365 Days Of Gratitude. In August I was grateful for...

August was the best month, it always is with my fellas and youngest girls birthdays! Don't get me wrong, it was a little stressful making plans and getting everything ready for the birthdays but it was all worth it in the end.

I have seen many people on social media list something every day that they are grateful for and thought I would join in. I did this for the whole of the last couple of years and it has really made me realise that even on the bad day's I have something to be grateful for.

Day 213 of #365DaysOfGratitude

Today I am grateful for takeaway for tea! It was a pay day treat!

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Today I am grateful that WWE Summerslam started at 11pm so I could watch an hour before I went to bed.

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Today I am grateful that Stu cut the grass. I hate doing that job!

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Today I am grateful that the power cut we had didn't last too long. The electric was off for about an hour.

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Today I am grateful for a day at home with Becky. We didn't do much but it was nice to spend some time together.

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Today I am grateful that Ellie had a great day out watching someone get a tattoo. She wants one but she is going to think long and hard about what to get.

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Today I am grateful for a little lie in this morning.

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Today I am grateful for the random things that my dad cooks for lunch on a Friday when I am there.

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Today I was grateful to get all the washing done! Washed, dried and put away!

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Today I was grateful for Toad in the Hole for tea.

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Today I am grateful that Stu has got his and Ellie's birthday off work, it was only confirmed today! Phew!

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Today I am grateful for a shower this afternoon. It was nice to get into my pj's early.

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Today I am grateful that I could stay home where it was cool.

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Today I am grateful for a successful shopping trip getting the last of Stu's birthday presents and cards.

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Today I am grateful my dad has a shed full of random but useful things so we could help someone out with some DIY.

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Today I am grateful that Stu had a great birthday! There was lots of football, food and family time!

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Today I am grateful that I've made some plans for next month. A big day out.

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Today I am grateful for a day at home with Stu. It was nice to have some help with the housework.

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Today I am grateful for an oversized, snuggly jumper! I didn't think I'd be wearing it in the middle of August though!

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Today I am grateful that Ellie has a date to enrol for the next year of college.

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Today I am grateful that Ellie let me go to college with her to pick up her English GCSE result. She still hasn't got a pass so she will resit it again.

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Today I am grateful the Morrisons delivery driver realised he hadn't give me all of my food shop, there was a box left on the van. I didn't even realise until he knocked at the door again.

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Today I am grateful for a day in my pj's. I even got my fleecy one's out to feel extra cosy!

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Today I am grateful for a new colour on my nails. Bright pink!

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Today I am grateful for a sunny afternoon in the pubs beer garden after a lovely lunch!

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Today I am grateful that Ellie has got her timetable for the new college year! It's the best one yet! A late start one day, early finish another and one full day!

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Today I am grateful that we got to watch the football. Grimsby deserved that win and it was a bonus that they knocked Man United out of the cup. hehehe

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Today I am grateful for Stu helping to put Ellie's birthday decorations up! 18 tomorrow!

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Today I am grateful that Ellie had the best birthday!

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Today I am grateful for a long lie in and a lazy day!

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Today I am grateful that Ellie is home safe after her first proper night out in town last night and sleeping out at her friends.

What were you grateful for in August?

The Wednesday Hodgepodge #26

I hope you are all having a good week? It's Wednesday which means it's time to join in with the Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond! Each week there are 6 questions, we answer and then link up. Simple!

1. Next Sunday is Grandparent's Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent.

I really only had my Grandad, my dad’s dad, in my life but he made up for any missing grandparents I didn’t have. He was just the best! My favourite memories of him all revolve around food. He loved kippers (smoked herring) for breakfast and would stink the house out, he always had Lurpak butter which is the best in my opinion and would smother it on toast for me. He kept chickens and it was always exciting to go hunting for eggs with him and picking tomatoes from his greenhouse. When my mam would cook my brother sensible, healthy meals and we wouldn't eat them we knew we could go to my grandad and he would fill us with ham and pickle sandwiches or soft boiled eggs and toast, he was the best at making the eggs just right! He always had money for the ice cream van and McDonalds when my parents would say no.

2. What's a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you?

I’ve always loved books, and as a kid, I was a big Roald Dahl fan. One quote that has really stuck with me is from The Twits:

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

3. What's your number one food pet peeve?

It is so hard to list just one. I think my number one food pet peeve has to be when people eat and chew with their mouths open. I also can't stand loud eaters, people who drown everything in ketchup, those who leave just a bite on their plate, why not just finish it and those people who say they're not hungry but will eat half of what you have ordered.

4. What's one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young?

I would say my love for curiosity and asking why about everything. Even as a kid I’d drive adults nuts with endless questions and that hasn’t changed a bit. I still like learning new things, discovering random facts or just poking around for answers.

5. September is National Preparedness Month...does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that's kept there.

I’m not ready for anything. If the zombie apocalypse, a flash flood or a power cut hit tomorrow, I’d probably be running around like a headless chicken with no emergency kit and no plan. The only thing I do have plenty of is candles. So at least if the lights go out I can pretend I’m in some cozy, romantic survival movie instead of panicking. Thinking about it I always have plenty of tinned food in the cupboards so we're not going to starve and a good first aid kit so we wouldn't be compleatly doomed.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

My fella is putting together a flat pack dressing table for my youngest and it is my entertainment for the afternoon. Bits keep going missing, pieces are somehow ending up upside down and the instructions? He’s pretending they don’t exist. Every so often he mutters something about why they can’t just make this simple. Flat packs were clearly invented to test us as adults and between the missing screws and confusing diagrams we’re failing spectacularly but at least we’re laughing about it.

Back to school feelings as a grown up!

It's September so that means it's back to school time this week for lots of youngsters who are in education. My youngest is going into her last year at college (further education). Things are very relaxed around here, we feel old hands at this back to school lark but there is still something exciting about it even for me as an adult with now adult children!

Even if you haven’t set foot in a classroom for years that back to school feeling just feels good. It’s a mix of nostalgia, excitement and this strange urge to get your life together. I haven’t had to pack a school bag in years but I still find myself wanting to buy new notebooks, pens, label things and start fresh.

I was in town a couple of weeks ago watching parents and children buy the back to school supplies and uniforms and I actually missed doing that. All Ellie needed this year was some pens and a notebook so I treated myself to a new notebook too. Did I need another notebook? Of course not. Did I buy it because it has a pretty cover and smooth paper? Absolutely! Every year I fall victim to the stationery trap. When I was at school it was all about persuading my mam that I definitely needed a brand new set of gel pens, despite having a pencil case bursting with perfectly good ones from last year. Now as a fully grown woman I don’t have to justify my stationery purchases to anyone. hehehe

I will no doubt be seeing kids in oversized uniforms, heading to school and it takes me straight back to my own first days of term, hating everything being too big and then doing the same and buying bigger for my girls so they wouldn't grow out of everything within a month. I remember wondering who my new teachers would be, seeing friends again after the summer and feeling excited. Now I get to enjoy it from the outside, without the 7am alarm going off or having double maths to deal with.

For me September has always felt more like the start of a new year than January ever does. January is cold, dark and generally involves eating leftover Christmas treats but September feels like a much more relaxed start. Summer tends to throw everything out of routine with late nights and lying in bed later than usual. By September I’m craving a bit of structure again and the cosy factor which happens around now is a big bonus. It feels like we're heading into Autumn fast and I am happy about it. The evenings start to cool which means it's the return of my fleecy PJ's. It's getting darker earlier and at this time of year I always say I love the dark nights, shutting the curtains early and getting cosy. I even love those mornings when you step outside and there’s that crisp, just barely there chill. It’s also the start of good TV again and my first thoughts go to Strictly Come Dancing and The Great British Bake off!

I’ve made my own little traditions for this time of year. Buying a new candle which is always something warm and spicy like cinnamon or vanilla. I’ll start a new notebook, do some baking and have tons of motivation to get things done around the house. This time as an adult is all about getting to keep all the fun bits from the back to school season. Ditching the early mornings, the awkward group projects and the strict uniform rules and keeping the fresh start, the cosy feelings and the little spark of excitement. It's all the fun of the season without the stress.

So no I’m not going back to school this week but I am going to write in my new notebook, light an autumn scented candle and do a bit of decluttering!

Do you like back to school season?

Our weekly meal plan! 1st - 7th September! #MealPlanningMonday

It always makes me a little bit happy when a new month starts on a Monday, it just feels neat and tidy. Here we are in September! This year is going far too quickly. It was only five minutes ago that we were talking about Easter eggs and now suddenly the kids are going back to school and the nights are starting to creep in earlier! 

It's back to college this week for Ellie and she is looking forward to it, this year she's doing mechanical engineering which is a change from last years electrical engineering. Ellie had a fantastic birthday weekend, I will write a blog post all about it soon. She got everything she wanted and then some, we had a lovely meal out, fun at the pubs karaoke, she had a night out with friends and even more presents. The house is still all upside down and all of her new things need to be put away, that is a job for today. 

It feels like this week we will start to get back into a routine, life is more structured when Ellie is at college and it feels like summer is now over. Looking back we had a good summer, we didn't do much but at the same time our days have felt full and we made a lot of good memories.

Last weeks meal plan went well, the Sticky Sweet & Sour Pork Meatball Tray Bake was our favourite from the week. This week we haven't got a Gousto. Normally I love ordering one because it saves me having to think too much about what we're going to eat but when I looked this time there just weren’t enough meals that jumped out at us. That doesn’t happen very often and it’s not a bad thing as it gives us a chance to have some family favourites.

On the menu this week we have:

Monday - I am not sure yet. I have enough to do today without needing to cook. It will be a help ourselves evening. Sandwiches, toasties, beans on toast or whatever people fancy.

Tuesday - Sausage casserole, mashed potato and veg. Perfect autumn food even if autumn isn’t officially here yet.

Wednesday - Chicken stir fry with Udon noodles.

Thursday - Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread.

Friday - Fish, chips and mushy peas. 

Saturday -  Meat free sloppy Joes with potato salad. We had this from Gousto ages ago and love it.

Sunday - A roast dinner of some sort.

What's on your menu this week?