- Sarah 47 Comments

Exante Diet Flexi Solution

Back in 2014 I tried out the Exante Diet Total Solution for one week and wrote all about it here. Since then I’ve had another baby and moved house, and found myself in need of losing some weight again. Having two small children though means that a total meal replacement diet isn’t really what I’m looking for any more. And so that’s where the Exante Diet Flexi Solution comes in.

Exante Diet Flexi Solution Giveaway

The Flexi Solution is a 1200 calorie flexible diet – it combines two Exante meal replacement products, one healthy recipe meal and an Exante snack every day. This kind of plan fits in really easily to my family life – I can have my meal replacements for breakfast and lunch but still eat dinner with the rest of the family. We try to eat healthy meals anyway so with a few adjustments we can still all eat the same meal in the evening. Read more

- Sarah 3 Comments

Remembering Childhood // The UnNatural Mother

It’s that time of week when another blogger is going to be sharing their childhood memories. This week it’s Becci from The UnNatural Mother.

Which decade were you born in?

The 80s.

What is your earliest memory? How old were you?

Playing in a Wendy House at preschool aged 4 . I LOVED preschool.

What was your favourite toy at 5 years old? At 10?

At 5 – my dolly called Victoria

At 10 – my roller-skates. They were red and yellow with thunder bolts on them.
Becci from The UnNatural Mother as a child
Do you still have any toys from your childhood?

Read more

- Sarah 11 Comments

Living Arrows 7/52 (2017)

The last week has been pretty awful as weeks go… Gabe’s cough and cold is still sticking around and his cough has really started to bother him at night so sleep hasn’t been great. Then last Monday I started getting a sore throat. Overnight I had a temperature but was shivering and by the time I woke up I could barely swallow. A trip to the doctors and I was diagnosed with bacterial tonsillitis and prescribed antibiotics.

Luckily it was a day the boys were at nursery so I thought I would get chance to rest but I got a phone call at lunchtime saying Toby had a temperature and I had to pick him up. By the time I got him home his temperature was normal and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him except a snotty nose. Nursery policy meant he couldn’t go back for 24 hours though.

All that would have been bad enough but on Wednesday morning I had an interview at a local school for a job starting in September. I had to teach a lesson and have a formal interview, all whilst struggling to swallow, let alone do anything else. Barry was working at home with the intention being he would take the boys to nursery in the morning but of course he had to have Toby at home until lunchtime. Read more

- Sarah 11 Comments

Living Arrows 6/52 (2017)

Another fairly quiet week here – after me saying in our January Me & Mine post last week that we had got through the month without being ill we all came down with colds! Toby is just really snotty but OK in himself. Barry has been suffering with a sore throat and cough and even had a day off work last week. Poor little Gabe has got a constantly dripping nose and a cough that has been affecting his sleep. And I seemed to have recovered the quickest but I am so fed up of wiping snotty noses now. And snotty faces – does anyone else have a toddler who manages to just wipe snot all over their own face every two minutes?! Read more

- Sarah 2 Comments

Remembering Childhood // Little Hearts, Big Love

It’s that time of week when another blogger is going to be sharing their childhood memories. This week it’s Louise from Little Hearts, Big Love.

Which decade were you born in?

I was born towards the end of the 1970s

What is your earliest memory? How old were you?

My earliest memory is standing by the orange toilet that was in our flat above the pub where my dad was the landlord. I don’t remember anything other than the fact the toilet was orange. I must have been two as we moved just before I turned three.

Little Hearts Big Love

What was your favourite toy at 5 years old? At 10?

Read more

- Sarah 6 Comments

Easy one pot chicken, chorizo and roasted vegetables

We all have busy lives so who doesn’t love a quick dinner that can all be cooked together with minimal preparation and even less washing up!

This chicken and chorizo recipe is a regular in our house. Chicken and chorizo is a classic combination – in this recipe you can then add any vegetables of your choosing, stick it in the oven and you’re done!

Easy one pot chicken and chorizo

You will need (serves two):

Read more

- Sarah 10 Comments

Me & Mine // A Family Portrait (January 2017)

I’m not going to write a very long post this month as I don’t really have much to say! Christmas and the New Year seems ages ago now, and yet January has absolutely flown by. We haven’t been doing anything very exciting – we’ve managed a few family trips to the park and a day up in Cumbria visiting the in-laws but that’s about it. Remarkably though, apart from Gabe having a snotty nose for the whole month, none of us has been ill either!

We did go out a couple of weekends ago with the intention of a walk in the woods and a chance to take this month’s Me & Mine photos… But we were thwarted by a grumpy Toby, the sun going in and it getting freezing cold, and a path that turned far too muddy for the buggy to cope with.

So instead we took these pictures in our kitchen. Read more

- Sarah 7 Comments

Living Arrows 5/52 (2017)

Here we are again, this year seems to be going so fast! We’ve not been up to much over the last week – I don’t know what it’s been like where you are but it’s been freezing here! I did make more of an effort to do stuff with the boys last week though.

On Monday we went to pick up some supplies from Hobbycraft and then came home and made a glitter ‘calm down’ jar. I don’t know if it’s helped with calming down at all but both boys enjoy giving it a good shake!

Later in the week my mum came over for lunch then we went out for a coffee (and a cake for Toby). We didn’t manage much this weekend except a quick trip to the garden centre to use our monthly free drink vouchers!

All this meant I hadn’t really taken many pictures of the boys this week so I got the camera out last night after tea. Taking pictures of children in really rubbish artificial light isn’t easy but I actually quite like the ones I managed to get…

Toby in the living room

Read more

- Sarah 8 Comments

Liked & Loved // January 2017

I’m conscious of the fact that last year I spent quite a lot of time moaning about life; about how everyone was ill all the time and we weren’t getting very much sleep. I can’t guarantee that this year won’t see more of the same. But in an effort to focus more on the positives I’m going to be joining in with the Liked & Loved linky from Stevie at A Cornish Mum every month. It’s easy to forget the little things that make you happy when you’re living in a fog of sleep deprivation and germs but there definitely are some in there somewhere!

So what have I been liking and loving in January…

The view from our living room

Focusing on the positives and enjoying the view from our living room looking out over the fields

We’ve lived in our house for six months now. But for some reason this month I’ve really noticed how lovely the view from our living room is. Read more

- Sarah 4 Comments

Toby is three and a half

Toby was three and a half a few weeks ago. On the one hand it really doesn’t seem that long since his third birthday but then when I think about it that was before we even moved from Scotland, which seems like it was ages ago now.

When you spend every day with a child it’s easy not to notice the changes and developments they make but when I was reading through Toby’s three year update I realised just how much he has changed in the last six months.

Three and a half year old Toby in his sunglasses on the slide

I guess I’ll start with the vital statistics – Toby is now 106 cm tall so he’s grown 4 cm in the last 6 months. He’s still sitting above the 91st centile for his height so he’s still tall for his age but he’s not off the top of the chart like he was when he was two! Read more