The A to Z blogging challenge.

Recently I saw Jo from Tea & Cake for the Soul mention the April A-Z blogging challenge which you can read about on her blog but she didn't have time to do over a month and did it in one blog post. I thought it was a good idea for a blog post too so here is my A to Z of my blog posts.

A - Auction - I refuse to buy new if I can get it from the auction.

It has been over a year since we have been to the local auction, it has been closed because of Covid. We used to love it, there was always bargains to be had and I furnished most of my house with furniture from it. It is opening back up soon and I can't wait to visit again.

B - Becky or Baby - The weekend that the electronic baby came to stay.

When Becky was at school part of her health and social care lessons was to bring home an electronic baby. It was an interesting weekend and put Becky right off having children of her own.

C - CHD - Our #CHD Story.

This was an easy post to choose. The story about how my girls congenital heart defect's were discovered and their heart surgery.

D - Driving - Why I want my girls to learn to drive.

A post about how Becky is itching to learn to drive and why I regret not learning to drive. Hopefully now lockdown restrictions are being lifted she can start the driving lessons.

E - Eggs - What to do with the extra Easter eggs.

After Easter we always have a lot of eggs leftover and these are some ideas to what to do with them all.

F - Friends - Having the kids friends over is the thing I dread the most!

All about why I dreaded having the kids friends over. After a year of hardly seeing anyone I actually miss having a house full.

G - Green - Giving Colour B4 hair colour remover a try.

The time when my hair turned green. lol I was trying to remove a few years of hair dye of various colours and didn't expect it to end like it did. lol

H - House - Making a house a home.

I wrote about our house a couple of weeks after we had moved in and had unpacked everything downstairs.

I - Ice Cream - Ice Cream in a bag.

How we made Ice cream in a bag. It was a fun experiment which worked out quite well.  

J - Jam - Jam Roly Poly - Recipe!

Yum, yum! We did actually make this jam roly poly and it was so good especially with lashings of custard on.

K - Kit's - The most Chutney-ful time of the year!

I could have used Kim since it's my name but I couldn't find one blog post just about me. lol Instead I have chosen a blog post about Kit's Chutney which we tried out. 

L - Lemonade - Lemonade and Haribo bear Lollies.

Years ago we made ice lollies from lemonade and Haribo bears. The kids had fun making them and eating them.

M - Monkey - A girl and her Monkey.

This was all about Ellie's favourite soft toy Monkey who is actually a lion. There's a story behind it and it makes more sense than it does reading this. lol

N - Night - The Witching Hour.

All about the girls bedtime routine, it was a few years ago and they have got better at going to bed now. They still argue and still faff around but at least there is no toys left out on an evening and they will happily have a bath now. lol

O - Outside - A trip to Amble.

This is our favourite place in the whole world to visit. We were planning to go last year but Covid stopped us unfortunately. Amble is a seaside town in Northumberland and it is such a gorgeous place to visit especially on a summers day. 

P - Photo - Project 365. 

This was my first every Project 365 blog post which I shared in 2015! Wow, that seems forever ago. I have joined in every year since, taking a photo every day.

Q - Quick - A quick meal with Tilda Kids!

I was sent some of the Tilda Kids rice to review and the girls loved it. I have continued to buy it and I think we have tried all the flavours.

R - Rant - Cold Callers.

It seems ages since I have a rant on my blog. I used to all of the time and there was even a linky for them. Ranty Friday. Thankfully living where we do we get no cold callers knocking at the door. I think we've had one in nearly 2 years.

S - School - Things I will miss about Primary School.

These were all the things I would miss about Primary School when Ellie was a few weeks off finishing. I really don't miss the school run now and thought the days of certificates and awards were long gone but Ellie seems to bring home a certificate or reward of some sort every week now at secondary school. 

T - Trampoline - My favourite present!

All about my favourite present that I received as a child.

U - Unicorn - Baking Rainbow Drops Unicorn shortbread biscuits!

A couple of years ago for National Unicorn Day we made some Unicorn shortbread biscuits. I do miss Ellie being obsessed with unicorns.

V - Valentine's - The You Complete Me Couples Jigsaw Keyring. 

I was sent this to review and gave it to Stu for Valentine's day. We still have them now and love them.

W - Wicked Wednesday's - More make up - #wickedwednesdays

Wicked Wednesday's was a linky that was ran a few years ago by Brummy Mummy Of 2 sharing photos of the things that our little darlings got up to. Ellie was the gift that kept on giving for this linky and her obsession with my make up always got her in trouble. lol

X - X-Ray - X-rays and broken bones.

Another Blogtober post all about the x-rays and broken bones that I have had. Horseriding  and being a clumsy child resulted in me having a few broken bones.

Y - Young - When I Was Young Tag.

All about my childhood memories.

Z - Zoo - 10 fun facts about zoos.

One of Blogtober 2017's prompts was Zoo and this was what I came up with.

So there you go. Some letters were easier to choose than others and it took a couple of days with my thinking hat on but I got there in the end.

(Ad - Gifted) A Classic afternoon tea for two from Piglet's Pantry - Review!

I do love an afternoon tea. Obviously I prefer to go out for it but at the moment that isn't possible so to get an afternoon tea delivered was a real treat. Recently I was gifted an afternoon tea for two at home through BuyaGift.

The afternoon tea came from Piglet's Pantry and it wasn't a business I had heard of but their food looked amazing, their cakes especially!

To order I was to email Piglets Pantry with the code given from buyagift and I did and it took a little while for my order to be processed but I was fine with waiting, there was no rush for the afternoon tea.

My afternoon tea arrived and it was packaged perfectly. Everything was chilled and there was no damage to any of the products which is really impressive considering there was cakes with icing on top.

Included in the afternoon tea is:

Two cheese and chive quiches.

Two Scotch eggs.

Two mini sausage rolls.

Two mini sausage rolls with cheese and pickle.

Two fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry conserve.

A selection of four cakes (either carrot cake with cream cheese icing, blueberry, banana and lemon curd icing, chocolate chip and caramel drizzle).

Earl Grey tea bags.

In my email I did ask "Would it be possible to change the sausage rolls filled with cheese and pickle to just normal, classic sausage rolls?" but it seems they never got the message and the sausage rolls with cheese and pickle arrived. It wasn't a massive issue for me, I was just being picky. I didn't eat those but the kids did and said they were so good! So good that they wanted more.

The food all looked amazing and when it arrived it was chilled thoroughly. We actually had to wait for the scotch eggs to defrost which was a good thing as I knew it was chilled properly and OK to eat.

It was only when I started thinking about the scones I thought where's the cream? I looked, I lifted the plastic tray out, looked underneath, I looked all through the packaging that I had put to be recycled and then went as far as taking everything out the tray it came in and there still wasn't any cream. I did speak to Piglet's Pantry and they were deeply apologetic about it.

Despite there being no cream and the sausage rolls with cheese and pickle which I didn't really want I was still impressed with the box. There was more than enough food for my two girls and I to have for tea. The scotch eggs were to die for and the carrot cake was one of the best I've ever eaten. 

When I ordered it was the run up to Valentine's day then there has been Mother's day and Easter so they have been busy and I did have to wait a week for the afternoon tea to be delivered which was fine, we were in no great rush for it.

The afternoon tea costs £35.00 and I would say it was well worth the money if everything was correct in the box. I have read that other bloggers have tried out their afternoon tea's and everything was fine with theirs so I was just an unlucky one. I am tempted to pay for one myself to give them a second chance because I do think the mistakes with my box were just a random occurrence. Like I said the food we did have was so good, it's just a shame some was missing or not what we had asked for.

I was gifted the Classic afternoon tea for two from Piglet's Pantry in exchange for a previous blog post from BuyaGift.

We've all been vaccinated. This is how it went for us.

I feel so lucky at the moment. Over the past few months everyone in my family has had the Covid vaccine. I was the last of us to get it on Saturday. I know some people are against vaccines but myself and my family are not.

My great aunt was the first to get it just after Christmas. She's in her 80's and has been worrying so much about getting Coronavirus. I couldn't have been happier when she got it as to be honest she was the most vulnerable out of my whole family and we have been worrying a lot about her. She had no side effects after her first vaccine but felt rotten after her 2nd dose.

My dad was next up to get it. He is in the over 70's group and after him being so poorly when he caught the virus in November we were keen for him to have it. He was ill at the end of 2019 with the same symptoms of Coronavirus but as it wasn't a thing then so the doctor just put it down to him having a bad case of the flu. He had the vaccine in the middle of February and the day after having it he slept for 18 hours which isn't like him at all.

My dad's partner had a phone call at the start of March which made no sense as she is in a lower age group and has no health problems but she took the doctors up on their offer. She felt rotten after her vaccine, slept lots, felt hot and cold and just felt run down.

Stu got the phone call at the end of last month and it seems our local GP practice are taking Saturdays to go through everyone who wants it and they were on to the under 50's which was really good news for us. Stu left for his appointment and was back within half an hour which is good going considering the doctors is at least a 12 minute walk away. He was in and out within 5 minutes and felt nothing and continued to feel nothing apart from some hot and cold flushes the night after. His arm felt a little sore a couple of days later but I thought he got off lightly.

The day Stu had his vaccine I got a text saying "You are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine but stopped myself from booking it for me because I had a thought that Becky still gets text messages on my number from the NHS because she hasn't got around to changing her phone number at the doctors since she turned 18. I rang up on 119 to ask them and the woman I spoke to was lovely and said it's stupid how there is no name on the text message. She checked through my details and I wasn't eligible so that meant Becky was because of her leaky valves in her heart.

Becky had her vaccine a couple of weeks ago and felt nothing apart from feeling a little hot and cold the day after. Her arm did ache and she struggled to lift it but that is as bad as it got. She had her vaccine at one of the vaccination centres in town. She was in there for about half an hour, they asked her a ton of questions and kept her in for 15 minutes after her vaccine to make sure there wasn't any instant side effects. Which is so different from what my dad's partner, Stu and me have experienced going to the local GP's.

I got the text inviting me to go for my vaccine. It was for me this time because it come from the local doctors with my name on. lol and on Saturday I had the jab! I was queuing to get in the doctors longer than I was actually in there. It was painless and I didn't feel the needle go in at all.

I had the vaccine at 11.40am and didn't start to feel any side effects until about half ten that night. I started to feel shivery and achy. I took myself off to bed and all night I was hot and cold. I got Stu to fill me a hot water bottle to put on my back, it was aching. By the morning my arm was aching. It felt like someone had punched me in it and I couldn't lay on it.

I slept for a good 12 hours and got up about midday on Sunday. I still felt achy and drained but felt like I was over the worst. I had two naps on Sunday. One on the afternoon and the evening which is not like me at all. I never nap. I must have needed it though. By late Sunday evening the aches had just about gone and I just felt tired, still. My arm was sore, it hurt to touch and I could hardly lift it. I went to bed after watching The Circle and slept until about 10am Monday morning. I didn't bother setting an alarm, I was just going to have my sleep out and did.

Yesterday I just had an easy day, blogging, watching TV and not much else. My arm is still sore but not as bad as it was. I am over the worst and to be honest I would rather had a couple of days of not feeling great from the side effects than have full blown Coronavirus.

In case you were wondering my dad and great Aunt had the Pfizer vaccine and the rest of us had the AstraZeneca one. 

Have you had the vaccine yet? Did you have any side effects?

Our weekly meal plan! 5th - 11th April. #MealPlanningMonday

Last weeks meal plan was a bit hit and miss. Subway was closed so we ended up having a Chinese takeaway on Monday evening, we were in no mood for pie & mash on Tuesday it was just too warm so we just had sandwiches. We had the pizza on Friday instead of Saturday and the fish & chips was scrapped altogether and we had fried chicken, fries, onion rings and garlic mushrooms. Some weeks go great but this past week didn't. I'm not too fussed though. Nothing went to waste which of course is a good thing.

We don't have any plans for this week. I am sure we'll fit a visit in to my dad's garden and Becky's girlfriend might be visiting our garden but it all depends on the weather. 

On the menu this week we have:

Monday - Tuna salad with baby potatoes.

Tuesday - Sausage and baked bean casserole & mash.

Wednesday - Sandwiches, cakes, crisps.

Thursday - Slow Cooked Hunters Chicken with potato wedges.

Friday - Pizza.

Saturday - Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta.

Sunday - A roast dinner of some sort.

What are you eating this week?