My aims for 2014

So much happened last year;

 It started in Cambodia where I managed to complete two of my 30 before 30 goals. In 2013 I managed to complete 7 of these goals, but many of them were relatively small.

 Experiencing a different culture and having a baby were definitely not small! I really enjoyed documenting my pregnancy here on my blog. It is already really good for me to look back on!

This Year...

This year started off very differently, I had an early night on New Years eve because I was tired and knew I would have to get up at least twice to feed Fred.

Fred is obviously a massive factor in my plans for the year ahead. We aren't able to go on a big holiday to New York (it is looking extremely unlikely that we will be able to afford it before I'm 30, let alone buying a house. I think I will have to re-think some of my list!) We are planning a few exciting things for this year, even if they aren't big or expensive they will hopefully be enjoyable and I may even be able to cross off some more of my 30 before 30 list.

The things we already have planned...

We have just booked to go on the Harry potter studios tour in a couple of weeks. I cannot wait! It is our Christmas present to each other - yes we are big Harry Potter geeks :)

In February we are going to visit our friends Jane and Greg (the same ones we visited in Cambodia) they now live in Yorkshire.

In March I'm hoping to go to Cake International in Manchester because I LOVE Mary Berry almost as much as I love baking! (Check out the Giant Jaffa Cake I made for Jamie's birthday- I was very proud)

At some point over Easter we are going to get Fred Dedicated. It is an alternative to a Christening. We will promise in front of our Friends, Family and Church family to bring Fred up prayerfully (like carefully but with Gods help!) with a knowledge of God and the sacrifice Jesus has made for him. But we are essentially leaving it up to him to decide if he would like to get Baptised when he is old enough to make an informed decision for himself.

In the summer Jamie along with a few other youth workers always takes a group of Chester young people to a youth Christian festival called Soul Survivor. It is definitely one of the highlights of the year. Jamie wouldn't let me go last year because I was big, pregnant and extra moany. We are going this year and taking Fred! It could be interesting, but to help us prepare we are going to do a camping test run at some point in the spring.

We are hoping our summer holiday will involve staying in a beach hut somewhere near Portsmouth (as you can tell we totally have that planned!). As well as spending a good amount of time with Fred's Grandparents.

In the Autumn are all three of our birthdays and our wedding anniversary. We don't know yet if we will have much of a party of Fred's birthday. Being only one he probably won't understand what's going on will he?!

I can't currently think further then that. 

At some point I will be going back to work, and our life will change quite dramatically. I'm thankful that I only work 3 days a week. I think it will still be difficult to balance child care and both mine and Jamie's jobs. We both work some evenings and weekends and without family around to look after Fred, if we both have to work on a weekend it could be potentially problematic!

30 before 30 aims...

As I said last year I managed to achieve 7 of my 30 before 30 aims. This year ideally I should achieve a similar amount. But I don't think it is going to happen. The ones I would like to achieve are:

        * Learn to cook a good roast ( I may enlist my Dads help with this one as he cooks the best roasts EVER)

        * Give up meat for a month ( This could be difficult if I'm still breastfeeding, although with good planning and a balanced diet it should be fine!)

         *Enter a baking competition

         * Make a dress

         * Run in a 5 or 10k race (this one is reliant on my foot not playing up, I hurt it trying to do long jump on concrete wearing inappropriate shoes about 2 years ago. It was a stupid thing to do!)

Other aims for the year ahead:

     *Do baby lead weaning once Fred is 6 months old. (I will be following Red Head Baby Led's BLW series with interest)

     *Knit at least 3 pairs of socks- I am a third of the way through my 1st sock of the year :)

Make more of the presents I give people. I am going to follow the example of The fatty Crafter and embrace my crafting side more.

My big challenge for the year:

Only buy clothes second hand or from eco friendly/ fair trade sources (I am not including a new swimming costume in this challenge).

I am already a fan of charity shops, and I buy a few select pieces from People Tree every now and again. Fast fashion and waste are something I have been trying not to indulge in for a while. This challenge should spur me on to hopefully change my shopping habits for good.

The year ahead is already looking busy and exciting! Do you have a big challenge that you will be taking on this year?

Baby Fred a 3 month update

Our little Fred is 3 months old already! 

He is a good eater, eating every 2 - 3 hours, over Christmas he upped his milk intake. Previously I fed him just from one breast, now he takes both per feeding.

I'm not sure how much he weighs, I keep neglecting getting him weighed because he is very obviously growing well. At a baby group we go to he is almost as big as some babies twice his age!

During our time away he learnt loads of cool new things. He can now grab the things he wants to. Unfortunately a lot of the time that thing is my hair.

He learnt to laugh and it is a brilliantly dirty chuckle! Things that have Made him laugh include, Jamie singing to him, playing flying with me, bouncing in is chair and singing "row row row your boat".

He is quite a good sleeper, once we get him to sleep. Some evenings it is a bit of a battle getting him to settle enough to stay asleep. But once he is down he generally only wakes twice in the night. Before we went away for Christmas we had a couple of nights where he woke only once!

His napping habits leave a lot to be desired. Some days he hardly sleeps at all, all day. Those days at hard on all of us. But today he had a morning nap of half an hour and he is currently enjoying a nap that started two and a half hours ago!

We are still using reusable nappies and we are loving them. It was a bit of a challenge to take everything we needed and to keep up with the washing while we were away over Christmas but on the whole it worked really well. We also use reusable wipes when we are at home. Using reusable nappies is much easier then I thought it would be and I can highly recommend it. 

Thankfully this month we have avoided ill people and their germs so haven't had any more colds, but he constantly has stuffy nose which is frustrating for him.

It is so lovely to watching him learning things and the concentration on his face while he does it. He has started to stick his tongue out when he concentrates, just like his Dad!

Thanks to Vicky, Fred's Aunty who took the first three photos in this post and to Grandpa for taking the last one :)

Christmas Fun

We are back from our Christmas travels. 

This year we spent 5 days in Southampton, 5 days in Hastings and one day in Cambridgeshire. 

Before we left we were a little worried about how Fred would deal with the long car journeys, but it turned out our worrying was completely unfounded. In total our journeys were 14 hours long and Fred slept for approximately 12.5 hours of them with the worst crying session only half an hour from our house on our way back. He is pretty good at sleeping almost as soon as we put him in the car seat.

The long journeys and the extended time away from home were quite tiring for all of us, but were definitely worth it. Fred has now met all of his Aunts, Uncles and  most of his Cousins. He even managed to woo a few Great Aunts and Uncles.

Anyway that is enough about Fred, this post is meant to be about my Christmas break highlights.

Two of my highlights over the last two weeks are both walks. First was a boxing day walk on Southampton common with Grandpa, Aunty Vicky, Jamie and Fred.

It was lovely to walk in the bright sunshine watching families play, children trying out their new bikes and scooters, sons walking their mothers and toddlers working out how to put one foot in front of another. Best of all was walking with family, Fred slept on Jamie's chest content and peaceful.

My second highlight was a walk along Hastings seafront with Mutti and Grandad, it was also bright and fresh. I love the sea and the sky was beautiful. We wandered slowly, again I watched families playing in the play parks and children bouncing on trampolines. Mutti is wearing her Christmas present from me, a knitted snood. (I'm going to write a pattern for it soon, its only simple but someone may find it helpful!) 

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and are looking froward to the year ahead.

Christmas blogging break

I don't know if you have noticed but lately I have found it difficult to find the time and inclination to blog.

I love writing blog posts, when I have something to write about. Currently my life consists of breast feeding, changing nappies, avoiding sick, praying Fred will sleep and going to baby groups. Jamie and I aren't even getting much time together because every time we have an evening free we are either battling to get Fred to go to sleep or I fall asleep as soon as he does. (not ideal- although for the last two nights Fred has slept for 6 hours at a time!)

Please don't misunderstand me, I LOVE having Fred and doing all of the above baby things (well most).

In order to write I need something to write about and the baby free time in which to write it. I am currently quite short of both of those things.

This is going to be our first Christmas as a family of three. I'm excited to have a good amount of time together and with our extended families. We leave for our Christmas South coast tour (both sets of our parents live on the south cost but about over 100 miles apart) tomorrow afternoon, straight after Church. Before then we have to pack more then we have ever packed before. 

Baby = stuff and more stuff

SO the long and short of it is I'm going to have a guilt free break from blogging over the Christmas period. 

I have signed up to a blogging course in January so I can return with more inspiration and passion for my little space.

Fred and I wish you a merry and blessed Christmas and will hopefully see you in the New Year.

The Chester Saturnalia Parade

Thursday evening, Jamie, Fred (asleep in his pushchair) and I went in to Chester City Centre to meet some of Jamie's young people and explore the Christmas market. I can highly recommend the mulled apple juice.

While we were there, out if nowhere came 30ish men dressed as Roman soldiers, carrying lit torches and shouting. We decided to follow them, who wouldn't?!

It turned out they were re-enacting the roman festival of Saturnalia, a festival in honour of he Roman god Saturn who, according to Wikipedia, was an agricultural god. 

Things like this are part of why I love Chester, It is such a spontaneous City with random events happening throughout the year.

Preparing for Christmas

We are almost half way through Advent, that is shocking to me because I haven't even got an advent calendar! I'm blaming Fred for making me so dis-organised. I do somehow have all my Christmas gifts prepared (yes I am gloating a little).

Advent is important to me and many other Christians because it reminds us to prepare spiritually for Jesus coming to earth again, it is also lovely that it ties in with the run up to the celebration of Christ's birth. 

Advent for me is an essential part of Christmas, without advent and the reminder that we are living in expectation of what is to come, Christmas becomes a hollow, food and drink fueled present fest. 

Don't get me wrong I LOVE food (especially Christmas food, Christmas Cake is so good! I can eat a ton of Marzipan and roasted vegetables though not together), drink (sadly I won't be able to drink much this year because of breast feeding but I am going to have a couple of glasses of mulled wine - the drink of Christmas Champions) and presents (I LOVE opening presents! and giving presents, it makes me happy). But Christmas is much MUCH better when it has meaning, and is less self centered.

My Husband, Jamie, for every day of Advent is tweeting a way that we can prepare for and celebrate Christmas that is less selfish and will bless others; because realigning ourselves with God and his plan for us means we are more concerned about being a blessing to other people; over and above our own personal gain. 

You can follow his tweets with the Hash tag #ChristmasRhythms or you can check out the Tearfund Rhythms website. HERE As well as Jamie's tweets they have many ideas of ways to make Christmas more special and less consumer driven. All good things if you ask me.

I don't often do serious posts. but so many bloggers are blogging about gift ideas and festive makes and I don't feel I have anything to add to that strand of conversation. I feel so often we get wrapped up in the physical preparations that we forget to stop and remember what its all about.

Thanks for reading. Just because no blog post is complete with a photo of Fred here is the two of us in our accidentally matching Christmas outfits. (I was very embarrassed)

An Autumnal Walk

I feel like I have missed out on some of the joys of Autumn this year, because of the joys of Fred. 

This weekend we went for a little Autumn walk, the colours were bright, the air was crisp and I was with my two favourite people.

Thank God for seasons, walks and family.