaving the rest spread round our room and just another mess to tidy! Aella on the other hand and a brilliant time! When I picked Dan and Aella up from the train station, our little lady wouldn’t stop chatting about her day. They visited the Disney Store, M&M World, Lego Store, Hamleys where she played with bubbles! Primark, you can’t go to London without giving Primark a visit and finally before they headed home, Aella visited Dan’s works. She was also really excited to show me what she had got from the shops! Dan had to work Father’s Day so we celebrated a day late. Aella told him what his present was before he opened it! All because she wanted to share his biscuits. We also went for a lovely walk and finished off with a coffee. A very laid back Father’s Day. To end our week, we visited “The Big Park”. Aella loves it there, feeding the ducks, playing in the sand and playing on the slide! A great bit of exercise for all of us as we walked there and a great time for Dan and I to talk about life. It sounds so silly to talk about life but Dan is away from the house for such long hours it nice to just talk about how we are, how we are feeling and our future plans! The only part of this week I really didn’t enjoy was being stung by a bee! Im really calm around bees, I know that they only sting if you irritate them. Wasps I will freak out about. I was at the park with Aella and her shoe fell off, so I knelt down not realising a bee had landed on the back on my leg. The sting itself didn’t hurt to much, initially I thought a bit of grass had pricked me. It was the days after that were worst, my leg was so swollen, itchy but also sore and it is still irritating now! hopefully it will be better in the next couple days! See you next week! Simone -x-... Benefits Of MinimalismApril 4, 2018I’m only at the start of my journey to minimalism and it really isn’t an easy one. I have only jus started clearing out rooms, cupboards, wardrobes and drawers deciding if it has a purpose in my life. I know I have a hoarding streak in me, which makes me think everything has a purpose or could have a purpose but I have a big hate for clutter, it makes me anxious, I feel like I can’t breathe when there is mess around. There are items that are a challenge to throw out as they have sentimental value. I have passed my old teddies on to my daughter, not because I think they are nice for her to have but so I get to keep them. Does she play with them? No. Are they stuffed at the bottom of a toy box? Yes. I think I’ve grown up believing we need to keep things from our past to be reminded of that moment in time, when realistically if that moment in time is important, it will remembered without an object to trigger the memory. Since starting this journey a very short time ago, I have already started noticing some of the benefits of minimalism. Here are my top 6 benefits Makes You Happier We live in a world where we are led to believe we have to buy things to make us happy, but do they really? If your were to actually think about it, what makes you happy? My daughter makes me happy, my family, writing and expressing myself, puddle jumping, kicking up leaves and crisp spring mornings. It makes me realise, I don’t need to buy new things or have the latest gadget to be happy. Saves You Money When you stop buying the stuff you don’t need, you are able to save money for the things you do need or to buy the things you are going to get genuine enjoyment out of. Which is far more satisfying than spending it on clutter. More Time To Relax How does having less give you more time? It does sound a little strange but how long do you spend figuring out what to wear in the morning and how you should accessorise that outfit? how long do you spend wondering what to buy with your wages? How long do you spend tidying up? You may only save minutes here and there, but that time adds up, giving you more time to relax, have a coffee or cook a great meal. Tidy House, Tidy Mind There have been studies that show having a tidy house, has a massive impact on us mentally. Keeping our house clutter free and in order keeps our minds clear, we feel less anxious, less depressed and more joyful. A Change Of Mindset You start to think about what you are buying, before you buy it. Think about whether you need something or just want it, whether it’s going to make you genuinely happy or if you are buying it because you can. You also start to appreciate the items you do own. Less Tidying The less you own, the less mess you can create meaning the less there is to tidy!... A Journey To MinimalismApril 3, 2018The start of the year is when everyone makes changes, usually they go on a diet or start a new fitness routine. I decided to try something a little different, I wanted this year to be all about minimalism. Okay it isn’t exactly the start of the year anymore but there is no better time than the present to start something new or make lifestyle changes! This has all started because I am fed up of having stuff, stuff that sits and gathers dust, stuff that takes up space, stuff that hasn’t got a home and gets passed from room to room and I just can’t take the clutter anymore. I don’t think we as a family will ever be extreme minimalists, my side of the family have a slight hoarding streak in them so naturally, I do too, but I want to change that before I get too old to change my ways or before it becomes to difficult to crack the habbit. Already we have gone through a lot of clutter but I know it’s going to take time to really get to where we want to house to be. I have to mention how proud I am of Dan though! He has had a DVD collection from before we started dating and it has only ever grown. I have always hated this collection, they would only be watched once and then sit gathering dust. For the past year they they have lived in the loft, which irritated me more. We have all these DVDs, yet when we want to watch a film we will find something on Sky Movies. After a long talk and a shared interest in wanting to live a more minimalist life, Dan came down with his collection and over the past month has sold the majority of the DVDs. I know it must have been really hard for him to do but I am so proud of him! I know it’s not going to be an easy journey but I know it will be good for us! There are so many benefits to being a minimalist and already just from clearing a little we have felt an inkling of those benefits....
