On 1st January 2016 we began what has turned out to be a new family tradition: the Happy Jar. The Happy Jar started out as just a fun activity to do with the girls and, in truth, I wasn’t sure how long it would capture their attention for although I was hopeful it would last. …
Hello 2021. The start of a brand new year is usually full of anticipation, promise and excitedly scribbled down ideas & plans for the coming months. Instead January began in much the same way as 2020 ended: lockdown number three. Schools closed, shops closed, still unable to see the people we love. It wasn’t what…
In 2017 I took a leaf out of Suzanne from Inside Outside and Beyond’s blog pages and started tracking my year in numbers, measuring the year according to all the things that are important to me and which I value the most: family time; love and connection; travel; creativity; helping others and personal challenges/growth. I enjoyed documenting…
In October half term, just before Lockdown v2.0 was announced, we were lucky enough to be able to say yes to an unexpected and very much welcomed opportunity to head to our happy place by the sea – Bude in North Cornwall. We’d never spent any part of Autumn in Cornwall before and we were…
We’ve never spent any part of Autumn in Cornwall before, though it’s something we’ve talked a lot about trying one day. Even though we go to Bude every year, we usually prefer to visit during the Easter holidays in April and we have occasionally spent a week there during the summer holidays as well. There’s…
October felt like it sped by fairly quickly. Usually this autumn school term drags and seems to take forever to get through and yet time seems to be following a completely different set of rules this year. I found myself surprised to be putting the clocks back an hour on the oven and in my…
When lockdown first started back in March 2020, we didn’t think we were going to be able to make our much-anticipated, annual Easter trip to Bude happen. Fortunately, when the hospitality and travel industry started opening up a little bit, we were able to snag a week-long stay at our home-from-home, The Beach Haven, and…
In all honesty August hasn’t really felt much different to the previous five months of lockdown. Most places are open now (albeit with some restrictions still in place and lots of forward planning needed) but we still chose to stay quite close to home. It’s felt a lot like we’ve been in limbo, just waiting…
We didn’t think we were going to get to go on our annual trip to Bude in North Cornwall this year. We traditionally visit during the Easter holidays in April but, of course, the coronavirus pandemic meant that our eagerly-awaited holiday was cancelled as we were still in the midst of a strict lockdown. As…
We made it! July has brought with it the start of the summer holidays and I have never been so glad to reach the end of a school term before. We survived homeschooling for 14 whole weeks (plus the Easter holidays and May half term, 17 weeks in total). I did actually really enjoy having…