I’m a little bit late with this post but I didn’t want to miss a month when I’ve only just started! If I’m honest February hasn’t been the best month. I had really bad tonsillitis on the day of an interview for a job I really wanted (and didn’t get) and Gabe ended the month being ill again too. So for one reason or another we don’t seem to have done very much this month. Having said that there are still quite a few things that I have liked and loved in February so here goes…

Dancing

I don’t know if I’ve really mentioned it before but I started dance classes when I was 4 and carried on until I went to university at 18. I didn’t do anything for about for six or seven years when I started dancing again and was in quite a lot of musicals up in Scotland before we moved.

Anyway, there was a new adult street dance class starting in our local community centre a few weeks ago. I had no idea what it was going to be like but I really wanted to get back to dancing, for the exercise, and just to do something for me. I made it to the first week and it was really good fun, even if it did show me just how unfit I am at the moment. Unfortunately I didn’t get there last week because Gabe was ill and not wanting to go to sleep but I’ll definitely be going back again soon.

Gabe sleeping

Speaking of Gabe sleeping… He has never been a good sleeper but since Christmas he has slept all night a handful of times. Before that he had only ever slept through twice so although it feels like we might still have a long way to go (and four more teeth still to come) before we get consistent sleep, it does at least feel like we are getting a bit closer. How is it though when you get a full night’s sleep when you’re used to been woken at least once or twice you feel even worse the next day?!

Cooking

I don’t know about you but we’ve have settled into a routine of having the same 15 or 20 meals on rotation – they are all things that are quick and easy to cook, and that I know the boys will eat (or that they won’t eat and we have on the days they are at nursery). During the week I try and get dinner ready for when Barry gets home from work so we can all eat together. This means that I’m trying to cook whilst simultaneously trying to make sure the boys aren’t trying to strangle each other, or take dives off the back of the sofa, so there isn’t much chance for creativity in the kitchen!

I actually enjoy cooking though so for the last month or so I have been trying to add some variety into our weekly meal plan by cooking something different on a Sunday when Barry is at home to look after the boys. So this month we’ve had toad in the hole (which I had never eaten or made before), cottage pie (which usually I just can’t be bothered to make so we have mince and potatoes instead), chicken and leek pie with a leek from my dad’s garden), and quite a lot of roast potatoes and parsnips – I made roast parsnips with maple syrup at Christmas and Barry has been a bit obsessed with them since. Sometimes Toby helps me in the kitchen too – and believe or not his favourite part is actually washing up!

Homeland

With the start of the new series of Homeland we finally got round to watching the second half of the last series and have just started the new one. We were quite late to Homeland and binge watched the first few series but since Gabe was born we seem to have a lot less time for TV watching. Barry and I have quite different tastes in TV, and he doesn’t really watch very much anyway. We also tend to do our own thing in the evenings a lot of the time too with me downstairs on my laptop and him upstairs in his office, but Homeland is something that we both enjoy and have been making time to sit and watch together every week.

Family pizza and games night

We see a lot more of my mum and dad since we moved but my brother and sister-in-law live in Essex so we still don’t see them that often. Last weekend though they were up visiting so we had them and our parents at our house for the evening. We had pizza and played Trivial Pursuits, and I had my first alcoholic drink of the year. It was a lot of fun.

And lastly…

Going ‘home’

I loved going back to Scotland for a night to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert performed by the theatre group I used to be a part of. I enjoyed a peaceful train journey when I got chance to drink hot coffee and read my magazine, I loved seeing the show and catching up with old friends, and I really loved having an uninterrupted night’s sleep in a hotel! I did come back feeling a little bit homesick for my old life but mostly I just had a great time.