It seems like the kitchen is the main place I spend most of my time in, with cooking, cleaning and then eating it feels like my second home, but I have never really liked how it looked but didn't want to spend money on redecorating it if there was a chance of moving out. 

Fast forward 3 years and it looks like we are staying here for a few more years,

so if I am being made to stay here I want it to look like how I want it to look like.

 

Also, why not make a blog about it, so it might help someone else out as this won't cost an arm and a leg to do.

Heres the before picture.

First thing first painting the cupboards 

This is the paint we used and we had to get a bigger tub as our kitchen is on the bigger side but there is a £20 option and to be honest, we still have half a tub left so we would have been fine getting the smaller one.

It's super easy to use and we only needed two coats for the cupboards and it drys so quick.

Next on the list is the countertop which I choose a marble effect 

I also sealed the edges of the countertops for a little extra protection which I got from the pound shop and its just a kitchen & bathroom sealant.

There are still little bits I need to do like get some bits and bobs for the kitchen and of course more plants but right now, looking into the kitchen makes me incredibly happy.

If you can look on freecycle, Facebay and charity shops to see if you can get anything free or cheap! 

  

happyhomemadehome have some amazing DIY posts to try

1.Calamine Lotion

   This was a miracle worker with both kids as it soothed them so quick,

 when lily was screaming just rubbing it in seem to help as she just stopped and let you all calm like.

You can get a decent sized bottle from boots for £1.60 we used it for both kids and I think we still have had a bottle left but it does smell a bit, not bad and it does leave white chalky marks where you have applied it.

2.Anti-Histamine

 First, I just want to say do not put on the skin this should only be taken orally and for over 1, we gave it to lily whenever she started itching and it seemed to calm it down so we kept up with it till her chickenpox had finished, we got boots antihistamine for £3.99 it is a bit costly but we only needed to get one bottle.

Bonus tip bribe with chocolate, its the only way I managed to get my kids to take it as its very minty.

3.No Clothes

Ok, so this is a no brainer but don't put clothes on them as you can imagine the fabric rubbing on the blisters and just driving the kids mad and I didn't realize how much worse it would be for lily compared to Connor because lily wore a nappy which once peed in would really make the chickenpox sore and all her chickenpox was mostly down there so we had to bite the bullet and stop her using a nappy.

It was a blessing though as she didn't wet the bed once or have any accidents throughout the day so we have decided to stop using nappies, but what we did for the first night was cover her bed in towels so if she did wet the bed it would have been easy to take off.

Another reason to go no clothes is, that it helps dry off the blisters which is the end goal in all of this.

4.Cool bath

Just let them have fun in a lukewarm bath, it helps with itching and feeling sore down below but also lets them let off stress by water fights and generally having fun,

I wouldn't put anything in the bath that could irritate the blisters but once most of the have popped its probably fine to add bubbles ( i did ) just don't forget to pat dry don't rub.

5.Distraction

For me, this was the hardest because it doesn't always work so this is the last thing I do but if they start moaning about being itchy, find something to take their mind of it, E.G board games, roleplaying, painting, anything that might let them focus on something else for a few minutes.

Connors scaps have nearly all gone now and lily is blister-free, it been a tough few weeks but we have made it out the other end and relief I feel knowing there's not going to be any more chickenpox and just in time for the school runs again.   

I hope this list can help someone else that's in need of it but just remember it might work for some and it always might not work.

 

Just remember to breath and know it won't last longer than 7 days!.

*oopsie heroes has been gifted exchange for a blog post*

We all fear the time it comes to potty training your little ones but I know and I'm sure most other parents have forgotten about night time potty training which is on a whole different level, for one they are asleep, two who wants to wake their kid up in the middle of the night to pee? 

With Connor, we made sure we did the normal things they tell you too, like no drinks before bed, a trip to the toilet and most nights he did wake up dry and other nights he comes into our room with wet clothes on crying and this is where oopsie heroes come into the picture and what is oopsie heroes you may ask? well, its the ultimate bedwetting alarm.

So

What's in the box?

It's so quick and easy to apply that you could do it when they are asleep ( Just in case you forgot )

So what happens now? well the sensor is connected to an app that can install on your phone called oopsie heroes that triggers an alarm on your phone 

Every time your child wets the bed the app lets you know so you can wake them up and after 6-8 weeks, their body wakes up knowing that they need the toilet which is the end goal of toilet training!

Oopsie heroes make your little one feel like a superhero smashing nighttime bedwetting.

It's funny how something so small can make such a big impact in your life 

If getting woken up by the alarm puts you off from using it just remember that there's a 99% chance your kid is going to wake you up crying or if they sleep through the wetness wake up sore which means all day moaning and I can tell you want I rather deal with.

Connor has been dry for months but stress from school and being ill takes us back to the start with bedwetting so this is a godsend as even though he doesn't wet the bed every night we can get in the routine of waking up before he does wet the bed especially if he sleeps in our bed.

He doesn't notice the sensor so sleeping on it is fine and once I forgot in the rush of bedtime to I stuck it on so once he was asleep and he didn't even stir.

Want an easy way to beat nighttime bedwetting here's their website  Oopsie Heroes

*I just want to start this post off that this was a gifted product in exchange for a post but everything that I write is all my own thoughts and Craigs *


Another warning please don't take this is if you are Pregnant or Breastfeeding which I am so, unfortunately, I couldn't try it out but Craig did.

So that's all out the way we can get down and dirty with the verdict...

So this hemp oil has worked so well which is brilliant because Craig suffers so badly with his anxiety to the point he can't sleep that well and it makes him feel sick most days so it's been my main mission to find things that could help as he hates the thought of going onto tablets because the thought of it changing him.
I know it's apart of him just like how his arm is apart of his body, weird thought I know but it makes him "him" and I love everything about him all his good and bad parts but I can't just watch him battle against his mental state.

Brown CBD kindly sent me their 3% CBG hemp oil which is £24.99 for a bottle of 10ml but currently, you get can 15% off with their code LAUNCH.


It's all very simple to use:
1-5 drops under the tongue for a minimum of 1 minute and the longer you leave it the better! 2-3 times a day but maybe start small before moving up to 5 drops.
Craig has been trying it as I mentioned before that I cannot yet and after a few days I asked him how he felt taking it and after.

First thing he mentioned that it makes him feel more at peace and at ease, it stops his heart rate accelerating which is what he really struggles to control when he feels anxious and that is a big thing as it saps all his energy, which in turn makes him feel even more overwhelmed so having the anxious thoughts but without the panic and the normal heart rate, means he can control the thoughts better without feeling crippled and that is the reason why he takes it before he leaves for and after work and just before he goes to bed.


Brownscbd also has a range of other CBD including tea, cream, RAW and water-soluble CBD and their CBG oil, they also come in 5%, 10%, 20% and 25%.

Being a mother is hard, no one said it would be easy but I didn't realize it be this hard, from the sleepless nights and never being able to go to the toilet in peace it takes a massive toll on your mental health and its even worse when your mental health is at a low.

I knew for over 10 years my head wasn't right but I just hide it behind closed doors and hoped no one would notice how messed up I was 
(only Craig noticed that I was a massive muck up and the unlucky sod still married me).

I found ways to manage my bad days and it was easier when you don't have two little people depending on you for survival

After having Connor life got a bit harder, Craig tried to help when he could but sometimes it just isn't enough when your own being doesn't want help, my main coping mechanism was the laptop before even dating Craig I used to be on the laptop a lot then year after year it got worse and worse to the point I used to stay up all night on the laptop and only work a few hours in the evening so I can be on the laptop while Craig was at work and my god did that make our relationship struggle and I admit it was mostly all my fault but to me, that's all I knew on how to manage my mental health, I'm a shy person face to face and most of the time on the internet too, so when you cant get friends in the real world you try to find people online to talk to.

See this is where the problem comes in... with kids you don't get any time to yourself so that took most of my laptop time and you guessed it my mental health took a dive.

Funny thing is that while in the middle of writing this post the kids came back from their nannas and that's the end of my alone time can you see how much I've managed to write before they came home? not much I can assure you.

One thing I never thought was part of my depression and anxiety was my hyper fixation, I just thought it was normal to be suddenly obsessed with something to the point it made you feel ill, see the thing with a hyper fixation is that you cannot stop thinking about it, you need to find out everything about it and then one day maybe a month or weeks you wake up and bam you don't think of it anymore and you feel a weight come off your shoulders like you can breathe again.
(well till the next hyper fixation hits you)


With kids, you can't drop everything to focus on that one thing even if it's like a heartbeat in your head that doesn't go away.

Oh but I'm rambling here, being a mother is also great there are the kids of course and they give the best cuddles (not much when its an elbow to the collarbone) and the things they come out with.
I said to Connor the other day that I was sorry I wasn't a good mum and he replied with that I was a good mum and he loves me its something I needed to hear.

12 years later I've gotten the help that I needed and I feel like a different person I still have my bad days but compared to before it's like I'm a new person, its something I should have done at the start 
(coming from a family that suffers from mental health problems you don't want to disappoint your mum)


Just I think I've talked enough about my problems so if life starts to get too much for you, go to the doctors, please.

Let's talk about holidays, Disneyland holidays.

This year we decided to take the kids on their first out of the UK holiday and it wasn't because I was fed up of writing out passport forms then binning them, Their first holiday had to be Disneyland Paris because why not, they will be at the age that I'm hoping they would remember the trip, October so only a few months from their 6th and 3rd birthdays. 

So let's get started on those tips.!

Book early!! we booked in November 2019 with TUI the day the bookings opened up because we wanted to get a big family room ( 4 adults 2 kids) and because of booking early we managed to get 15% off, 100 euro gift card plus free half-board

*TUI also lets you pay a deposit when lets you pay the rest after 6 months but you do need to book over 6 months in advance.

  Research!! we live where all the main travel ways are a few hours away so we had to research the quickest and easiest way to get to Eurostar as we couldn't go on a plane. Plus find out the times as you have to be there an hour early to catch the train.

Be prepared! the only downside to booking early is that most of the other stuff you need to book with it, you cant till at least a few months before you leave (Eurostar) so the price will go up and down but you won't know the actual price till your dates are on so be prepared that it might be a little bit more than what you thought it be.

DONT TELL THE KIDS! I mean when they are young they won't understand so much but if they are older don't tell them till at least a few months beforehand because trust me, you don't want to constantly hear about " when are we going mum" which is so much worse than "are we there yet?" with a bonus of hearing that for a year.

Take two suitcases! we are taking two suitcases per person for the main reason of having space for gifts and anything you bring home with you, Eurostar has a two-bag per person rule but there's no weight limit and I can only think on how my husband is going to bring back way too much wine.

A little bonus...

Have fun and don't forget to take as many pictures your camera can hold 

Want more posts about travel? Travellingwithboys  have all the posts on travel from days out and UK/European travel 

As a human being that likes to live on planet earth, I'm trying to find new ways to keep this planet alive and one of my biggest problems is toys because as you all know I have two very active children so my home is filled to the top with toys all make mostly from plastic, which is bad for the planet. 

So first thing first start looking for eco-friendly toys that aren't made out of the soul-destroying plastic which points us in the wooden and cardboard direction, and this is where ekolife comes into the picture as all their toys are ECO-FRIENDLY! can we get a yeehaw.

 take apart also a massive plus is you don't have a lot of storage or live somewhere small (shh its flat-packed but not the IKEA pain in the backside flat-pack).

They have some super cool looking toys on their website all at a great price if you're not looking to spend too much ( my eye is on the pick-me-up-planes you get two for £24.99 what a bargain ) 

They have all sorts off toys like 3 canvas for those little fingers that love to paint or a car you can sit in! gosh, I love toys you can get into, I used to love going into those machine ones outside of shops and to be honest it wasn't always toys that I used to climb into a tiny cupboard and sleep in there.

So this blog post is a little different from the others I've done but in 2020 I'm wanting to talk more than being a mum or my kids.

I live with a mental illness have done for years but only in 2019 that I went to the doctors about it as it just wasn't fair to the kids, the doctor diagnosed me with depression and anxiety and put me on Sertraline 50g then come back to see her within 4 weeks.

It wasn't as much as a wake-up call than say a massive step in bravery for me as for over 12 years I always hoped that there wasn't anything wrong me.

Being brought up with family members that suffer with their mental health I always wanted to be the one that mum didn't need to worry about so I buried my feelings and thoughts and tried to work around it, I started using my laptop and phone as my coping mechanism to the point I was on it 24/7.

My life suffered because of it but the most important people stayed with me and helped me along when I needed it and right now it feels like I'm rambling about this subject but I haven't been the best at writing or talking about what's on my mind I just bottle it up till I hit a breaking point.

I had so many bad coping mechanisms that I hated myself and wasn't scared to say it.

I'm not sure if my head is just wired differently from other peoples or because of my childhood maybe it was both but even knowing the reason it happened won't change the future. 

Being on these tablets had changed me a lot but it's not all good, I have noticed that wanting to talk to people has taken a nosedive when before I was more involved in convos, but I have been more happy to the point the kids have noticed its made me want to be a better person in how I look after myself and my home.

There is something that I have noticed that once I started taking the tablets is my love of plants have grown to the point I want my home full of them just like a rainforest and plant by plant its slowly happening, just looking at them and caring for them brings me peace that I didn't know I could feel but don't get me wrong I still have bad days where I don't want to be a person let alone a mum, these are the bad days so taking it day by day is a must, that was the actual tipping point to going to see the doctor as I wanted to run away from everyone and just be a person, not someone's mum or wife.