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.

Christmas Planning

It's hard to believe that we have reached the end of October already.  The year that has been 2012 has flown by making a myriad of memories.  With a matter of mere weeks before Christmas comes, I am starting to make mental lists to ensure we have a fabulous time as the year comes to an end.

We have spent many recent Christmases holidaying away from home, which is something we love.  We enjoy having our Christmas meals made for us, we like having a range of activities available for everyone and we like that holiday feeling adding to the togetherness of the season.  This year, because my grandson is due on the 18th December, we have decided to stay at home ready for when the call comes to tell us that the baby has been born.  So I am having to think hard and make plans to ensure we have a wonderful Christmas.  I am quite excited about having a change.

Food is a big part of our family traditions at Christmas.  We love eating the festive fayre that is available at this time of year.  Being vegetarians means that we have to be a bit more creative with our Christmas dinner but there are some traditional foods that we love as much as the next man!

Cheese and Christmas go together perfectly. There is nothing as evocative of Christmas than a cheeseboard, loaded with fabulous blue cheeses like Stilton and Shropshire Blue, alongside a smooth Brie and Camembert, a tangy goat's cheese, a traditional Cheddar and a crumbly Lancashire.  I also love Austrian smoked cheese which reminds me of being a little girl at Christmas.  It was always my favourite and my children now love it too.  Add some top quality crackers and a bunch of grapes and you have the perfect Christmas tea time treat.

A Premium Cheese Selection from Waitrose

A fruit bowl is also synonymous with Christmas.  I love buying a crate of Satsumas which still have the leaves on, making them somehow more special!  I also buy the usual assortment of apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and plums, which the kids can dip into whenever they fancy a fruity snack.  It's much healthier than having mountains of chocolates and sweets permanently accessible!

I love baking for special occasions.  At Christmas, it is wonderful to make traditional gingerbread with the children, yummy frosted cupackes and festive muffins.  It is lovely to cook together and even lovelier to enjoy the spoils of a day's baking while sat down together enjoying a Christmas family movie.

I've definitely got lots to look forward to this year and I'm excited about making my plans to ensure we enjoy lots of fun activities together.   Having my family around is what really makes Christmas special, sharing traditions and indulging in the finest festive fayre.  Plus I'm about to be a Grandma...it doesn't get much better than that!

Disclosure Policy

Pre-Holiday Checklist

Holidays are a lot of hard work!  To facilitate that week in the sun takes a whole lot of preparation, organisation and stress!  Co-ordinating the continuing needs of everyday life alongside the things that need to be done before you go on holiday is nothing short of a military operation.  I am a big list maker and I delegate fool-proof lists filled with jobs to my husband. Somehow we muddle through and manage to get ourselves and our four children, who are joining us on holiday, to our destination having left our house ready for our return.

Here is my checklist for my top ten pre-holiday jobs:

1:  Get up to date with the laundry and then make everyone wear the same final outfit for the last three days before the holiday!   Dirtying out those clothes means minimum dirty washing left at home...because you know that you'll be bringing home two suitcases full of clothes that will need to be laundered!


2:  Use up all the perishable food in your house.  The week before holidays is the time for creating inventive concoctions made from all the fresh food that is left in your kitchen.  Wasting it is not an option for me, so it's a time for getting creative.  No one wants to return home from their holidays to find a sack of festering potatoes or a fridge full of slimy salad...so use it up!


3:  Empty and clean all the bins.  Returning home to a stench filled house because of some unmentionable object lurking in an unemptied bin is not a nice welcome home!


4:  Set up your Sky Planner with all those TV shows you are going to miss.  Yes I know this is shallow, but if I forget to set up The Bachelor (with Spencer from Made in Chelsea) to record, I will actually cry.


5:  Get your pets to have their own holiday with the neighbours!  Spinky the hamster loves a change of scenery and enjoys the being spoiled for a week by a family who still see her as a novelty when we are away.


6:  Don't forget all your paperwork....copies of insurance documents, driving licences, passports, tickets, maps etc. etc.  Get a nice big folder and put everything safely in one place!


7:  Make a list of things to take.  With the uncertainty of the current weather system in Europe this means remembering wellies, waterproofs, sunblock and sunglasses to cover all eventualities.  Writing lists will mean you won't forget something essential.  Travel Sickness Tablets and Sea bands are top of my 'Do Not Forget' list!!


8:  Tell the neighbours you are away so they can keep an eye on things for you.  Make sure they have your contact details. A bit of peace of mind is priceless.


9:  Take a rucksack full of favourite toys, comics and snacks to placate toddlers who do not relish the prospect of travelling for hours and have no concept of the delayed gratification of getting to somewhere nice at the other end.   Buy some new and exciting bits and bobs in the hope that they will distract said toddler for at least a few hours before the onset of a tantrum!


10:  Prepare for your arrival home before you leave....make the beds, clean the loos and make everything tidy.  Make sure you have a bottle of Cravendale in the fridge that will last unopened for a few weeks and a loaf of bread in the freezer so that whatever time you get back you can have a cup of coffee and a slice of toast to tide you over!

This is my entry for the Come Home to a Cuppa Linky Challenge, sponsored by Cravendale.