Leaving London and downshifting to become a full-time parent and rural homemaker
This time last year we were using some of my City bonus to book a Beale family holiday for some urgent winter-sun in Lanzarote, one of the Spanish Canary Islands.
We did have a wonderful time but it was tremendously expensive and if the weather had been poor we would have been hard pressed to find [...]
Despite the fact that I truely hate being cold, the kids and I have discovered this winter that we really like visiting beaches when it’s super cold (but sunny) as they are always deserted and it feels so wonderful to have so much open space & light all around us.
Yesterday we visited deserted Weston-super-Mare beach [...]
We listened to the local radio station to hear the long list Worcestershire schools who were unable to open due to to overnight snow & the kids were thrilled when they finally heard the name of their pre-school.
The kiddies and their Daddy wolfed down some steamy porrdige and Horlicks before making an enormous snow woman [...]
As many readers will know I’m not one for splashing the cash these days and have therefore managed to put off the day when I took my kiddies to the local soft play centre ‘Having a Ball’ in Malvern for the 7 months since we relocated here from London. This was partly my daughter’s doing [...]
Our little ones celebrated their 4th birthday this weekend. On the big day itself we all had a great time and marvelled at how they have grown so much in four short years. They had a huge stash of cards and presents to open (thank you, thank you so much to all of you reading [...]
Our kids were taken to Bristol Zoo Gardens by their daddy’s relatives. I wasn’t mad on the idea of looking at caged animals but I had no idea what a wonderful place the zoo is for families a huge oasis of amazing gardens in the centre of Bristol.
We got to learn about all sorts of [...]
I’ve just been given a long list of top tips from my friend Pip who is the hostess with the mostess (thanks Pip!) and I thought I’d jot them all down before I forget them to use for our twins’ 4th birthday next weekend when we’ll have eight 2-4 year olds to entertain. I’ve managed [...]
As I walked in to the pre-school classroom today I was less than overjoyed to be greeted by my kids waving A3 sheets and screaming in double unison ‘We’ve stuck LOADS of pictures of all the THINGS we NEED Santa to bring for us!!’ and so they had - hundreds of photos of toys cut [...]
My oldest friend (from 1984) and I have children the same age (Hannah was born a few weeks after our twins in 2003) but she and her husband now have gorgeous non-ID twin baby girls too who are now 7 months old.
I stayed the night with them on Saturday while I was in London as [...]
Having had a couple of abortive attempts at celebrating the 5th November in previous years since the kids were born we finally had a lovely little pagan-style celebration at the weekend with a small bonfire, a pumpkin with candles, sparklers and hot dogs. The kids loved it but only because we’d
(a) [...]