I was 25 before I went to my first funeral.

It was my Gran’s, and a bit of a steep learning curve, as I was in charge of writing and reading the eulogy. I say reading, what actually happened was that I read about a sentence, and then stood there in front of everyone, sobbing and sniffing, until my mum came up and read it out for me. I stood next to her if that counts.

I had a hand in the funeral planning and although it was a privilege to be involved, I was at a bit of a loss – my Gran hadn’t left any specific wishes or plans, so how did we really know what she would have wanted? When I was little she always said she wanted to be pushed off a cliff at 65 and she quickly changed her mind about that one, so without any explicit instructions, who was I to say what music she’d want played at her funeral?

Funeral planning is a bit of a taboo, something we don’t want to talk about, but it shouldn’t be – we’re all going to die after all, it’s the one thing in life we can be certain of, so why not plan for it? Making a will last month really brought it home to me.

“Do you have any preference over whether you want to be buried or cremated?” the consultant had asked me.

“Not really,” I said, thinking I was being helpful and easy going, “I don’t mind either way.”

“OK,” she said, “but you might want to give it some thought as it’s often much easier for the people you leave behind.”

Do you know, as obvious as that sounds, I had never thought about it like that. If anything, I thought I was being accomodating by not stating a preference, but the more I thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. I thought back to my Gran’s funeral planning, when we were all so overcome by the stress and emotion of her death, and about how much simpler it would have been if she had laid it all out for us and all we’d had to do was say ‘yes, go for it.’ View Post

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I’ve been having a lot of thoughts lately. (It’s tiring.) A lot of them feel fairly random but actually there is a bit of a theme. I think it must be an age thing, but lately I have become much more aware of my own mortality.

It’s kind of scary, but at the same time I figure it’s a healthy thing because at least then you can start planning. I was writing a will recently, so that’s one good thing to tick off the list, but then my mind wanders and I start thinking about stupid things like work – what would happen if I died and didn’t get to finish a piece of work? I wouldn’t want the clients to think I was rubbish and not use me again. Should I tell someone my Twitter password now so that in the event of my death they can log in and explain that I’m not just being rude by not replying to people?

I think I may be missing the point a little bit, but still, these things do worry me.

Then there’s my memory. My boyfriend was asking me some questions recently about my grandparents and great grandparents and although I knew that I had at some point known all the answers, they just weren’t in my head any more. Early onset dementia perhaps? All the more reason to write my Twitter password down quick sharp. View Post

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When I was pregnant with Bee, aged 16, I didn’t have a lot of spare cash for decorating the nursery. In fact I didn’t have a nursery, just a corner of my bedroom with a cot in that I’d bought at a car boot sale. Still, I wanted to make it a pretty corner, so while my tummy grew I made my very own nursery wall art.

I was a little lacking in the paint department, but managed to mix up a good palette with a few basic colours. I took about five sheets of plain A4 paper, cut them into thirds lengthways and joined them together to make a long strip. Then I drew every single one of the Mr Men by hand and painted them.

It was a triumph.

I wish I had it to show you. For years afterwards I kept it, rolled up and tied with a piece of leather that I was wearing round my neck when Bee was born, (because I was super cool and into grunge), but somewhere along the way it has been lost. I’m not a sentimental person, but it’s one of the only things I wish I still had. View Post

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And there you were thinking it was all about the chocolate. Wrong! Easter is a time of new beginnings and giving thanks, which means it is the ideal time to start preparing for the arrival of a child. (If you’re pregnant that is, you shouldn’t just be expecting one to turn up.)

pregnant tummy

So, what can you do over the lovely long Easter weekend to start your antenatal preparation?  View Post

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easter eggs

I’m going to jump right in here and say I don’t believe in God, and don’t therefore believe that at Easter he died on a cross, came back to life, etc etc. If you do believe that then that’s fine, I’m kind of envious really. I’ve always quite fancied having some sort of faith.

However, never one to let a lack of principles stand in my way, (e.g. Christmas fun times), I’m still happy to stuff my face with as many hot cross buns as I can fit in my M&S basket.

Although Belle is 12 now, she still enjoys Easter too and I love waking up with her on Easter morning and watching her hunt for the eggs that the Easter Bunny has hidden around the house. I am eternally grateful to people like the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas; I would ever be organised enough to remember to buy/hide/wrap all of these Easter day gifts uk. View Post

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Tonight is parents’ evening.

Oh joy!

I really dislike going to parents’ evening, partly because it means I have to leave the house at a time when I should be settling down to eat my dinner and watch some Dinner Date, but mainly because it always feels like a complete waste of time. The way I see it, if there was an actual problem, someone would get in touch, they wouldn’t wait until the next parents’ evening to tell me about it, and if there isn’t a problem then, well, quite frankly, what’s the point?

parents' evening

This is going to be what happens: View Post

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Do you remember my sister going to Wychwood Festival last year? I’ll forgive you if you don’t – I barely remember it myself and she’s my sister. Suffice to say that she did, and they had such a good time that they actually bought tickets there and then for this years’s festival.*

I’m very excited indeed then to be able to giveaway a family bundle of tickets, (2 adults and 2 children up to 15 years old, plus camping), worth up to £420! Not a bad prize is it?

Wychwood takes place at Cheltenham racecourse from 29-31st May and although much loved as a family festival, it’s certainly not the kind of family festival that only caters for kids. As well as the children’s literary festival and favourites like Dick and Dom there are some fantastic musicians lined up, including The Wonder Stuff, The Proclaimers and Ladysmith Black Mamboza. There’s comedy too, with the likes of Mitch Benn, and workshops in just about everything you could imagine, from ukulele practice to Indian fusion dance.

Ladysmith-Black-Mambazo

To win yourself tickets to Wychwood Festival, just do as many of the things as you can in the rafflecopter widget below – the more you complete, the more chance you have of winning.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*A true fact.

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I am a very recent but very happy convert to online grocery shopping. I had always thought that I rather liked the idea of mooching around a supermarket, squeezing the fruit for myself and spotting the bargains, but it turns out that I really don’t. I don’t like it at all.

What I do like it strolling around a very small supermarket, picking up treats, with little or no regard for actual meals. That, unfortunately, is not shopping.

I’m so glad I gave online shopping a go – it is no exaggeration to say that it has totally revolutionised by shopping experience. I love that you can place an order and come back and add the things you forget, rather than getting home and smacking yourself in the face because you forgot milk – the one thing you actually went for in the first place. I like how you can easily compare products like cashew nuts, which inexplicably appear in about three different places in an actual supermarket, and you even get reminded to buy your regular purchases. You also don’t have to do the awful bit of putting everything into carrier bags and lugging it to and from the boot.

It’s awesome.

That’s why, as a proper online shopping fan, I was more than happy to say yes to giving you a sneak peek of Tesco’s new Family Magic video, extolling the virtue of online shopping for families of budding magicians. I really love the bloopers video too.

If you do decide to give it a go, do check out Tesco ‘favourites’ feature – if you pop in your Clubcard number when you first register for online shopping it will add your in store favourites too, so even if you’ve never shopped online before it will be super easy right from the off.

Enjoy!

Sponsored post

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I hate homework.

I hate having to remember to ask Belle to do it, I hate that thing at 8.58pm where she suddenly remembers she has half an hour of homework to do before the next day, I hate the stupid tasks she gets set that you know the teacher has just found on the internet in about the time it takes Belle to sigh heavily and open her homework diary. I hate all of it.

I also hate that it interferes with the things I want to do. In the evenings, having been working all day myself, I would quite like to be doing something fun like going to the cinema or out for dinner. I don’t want to spend my free time explaining how to multiply and divide fractions.

BORING!

homework

The crux though of my dislike for homework comes down to this: school is meant to prepare us for adult life right? It’s about routine and self discipline and obeying the rules, I get that.

But hang on… View Post

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I have a confession to make. It’s a biggie, as I have two children, now 19 and 12, and it doesn’t reflect well on me as a parent.

*whispers*

I have never made a will.

I’ve never had any assets you see, so it’s never felt like something I needed to do. This is stupid I know, as I have two children and should I die I have nothing in place in writing to specify what I want to happen to them. I have a life insurance policy and various pension pots too, but at no point have I managed to get everything together in one place and make a proper grown up plan.

Silly isn’t it?

It feels even sillier as I have always had a bit of a reputation in my family as ‘the organised one’, but I fear this is based more on the fact that I used to spend a lot of time colouring in revision timetables than on my ability to manage important things like finances. View Post

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I thought we had World Book Day sorted this year. To be honest, I was surprised Belle’s school were even doing the dressing up thing at all, I thought it might be more of a primary school vibe, but when we got the letter home Belle assured me that it was all in hand – she was going to go as Hermione Granger and it was all sorted.

Excellent.

Hermione Granger

In fact, judging by the costumes that some of her friends had chosen, Hermione Granger was basically Elizabeth Bennett. A lot of her peers were apparently going to be dressing up as the classic fictional literary character that is Zoella.  View Post

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Not by me personally – that would be pretty irresponsible. If I ever offer to draw you up a will or manage a portfolio of stocks and shares or anything like that then do say no. I am working with The Co-operative Legal Services though this month to bring you all the information you need to write or update your will.

Join me, alongside The Co-operative’s legal experts, at 1pm on March 11th for a Twitter party, and find out all about what’s involved in making a will. The party will coincide with the launch of a video we’re filming this week where I ask all the stupid questions about will writing that you’re too afraid to ask for fear of looking silly. Is it OK to scribble your wishes on a bit of lined paper, sign it and get a friend to witness it? Is it sensible to hide your will behind a painting over your fireplace or does that only happen in detective novels?

I will also be going through the process of writing a will with The Co-operative, and will be writing about this so that you know exactly what to expect.

If you’ve yet to get round to writing a will or want to find out more about updating an existing one then come along on the 11th March, follow the hashtag #ChoiceNotChance, and take the action you need to protect your family.

how do you write a will?

So how can I get involved?

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