I've been debating whether to share our bedtime routine with you because it's not exactly parenting at it's best and I know that lots of you will completely disagree with our bedtimes rules and routine.  In the end, I decided to go for it after seeing one of my friends post an update on Facebook tonight about the nightmare night they've had trying to get the kids settled in bed.I want to share what happens in our house on a night because bedtimes are a stress free time for us and have been for a good few years now....Bedtime We don't have set bedtimes here which cuts down on the … [Read more...]

This isn't the post that I had planned for today but something happened last night that made me hug my children a bit harder before bed and has had me feeling sad all day today so this is my attempt to try and help stop it from happening again.Last night, at 7pm, a little boy's life support machine was switched off in a town very close to where I live. He'd been in hospital since last Friday when a family meal out to Pizza Hut ended in tragedy as he choked on a grape.I don't know the exact details but what I do know is that it's a terrible story that's touched so many people locally. … [Read more...]

I often think of ideas for posts at random times and I have various different ways to record the ideas to make sure I don't forget them - I always have a notebook in my bag in case I want to go oldstyle (or if the battery's dead on my phone), I write ideas in the notes section of my phone or if I'm near to my laptop then I save a draft post in my blog with just the title of the post I want to write. In an ideal world, I'd have time to then go back and actually write all of the posts that are sitting there but it doesn't always happen!  This post is a prime example as I started writing it … [Read more...]

Those of you who've been around for a while might remember the agonising decision I had to make when it was time to apply for Miss Frugal's secondary school place.  It was genuinely the hardest decision I had made as a parent so far because I had the choice of sending her to the not so good school that all of her friends were going to or the local catholic school (we're not religious) that offered a MUCH better standard of education.It was a no-brainer in the end so we went for the better school but I remember worrying about how the decision would affect Master Frugal as he's a bit of a … [Read more...]