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We’re lucky enough to have a five bedroom house. Well, I say five bedroom but the fifth bedroom is just about big enough to swing a cat in! It’s strictly an office but we do house our youngest in there who up until a couple of weeks ago fitted in very nicely. But, as children do, he’s grown! Quickly and suddenly he no longer fits in his cot bed.

“I hate my bed!” he cries when I take him to bed.

Time for a shift about. My step daughter has a large bedroom at our house but as she only stays 4 nights a month we decided to put her in the little room and move youngest into the bigger room. The problem is, finding a full size bed to fit in the small space that we have.

I really wanted a day bed in there, maybe one from DayBeds.com but unfortunately they are all slightly too big.

After much searching on the internet, I came across a brilliant find at the ever wonderful Ikea. It’s basically a mattress with legs! But it fits!!!

So step-daughter and I went shopping, chose the colours, bought the bed linen, curtains and paint and we’re all ready to go. She’s happy, I’m happy and most of all no more cries of “I hate my bed!”

…..again!!

If there is one thing I hate more than really noisy kids toys, it’s the saft batteries you have to keep replacing to keep the noise going!

And if the batteries running out isn’t bad enough, it’s made worse by the kids handing me the toy and having to find the tiniest screwdriver in the world to unscrew a stack of screws.

Please someone invent rechargeable toys that can be plugged into the wall….no batteries required!

18months ago, my husband decided that he wanted to lose weight. To be honest, I thought that he looked absolutely fine and that he carried any excess weight effortlessly given that he’s so tall.

At 6ft 3in and nearly 18st, I thought that was normal. However I was wrong…very wrong. According to all the charts he should be anywhere between 12st and 13st! So, he went on a mission and after losing 1st without any help, he joined a Slimming World group. It didn’t take him long to drop another 3st and at 14st he now looks amazing!

Slimming world is not a diet…it’s a way of life! I’m not writing this blog to promote Slimming World, but to sing its praises as I’m very impressed with the eating plan and if done correctly, you never get hungry! I know this because my husband became a consultant and I joined his group and got back down to the weight I was almost 20 years ago!

Losing weight takes dedication, perseverance and commitment. I know there are quick fire solutions like fad diets and diet pills and I have read the myoripped reviews, but nothing compares with eating the right food with a few naughty’s thrown in for good measure!

Wow…it’s been so long since my last post…doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!

Getting married was the highlight of 2011 and so far 2012 has been pretty amazing too! My husband and I (oooh sounds so posh!) went to Hong Kong in March. My new in-laws were kind enough to buy us return flights as a wedding gift. It’s a fabulous place and for the first time in my life, somewhere I would genuinely move to, given half the chance!

There were many things that struck me whilst we were there. One thing in-particular was their attitude to health and preventing disease. You may have seen images of the Chinese walking around wearing facemasks. What surprised me is that they wear them to prevent coughs and colds spreading. I think it’s a genius idea. How many time have you been at work, and your colleagues have been coughing and spluttering all over you and before you know it…atchooo!!! You’re ill too!

It’s something I think should be adopted in this country. Save a fortune on get well soon gift baskets.

….in collecting things?

When I was a youngster Icollected novelty erasure’s. I think half of my friends did too. All sorts of shapes, types, sizes and smells. You don’t seem able to buy them like that anymore….or maybe it’s because I’m not looking for them!

But now I’m older, I can’t see the point in housing huge collections of things. Surely they just take up space and get dusty and need cleaning?

My middle son collects coins. Not that it’s any sort of serious hobby, but he likes to pick coins up from around the world. Considering he’s only been to the UK, US and Spain…he doesn’t have very many! But he’s got his eye on a 1927 silver dollar . I’m not sure where he’s seen it or got the idea from but he knows that he wants one!

I think he’ll have to start collecting more than just coins if he wants one!

A couple of months back I wrote about getting my new hubby a titanium wedding ring. It was really inexpensive, looks good and we’ve both been very happy with it.

Since then, I’ve looked at a few different titanium items and I’m going to treat myself to some titanium earrings. I especially like the hoops. Titanium looks like silver but is really hard-wearing and doesn’t tarnish the way that silver does.

I for one…am sold!

Kids love to have a bath, they especially like to have a bath together…well at least my kids do. This was fine while they were little ones who barely filled the bath but now at the ages of 15, 10 and 4 it’s obviously a different story.

Now don’t get me wrong, my 15-year-old does not have baths with his younger siblings but the 4-year-old will, on occasion, jump in with his 10-year-old brother.

It doesn’t happen very often because I can guarantee they will absolutely soak the bathroom and I mean SOAK!! They swim about in the bath like it was a swimming pool…..holding their breath under water, pouring water onto the floor and spraying the walls with the shower. It gets so bad, I’m thinking of installing some swimming pool fencing!

I think the easiest option may be to put a stop to it….sorry kids…no more bath fights!

Now I know how my mum must have felt all those years ago when she used to try to turn off my CD player. I would watch her and sigh as she attempted to find the volume switch and roll my eyes as she struggled to turn the music off.

It’s my kid’s turn to get frustrated and annoyed with me as I try to keep up with ever-changing technology. I actually think that I do a good job of  keeping myself up to date with things…after all I am writing this blog and you’ve got to be a bit tech savvy to do that!

Even my four-year old can find his way around an iPhone better than I can! He’s also obsessed with YouTube and has Buzz Lightyear envy after seeing a boy showing off his extensive buzz collection. He even asked if he could download music from YouTube. How does he even know what download means?

We took a video of him dancing last week and after we showed it to him he said, ‘Can you put that on YouTube mum?’.  It’s all a bit worrying.

Christmas in our house is not a quiet affair. With three boys, all of very different ages, they have different hobbies…..and none of them are quiet.

Youngest is 4 and has the entire collection of Toy Story characters. He already had Buzz Lightyear and Woody and this Christmas he completed the trio with Jessie. ALL of the them ‘talk’, which is fine until he has them all ‘talking ‘ at once!

Oldest son listens to music, and it’s actually pretty good music, he just likes to listen to it LOUDLY!!

But none of this tops middle son who is now the proud owner of an electric guitar and a

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Fender Amp. Why did we buy him this, I hear you ask. Because we wanted to encourage him and his newly acquired interest in guitar playing plus hubby also likes to strum a few chords also couldn’t wait to get his hands on the new ‘toys’.