Ja-NEW-ary Thinkings

It's the time when thoughts turn to resolutions, plans and hopes for the new year. Whether we are hoping to get slimmer, richer, fitter or more successful, the internet is awash with people's dreams for the 2013.  To be honest, up until now I haven't really involved myself with the concept of change this year.  I've been doing OK so why fix what ain't broken?!  But on closer inspection, my life could do with a bit of a makeover and the setting of achievable targets never hurts in motivating oneself to get off one's arse!

As an avid list maker, I have taken my virtual pen to virtual paper to jot down my '2013 To Do' list.  It includes people to see, places to visit and a few personal goals thrown in for good measure.

• This year will see a huge change for me as my baby boy Freddy will be starting school.  As a summer baby, he will be just 4 years and 2 months old as he joins Reception class. I've applied for a place at our local school.  He has his pre-school jabs next week, which makes it feel very real!  It breaks my heart just to think about it!  However I intend to spend the months up until September preparing my son to be ready for school.  We will do reading and writing and counting and crafts together. His fabulous nursery has made him so much more confident around other kids and will stand him in good stead for the hugest step in his little life to date.  For me, I will have much more free time.  I pledge not to become a couch potato glued to Jeremy Kyle and This Morning.  I will blog, I will volunteer, I will get fit and I will do more domestic goddess style cooking (I'm loving my slow cooker!) I will be productive!

• My blog is now over two years old.  It started with no expectations.  It grew quickly.  For a moment I thought I could make it something special and find a niche that would fit.  Then I was seduced by opportunities and PR contacts.  It evolved into something else.  It took on a life of its own.  In 2013 I want to reclaim my blog and steer it in a direction where I can be really proud of it.  I am not precious.  I am realistic.  I am happy to work with brands.  I enjoy doing blogger competitions.  I will never be dictated to nor will I lose my integrity.  I just want to find a bit more structure and balance.  As long as I enjoy it, Inside the Wendy House will continue. (I even bought my domain name - but am too scared to use it!)

• This year I really want to see the people who I care about that I haven't seen for a while.  Last year flew by and I neglected some of the relationships which matter most to me.  I have some amazing friends out there that I need to catch up with. This personal housekeeping is long overdue!  I also want to try to nurture relationships with other relatives.  I hardly know Ian's side of the family, and I'd love to rectify this in 2013! 

• As I am now a granny, I will make sure that I do as good a job as possible getting to know the adorable little boy who is my grandson.  It is an amazing feeling seeing the new generation of our family emerge and observing as the changing relationships develop.

• Last year I was lucky enough to give my family lots of amazing experiences through blogging and comping.    I hope that 2013 gives us as many brilliant opportunities.  I love watching Freddy's face as he witnesses something new and the girls love family days out.  We have our Merlin Annual Passes too plus we have our Butlins and Centre Parcs holidays booked up.  I want to fill the calendar with as many events as I can to punctuate our year.  I want Freddy to visit Warwick Castle this year.  He loves historical places and is so interested in castles and towers.  He is an old soul at heart!

• I intend to celebrate milestones and special days as memorably as I can.  We are beginning 'Operation Reclaim The Dining Room' and hope to enjoy many sit down meals together now Freddy is more open to the idea of sitting at a table for more than 5 minutes at a time.  In reclaiming our dining room, we will also be re-doing our living room, donating a load of stuff to charity shops and sorting out the chaos that is just beginning to subside now Fred is getting older and is less of a whirling dervish of destruction.

• Following on from celebrating special days, I intend to experiment more in the kitchen.  So for Burn's Night, homemade vegetarian Haggis will be on the menu.  Celebratory pies will be invented (my New Year's Day pie was pretty good!) and baking will ensue (themed gingerbread houses anyone??)  I plan to add a few more dishes to my repertoire.  I will be posting recipes on my blog to share my love of veggie food and grouping them on a 'Food For Thought' tab on my homepage.

• Lastly, I want to take photographs to document everything and preserve special memories.  I won't be doing any official Project 365/52 entries this year, but I will be taking pics everyday.  If I decide to post any I will.  Simple as that!  Oh the freedom :)

Add to the list: drop a dress size, buy some jeans that fit me, revamp my underwear drawer and go on some quality dates with my husband and I'm pretty much set to make 2013 as good as I can.  I hope that this year our highs will outnumber our lows.  I hope that we grow stronger in light of our inevitable challenges.  I intend to take stock of my blessings regularly and hold my loved ones close.

A Wonderful Family Weekend

This weekend was the window in my daughter Megan's busy schedule, reserved for celebrating her 21st birthday with her family.  We booked a private function room at our local gem of a venue Fordhall Farm for a three course sit down meal, and invited our nearest and dearest to join us.

As it is my dad's 80th birthday the day before Megan's 21st, we surprised him by including him in the proceedings.  We bought helium balloons festooned with their ages which delighted them both!  We also made my dad a CD recording from a very old tape cassette he had of his parents singing.  This made him very emotional as he remembered his mum and dad and relived happy family memories.  My girls comforted him and it was a beautiful moment.

Birthday Boy and Girl

Having my Megan and my son Joe and his blooming pregnant fiance Jade stay for the whole weekend was lovely.  Having all my chicks back in the nest is one of my greatest pleasures (albeit a noisy and chaotic one!)

Kizzy, Fred, Joe, Ella and Megan

It was nice to have visitors pop in to see both Meg and Joe, as their old friends realised they were back home and we enjoyed some real laughs together during the weekend.  In fact I haven't laughed so hard in ages!

Having A Laugh With Friends

On Sunday we went for the meal.  It was so wonderful to also be joined by my niece and her boyfriend, which was a lovely surprise for my mum and dad.  Megan was really pleased to see her cousin and it was nice to hear them planning a night out in Manchester.  Unfortunately my nephew couldn't make it as he is off to Alabama to see his American fiance this week, so we had to take a visit rain check.

Gorgeous Girls

The food was absolutely incredible.  We started with a goat's cheese, walnut and fennel salad which was so good.  It is not an option I would ever had picked from a menu, but I'm now a convert to the idea of salad starters because it was so interesting with different flavours and textures working together.

Eight of us opted for the nut roast for our main course. The accompaniments were amazing.  Huge serving bowls were brought out with roast potatoes, red cabbage, brocolli and greens, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire puddings and roasted vegetables.  There was so much food!  We piled our plates high, yet didn't finish it.

Tom and Ella Listening To One of Grandad's stories!

Dessert was an apple and pear sponge served with home made custard sauce.  The meal lived up to my high hopes and we enjoyed chatting and relaxing, while Freddy played in the function room with the farm's playgroup toys!

I've Got Toys!!

We'd bought a huge baked toffee and choc chip cheesecake and a Bailey's roulade from a local pudding shop, but we were all stuffed, so I organised take away packages of cake for our guests to take home!

As the evening wore on, those of us left, plus one of Megan's friends who came over to see her, watched X Factor and made a big dent in the remaining puddings.   It was a great night (especially seeing Rylan saved by deadlock again!!)

Kizzy and Jade

We had a fabulous time and I loved being surrounded by friends and family. I can't believe that my gorgeous daughter is about to turn 21.  I am so proud of her and everything she has achieved and I love her so very much.  I hope she enjoyed her weekend with her loved ones as much as I did!!

Happy 21st Birthday!!

Valentine's Day...Did You or Didn't You?

Another Valentine's Day has been and gone and I've seen the arguments for and against this celebration posted across the internet.

Personally I am all for any excuse for a celebration...Chinese New Year, Burn's Night, Winter Solstice or St George's Day are all on our calendar for celebrating, Valentine's Day is no different.  We use the day in question as a theme to make an ordinary day a little bit more special.  They influence what we do, what we eat and give us a focus for craft activities or days out.  It's a fun way to punctuate the year.

Valentine's Day is one of the more contentious days of the year.  On one hand, couples can feel pressured into spending extortionate amounts of cash on overpriced bouquets, meals out charged at premium rates in fancy restaurants or fancy (and pointless) novelty items.  But on the other hand, it feels like a kick in the teeth for all singletons, or a reminder that partners might be totally unromantic, causing one to question the whole basis of their relationship.  Some men think that if they order a dozen red roses for February 14th, then it justifies them doing nothing sentimental for the remaining 364 days of the year.  To some, ordering flowers is almost a reflex action with no deep emotion attached to it, making it no more than a meaningless gesture.  Only the florists truly come out on top!

A Valentine's Bouquet

For me, however, Valentine's Day is an opportunity to make home made cards festooned with hearts and filled with hand written poetry.  The children join in and get creative with 'love' being the focus of their activity.  We don't often have flowers in the house, but again, it's an excuse to do so.  We don't spend a fortune, Ian chooses a bunch from the supermarket that he likes the look of and delivers them to me in person after work on the 13th. They brighten up our house and set the scene for the day ahead.  Together with the kids we bake cakes and prepare our favourite family meal with added Valentine's embellishments, just for fun.  We dress up and the kids drink pop from a wine glass.  It is just a lovely celebration of the love we share all year round.
Ian is a soppy soul and tells me he loves me numerous times everyday.  He is demonstrative and loving and extremely thoughtful so nothing changes on Valentine's Day.  There is no fake display of affection, so I know that everything he does is 100% genuine.  We don't need a commercially based celebration to tell us how to behave for one day a year, but we enjoy the prompt to ham it up a bit!

Valentine's Goodies

February 14th is just another day, and no-one should feel pressured or disappointed because of it.  (We've only just got over the stress of Christmas, we don't need to put ourselves under any more pressure!)  But, whether you are single, in a new relationship or parent of little ones, I believe it makes a nice opportunity for a bit of fun in the middle of the miserable, grey months of winter.  Don't let Hallmark or Interflora or Goldsmiths tell you how to celebrate, do it your way!

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday however you celebrated  and whoever you celebrated with!

Valentine's Giggles

#project 366 Day 11/366

Kizzy takes advantage of having a poorly Mummy by raiding the chocolate stash from Christmas!  For once it really wasn't me!!

Evidence of Choccie Chomping!