Make it Monday - 1SE Video

One of my daily new year's resolutions was to refresh my attempt at using this app (search for 1 second every day video), to keep a record of our family.

I don't want to share the video here as I don't publish pictures and videos of the kids publicly but I'm backing up fairly regularly and so far I love it! I'm only sorry I didn't stick with it last year.

I'm making sure we all get on there (although there's a clear bias towards the kids), and capturing big events as well as day to day occurences.

Putting it on my to do list has definitely helped me to remember to use it more.

Really, I can't recommend it enough. Here's where I first heard about the 1SE app if you want to see an example.

Make it Monday - Project Life Update

It's been a while since I've blogged about Project Life but that's really because I like to have photos for my posts, I don't like to post photos of our children online and my Project Life is basically all about the children now.

I first started this project back in 2012 and I loved it. I'm not really sure why I stopped at the end of 2014 but I am so glad I got back into it this year.

I update my album weekly and I love flicking through from January each week. Seeing the story and development makes it so worthwhile.

I was in England for my friend's wedding at the start of last week so I can finally share a page in this space! While the average week tells its own kind of story, I love when we have something special going on as we tend to have better photos and it's generally easier to make the colours work.

That was really true this week as I could get in some of my favourites from the Seafoam edition to brighten up a really happy day.

If I can keep up the energy on this project, the kids are going to have something really special to look back on one day.

My process:

- Go to Rossmann and print out my favourite photos from the week (phone and camera)
- Place the photos into the layout, cropping where necessary.
- Pick a colour idea for the week and select cards that work, starting with the big date card.
- Journal on the appropriate cards.

Project Life

 This week I finally got back into Project Life. I used this means of memory keeping for over two years until Isabella was about six months old. I don't remember why I stopped two years ago but I wish I hadn't.

 I completed weekly spreads for January all in one go and plan to continue on a weekly basis. I'm using the Moonlight kit and I love it so far.

 I've held back on the photos as I don't like to show the children on the blog but you get the idea - my life is all about kids and crafts at the moment.

Feels great to be memory keeping again.

A Special Lady

Last night, after fourteen weeks in hospital, my beloved grandmother lost her fight for life.

While I'm heartbroken at this loss, I'm trying to focus on the fact that she's finally at peace and no longer in pain.

As she often told us, she lived a long and fulfilling life - she would have turned ninety-two next week. 

She was born, the second of eight children in a tiny two bedroom terrace in Morley in 1923 to a Yorkshire miner and a Scottish housemaid.

She got away from working in the mill by joining the army at the age of seventeen. She travelled the country and lived it up in Bristol, attending lots of dances with soldiers from America and France.

After the war she married, left her husband and ran away to London for six months. She moved back to Leeds where she met and married my grandfather, leading to the birth of my mother some years later.

They moved around a lot including a stint in Blackpool before moving back to Leeds for family. Sadly, grandad died when mum was just a teenager.

Grandma met her third husband Ken shortly before I was born and married him soon after my sister was born. They often looked after us and took us all over in school holidays. They also enjoyed lots of holidays in Jersey.

Ken passed away in 1999. Four years later, she was diagnosed with cancer. At age eighty, we all feared the worst but she fought it and won, albeit with lots of support from friends and family.

She applied for her first passport at eighty-two to visit me in Barcelona for my twenty-first. She got on swimmingly with tapas, sangria and Spanish waiters. When I came back from Spain, I moved in with her. We had our rows but at heart we were the best of friends. She helped me learn my panto lines and I helped her finish crosswords. Despite the age gap, we had lots in common.

When I moved to Germany and met Nico she took to him too. She visited us three times here and danced into the night at our wedding.

She became a great grandmother in 2010 and now has a grand total of five great grandchildren including twins (which four of her siblings were).

She struggled with dementia in later life but always retained her fighting spirit and cheeky temperament. After a fall in August, she never fully recovered. 

She could make friends anywhere - even the hospital nurses came to visit her in their own time when she moved hospitals.

Even having read about her eventful life, I can't give you more than a glimpse of the kind of woman she was. She supported us all through everything. She had a big heart but she told it straight.

I know she was proud of us and I know she's still with us in so many ways. I hope to honour her by living a good life and keeping her memory alive.

Top 5 Childhood Meals

Lately, I've been looking back at my childhood a bit more - thinking about things that I want to do for Isabella too. Now that she's eating more and will try anything, I've been remembering some of my favourite dinners growing up and I wanted to share them with you today.

1. Yellow fish

Otherwise known as smoked haddock, we used to love this when we had tea at my gran's. I don't actually remember what we had it with but it was probably her homemade chunky chips and veg followed by peaches and ice-cream.

2. Tuna pasta salad

Quick, easy and fresh, I still love this delicious summer dinner. Mum taught me to make this and I look forward to making it with Isabella one day.

3. Shepherds Pie

At the opposite end of the seasonal scale - a real winter warmer. Though it is not well known here, it's one we've often made. Yum.

4. Friday night Fish and Chips

One that we can't entirely recreate here (although Nico came extremely close lately) used to make the start of our weekends. One of us kids used to pop down the hill with Dad to Hillycroft Fisheries and return with fish and chips four times and one sausage and chips for my fish-hating brother. 

5. Sunday dinner

With parents who both worked, we didn't eat together during the week so Sunday dinners were nice - and a tradition I really want to introduce in our family. My favourite is lamb with mint sauce and of course, there has to be Yorkshire puddings...

Bonus cheat

Heinz tomato soup. It took me ages to discover this in our local supermarket and I was immediately taken back twenty years with the first spoonful - delicious!

A goodbye

Even though it's been spread over a month, this move seems to have progressed rather quickly which is good in a way because I tend to get over-emotional but I just wanted to take a moment to remember what our old flat meant to us in the style of Rachel Jeffcoat.

This is the living room where we've spent so many cosy evenings, enjoyed many game nights, received many guests. It's where our Christmas tree stood for the last three years, where we skyped with friends and family to share news big and small. From this room we saw birds and squirrels up close. This is the room I was sat in when labour started and the first room we brought our baby girl into.

In this kitchen we cooked so many meals together, tried lots of new recipes and learned to live gluten-free.

In this bathroom I discovered I was pregnant!

Here in this bedroom, we brought our 'practice baby' cat home and waited for him to come out of his cage and accept us. This is where he woke us up like Simon's cat many mornings. This is where Nico proposed, where I told him I was pregnant and where our sweet baby girl slept for her first weeks.

This is the office where we both brought work home.

This room started out as a guest room, and we had many people stay there, it became something of a storeroom for our ever shrinking kitchen, then a nursery for tomato plants before finally being the nursery for our little girl - the scene of night feeds and smiley mornings.

Finally, our balconies where plants grew, kebabs were barbecued, quiet time was enjoyed and storks were spotted overhead.

This is the first place we called 'ours', home to our family of two, then three, then four. It's a home I'll never forget but now it's on to new experiences and hopefully lots more wonderful memories like these.

Mario vs Sonic

source

We recently became a gaming household with the purchase of a Playstation 3.  It's been quite therapeutic to have a game on an evening - racing each other or having a game of chess.  

Growing up, I never had a playstation, we were more of a gameboy household and as such, grew up with Mario.  I loved the Mario games!  Playing this week has taken me right back.

Unfortunately Mario isn't available on Playstation but his long lost cousin, Sonic is and it arrived today.  This could be dangerous!  My only memories of Sonic are when we went to visit distant relatives on Boxing Day - they had a Playstation and were more than happy to whip us at Sonic!  

It really makes me wonder what kind of childhood memories our little one will have one day.  At least there's one we will kind of share.

What were your favourites growing up?  Any recommendations for us?

Happy TImes:Forrest Gump

Absolutely loved watching this film with my year nine class in preparation for the film review assignment after the holidays. 

The film never gets boring, no matter how many times I see it.  There are few films that can make me laugh, cry and feel a whole range of emotions in between.

Tom Hanks is also one of my favourite actors and he thoroughly deserved the Best Actor Oscar for his work here.

This time I especially notice the music and was moved so far as to invest in the soundtrack - well worth it. 

If you haven't seen it in a while (and maybe even if you have), what are you waiting for?

Oldenburg!

After the induction that I told you about last week, we were packed off to our destinations for the next year, or in my case six months, and mine was Oldenburg.  This time of year always reminds me of my experiences living there as I was there through the Winter and remember well the cold dark mornings with the crazy German early starts but on the positive side, the German Christmas markets too.

It turned out to be a little ironic that I'm now in Bremen - just half an hour from Oldenburg and also that Nico studied in Oldenburg around the time that I was there.  We had a lovely day out there earlier this year which brought back the memories and Nico showed me around the university.  We also visited the Christmas market there a couple of years ago. 

September

Well, as it draws to a close, a little look back, an idea from Elise.

working hard with our new class.

drinking vanilla lattes with friends.

watching series one of the Killing.

cycling through all weathers.

sleeping as much as possible.

stepping on the scales with more confidence and success.

making social plans with friends and family.

running in the park.

listening to some classic Queen.

watching the leaves turn brown and fall.

wearing raincoats and capes on the way to work.

eating better.

snuggling under blankets with Nico and Pete.

building furniture.

buying books to get me through Autumn.

loving that Autumn means we're on the countdown to Christmas.

reading Robinson Crusoe.

rereading Cloud Atlas.

enjoying being a permanent employee.

feeling cold.

looking forward to October!