I love the start of a new year, it's like opening a shiny new notebook and writing on the pages for the first time.Being a bit of a list-aholic and a planner, I always like to set myself some New Year's Resolutions, some targets for the year and most importantly to me, a word of the year.A word of the year might sound a bit geeky if you don't do it yourself but it's actually a great way to set your focus for the year ahead and having a word of the year over the past few years has genuinely helped me to focus and achieve some of the things I wanted to achieve.  My word isn't a specific … [Read more...]

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas!We had a lovely day yesterday and I've woken up this morning feeling refreshed and happy after the lovely relaxing day we had yesterday.  Christmas doesn't always live up to expectations with excited children and tired parents but I have to say that yesterday was great and we all really enjoyed our day.Now that it's over, I'm sat eyeing up the Christma tree trying to decide how soon is too soon to take it down and I know you're all going to tell me it's much too soon but I'm literally having to sit on my hands to stop me from packing everything … [Read more...]

Dear lovely readers,By the time you read this, my laptop will have long since been turned off and I'll be having a peaceful family Christmas with my amazing family - that is as long as I remember where I've hidden all the presents and I don't burn Christmas dinner!There is one thing I want to do before I switch off for Christmas though, I want to say a huge Merry Christmas and thank you to all of you lovely readers who have shared 2016 with me.I'm not going to lie, it's been a difficult year with me being ill for a lot of the year but you've put up with my whinging and moaning and … [Read more...]

Christmas Eve marks the official start of Christmas in our house and I think I probably enjoy it more than Christmas Day itself if I'm honest.  I know that sounds a bit odd so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about Christmas Eve in our house....Mr Frugal often has to work on Christmas Eve so it's usually just me and the kids until he gets home around 4pm and we normally have a leisurely morning with pancakes or waffles for breakfast and a snuggle on the settee watching a Christmas movie (normally Elf for the 99th time since the first of December).After we've watched a film, we'll … [Read more...]

I've just been sitting down with my Kindle and a chai latte reflecting on how lovely and calm today has been!In years gone by, today has always been the worst day for the kids going into full on hyper excited mode but today, with the kids aged 11 and 14, I feel like we've turned a Christmas corner.Don't get me wrong, they're still excited and they still want to do Christmas things with me which is lovely but at the same time, they also have their own things that they want to be getting on with and I may have even seen one of them getting a bit of a head start on their homework while … [Read more...]