January Blues

We started off pretty well but unfortunately we have fallen foul of the winter bugs. So far we've all suffered the norovirus and heavy head colds. 

DD1 is getting a bit anxious about the baby arriving, mostly about me being in hospital and how Dad is going to cope with remembering everything for school etc. I've promised to write out lots of lists and instructions for him to follow. 

DD2 is struggling against the bugs. The hand foot and mouth she had before Christmas is now making her loose her fingernails and she's currently recovering from a UTI infection. Her immune system is pretty much running on fumes I think. 

G-man seems to be picking up lots of small sniffly colds, though not to the same level as DD2. He bounces back much quicker from them after a days rest.

Hubby is working a fair few hours at the moment. There's a lot of staff sickness needing hours covering and he's building up his time owed for babies arrival. He is a bit tired but still has enough energy to make whaling jokes when I'm in the bathtub. 

And finally me. I'm definitely on the slow down now ready for new baby. Everything is getting hard to reach, and I get a bit achey if I try to do to much. Lots of knitting and box sets on Netflix is the current answer. Though nesting is definitely full swing and hubby keeps finding all kinds of things in the washing machine or soaking in bleach.

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The end is nigh

The third trimester is officially upon me. Goodbye lace up shoes, hello slip ons. 

Anything that falls on the floor between now and mid April will no longer exist in this household.

11 weeks to go, possibly 9 if I do my traditional 28week eviction. It feels like forever and no time at all.

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Making gifts for DD

I love a mystery bag of bits. I couldn't

 resist this one of girly things for £1 this morning.  It turned out to be mostly cute beaded bracelets and a handful of hair accessories.  It gave me an idea.

I grabbed 2 petty paper stack books from the craft stash and got to work folding each square into a simple envelope. Each envelope contains a cute bracelet and hair elastic (mostly matching colours). I'm not sure if I'm going to hang them with pegs or hole punch them yet but the idea is to hang them on some ribbon as bunting for DD1's birthday in March.

She can choose to open  them all in one go or one/two a day like a calendar but I think they'll

Go down quite well as a birthday gift.

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Crazy child

Yesterday I found a dressing gown for DD2 in one of the charity shops. It was only £1 and just pink enough for my girly girl. 

Her current dressing gown is getting a bit short in the arms and will be stored away for baby bump. 

Unfortunately I didn't hide it well enough under the buggy. DD2 clocked it straight away.

"What's that? Can I see it? Is it mine? Can I keep it?" 

The only way to get her home with out a tantrum was to let her wear it! Thankfully under her coat, but it still got us several odd looks as we completed the school run and caught the bus home.

She didn't take off until she climbed into bed that evening. Thankfully she didn't ask to wear it this morning to school!

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This Boots was made for shopping

This year I'm hoping to take more advantage of store loyalty schemes. I applied for several over the Christmas period and the first to arrive was my Boots advantage card.

The card arrived with a welcome voucher offering a 100 point boost (worth £1) with my first purchase. 

I originally planned to buy the cheapest item I could find, a packet of paracetamol for 25p.

But I noticed an offer on the Boots app offering 75 points with a purchase of shampoo or conditioner. 

 Boots own brand shampoo costs 75p so by using the two offers together my shampoo gave me £1.75 in store credit.

Once I paid at the till I passed a clearance trolley which was annoyingly the wrong side of the tills to spot and browse while queuing. I guess that may be the point. 

I noticed there was a handful of kinder joy eggs reduced to 10p as they were the Christmas branded ones. I picked up 3 as a little treat for the children. At the till the cashier said they were 50% off marked price as part of their Christmas promotion. 

I went back and picked up 9 More! 

These things can make a long car journey or waiting room wait a lot easier to handle. Definitely worth 5p each. 

I'm going to pop back tomorrow and see what else has been added to the trolley. 

I don't usually shop in boots but I may be converted!

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More YS bargains

I seem to having quite the luck with bargains this week. I popped into Waitrose on the afternoon school run and found a huge basket filled with reduced bakery bits.

I snaffled 2 packets of pancakes for tomorrows breakfast and 2 packets of muffins for lunch. 

I have some bacon left over from DD1's wraps and plenty of eggs in the fridge, so a homemade version of the mcmuffin is on the cards.

Sadly Hubby has been feeling under the weather all day. He thinks it might be the flu thats going around. Being a bookie means he handles quite a lot of cash throughout the day and there's not much germier than money. 

With him and all the children in bed by 8pm I've been amusing myself by planting lemon seeds in coke bottle planters. 

My last attempt to grow lemons failed miseraby but as it's a project that only costs time and not money I thought I'd have another go.

Who knows, I could have just begun a vast lemon empire 😂

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Back to school

Both of the girls took some coaxing to get up and get dressed this morning. To be quite honest so did I. It was far to dark and cold to be getting up, but we had to do it. 

I picked up a few freebies from various apps and loyalty cards. A free drink (£1.60) free magazine (£2.50) and free de icer (£2).

The postman passed us on route and gave me my post from the RSPB. I'm looking forward to birdwatching with the girls later in the month.

Hubby had to pop into work and complete some paper work so I had a few hours to look around the shops. I picked up some magazine files from Poundland for my growing collection of garden magazines.

10 cards from card factory for £1, a set of pretty notebooks for 99p and a new toy car and blanket from the charity shop.

The blanket is just perfect for covering one of the lounge sofas. It's super soft and warm, perfect for snuggling into on chilly evenings. And every shade of purple! My favourite colour. It only cost £2! Heaven!

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Frugal school breakfast

We had to do an emergency nappy run  early yesterday evening. Hubby left me popping the small humans into bed and nipped to Asda. He came back triumphantly not only with nappies but also 4 twin packs of puff pastry from the reduced section. 

3 boxes have been tucked into the freezer for later, and i defrosted a packet of cooking bacon overnight.

This afternoon DD1 set to work. First she divided the pastry sheets into 8 squares each, then layered each square with bacon and grated cheese. Each square was then folded over carefully and popped in the oven for 20 minutes.

16 x homemade cheese and bacon wraps cost us approx. 8p each to make and bake.

We all had one for lunch fresh from the oven, but tomorrow I warm some up for breakfast before we all head back to school and work. 

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Keeping it simple.

 Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all good fortunes and good health throughout the coming year x x

 My new years resolution this year and short and sweet.

* Keep things simple - with a house move looming and a baby due soon I will be busy enough without any extra distractions.

* Read the Game of Thrones book series by next Christmas - a chapter a day should make a good dent in the first book over January. I've collected the first 5 books so far and will keep my eyes peeled for the last 2 as I go.

 Thats it. And I think it's going to be quite enough, lol. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to start my first chapter in a hot bubble bath.

 What are your new years resolutions this year?

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