Easy Sausage Casserole, even With a Broken Arm!

So, it's been three weeks since I passed my stuntman audition with 'flying' colours and broke my arm and wrist. I've had mixed results with the recovery process. I think it's going to be some time before I can straighten my arm or use it properly. I know it's a cliche, but you really don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. There have been all sorts of comedy adventures as I've grappled with the basics of human life. I have given up wearing socks and do not get me started on buttons!

Back to School (A Bit Late!)

This was planned as a back to school post, to coincide with the end of the Summer Holidays. So I'm late, and before you get out the detention slip, allow me to explain. Contrary to the misleading profile picture you see before you, I don't really drink. And I can promise I was stone cold sober when I tripped, coming in from the garden, and splayed myself, inelegantly, across the living room carpet. I remained there, rug-like, for quite a while, until I concluded that I must've broken at least one bone. After spending seven hours in Frenchay Hospital having no less than nine X-rays, it turned out I'd broken two.

Are We There Yet??!!

It's Saturday. I think. I am never 100% sure what day it is during the summer holidays. I find my brain becoming slowly addled by the lack of routine and focus that I've come to love my children's school for. It doesn't matter how hard I try as a parent, I can never seem to galvanise the troops into action as much as I hope to. In our house, the summer holidays begin full of promise and stretch endlessly into the middle distance with thoughts of adventure, spare time and days of creativity and fun. But, as one day inevitably rolls into the next, and the weather does it's British best to confuse us, I realise it's three weeks in and we've achieved one swimming trip, a few days at Grandad's and a couple of trips to the park. Not for the first time, I conclude that Supernanny would be disgusted.

The Beginning

When I decided to start this blog, I wanted it to be different. I had my first child at 18 and unexpectedly became stepmum to a teenager at 26, when I met my, now, husband. During that time I've experienced what it is to be a parent from all kinds of different angles. From trying to fit in at the school gates at the age of 22 to watching my baby son fight a serious infection in Intensive Care just days after his birth. And it's hard. Being a parent is really, really hard. It doesn't matter how old your children get, you will never stop worrying and they will never stop needing you. Most parents, I believe, will have had days where they don't feel they measure up or 'make the grade', where other families seem to be doing a better job some how, but I think inside, we're pretty much all the same. Trying to make it work and do the best for our children. This blog is about trying to make things a little easier. I hope to include all kinds of tips from gadgets and gizmos to make housework a smaller part of family life, to things to do with children of all ages. So, if you have children of 1 or 21, whether you're a mum, dad, grandparent or just a really good friend, I hope you will enjoy sharing my journey.