A Matter of Choice

Last year we went to a great Christmas party at a friends house, as well as yummy food, silly games and a few drinks we took part in my first ever proper 'Secret Santa' Our Santa's all did well,  my gift was a Memory Jar along with a fancy pen and colourful papers to record our best memories throughout the year.  Of course this time last year I'm sure my secret Santa had no idea of what was to come, assuming that I would easily fill the jar with days out, parties, weddings and memorable moments.   It would have been all to easy to leave the jar empty, I'm sure after all that many people have started a similar jar in more 'normal' years and failed to fill it as the months go by, and 2020 hasn't given itself the best of times for people to look back on with fondness.  However, I have managed to pop quite a few memories in there since January. They are mostly simple things that made me smile on the day they happened,  things like meeting a friend, or everyo...

As we start another decade I can't help but wallow in a bit of nostalgia.  I love a flashback as you may know so have been enjoying a trip down memory lane. They don't seem to make decades like they used to though,  it doesn't seem possible that it's been 10 years since 2010,  where did it go? How is it that when I hear 2003 I still automatically think people are talking about 10 years ago? Is that going to finally change now? For Christmas this year Aaron joined the boys and became the owner of a Kindle, he's been very anti Kindle preferring (justifiably) to read a proper book, but it got me thinking about tech gone by. In the 80s I used to watch 'Tomorrows World' with my Dad and I was excited about all the new and amazing things that would appear.    Do you remember how cool CD's were going to be!? Dad used to rent our TV and video player so we often changed them as the years went by. It meant that we didn't have old models going spare t...

Happy new Year! 2019 was a good year for us, and I hope 2020 will be even better. Of course at this time of year you can't help but look back over the year that has passed,  and with this year being a brand new decade ( By the way, it absolutely is a brand new decade, just in case you had any doubt.   I can't even begin to describe how cross I got reading a load of comments on facebook from people arguing that there was another year to go.  I assume these people have forgotten the well known decades of the 80's and 90's just to name a couple. Anyway because of the shiny new decade many people are sharing the #10yearChallenge photos.  I am loving them all,  it's fascinating me to see how things have changed in the last 10 years. The first change of decade I remember was the start of the 90's, as I was 12 in 1989.  It seemed like a huge thing to be happening and I couldn't imagine what I would be doing at the end of the decade, apart from part...

I recently found Game of Life in my local thrift shop and was so excited I brought it straight away to go home and play with the boys and relive the childhood memories.   We had a fun time playing despite the fact it was much more complicated than I remembered and probably a bit too old for Louka. After discovering that a friend of mine also loved the game as a child we decided we should have a Game of Life evening.   So a few days later accompanied by pizza and a couple of GOL newbies we set it up and played.   There was lots of joking about how it was a little misleading and our lives have not been quite so easy,  some debate over the compulsory marriage and house buying squares and lots of laughter. It got me thinking about the other games I played as a child. There were so many,  I think my present from my grandparents each Christmas was a board game, and over the years I acquired a massive selection. My parents spent ages playing d...

If you are a long term reader of my blog you will know that Flashback posts are one of my favourites. I used to join in with a link up every week sharing a photo on a theme and the story that went with it.  I even hosted the linky for a while! Earlier this year I started to write a post with an 80s theme and when I fell into the Pinterest rabbit hole of childhood memories whilst looking for images to accompany my posts I found there were so many things I'd forgotten about and wanted to share that I had to break it down into several posts. I blogged about my 80's toys  and the Sindy and Barbie dolls of my childhood and board games I had or regularly played, but just like the kids of today I was always won over by a bit of tech. It wasn't as impressive as today's tech that kids take for granted now, like ipads and Xboxes but it was awesome to us. I played for hours with the following toys but I don't think they were as addictive as the tech of today,  I'...

A flashback post today, back to early 2015 Leo was 5 and Louka was 2.  It was quite early in the morning and we were having breakfast outside.   That was quite a rare event, and one of the only times in all the years we've been here that we did that, I assume it just seemed like an unnecessary additional effort especially in the high chair days.  There had already been a pre-breakfast playdough session,  I really don't miss days starting that early with things like that! It may be more than 4 years ago but I remember the morning well,  the breakfast went well.  Leo buttered his own bread (sort of)  and no-one cried or moaned or had any drama - this is why I remember it, it was a rare event! I sat and watched the boys play thinking how lovely it all was, the sun was shining the boys were happy and had been playing nicely together so far all day (remember it was breakfast time but you had to celebrate the little th...

Following on from my recent 80's toy flashback post I wanted to elaborate,  while I had been writing the first post I had been browsing on pinterest and of course now it keeps showing me more of the same type of pins assuming that is what I am now interested in.  Well of course it is right, I love memories! Last time I mentioned my favourites - Care Bears and My Little Pony, plus a couple of less popular toys but now it's all about the dolls. Surely every girl growing up in any decade has to have a doll at one point, whether it's a baby, Barbie or Bratz, or whatever the latest is (I don't know, I have boys!) I had a Tiny Tears (or similar) doll, you know the one - feed it and change it, ahh the aspirations we all had!   I wasn't a fan though,  I remember it annoying me that it didn't really look like a young baby and so it seemed silly. This changed when I received Gemma (not sure why I wanted to call it something so close to my own name)   S...

Like so many parents I often despair over what my children eat, more accurately what they refuse to eat. Whilst Leo is much better than he used to be and is willing to try some things at least once, Louka is hard work when it comes to dinner time.  I think he is probably 90% pasta at this point. His dinner choices consist of pasta, usually plain or maybe a little bit of BBQ sauce or mayo, with sweetcorn and hot dogs, ham or salami,    chicken nuggets, pizza or sausages  and a few variations on that but using mainly the same ingredients.  Chips are ok as long as there are just a few, and homemade chips are not included, potatoes in any other form are definitely out.  It seems we spend a lot of time telling the boys what dinners were like when we were kids - yes I have become THAT person... 'Back in my day...... We had a roast every Sunday lunch,  I didn't like roast potatoes so I usually got mashed instead.  I was lucky, Aaron...

My favourite thing about my blog is the chance it has given me to write about some of my old photos and share the stories in flashback posts.   I love the fact it is creating a record for my boys and maybe their children for years to come and giving them the opportunity to get a glimpse into what my childhood and life was like before they came along.  Last year I introduced Leo to the BBC  'Back in Time' series'.  The first series 'Back in Time for the Weekend', took the participating family from the 1950s to the 1990s examining how Britain spent it's leisure time, and was followed up with 'Back in Time for Dinner'  which focused more on how eating habits changed over the years.  We are now watching 'Back in Time for School' and it's making Leo very glad to be at school now and not 100 years ago!   I am pleased he enjoys them as it's showing him more than just history,  to see 'real life' England is a rarity for him too havin...

The obligatory end of year / new year posts are in full swing so I'm looking back over the year through my photos.   I took much fewer this year than in previous years, trying to live more in the actual moment than looking at everything through a camera.  I take many photos of the boys, this year I've been hard pushed to get one of them (especially Leo) to pose for a photo without dabbing.   It became a personal mission of his to 'dab' on anything, everything and everywhere, and most video clips taken would have included 'flossing' somewhere. I've got hundreds of photos of them over the year but looking back there are few that would be worthy of printing or framing.  I'm not a great photographer (that's Aaron's department) but I love a scenic pic.   I've got lots of sea and sky shots, many of the same place as I can never resist!  So here are 12 of my favourite photos, one from each month of 2018. January  I love ...