Category Archives: Family

Family and quality time

Days before school

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Days before school

As the spring draws in and the sun teases us with hints of summer, I’ve become more aware than ever of my three year old’s impending fourth birthday and first day at school. Frog’s growing up.

It’s evident in her speech – some of her sayings leave me speechless (“I can’t POSSIBLY do that!” and “It’s too rubbish!”) being my least favourites of the moment. It’s evident in her growing limbs – suddenly she doesn’t fit into her favourite pair of tights or leggings. And it’s evident in the fact she chatters non-stop about when she starts “Primary school like the big boys and girls Mummy”. Continue reading »

Not gone

02 Sunday Mar 2014

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She made the best Lancashire Lemon Fingers I’ve ever tasted; moist with a crust of crispy baked sugar on top. Puddings were always called a “round robin” because of the huge array on offer – chocolate torte, trifle, cakes and more. No one could choose just one dessert, so they’d opt for a “round robin” of them all instead.

Roast dinners were the best, all of us crammed around the table in the dining room, on dining chairs and stools, deckchairs and cushions. It was loud, with lots of laughter, my grandad at the head of the table, asking, “What’s for pudding?” before he’d even taken a bite of his chicken.

Bustling. She was always bustling. Bustling around the kitchen with an apron on, stirring things and taking hot trays out of the oven, making cups of tea and passing them through the hatch, or spreading butter on pieces of bread for sandwiches. You’d try to help and she’d pretend to smack your fingers away. “Don’t you be silly, I’ll get it for you, what would you like?” Continue reading »

An afternoon in Brixham

23 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in Family, Seasonal, Travel

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Brixham

For the first time in ages we had a free day together as a family – and it was sunny. The day stretched before us like a blank piece of paper, full of possibilities and blue sky.

But first we had to do the boring stuff, like a supermarket shop, meet a couple of work deadlines, do a load of washing and (the biggest challenge considering our daughter’s current phase) get our three year old dressed.

Once that was all dealt with it was 12pm and the clouds had gathered. Ignoring the impending rain we bundled into the car and set off for Brixham, a little seaside town about half an hour from our village on the edge of Dartmoor. We bickered part of the way, then got lost looking for a car park, then realised we had no change for said car park. But, finally, we were there.  Continue reading »

A rainy afternoon

03 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by in Baby and toddler products, Family, Play

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Jumping in puddles

Rain. It feels like it’s seeping into every pore at the moment. The rain is unforgiving and relentless, varied only in the direction it pelts you in the face. From arrows of ice to a fine misty drizzle that makes your eyes sting, the rain has been our most constant companion this January.

My claims that, “A bit of rain never hurt anyone” have been wearing thin recently. With flooding devastating farmland and ruining homes, the rain has been far from meek. But on Friday afternoon, after a morning indoors, my three year old was chomping at the bit. She could see huge puddles outside our living room window just waiting to be splashed in. Continue reading »

How to ruin education in the UK

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Family, Work

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I write this post not as an education expert, teacher or politician. I have no professional experience in schools and haven’t studied the education systems of other countries around the world. But I am a parent, and that has to count for something, right?

In just over seven months my daughter will begin her school career. I already have qualms about my only-just-four year old starting full time education at such a tender age, but that’s for another post. I also have fears about the increasing use of data and statistics to measure children’s attainment, with much emphasis being placed on league tables and numbers that don’t show the whole picture. But I digress. What I’m really worried about, beyond any of that stuff, is the fact my daughter may end up in an education system on the cusp of being perfectly ruined.  Continue reading »

Moments that mattered

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

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With my three year old starting school later this year, I’m more aware than ever of time slipping through my fingers.

It may be that I have spent the last two years working and rushing around non-stop, so it’s only now that we’re more settled I can fully appreciate the need to savour all the little moments. This time last year I spent so many of my days exhausted and powering on until bedtime that I’m not convinced I made the most of every second.

It’s a bit of a paradox, this time thing though. When you become a parent you’re constantly told, “Make the most of it, they grow up so fast”. And you can see it yourself, when you blink and your newborn is suddenly a chubby toddler. But at the same time as wanting to savour those moments and feeling them slip away all too quickly, you’re trying to stop ketchup being smeared up the wall and fighting an exhaustion that will only be quelled by sleep. Your days both zoom past in the blink of an eye and drip along in a slow trickle, like a smear of thick treacle.  Continue reading »

A solution to the witching hour cooking problem

23 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Family, Health, Recipes

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What’s your worst time of day as a parent? For me, it’s that dreaded period between 4pm and 5.30pm. The so-called “witching hour”.

In our house, witching hour goes something like this: I get the ingredients out to start cooking tea. Frog wants milk. I get her milk, to keep her out of the way while I cook tea. I chop up a carrot. Frog wants chocolate. I say no. Frog has a tantrum. I attempt to finish up chopping said carrot while heating oil in the pan. My phone rings. I need to send an urgent work email. Frog is still having a tantrum. The carrot is still waiting to be chopped. Continue reading »

The importance of ordinary

19 Sunday Jan 2014

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Rainy park

This is a picture of a rainy park. It was a dull day, constant drizzle giving way to heavier downpours. No sun. The park was deserted, but it’s a picture I love and a day I want to remember, because in its own way it was pretty special.

Spending time with Frog, on my own, is something I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do. I never take it for granted because, this time last year, I was working anything up to 80 hours some weeks, and time with my daughter was often spent bleary-eyed and exhausted. Although I knew I needed to treasure the mundane moments, it wasn’t always easy to do. Stress and exhaustion can be tricky like that.  Continue reading »

Girls’ day out

14 Tuesday Jan 2014

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Grandma and granddaughterOne of the things I love most about our move to Devon is the fact we’re no longer four hours from any of our family. As much as my parents often wound me up as a teenager, these days I rather like them.

The (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine’s family are still far away up north, which isn’t ideal, but my own parents are less than an hour away on the other side of Dartmoor near the North Devon coast. It means we get to see them regularly, giving us school holidays to catch up with the northern contingent of our family.  Continue reading »

What happened while I was offline

29 Sunday Dec 2013

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Six weeks ago, the thought of spending a prolonged period offline terrified me. With my work relying on a secure internet connection, along with my addiction to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, I imagined a world offline as a dark, dark place. I saw myself as a shipwrecked sailor, marooned on a solitary island, with no clue as to what was happening in the outside world. (Never accuse me of being prone to the over-dramatic *cough*.)

We have now spent almost two weeks offline. In fact we are still, officially, offline. I am jumping on my family’s internet juice to write this blog post, but as soon as we return home it’ll be back to the solitary island again – for a few more days at least.

Here’s what happened while I was offline…

We moved in here:  Continue reading »