Catching up, Cooking and Waiting for Snow (18/01/2013)

The last few days I have been trying to catch u on all my Tv programmes that I like.  The three series I have been watching so far are Revenge, Hart of Dixie and Beauty and the Beast.  I have managed to to complete the series of Beauty and the Beast and I am about 2/3rds of the way through the first series of Revenge and Hart of Dixie.  I am really enjoying them and during the weekend I want to hopefully catch up on Arrow and Bones as well.  I will get there, it's just I don't have that much time for myself.

All day we have been waiting for good snowfall as the girls really want to go outside and play and make snowmen.  Luckily at about 5 o'clock it started to snow and it looked like it was going to snow all night and leave us with a good couple of inches of snow for the next day.  I am honestly not a big fan of the snow but I love watching children play in it.  Plus this will be my youngest first proper big snow where she have chance to have some fun in it.  So I will have the camera at the ready for lots of snowy filled pics.

For dinner I decided to try a new recipe and it is a very simple one.  Yes I found it pinterest again, but they have so many good ones to try.  It's called Braided Spaghetti Bread and looked really delicious so I thought I would give it a go.  All it is, is a bread dough rolled out and you put in the middle cooked spaghetti with a sauce you like.  I had added a little bit of turkey mince to add some extra flavour then add some mozzarella on top of the spaghetti and braid the dough on top.  I then added garlic butter on top with Parmesan and baked in the oven for 20 minutes at 180oC.  This is what mine turned out like.

I think it turned out pretty well, it also tasted pretty good but I think next time I make it I might go for a different sauce.  This is the link to the recipe that I tried to copy http://www.rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/braided-spaghetti-bread.  Hope you have fun trying this if you fancy it.

Bye for now
J x

Family and My Pinterest Addiction

I have spent most of today at my mums house with the girls.  We usually go there every Sunday for our dinner and for the girls to play.  Also so I can get a little break, my mum does all the chasing around instead of me.  We had a lovely Sunday lunch today and I was good and didn't over indulge, especially with the crackling.  I usually finish the whole plate but today I only had two small pieces.  Healthy eating for the win.

I also want to talk about my little addiction to Pinterest.  I have already mentioned that I use the site in previous posts.  If anybody is a member I am sure they will understand.  Let me start by explaining what pinterest is, it is a website where you create boards and you pin pictures to them but if you click on the pictures they will send you to the link where they came from.  I have a few boards, from recipes I want to try, crafts, animal photos, words and art.  I find this website so useful, especially all the recipes.  In fact I found so many recipes that I had to buy some extra equipment so I could try them.  This is mainly a slow cooker or crock pot in the USA.  I have tried a few already and they are fantastic.  The thing is you find so many things to try that you need to find time to try them all.  Please let me know if you use the site and what your thoughts are as I have only heard positive things about.

Goodbye for now.

J x

To Do, To Do, To Do

It seems at the moment I have loads of to do lists and there is no end in sight.  This makes me quite happy actually as it is giving me something to do.  I have lists for things that need organizing, lists for chores to do, lists for personal goals and lists of ways to make some extra money too.

Today I got another two big boxes two add to the other two that I got yesterday.  They have now also been filled up.  Hopefully I will just need two get another two and all the girls toys will be sorted.  There bedrooms will then need to be moved about and adjusted until I am happy.

Also today I finally have my tumble dryer, so I can get all my laundry done.  I have put it all in piles although I know I won't be able to get it all done today I can get a good chunk of it done.

One of my goals this year is to save more and I came across this article which I think could really help.  Well I'm going to give it a good go anyway.  It's called the 52 week plan and all you do is put away the amount of what week it is, so for week one I am putting away a £1.00 and week two it will be £2.00 and so on.  This should accumulate nicely and hopefully I will have saved quite a bit by the end of the year.  Here is a link to the article http://www.allthingsmw.com/52-week-money-challenge/

Still doing well with no eating of chocolate or drinking of pop.  I am however struggling to ger any exercise done.  I think I will take the dog for a long walk tomorrow.

Take care

J x

Getting There

So I woke up this morning with a plan.  I wanted to get the girls toys organized, so I wanted to get some boxes to put them all in.  I thought I would only need 4 boxes, but by now I have realized I am going to need a few more then that.  I went to the shops this morning trying to find the right size and colour of boxes I wanted.  I only came home with two in the end, so I could see if they were the right size, they were 75l boxes. I found out they were and have them filled all ready.  One now has Puzzles and games in and the other has my younger daughters Happyland toys in.  I now need boxes for the musical instruments, dolls and barbies, electronic toys and then miscellaneous.  Hopefully I will have these done by the end of the month.

My healthy eating is also going well, although I am craving pop, but I'm not giving in.  I haven't done any exercising yet, although I was helping my daughter with her Xbox kinect game Once Upon a Monster, which meant I got a little bit of activity done today.  Also walking round all the shops help too.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow as I am getting a new tumble dryer.  This means I can get all my clothes washed and dryed and hopefully see the bottom of the wash baskets this weekend.  Then I will need to organize all the clothes back into the wardrobes and draws.  I am sure I have a lot of clothes that can even be thrown out or donated.

Ok, see you tomorrow for more of my daily chores.

Jx

Going Stong

Although it is only my first day on my goals, I think I am doing pretty well.  This is considering that right about now I would have drunk a pink of coco cola and had a bar of chocolate to keep me going.  Let me explain  why, my 2 1/2 year old daughter does not sleep well and hasn't since she was born so I have become accustomed to drinking either coco cola or lucozade to keep me going.  I haven't touched either one yet today and I do not intend to for the rest of the day.  I am now calculating my calories on the myfitnesspal app to help me along.  I am going to try and get some exercise done later, even if it is for only 10 minutes or so.

I have been working on my third goal to be more organized as well.  I have whittled down my unread emails down from 1500 to 250, hopefully by the end of the day I will of gotten rid of all of them.  I have also downloaded some PDFs to go into my new organizational folder.  Next I need to set myself a budget and put it into effect.

I haven't really made any progress on any off my other goals yet, but hopefully I will do that soon.

Sorry this hasn't been that interesting of a day, but I have pretty much stayed at home all day.  I will get out of the house tomorrow.

I will see you tomorrow

J x

Motivation, Motivation, Motivation

This is what I need right now as I am feeling very lost.  I need this for my beautiful girls as my relationship with their dad seems to be falling apart slowly and I need to be able to stand and be strong for them.   You see for the last six years I have gone around the country for him so he can follow his dreams and now it has come to a point where I need to sort mine out.  For this to happen I need to have a hella a lot of motivation and money, which I don't have much off.  But it the next few weeks you will see that I am going to be more motivated and more determined then ever.

From today, I am setting up four of the most important goals for me and them.

Number 1.  Make a five year life plan, so I know where we are going. 

Number 2.  Get some money into saving, so I have some back up money.

Number 3.  Go back to college so I can have my dream job and prove to my girls that at no matter what age you are you can live your dreams.  (I'm 30 by the way).

Number 4.  Learn to drive and get a car, so I can have more independence. 

So for now I am thinking positive and off to make my five year plan.

See you tomorrow and keep motivated in whatever you do.

New Year Cleaning

After the aftermath of Christmas and the New Year and a week of rest I have decided to give the entire house a good clean.  I am going to take each room and try and gut it as much as possible and throw out all the rubbish, mop or vacum floors, clean walls and surfaces and put everything back nice and neat.

The first room I am going to start with is the kitchen as this seems like it will be the most work.  I will also have to do the room under the stairs which is in the kitchen as well and I am not looking forward to that at all.
The next rooms will be the living room, the hallway and downstairs toilet, Our bedroom and en suite, the family bathroom, then Faiths room and Graces room.  So I'm hoping this will take a week, it may take longer depending on how much the girls try and interfere. 

I also need to get all the washing done as I only have one washing machine and radiators to dry it.  I am going to be saving up money for a tumble dryer at the end of the year so it will be a lot easier.

I hope everybody is enjoying the new year so far and good luck if you are doing a big clean like me.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all.  I was actually asleep at midnight, so I didn't see the New Year in till about 1am when my fiance got back from work.

I have had a nice relaxing day with the family though eating a nice roast dinner, then taking our little dog Angel for a walk.  We have been snuggled on the couch and watching movies as well and also been jumping around in front of the TV with the Xbox kinect.

I have promised myself this year that I will take some more time for myself.  As pretty much most of last year I was a mum 24/7 and I thing I had about five days all to myself.  SO I am making a promise to myself that once a month I am going to take the time to have a me day, while my fiance looks after the girls.

Anyway hope everybody had a fun night and day and that 2012 brings you lots of luck and fun.

New Year Resolutions

I don't usually make New Year resolutions, but for 2012 I decided to set myself some goals.  I am going to set them into three categories, the first group is a must, the second is I will try my hardest and the third group will be I will try my best to do.

So the first group of things I think are a must for me this year are:
1. Lose 30lbs, I have gained quite a lot of weight this year and I want to get back to how I used to be.  The first thing I will be doing is cutting out the fizzy drinks which I have been drinking a lot of and the take aways.
2.  Pay off one credit card.  I only have two credit cards but they are always hanging over my head.  My aim is to pay off the one with the smaller balance first.  I don't think I will be able to pay off both as I don't get much money. 

This is going to be my second group:
1.  Try and blog daily for a year.  I don't know if I will be able to stick to this but I am going to try.
2.  Learn to use Photoshop elements 9.  I have had it since August and have been collecting magazines that give you lessons but I haven't got around to doing it and it's something I've always wanted to learn.
3.  To cook from scratch more often.  Most of the time I will admit to being very tired and lazy when it comes to food as my youngest daughter never sleeps well.  I have been researching recipes that look easy and quick and will have at least some form of meat and veg in.

Last but not least my third group.
1.  Take a lot more photos of the girls, I don't want to miss their growing up and it seems I keep forgetting to take pictures of the most important things.
2.  These two coincide with each other, so I will list them as one.  Get life insurance and make a will.

At the moment these are my goals, they may change as the year 2012 goes along but I will try and achieve as many as possible.

I hope everybody has a happy new year. 

Earning Money on the Internet

As a stay at home mum, I am always trying to find ways of making some extra money so I am not relying on my Fiance all the time.  I use to do a lot before my second daughter was born 16 months ago but haven't done much since.  I am hoping to start again this month.  I got reacquainted with the old websites I used to do this week.  I'm hoping to spend at least 3 hours a day on various survey, review and writing websites to earn my money.  I'm also hoping to get rid of some of my bits and bobs on eBay.

Some of the websites I use either give out money or vouchers, but would love to know of any other ways people know of to make money.

Motivation

I have had no motivation over the last few months to do much of anything.  This is mainly to do with a lack of sleep as my youngest daughter who is only 15 months either wakes during the night for up to 2 hours and refuses to sleep past 5:30am.  I have been lucky the last four nights though as she has slept through til 6:00am,  I am hoping we can stick to this pattern.

I really want to get my motivation back as there is so much I want to achieve over the next few months.  It will be my 30th birthday at the end of May and I feel there is so much more I could be doing.

My top few things are
1. Get down to 130lbs. I am currently 156ilbs.
2. Pay off A £1000 off my combined total of my credit cards.
3. Blog daily
4. Learn to use photoshop and take better pictures

Starting from Monday I am going to make myself do as much as I can to accomplish all these things.  Fingers crossed all this works.

Easter Weekend

Hope everybody has a wonderful Easter weekend.  Mine was quite quiet, on Friday I was in all day potty training my eldest which was quiet eventful, lots of little accidents but I'm sure we will  get there.  On Saturday we had a lovely family BBQ and the girls had a great fun with there grandparents.  I think some of them are bigger kids then the little ones as they were jumping on the trampoline.  A lot of fun was had eating, playing and a little drinking.

I had a quiet Easter Sunday as my partner was at work, so it was just me and the girls.  We had a lovely lunch and ate lots of chocolate and played in the garden.  My eldest even fell asleep on the trampoline which was very cute.  We must of tired her out.  Monday was a nice easy day of going into town and doing some shopping with my mum and the girls.  Although we did try to avoid the fair and we managed but there was a little sulking involved when my daughter realised that we had bypassed it.

All in all a lovely weekend and I hope everyone else had fun and ate lots of chocolate.

Potty Training Madness

Well  we tried to start potty training my daughter when she was two.  Then we had a big mishap when my partner got a little stressed when she weed all over the carpet.  She therefore refused to go on the potty.  She is now 3 and I have been trying on and off over the last year to get her to use the toilet.  Now she is going to start nursery in two weeks and I need her out of nappies.

So now I have made the decision not to put her in nappies at all during the day and only at night.  I don't know if this is going to be a wise decision but the pull up nappies haven't worked.  Plus the cost of nappies is very expensive even if you buy the cheapest brand.  We go through 3 - 4 nappies a day and a pack costs £3.75 for 20, therefore the overall cost for her a month would be £22.50 a month and I also have a 10 month old too.

If anybody has any tips I would be very grateful.  I just hope we can get this done in two weeks otherwise I don't know what to do.

Sunny Weekends

I have had a wonderful weekend playing in the garden with my girls. While my mum and her partner Trevor came over to do the gardening.  The only thing missing was a BBQ, it was the right weather for it.  My mum and her partner don't have a garden and I am not green fingered in the slightest, so it is great for them.

We have mainly been jumping on the trampoline which we got last week.  It has brought out the childness in all of us.  My partner has been working all the time and only got to see the girls first thing on a morning.  I am now making a list of things we need for the summer and the garden.  It seems to be getting rather large but we will try our best to get it done before the real summer begins.

Furniture, Career and Kandee Johnson

I haven't been on for a couple of days as I have been busy.  It was my partners two days off so we have been doing all the things I can't do when he is at work.

First on Wednesday we went to Ikea and the Metro Centre.  We need some more furniture as we moved in February and our last house had a lot of inbuilt storage where as this house as none.  So we have pretty much started from scratch.  We had previously got some chest of draws for the bedroom but we still needed to get the glass tops and a wardrobe.  The wardrobe we got isn't one I would of chosen but as far as my partner was concerned it was cheap and will do the job.  There is still a lot to be done but I'm sure we will get there eventually.

Thursday was just going and getting the main food shop.  Then my partner must of taken two hours to do his fish tank, which I must admit to be very irritating.  It's time he should be spending with the girls and my eldest always tries to get him to stop and he gets quite annoyed by this, but i mean she is three years old.

But while he has been home I have been able to take some time for myself even if it was only for an hour.  I have also been looking at the courses the local college is doing as I would love to become a beauty therapist.  This will I know take me a while as I can't do it all in one go, but luckily the courses at the college can be done as and when and they but them together for level two and then level 3.  I originally started a hairdressing and beauty therapy course when I was 16 but friends at the time kept telling me it wasn't a career and what was the point.  I got so disheartened that I just stopped going and did office work.  Then one day whilst watching you tube I came across Kandee Johnson and my passion for make up and beauty reawakened and its now all I want to do.

I know this blog will not be interesting to most but I am finding it enjoyable to write somewhere where I will be able to look back at and see what I was doing.

Bye Bye for now and remember everybody is beautiful and always encourage your family and friends in what they want to do.

Sleep, Potty Traing and Eczema

Well, I’m here again, which is surprising to me as I’m not good with keeping diaries.  I have had yet another broken night’s sleep; I should explain that my youngest daughter who is nearly ten months as not slept through the night once since she was born.  Now I wouldn’t mind if it I had a break of getting up but I don’t.  As explained in my previous post my partner works a lot of hours so I get up when he works.  But he is supposed to get up on his days off, which doesn’t quite happen, he maybe gets up twice then the rest is left up to me.  So anybody who reads this and has any tips please let me know.

What else did I do yesterday, well potty training my eldest most of the time.  We have been doing this on and off since she turned two but for some reason yesterday she seemed to get the hang of it so it will be more of the same today.  This will be great as she starts nursery in May and we will be spending less money on nappies.

Also another thing my eldest daughter as all of a sudden got some eczema and we are trying to find the best treatment.  At the moment we are using good old sudocrem, we did try E45 but she had a reaction which seems to happen to most products we use on her.  Again any tips most welcome.

On another note I am trying to sort out my money issues, which you can read on my other blog http://bohosmoney.blogspot.com/

My Life

Well what can I say I am a stay at home Mum to my two daughters.  One aged 3 and the other nearly ten months.  They keep me very entertained.  My partner is a chef and works long hours, mainly 13/14 hour days.  So the five days he is at work I'm pretty much a single parent.

Some people ask me how we can possibly have a relationship when he works such long hours.  I can say it has its difficulties but we manage, although some of the time I do get frustrated that he doesn't spend more time with the children.  It's my eldest who has more of a hard time and when she starts school full time in a couple of years she will see less of him.

I'm not promising that my life isn't going to be interesting but hopefully I will entertain some people.  I will probably be doing blogs on mummy bits, finance as I am trying to pay off my two credit cards and hopefully in September a bit about beauty as I will be going to college.