A Matter of Choice

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...

February in Cyprus can be an unpredictable month,  it can give us some of the coldest days of the winter but also show us signs of spring and remind us what the weather is supposed to be like here. We've had lots of rain this winter,  I'm sure more than in recent years.  This is good, we need it and apparently the reservoirs are looking good for the year ahead. I haven't minded the rain too much (apart from the time our ceiling leaked) and it's quite a novelty to snuggle up inside while it lashes down outside.   But I know it comes to an end and it's lovely to get our bright blue skies back. This weekend the boys and I went for a walk,  well, I walked they scooted and we all played Pokemon Go along the beach path in Protaras.  It was lovely, I was wearing a t-shirt and fleece, the first time I've not had layers covered with a jumper, and I even took my jacket off for a while (!) but I was still surprised to see people in bikinis sunbathing, no...

A couple of years ago I saw a friend on facebook had started following a yoga program on YouTube by Yoga With Adriene . Back in 2008 I used to go to Pilates classes weekly which I enjoyed and continued going to until I was about 7 months pregnant, I'd never managed to find any Pilates videos I liked online and as  I surmised that Yoga would be pretty similar so thought I'd give it a go too. I like a program to follow, exact instructions if you like, I think it's why I've got on so well with Slimming World over the years so I was full of optimism as I started 30 Days of Yoga. I can't remember how many days I did,  maybe 3? I wanted to get fit and I had probably at least a couple of stone I wanted to lose and when I sat on the mat closing my eyes and holding my hands together over my heart I couldn't help but think 'I haven't got time for this s**t)   Meditation has never held any interest for me, my mind would wander too much and I'd be impatie...

These photos were taken almost 2 weeks ago, on the first day of school.   I had taken the boys to and then before I had time to talk myself out of it or get distracted I drove straight to the beach and walked. It was chilly but a glorious day, made even nicer by the fact it was the first dry and sunny day I think we'd had so far in January. I don't often make the effort to get to the coast for a morning walk but when I do I can never understand why I don't do it every week at least, because it's just awesome, especially at this time of year. It was a great start to the new term, I was home before 9am, cooked myself breakfast,  did some yoga (I'm currently working my way through Yoga With Adrienne's 30 day 'Dedicate' program)  and got down to work. I'm full of cold today but I'm now thinking that a bit of fresh air and a walk will help first thing tomorrow after looking at these photos again. I'll check the weather when I g...

I noticed many people on Instagram sharing their #bestnine in the last week of 2018 and as I do love to jump on a bandwagon when I see one I thought I'd join in too.   I'm a bit later than most as the first app I found to do it was supposed to email me the image, which it didn't and then I forgot all about it.  When I remembered I found another one and it gave me an almost instant image to download! I joined Instagram several years ago, I'd been desperate to join for ages but didn't have a good enough phone at the time and couldn't download the app. My account was initially as @emsyjo  but a while after we started Klik Photo CY I changed to @klikphotoCY and it became our business account.  I mainly share work related pics, either photos from the booth, of the booth set up at different events, or random things that take my fancy at events such as sunsets, table plans and decor.  I also throw in a few family / day off pics as we are a family business an...

Happy new year dear blog readers! On New Years Eve I'd taken the boys to Paralimni town centre just as it got dark to see the Christmas lights as we'd not got round to going there yet and I felt like we hadn't left the house in days.  We came home to a warm house,  music on, bubbly chilling and so our traditional NYE evening was about to get underway! Mum and Dad arrived and we celebrated with lots of food, drinks and music. Mostly sat ( and at various points dancing) and singing along to youtube,  all the old songs that it wouldn't be NYE without! Even Leo was singing along to Chas and Dave! Just before midnight I played our usual countdown which ends with the 'bongs' of Big Ben and a rousing rendition of Auld Langs Syne - although we don't get the chimes live at midnight, it's just not New Year until I hear them!     We all stood outside on the balcony (luckily it was not raining yet)  and I opened the front door as is the tra...

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 ...

Tis the season to be jolly, and to 'make memories'  (have I ever mentioned that I hate that expression?)  so I guess it's also the season to blog about those memories too? I loved our Christmas, it was simple, full of family, friends, food and fun. Our carefully planned amazon order containing most of the boys presents has still not arrived, and I was upset when I realised it would not make it in time,  luckily my parents saved the day and helped us get gifts for the boys to open but I realise I should have known my boys better and not worried quite as much. Christmas morning was probably our best yet,  now the boys are a little older they understand more and they didn't try and open everything in a mad panic and have it all done within minutes.  Stockings were opened, and then we had a break for breakfast before returning for the remainder.  The boys were so happy with their all their presents, the shower gels, a new sponge each, sweets, chocol...

When you think of your childhood Christmases, what comes to mind? I wrote about my Christmas pasts several years ago and about some of my memories but wanted to share a few that might bring back some memories for you too.  We counted down the days with our advent calendars, each day we were excited to open the door to discover the picture that lay behind it.  As we got older they improved and we got chocolate too!  There were no daily advent gifts, Christmas Eve boxes, or gingerbread houses to make and apart from the school nativity play and fundraising Christmas fayre the only festive activity the Chris-tingle service at the local church and driving round to see the local Christmas lights but it was magical and exciting and memorable.  Here are a few of my memories... The Christmas Radio and TV Times Do you remember the days when the only way to find out what would be on TV would be to check the daily paper,  maybe Ceefax if you were l...