Planning our home improvements (and how we’re going to pay for them)

Our house that looks like a bungalow from the front

**This is a collaborative post

It’s now over two years since we moved from Scotland to our new house here in Lancashire. I’ve written a few times before about the work we have already done and some of our plans for the future. We are planning on staying in this house for the long term so although we are interested in adding value to the property we are more concerned with making it the house we want to live in. Read more

Me & Mine // A Family Portrait (August 2018)

Me & Mine August 2018

Another month done and the long hot summer is over. August for us was mostly about our holiday in France. We went to the Dordorgne for two weeks with my parents and brother and sister-in-law and it was fab. We celebrated Gabe’s third birthday while we were away – I wonder if it will be the first birthday he really remembers when he’s older? The two weeks since we came home have been very quiet with us spending a lot of time at home just resting, relaxing and hopefully preparing ourselves for the return to school and nursery next week. Read more

What are the best ways to help our kids financially?

Help our kids financially

**This is a collaborative post

Money matters, it’s important to teach our kids everything they need to know if they’re going to be successful financially as adults. So many young people end up in debt or struggling with money simply because they’ve never been taught how to use it properly. Here are some of the ways we can teach children and teens about money. Read more

Living Arrows 34/53 (2018)

Toby inside a canon at Chateau de Castelnaud

These Living Arrows posts seem to be coming round so often at the moment! I think being on holiday has made time both slow down and speed up too somehow! We came back from France yesterday so are mostly spending today just relaxing at home (apart from Barry who was up at 5:30 am this morning to go back to work) – the boys are loving getting to play with all their toys again. Read more

Siblings // Toby and Gabe in August (2018)

Toby giving his little brother a kiss in St Cyprien Dordogne

I said at the end of last month’s Siblings post that I wasn’t going to bring my laptop on holiday and this post might be late but in the end I decided to bring it with me so here we are. Since I wrote last month’s post Toby has broken up from school and Gabe finished preschool and oh my, those first few days of the holidays were awful with the amount of fighting and squabbling between the pair of them! Read more

Living Arrows 33/53 (2018)

Toby paddling in the Dordogne

Bonjour encore! We’re still in France on holiday at the moment so it’s going to be another quick post from me this week. We’re having a lovely time with a mix of relaxing, playing and exploring. The weather has been great for the most part apart from an epic thunderstorm one night last week which left us without power until the following afternoon! Read more