8pm - The Gallery

The Gallery word this week is 8pm, which is fantastic as everyone will have different images of what they are doing at this hour. So I look forward to viewing all the entries.

And here is mine...

Most 8pm's in our home pretty much run the same way. Well that is Monday to Friday anyway. I always let Aalliyah have a little extra time up over the weekend :-)

I think its really important to teach children how to be responsible from a young age, so Aalliyah is responsible for her little night-time "ritual" and making sure she does it herself.

Bath/Shower/Wash

Body cream

"Special" Face cleanser

Teeth Brushed

When she is all squeaky clean, its on to making sure her book bag and P.E kit (if needed) is packed and ready for the morning by the front door. Teaching them to be responsible from a young age helps keep them acting responsible as they grow up. They learn to value their own items and time.

Why not head over to Sticky Fingers and have fun viewing all the entries and then why not add your own?

Saving The Planet In 10 Simple Steps

Going green is not as hard as some people may think. Everyone assumes that its going to take something on a massive scale to help save the planet, and that one single person making a change would be insignificant, but this is so untrue. If we all thought like that, there would be no hope of turning things around and helping our planet to go greener.

Getting our children involved is even better as we are doubling our efforts and helping to save the planet by twice the amount. Plus we are passing on our knowledge in the hope that they will grow up and continue on a greener path 

I have put together a list of 10 simple ways to go green and help save the planet. They are easy and simple changes we can implement. You can do them without breaking a sweat or your bank balance :-)

1) Saving water - There are many simple yet effective ways to do this such as turning the taps off while you are brushing your teeth. This is great as the kids can get involved too. What's more is you can save up to 8 gallons of water a day! (Based on brushing morning and night). Another fun way of conserving water is to collect rainwater. Its great for watering the plants and kids will love collecting up the water in their buckets.

2) Wash at 30 or below - I have always washed at 40/60 and 90 degrees depending on the load. But for the past year all I have ever washed at is 30 degrees. My laundry comes out just as clean and reduces your electricity consumption by an average of 40%. Most leading washing detergent brands are now designed to clean just as good at lower temperatures.

3) Switch To Energy Efficient Lighting - By switching just one of your standard light bulbs to an energy efficient one can save you an average of £3 a year and by changing all our lighting to energy efficient lighting can save us up to £55 per year. Most leading supermarkets no longer stock standard bulbs which is fantastic as it gets us all changing to a more efficient source of lighting.

4) Recycle - An obvious one, but many of us still do not recycle our everyday materials like glass, aluminium and card. Most of us don't even have to go further than our doorstep and we have weekly collections of all our recyclable materials. On average, we will all throw away our own body weight in waste in just 7 weeks! That's crazy!

5) Change your batteries - Stop using regular disposable batteries and change to rechargeables. Over 15 billion batteries are made and sold each year, most of which are disposable. That's nearly 15 billion batteries disposed of in our landfills. For a small price tag you can buy a battery charger with a set of rechargeable batteries. Saving you endless money in the long run and believe me come Christmas day you will be glad you have rechargeables.

6) Pull The Plug - We waste a massive amount of electricity every year by leaving things on standby, such as out televisions, dvd players, sky/virgin boxes and laptops. Having something on standby still uses on average up to 90% of there power still. You wouldn't leave every appliance on when you went to bed as you would see this as a massive waste of electricity, so switch off and then turn off at the mains. Less harmful to the environment and your annual electricity bill.

7) Plot it - Making your own vegetable plot is a fantastic way to go green. It is  a brilliant thing to do with the kids, and how satisfying is it to be "living off your own land". Growing your own produce is a fun way to teach your children about going green. It costs millions to transport vegetables to local supermarkets. That's a lot of exhaust fumes!

8) Make Over - Turn your old disused items into something better by giving them a new lease of life! Make over your old furniture or clothes. Make some handmade jewellery. The possibilities are endless and definitely a number one activity that the kids will love being a part of. Don't fill up the landfill with yet more waste! Jazz it up into something you CAN reuse.

9) Bag it - Plastic shopping bags are not biodegradable, even the ones that say they are will never fully decompose. They will hang around our landfill for years to come. Think of the billions of bags used in our supermarkets everyday? That's a lot of waste! Always try to use a cotton/canvas reusable bag which are sold in most shops now. You can use them again and again. You could even get a plain bag and lets the kids paint it for you! 

10) Branch out - Plant a tree! Simple and to the point but just by planting a tree you could be making a massive future change. An adult tree can absorb approximately 48 pounds of carbon monoxide in a single year and produce enough oxygen to sustain two people for a lifetime. That is incredible and your little ones will love being a part of this one! :-)

So there you have it, my top 10 ways to help save the planet :-)

Have fun going that little bit greener... 

Early Days..

OK, So I am on day 3 of my new Weight Watchers Pro Points plan. I am really surprised at how easy it is to follow. I am still tediously looking up "everything" in my handy little point checker book, but as time goes on, I guess things will stick with me and I will automatically know point values for certain items I eat more frequently. I must admit, when I first went to the meeting and the group leader was explaining about how to count points and that everything must be weighed before hand, so to calculate the right number of points, I just thought "Oh god, I'm going to be spending half my life weighing food". When it comes down to it, it literally takes no more than 5 seconds to pop some rice or a potato onto the scales. So there really is no excuse for not weighing anything before hand. There are even some fantastic little hints for when you are dining out and cant just pull some scales out of your pocket. Such things like how to use your fist to use as a size comparison for a potato or how one portion of spaghetti (pasta) would fill a five pence coin. So even when you are out, you kind of get an understanding of how big your portions are and how to calculate the points.

I wont lie, I am a "big" eater! If I wasn't then I wouldn't be at weight watchers ;-) so the portion sizes are very different to what I would normally have. For instance, they say a portion of mashed potato would be similar to the size of a lime. Well in that case I have been having around 8 portions on my plate up to now. I would easily have a mountain of mash with my Sunday dinner. So with the portion sizes being so different to what I am used to, Im learning to eat things that will keep me fuller for longer so I am not starving within a few hours.

I love the fact that you have zero heroes. Besides a few, every fruit and vegetable is 0 pro points, which is fantastic as you can have plenty with your dinner and not rack up any extra points. I personally love fruit and vegetables so this is great for me, and I have probably had more fruit and veg in the past few days than I have in the past week! The pro points plan is definitely changing my eating habits, and getting me making much healthier meals,which is great!

I am a night snacker! Most definitely. I would snack on things at night time. Biscuits, tea and cake, crisps.. all the naughty things. I thought "No way can I give these up" But I have found much tastier alternatives, and if I want to I can still enjoy some biscuits or piece of cake. That's the great thing, its all about moderation and portion size as opposed to what you can or can't eat! When I fancy something sweet, I have been having a meringue nest filled with fresh strawberry's with lot of sprinklings of sweetener (Tate and Lyle granulated sugar substitute- The best sweetener out there if you love your sugar)

There are also plenty of chocolate or cake bars out there in the Weight Watchers range. I have some myself. They are very tasty and only a couple of points each :-)

I am really looking forward to going back next week..Hoping I have lost a little. Id be happy with a pound even! Just something to show its working.

As I said before, I will keep you updated. If there are any fellow weight watchers out there or anyone who blogs any tasty healthy recipes I would love to hear form you, leave me a comment/follow :-)

My little Picasso ..

Being totally rubbish at Art myself, I can only imagine that Aalliyah must get her arty skills from her Auntie (My sister) who is fantastic at art. I on the other hand can barely draw a stick man! :-)

Aalliyah has always been a huge fan of anything arty. I am always surrounded by sketches, painting, sculptures and models she has made. She has a huge art trunk bursting with pens, paints, sequins and more. She is constantly on the "Google" look out for fun crafty activities to do.

Obviously I have a totally biased opinion, but I think Aalliyah is very talented and will always encourage her with her art, weather she decides to continue with in in secondary school or not.

If you have any ideas of things to make and do, please leave a comment and we will check out your blog for some ideas. Or if you are an arty/crafy blog we would love to hear from you!

Saturday Caption Day #Satcap

My little Einstein here, all dressed up for Mad Science day at school. Oh and FYI ..Yes she gets her brains from me! ;-)

Have fun captioning :-)

Wanna caption some more photos? Or maybe add your own pic?.. Then head over to Mammasaurus .. Have fun :-)

Autumn Is Upon Us

Well it is official! No more blazing sunny says, perfect for barbecuing and getting the swimming pool out. Although we still have some beautiful sun, the air is so much colder and we are definitely on the path to Christmas.But that's still a while off yet so I will enjoy the Autumn months while I can. Aalliyah is very exited about Halloween as she is every year. We both love the Autumn time, summers over but not too cold to still enjoy a beautiful sunny stroll somewhere :-) So with that in mind Aalliyah decided to write a little poem all about... You guessed it Autumn! Only a little verse, but I loved it!

The sun is out, but it's still quite chilly.
I'm sitting on the ground watching a dying lilly.
I'm walking on leaves, so crispy and brown,
Scattered around all over the town.
Soon it will be Halloween.
Then it's time to hear the fireworks scream!

By Aalliyah Asante

What are your favourite things about Autumn? My top three have to be 1) The colours (Trees/leaves) 2) The fashion (All the knitwear and boots that come out) 3) Food! (Yummy comfort food to enjoy with your slippers on)

Reasons To Be Cheerful :-)

You have all heard people say "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well that's how I feel today. Yes OK a tad over dramatical since it was a weight watchers meeting that has given me this buzz, but it was my first meeting and I left feeling very positive which makes a change to the past few months. I went along with a friend which made it a lot more fun and relaxed. Absolutely horrified when I stepped on the scales and realised exactly how much weight I had put on, but must not dwell as I will hopefully see that number getting smaller week by week. Very Exciting :-) It was also wonderful to see my friend and her beautiful daughter too. We were childhood friends who lost contact and have recently got back into contact with each other so having giggles with her definitely cheered me up today too.

The final reason to be cheerful today (which was actually the first to occur) was the fantastically tight squeeze I got from my daughter this morning in the playground. And lets not forget the kiss too! I see some kids in younger years barely giving a shrug to their mums and dads to say bye, so I'm happy Aalliyah feels no embarrassment and still gives me a hug and a kiss before she skips merrily into school.

Those are my reasons to be cheerful today.. What has made you smile today? Head over to Mummy From The Heart and let everyone know