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Another month has flashed by us. The schools went back – L slotted right back in as if she had never been away for 3 months! It was good for all of us to get our normal routine to get back in place. The weather has been much better this month meaning we’ve been spending hours and hours outside. We have been doing a little bit of upcycling and turned our old footstool into a planter along with an old tyre. These will be for strawberry plants. The girls each so many strawberries I thought that this year we could just concentrate on growing masses of strawberries! Watch this space! Around Christmas time we ordered new sofas, which finally arrived last week. Our old ones were 11 years old and had done their time. We also spent a full morning clearing out the garage. We rummaged through moving boxes that hadn’t been touched since we moved in 2017!
National Feet Week
At the beginning of March it was National Feet Week, and to celebrate I took part in a Twitter party #NationalFeetWeek to talk about all things feet-related. We were sent a fantastic goody box of foot pampering treats to share at the party- although due to unforeseen circumstances with the post mine was delayed! When it did eventually arrive I was excited to have a look through all the goodies and give my feet a pamper. The idea behind National Feet Week is for everyone to prioritise their foot care. You must admit it’s one area many of us neglect! #letstalkaboutfeet
I love the Palmer’s coconut sugar foot scrub then using the coconut water foot cream after. My tired feet always feel so soft and smell amazing after! Mr B used the Footner exfoliating socks -a great result for removing the dry skin on his size 14 feet!
Osgo Healthcare, the team behind National Feet Week, is keen to encourage people not to ignore common foot complaints which can lead to serious issues and pain. Speak up and get to a podiatrist – a specialist in foot health.
For more information about common foot ailments and how a podiatrist can help, visit www.podsfixfeet.co.uk. Visit www.nationalfeetweek.org for more info.
Easter Bakes
Our local barista makes the most amazing treats and we couldn’t help but try their cheesecake filled chocolate eggs! Sorry we can’t take credit for this one! But we did make our own mini egg cornflake cakes – they were delicious and gone in no time. We will be making some more over the Easter holidays.
Things We’ve Tried This Month
With just a few days of school left before the Easter holidays, we’ve been having a look at some wonderful products which are perfect for the kids, gifts and relaxing yourself over Easter break.
Kids Books
We love these two children’s books from the Penguin Random House Children’s range. Little Dottie is a huge Peppa Pig fan and *I Love You Mummy Pig! has been a great read for her at storytime. As a kid, I was a huge Roald Dahl fan and I love to share this with the girls. *My Mum is Magnificent is a read-aloud, read-again rhyming board book that celebrates the brilliance of Mums everywhere!
Let’s Go See!
We are loving these fantastic books by commercial airline Captain Robert Johnson. He started writing stories for his children to share his travel adventures with them and to give them something to read while he was away from home. This month saw the launch of the first in the series of the Let’s Go See books, also supported by the Let’s Go See app and the animations can be found on YouTube.
The app has games, puzzles, colouring while exploring the world. We are particularly impressed with actually flying the plane through AR on the app!
Head over to the website www.letsgosee.world for more details.
STABILO Woody 3-in-1
We love these STABILO woody 3 in 1 colouring pencils, they are perfect for kids to draw and paint and ideal for parents too! They wash off windows and are suitable for many surfaces besides paper or cardboard, such as glass and other dark surfaces. One trick is to use the woody’s as watercolour paints! Simply wet a brush and paint over your colouring
Available from: STABILO Woody 3 in 1 / £21.60 for pack of 10/ stabilo.co.uk
Emunity
Emunity is a delicious, light and refreshing soft drink, packed with healthy botanicals. To be fair, nettle doesn’t sound very appetizing, so the creators (Roy Lamb and Nasir Isaji) have combined it with a range of garden botanicals, each with its own health properties. It is the first detox health drink to harness the healing and immunity-boosting benefits of Nettle and make it available in a ready-to-drink can.
I must say it’s an extremely delightful drink – the perfect thirst quencher on a hot day. The drinks taste to me what I would be smelling as I walk through a country garden. It might be a strange thing to say, but your need to try it to see what I mean!!! I love the health benefits the drinks provide. I will be definitely buying these for myself.
Emunity is available in two great tasting flavours: Wild Strawberry and Gooseberry.
Emunity is available from www.Emunity.co.uk, and independent health stores in 250ml grab-and-go cans. RRP £1.49
Mermaid Gin
I can’t get enough of how beautiful this Mermaid Gin bottle is. It’s all plastic-free and uses entirely recyclable materials- including a plant-based seal around its sustainably sourced cork and wooden stopper. It’s a smooth yet complex blend that features the freshness of organic lemon zest, the peppery notes in grains of paradise and a hint of sea air from fragrant rock samphire. It would make a stunning gift for a loved one this Easter, who you may not be able to see. Or you can enjoy a tipple yourself in the garden!
Available from: Tesco, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Harvey Nichols, Master of Malt (online). RSP £40.00/70cl.
Round Corner Brewing Beers
Perfect for loved ones that Lockdown makes it impossible to see, or just as a treat for yourself, Round Corner Brewing has a great range of its hoppiest beers for Easter. The range represents the very best of the brewery – which is based in the country’s oldest market, in the centre of the UK’s ‘rural food capital’, Melton Mowbray. Each beer has a great background to its name, with four directly inspired by the brewery’s hometown!
Available from roundcornerbrewing.com
ColdZyme
With the schools back, cold are inevitable! but we were kindly gifted these ColdZyme mouth sprays to help reduce the length of the common cold.
ColdZyme Mouth Spray is an easy-to-use oral spray for common colds that forms a protective active enzyme barrier on the mucous membrane in your throat. The barrier acts osmotically on the cold virus particles, trapping them and preventing them from binding with human cells, helping the body to remove them naturally. ColdZyme Mouth spray targets the cause of a cold, the cold virus, and not just the symptoms. Suitable for adults and children over the age of 4.
Available from boots.com and amazon.co.uk
Pikk-it
You know when you find a gadget that makes your life easier? Well the Pikk-it is that! As someone who has thick hair and loses many strands every day, our brushes are always full of hair. Not any more! Thanks to this genius invention with just one swipe the Pikk-it cuts through the hair stuck and attached to the brush in seconds. The hair will then cluster into a ball at the end of the brush to dispose of easily. It also works on vaccuums so now my husband is happy!!!
The Pikk-it limited edition retails at £7.99 with £1 from every sale going to the ‘Pink Ribbon Foundation’.
You can *buy a twin pack from Amazon for £12.99
Books I’ve Read This Month
One of the best books I’ve read in a while is All The Little Things by Sarah Lawton.
All The Little Things is jammed packed with family drama, not your ordinary quarrels, but knife twisting, back stabbing toxic relationships. It’s fantastic!
Mum Rachel and daughter Vivian moved away from London to get a fresh start. Or so they think. You find out later on in the book why they moved, and even more later on what really happened. Rachel knows that Vivian is a challenging girl, she always has been. But she seems naive to what Vivian is really like and only discovers this much later. Far too late.
Another book review I wrote is The Pretty One. It touches on a subject that you think isn’t well known, but sibling rivalry and abuse within is more common than you think. Which is quite sad. I haven’t read a book that features this topic before, so it was a whole new area for me. Mum Anna tries to be a good mum. She took in her step daughter Bay and treated her just like her own two daughters Nell and Ivy. Bay could do no wrong in Anna’s eyes. Nell pays the price for this.
Another month over
Well that’s another month over for us, now it’s time to look forward to the Easter holidays and then L’s last term of reception – it seem she only started school a few weeks ago!
