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Simplified Mum Life

Nina A Spencer – Motherhood Mentor – Simplifying the every day for busy overwhelmed mums -Mum Of Twins Twice! Placenta Accreta Survivor, Mental Health Champion, On my own simple living Journey filled with adventure and travel . Embracing The Imperfectly, Chaotic moments of motherhood.
#StayHome Lockdown

May Goals & Plans (Lockdown Edition)

Hi all,

How are we all doing? I mean it’s May and we have been in lockdown for over a month now. We are not even sure how much longer this is going to go on for either. Days go by and they feel like groundhog day but then some days go by and we have the most fun. Memories are made. Memories that will hopefully last our children’s lifetime.

This month I want to get back into some kind of normality. Maybe even a new normality, as getting back to what our old normal was seems so far away, if we ever even get there at all.

With that in mind I want to create some goals and plans for the month ahead.

Making plans are what keep me going. Its kind of my therapy . As holiday planning is on hold for the moment planning our weeks and days is what is getting me by.

May Plans & Goals

Homeschooling

It’s no secret that I am struggling a little with homeschooling the big twins while trying to entertain the little two. However with the support of the school teachers we are managing a little, enough to keep their brains active. enough to keep them occupied.

  • Homeschool days Monday – Friday 9am – 11.30
  • Continue maths, literacy and one other subject on school days All work sent from school.
  • Reading in an afternoon.
  • Mathletics – Maths extra work on computer while dinner is cooking.
  • During May Half term Activities to keep brain active but less structured than school work.

Health, Fitness & Movement

I have recently using the exercise time we have been allowed to head out for a walk around our local area. Its been great for my head and getting me moving again.

  • At least 4, 20 min walks a week.
  • Eating less junk. I have been doing pretty well with this until the easter eggs came out last month but while ‘nipping to the shop’ at any given opportunity isn’t an option and the easter eggs have all gone i think I can get back on to eating less junk again.
  • I would like to try and pick up a fitness class once a week. maybe zumba or something to to add to my fitness levels. i have seen a few happening on facebook live and using zoom.

Home

Years and years ago after following countless blogs I made up my own household binder to help me keep on top of things that needed doing in the house and in our life.

Fast forward a few years and add 4 kids to the mix and our house often looks like we’ve been burgled. SO I plan this month to remake a house hold binder make sure I have a weekly and daily routine to tidy and clean each room. once this routine is in place I am going to work on decluttering some more areas of our home.

Im putting it out there that I am feeling positive this is totally doable even with the kids at home! Because positive vibes right!!

Work

In january I attended a vision board workshop with the lovely girls from Escape & Create. It was such a great process. A great way to focus on goals for the year. It really did make me feel more positive for opportunities to come my way. Which for a while they did. but then you know covid happened. This month I want to get back to making my goals a reality and set up some new ones to fit with our current reality.

3 themes I would like to focus on this month are

  • Developing on ‘My Why’
  • Helping small businesses get back up and running
  • Creating a new vision board for my career and business

I will expand on these in future blog posts so if you are interested make sure you follow the blog.

Other Adventures

VE Day – May the 8th is the country’s bank holiday for the 75th anniversary of VE day. Obviously we cant have big communal events like was planned at the beginning of the year however we are being encouraged to participate in our own events at home. So we are planning one having a party in our drive to celebrate.

Holiday At Home – Last month we had a road trip at home as we should have been on our road trip in europe during the easter holidays this month is May half term so I am going to try and plan something similar to give the kids some adventure during the the week.

Hopefully lockdown may ease a little during the end of the month and we can head out a little more. I’m not talking anything extravagant but driving to the woods or the local river for a walk and to feed the ducks would be a great adventure for us all after being safe at home for all this time.

One other thing I want to work on this month is fundraising for the Sheffield hospitals trust and The Jessop wing. I have a plan in mind as the annual super hero walk has been cancelled. head to instagram and click follow if you don’t already where I will announce my plans once finalised.

I hope this gives you a little bit of inspiration to plan your month ahead. even though we are all staying safe at home still we can still make the best of the situation we can still find time to work on out#r business a little even if that means working at midnight. If we have the passion to make our business work we will find a way to make it work.

Nina x

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Health & Fitness

“I’ll be there for you Cause you’re there for me too”

I’ve never been very good making friends, however I have picked up a few along the way.

IMG_6433

I have friends now and they are the most valuable group of friends I’ve ever had.
There are friends that I met in school and although we don’t talk or see each other every day I know they are there and they know I am here if we need each other.
There are friends I made after school the ones I made through work the ones that helped me in tough times and have seen me at my worst but yet still let me be a part of their lives.
There are friends I’ve really only just met but yet have been through so much together, I hope we will be friends for a very long time to come.
There are friends that I’ve not yet met or maybe I’ve already met but we just don’t know we are friends yet (this has happened in the past)
And there is one friend who I’ve known most of my life and who I’m now married to.IMG_6772
Friendships aren’t always easy. There are tough times. There are times when you are close to hating each other.
But friendships are so important.
Here are my top 5 of friendship
1. Tough times – I’ve been through some unpleasant times (Anxiety, depression, grief, jealousy.) My friends have listened, hugged, cried with me, and brought me tissues and flowers to cheer me up.
2. Good times – You remember that time when….. Those times when I’ve laughed so hard I’ve cried.
3. Confidence – Some of the friends I have and have had made me feel like I could do anything. They have given me the confidence to try new things, to go to new places and to be the person I want to be.
4. Advice – As parents sometimes we struggle with day-to-day I often turn to my friends for help when I’m struggling with something.
5. Be there. – Friendship also means I am there for my friends when they need me. I don’t judge don’t mock and can also be there with the tissues and hugs and flowers if need be!  I can also make copious amounts of tea.

I have lost friends along the way too. Sometimes it’s for the best. Sometimes we have friends that can be harmful to our self-esteem.

I know there are going to be more tough times in our lives, that’s life but I have friends now who I can turn to in those times and who can make the good times great so the bad times don’t seem so bad.

Thank you to all of my friends for joining me in my life and letting me into theirs.

Nina x

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#StayHome Lockdown

Back To School (At Home)

Well the “Easter Holidays” went by in a blur and this week is back to school Well ‘homeschool’. It’s not quite like the home school we had in our minds when I took the kids out of school a few years ago though. This is homeschool Lockdown style.

Home School but not as we know it!

My four have been off school since march 18th. At first it felt hard work. We had been thrown into a life that we didn’t necessarily chose a life where we are now teacher as well as mum. Then as work started coming in from school it felt a little easier. We decided to just to pick and choose what learn as fitting in all of the home learning in while still trying to entertain the little two seems an impossible task.

Then we’ve just had an easter so we scrapped school work and decided to have an adventure instead. But now it’s time to get back into the school routine and really get a grip on some learning as well as having fun.

So what does that look like for us?

Without going into too much of our morning routine as I am going to hopefully create some more content around that here is my plan for the next few weeks at least.

First off I’m going to be making an effort to get up and ready for “School” by 9am otherwise when we do eventually head back to doing the school run its going to absolutely kill us getting out of the door for 8.30 every morning.

Our learning Day

There are 5 areas that I think are important to keep on top of each day.

Wellbeing

Wellbeing especially at this time is so important. We probably like to think that our children are resilient and can handle life in lockdown really well but if your kids are anything like mine while they seem their usual self most of the time there are moments that make me stop and see they are struggling with some emotions they havent had to deal with up until now .

There are some great resources out there for promoting wellbeing in both children and adults

Happy Self journal

Big life journal

Twinkl

Movement

Now we are no longer walking to school or anywhere really its important to fit in some form of exercise each day.

So far we have tried Joe Wicks live pe lesson on Youtube & Cosmic Kids Yoga Im also going to have a look at doing some kind of kids zumba too.

We are currently allowed to head out for some exercise each day which up to now we haven’t done because our garden is a good size to exercise in however I think I am going to try a walk around the block a couple of times a week just for some added stimulation to the week.

Reading

Its important to read each and every day. Reading with our kids not only helps them to read themselves and gives their brain a bit of exercise but its a great way to increase creativity and imagination.

Literacy

There are loads of things our children can do for Literacy Or writing practice. From making a family newspaper to writing letters to their friends. Twinkl has a great range of worksheets and activities to help with keeping up with literacy work.

Maths

I hate maths, I am terrible at it. I used to work in retail and could count you back your change but ask me to do the kids fractions homework or divide big numbers and I panic. I want the kids to have a good grasp at maths as I think its so important in life. So they are doing their school online maths work. They use Mathletics but we also have some maths books from when we homeschooled. Its a couple of years below them but it boosts their confidence enough for them to then want to do a little more.

So that is my Lockdown/ Home school plan for the next few weeks. I wont be sticking to a strict schedule. Though I will have a little rhythm for our days. we may also have the odd day off if the kids are just not feeling it. This is a crazy time for all of us and some times we all have off days ad need a break from things.

How are you doing Schooling while the kids are home? Id love it if you left any similar blog posts that you have done about schooling during the lockdown

Nina x

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Road Trip (At Home)

At the beginning of the year we were given an amazing opportunity with the lovely people at Just Go Following on from our Cornwall Road Trip Last year. They liked what we did for them so invited us to head to Florence to pick up one of their brand new 2020 edition motorhomes and drive it back to the uk.

Now that amazing adventure was due to start on April 4th this year. The beginning of the Easter school holidays! Unfortunately Covid19 had other plans. First of all Italy got struck by the virus then as days went on the UK went into lockdown too and school closed (For Most kids) well before the Easter Holidays started.

I decided that as we were not going to get on our Road trip this year I would recreate it at home.

So our adventure started on Monday 6th April when we should have been picking up our Motorhome.

Day One – Airport Day

Using resources from the Twinkl website I created a check in desk and donned my Flight attendant uniform That I created from my wardrobe and some paper to make a hat.

I printed off some activities like weighing suitcases. (Hopefully the kids will have learnt a couple of things by the time the road trip was over.

At lunch time i made up some snack boxes just like the kids would order on the plane and moved the garden seats around to make some aircraft seating.

Day Two – Italy

The first destination on our trip took us to Italy. I printed off some flags so that at each country we “visit” their make shift passports can be stamped. Then it was time to learn a few things about Italy. Followed by gelato in a gondola, and lunch in a cafe with pizza rolls (I couldn’t get pizza bases or any ingredients to make actual pizza.

Austria –

Today we headed off to Austria complete with Apple strudel. The kids filled out a bit of a factfile with facts about the country.

Campsite Fun

We had a travel break over the bank holiday weekend and just stayed around the campsite.

Activities on site included a pub meal (take out delivered to our door, a movie night projected on to the side of our make shift motorhome. We also enjoyed roasting some marshmallows over the BBQ.

We all made full use of the onsite hot tub and play Area too.

Germany

Castle building was on today’s agenda. The kids thought it was amazing and even made a dragon to guard the castle.

Belgium

No trip to Belgium is complete without waffles and chocolate right?

Home ready for (Home) School next week.

It seems all that travelling has worn the kids out as they have requested some time just to do their own thing the rest of the week.

I mean I don’t mind as it has given me a chance to catch up with the holiday washing pile ????

Right now to plan our next adventure I do hope we can have a proper road trip soon. 3 weeks into the lockdown im getting itchy feet!

Nina

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Getting that Friday (weekend) Feeling During a Lockdown

We are now 2 weeks into the country being in a partial lockdown and there is no Let up on the horizon soon. But we have to carry on. We have to fill our days with things that bring us joy. Plan, create, laugh & cry.

Today is Friday which for me is usually my Work from Home Day. I mean I’m a blogger and content creator so basically every day is a work from home day But Friday Is my proper work day away from the kids. The day I get excited for all week and the day that I know I get to see friends for Pizza Friday and have the whole weekend to spend with Spencersarc.Daddy and the kids creating memories and exploring.

friday feeling

Today though Friday feels very different. There is no urgency to post for the coffee shop I work for Because its closed for the foreseeable future. I have no blogging posts that need to be written, no reviews, no ads.

Friday this week is the same as it has been all week and for the past 2 weeks stay alive, keep kids safe, happy and as educated as I possibly can.

That said I miss the Friday feeling when I woke up. So I’m creating a new Friday Feeling.

We still have the weekend to look forward to. We still have family time together (Chris (hubby) works during the week in our home office so at least he will have 2 days for us to be together)

Here is what I’ll be doing to get that Friday feeling during Lockdown.

  • Coffee Shop vibes Make Myself a latte or tea in a teapot. And sit at the table to drink it. Set the table out like a cafe table. Plants in the middle of the table some nice music on. I could even get the kids to be my waitress?
  • Friday night Pizza night – Ok shop bought pizza or even making your own pizzas isn’t quite the same as a dirty pizza with friends but Sticking to the pizza night menu is a great idea.
  • Facetime – Getting friends to face time into Friday Night Pizza night Is a great way to keep connected.
  • Saving it for the weekend – Friday feelings often come because we have a weekend full of exciting adventures planned. AS we cant go to the beach or head to the forest for adventure maybe we might recreate some at home? – We have a hot tub, cinema room and a bouncy castle all of which could be kept as a weekend treat I’m aware we are very lucky to have these things but what could you find at home that is a weekend treat? Movie night with all the snacks, pamper afternoon where you can paint nails, put on facemasks, or just simply have a foot soak in the washing up bowl with some nice smelling bubble bath.

I have seen many online events too that are happening right in your living room (kitchen, or wherever you have access to the internet.)

  • Quiz night – I have seen some people on facebook setting up quiz nights on there from influencers to pubs where their doors are shut but their living rooms are open.
  • Camp Out (Or In) – Over on Instagram Tent_share are hosting an online camp. You can join in the fun with a conference call using zoom.
  • Games – There is now free access to some online card games that you can connect up with friends and play. I’ve seen a Cards against Humanity style game. I’ve seen some families even playing monopoly through their webcam.

Whatever you find to get that Friday feeling I hope you are able to stay safe, and maintain a sense of wellbeing through this difficult time.

If you have any more ideas to get that Friday feeling let me know in the comments!

Nina x

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