Get out (while you can)...

There's nothing that can't be solved by getting outdoors, well very few things anyway. If tensions are running high, simply opening the back doors and pouring the children into the garden can work wonders for everyone's mood. Often, a walk to your local parkland is in order (obviously avoiding play areas at the moment) and sometimes an adventure further afield is called for! 

A couple of years ago, we explored lots of our local National Trust properties, which included meeting up with friends and family for woodland walks and this year (after lockdown), we are joining Historic Houses, so will be doing more of the same I'm sure. We love getting outside whatever the weather and having the right kit is crucial to make sure that it can happen.

A Comfortable Backpack

I love the Vans Realm Backpacks and we have a few in the house! They were the perfect size to carry our sling, potty, spare clothes and some snacks when Ace was smaller and now I use mine to carry snacks, drinks, spare clothes and all manner of adventure essentials, including our Scrunch buckets and spades, binoculars and compass. Honey used to take hers to the childminders and has used it as a school bag for the last few years, so it's been worth the initial outlay.

A Travel Potty

While a nature wee is a common occurrence when out in the countryside, sometimes when they're first potty training, little ones can announce the urgent need for a number 2 at any time! Although it's not something we need to carry around with us anymore, we used and loved My Carry Potty with both Honey and Ace, you can read more about our potty training experiences here (Honey) and here (Ace).




Waterproof Outerwear

A warm, waterproof coat is worth its weight in gold. Things to look out for include, a hood that stays up during the wind and rain, upright pockets so that gloves don't fall out and a warm lining. We love the Puddle Buster coats from Frugi and also have warm, padded coats from Mountain Warehouse for chilly but dry(ish) days. For warmer days, I carry a lightweight, parkway waterproof for each of them, in our backpack.

Waterproof trousers or dungarees are key too. Not only do they keep little bottoms dry when they're sitting on the sand (or in a puddle), they also provide a valuable extra layer to protect from chilling winds. Our favourites are from Mountain Warehouse and Grass & Air and our tip is to wear them over the top of wellies instead of tucked in, as this helps keep wellies dry inside too!
             

Waterproof Gloves

My children love to pick up sticks, stones and other treasure on our walks. If we're on the beach, they also love to build sandcastles and climb rocks. All of these things are fine during the warmer months, but when you're out in the wind and rain, little hands can get very cold and when they're cold there's whinging and when there's whinging, nobody has fun! Mountain Warehouse come up trumps again here, we rate their ski mittens and gloves and love that the elastic cuffs can be tucked into sleeves to keep out the weather.

A Cosy Hat

Everyone's Granny ever used to tell them that '10% of your body head is lost through your head', so a decent hat is an absolute must! We love Little Hotdog Watson hats because they're water resistant, have a cosy, thinsulate lining and are even reflective for those darker days. My favourite things about these hats is that they can be fastened underneath your chin so they don't blow off your head and also the they are not too bulky, so can easily be worn under a hood for double warmth! They also do amazing summer hats which have SPF and mosquito repellent built in, they're worth every penny.

Appropriate Footwear

Cold extremities are the absolute worst on an outdoors day. I've already mentioned the importance of keeping fingers warm, but keeping toes warm is essential too! Recently, I was lucky enough to win our family a set of Warm Wellies and I can honestly say that our recent winter holiday to Devon was the first time EVER that my toes have stayed toasty all day while wearing wellies. I have tried countless different sock combinations previously, as well as welly liners and have always ended up with freezing toes. The Warm Welly Company make neoprene lined wellies, which keep my feet warm and dry while only wearing my normal day to day cotton socks. To say I'm impressed is such an understatement! 

At the moment, the children's Warm Wellies are too big for them, so they have tall wellies (so they can wade in deeper puddles without water cascading over the top) and insulated, moisture wicking welly socks, which seem to do the trick judging by the lack of wet feet complaints! For tall wellies, we rate Muddy Puddles and Mountain Warehouse. For warmer days, unlined wellies or hiking shoes can save the day.

Spare Clothes

When the kids are kitted out in full wet weather gear, we don't carry spare clothes in the backpack anymore, but we do tend to keep a full set of everything back at the car just in case. The one time we didn't do this recently, Ace decided to go for a swim in the sea (in february) and water went down the neck of his coat (brrrrr). He had had to wear my jumper until we could raid the local charity shops for a more appropriately sized one!

Wet bag

We keep the wet bag from our brief foray into cloth nappies in our backpack which is great for making sure wet clothing stays away from the rest of our things. Bags for life and Ikea bags are also great to keep in the car boot for containing wet garments and footwear.

So if you've broken up the fourth fight of the morning, ended up in an argument about whose turn it is to pick a film or found chocolate smeared on the sofa, get out. Draw chalk rainbows on your patio or path, practise your ball skills in your garden or explore your local area and make the most of your government sanctioned period of daily exercise. Breathe in, breathe out and enjoy the fresh air, I guarantee it will make everyone feel better.

*Everything mentioned has been bought by us (apart from our Warm Wellies, which were a Facebook giveaway prize). I have linked our most useful buys so you can find them easily if you're looking for anything similar, none of the links are affiliate.
 

What a waste...

It was Anne-Marie Bonneau (aka Zero Waste Chef) who wrote "we don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly." 

She's right isn't she? As a family:

1. We have two cars (one petrol, one diesel).
2. Since moving out of town, I use my car every week day and some weekend days (as opposed to approximately 3 days per week when we lived closed to town).
3. We have a tumble drier and a dishwasher.
4. We don't often cook from scratch.
5. We eat a lot of meat.

However, having said all of that...

1. Our cars were chosen with good fuel economy and low emissions in mind (this is a lie, I chose mine because it was pink, the other things were a happy coincidence). We also use my husband's car for our family holidays, so while it's not 'trains over planes', our carbon footprint is lower than if we were flying abroad each summer.

2. We only drive half of the school run each time, parking near our old house and finishing the journey on foot/bike/scooter. We also try to do errands while we are out in the car, so we aren't making extra trips.

3. We hang our washing out during the summer months, so the tumble drier gets a break.

4. We recycle any food related cardboard, jars and tins we use and our local supermarket recycles plastic bags, from frozen vegetables and the like.

5. We have started choosing some things from the vegetarian freezer during our weekly shops and have found quite a few alternatives that we will definitely keep eating.

If zero waste sounds like too much to take on, here are some of the ways we are trying to reduce our impact on the planet, maybe some of them could work for you too.

Nom Nom Kids
We first started using Nom Nom Kids reusable pouches for purees and yoghurt when Honey was tiny. Since then, Suzanne has added larger pouches, snack bags and sandwich bags to her repertoire and we have bought and used every single one of her products. They are a daily feature at snack times and in our packed lunches (even I use them) and they have helped us save hundreds of sandwich bags/pieces of clingfilm from going to landfill.

A sea of Nom Nom

One of my favourite ways to use the snack bags, is to portion out larger bags of crisps, biscuits etc so that they last longer and so that only one single use packet has been used. Often, the kids will share a bag of Quavers or Mini Cheddars without even realising, whereas they would usually eat a whole packet straight from the original bag.

Terracycle

Saved from Landfill

Although we try to cut waste where we can, my tendency towards time and effort saving foods inevitably creates rubbish. Since we moved to a larger house, we have started recycling crisp packets, kids snack wrappers, biscuit packets and so much more. In our neck of the woods, a local lady and her trusty helpers work tirelessly to sort, pack and send the different waste categories off for recycling via the Terracycle scheme. All the money they raise goes to the charity Kicks Count and all the waste they sort DOESN'T go to landfill!

For a full list of what can be recycled via Terracycle within Gloucestershire, click here. To stay up to date and to find out where your nearest collection hub is, join the Facebook group Recycling for KC - Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.

Kerbside Recycling
In our area, we have recycling boxes for plastic, paper, tins and glass and a bag for collecting cardboard. The list of things that can be put in our kerbside boxes can be a little bit confusing, with different sources contradicting each other, but recent additions include dead batteries, aluminium foil and aerosol cans. As the street we live on is fairly narrow, a smaller lorry is usually sent to collect our recycling fortnightly, so we don't worry too much about sorting within the boxes. At our old address (just down the road), a truck with compartments for each waste type collected the recycling weekly, so we sorted within the boxes to make the refuse collectors' jobs a bit easier.

Since moving house a year ago, we also have a food waste bin for the first time. Tea bags, coffee grounds and the occasional toast crust make their way into the food bin before the day even begins, add egg shells, potato peelings and floor snacks and our little bin is often quite heavy by the end of the week.

Recycling Centre
In our old house, we designed everything to take up the least amount of space and while we had plenty of room for bins and recycling boxes outside, inside was a different matter. Now that we have more room to store the boxes, we have also started recycling juice cartons and because we will be going to the recycling centre anyway, we save odd bits of wood (like lolly ice sticks), scrap metal (85,000 Ikea allen keys anyone?) and we also take the leaves that fall onto our lawn, when one of us can be bothered to collect them up!

Ace loves helping at the tip!

Eco-Able
Eco-Able is the brainchild of the lovely Danielle, she has curated a marketplace full of fabulous alternatives to single use. She is a stockist for the aforementioned Nom Nom Kids bags and pouches, as well as many other products that can help you on your way to planet friendly living. Here's our Eco Able top five:

Playdough - Their eco friendly, vegan play dough comes in a cute, metal tin. The colours are gorgeous and the consistency is lovely, it's perfect for modelling, and also great for chopping, rolling and mark making. The sets come in a handmade, reusable fabric gift bag, with 25p from every sale being donated to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The tins are really pretty too and I can think of loads of uses for them once the play dough comes the end of its life (e.g. refill with more play dough or wash and use for storing hair clips etc).

Goats milk soap - According to the blurb, unprocessed goats milk helps to get rid of dead skin cells, making it perfect for shaving and moisturising. I have been using the plain goats milk bar for a couple of weeks now, instead of shower gel and my skin is lovely and soft.

Soap saver - This little pouch not only helps keep your soap together (thus making it last longer), it is also a fabulous alternative to a plastic shower puff. Oh, and it encourages your soap to dry out between uses so it isn't all slimy next time you need it!



Reusable wipes - We used reusable baby wipes part time when Ace was in nappies (I never got my head round using them out and about) and since he potty trained, we have sold the boxes, but kept the wipes for mopping up spills, wiping faces and even cleaning the bathroom. Eco-Able stocks cute, colourful wipes which are made from fabric off cuts and sewn together using left over pieces of thread. They are backed with super soft flannel, making them perfect for little (and big) faces and they also come as rounds which are ideal for removing makeup (I have even sacrificed one of mine for removing nail varnish, which has eliminated the need for any single use cotton wool in our house).

Reusable cups and water bottles - I don't drink tea or coffee (which is apparently very strange for a teacher), but I do genuinely love water! From the age of 16, I worked as a lifeguard and spent a lot of time on very warm poolsides gulping back litres of water per shift, to stave off dehydration. A reusable bottle was essential, but I also used to buy bottled water whenever I was out shopping. These days, I carry reusable water bottles for myself and the children most of the time. When we go out for the day, it's as natural as packing my purse and my keys and I can't remember the last time I bought a bottle of mineral water.

Buying Pre-Loved 
If we want or need something, my first instinct these days is to search for it on Facebook Marketplace, in a selling group or on ebay. Buying things preloved and locally has saved us a lot of money over the last few years and the pre loved marketplace has also allowed us to move on unwanted items of our own and earn some money in the process.

So although we aren't perfect, we are trying and we will keep trying. The kids are on board and we regularly have conversations about how we can look after our planet a little better and they get involved in all our efforts, taking many onboard with gusto... apart from giving up Happy Meal toys... On the rare occasions we visit McDonald's, these are still seen as a huge treat. Here's hoping McDonald's and other companies offering similar, plastic tat, will come up with more Earth friendly alternatives in the not too distant future.

*Although we were kindly gifted some items from Eco-Able, all thoughts and opinions within this blog are my own.

Ace wears... Hat by Little Hotdog Watson

In the hood...

When I take Ace swimming, the trickiest part, is having my own shower in the short window of time between Ace finishing his shower and Ace getting really cold and needing my attention! The new hooded towel from Tiddlers and Nippers has given me the gift of time! 

As soon as Ace is showered, he pops his towel on, finds a dry patch of floor (or his swimming float) and sits singing to himself while I wash my hair. He doesn't shiver anymore and he's no longer moaning at me to hurry up! By the time I'm changed, Ace is dry (including his hair), so I can help him get changed and pack his bag ready to go home. Ace can put his towel in his swimming bag by himself as they fold down really easily and nice and small, leaving room for his wet swimming gear too.

Ace wears the small sized hooded towel and it's a great size on him. There's plenty of growing room (he will be 4 in March).

Honey has the larger hooded towel and again, it's a great size on her (she will be 7 in May). She showers independently at the pool these days and this hooded towel hangs waiting for her to slip on when she's finished. She loves it because it leaves her hands free for carrying her 3 in 1 swim wash and her Tangle Teezer and it also means that by the time she's dressed her bottom half, her hair is dry and doesn't get her top all wet. 

If you like the sound of these towels, you can buy one here (affiliate link). Here are all the finer details (taken from the Tiddlers and Nippers website):

Small 2-5 Years / Large 5-10 Years kids travel Hooded Poncho Microfibre/ microfibre towel / High-performance & lightweight

Both super absorbent and amazingly compact. Our microfibre children's hooded towel is Ideal for days out with the kids, trips to the pool and beach, or family holidays where luggage space is at a premium.

Tiddler kids travel hooded towel - Clever microfibre technology dries up to x4 faster than standard towels. Say goodbye to heavy, sopping wet towels!

> Quick drying, super absorbent 
> Large size - generous dimensions - 66cm width  x 77.5cm each side = total length 155cm
> Small size - generous dimensions -  61cm width x 60cm each side = total 120cm
> Absorbs up to x4 times more water than a standard towel.
> Made with a durable, high-frequency, moisture-targeting weave.
> Features a heavy-duty hanging loop on back of hood.
> Comes in a compact carry pouch 
> 220gsm Microfibre for both softness & comfort.> Antibacterial action - Machine wash and hang to dry.

>Available in pink, blue and grey, with contrasting same colour stitching.

* Although we are Brand Ambassadors for Tiddlers and Nippers and have previously been gifted items from their range, I bought these towels myself. As always, all thoughts and opinion are my own.

Honey and Ace wear...Hooded towels by Tiddlers and Nippers

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas... There, I said it. The decorations and music are creeping in and the schools have started rehearsing for their nativity plays. I am not a massive fan of the consumer side of Christmas, but what I do love are useful, practical gifts that can be used year round! 

Honey and Ace love bath time, there's something about water that can diffuse any situation and bring harmony to even the most fraught evening. We have used Child's Farm products since Honey was tiny and have been brand ambassadors for them for around 5 years. We are particular fans of their rhubarb and custard 2 in 1 hair and the latest, seasonal addition to the Child's Farm collection, their delicious smelling satsuma hair and body wash. The packaging is gorgeous and it would make an awesome stocking filler, something fun yet functional that won't be lost or broken by 1st January.

Child's Farm products are formulated to be gentle on eczema prone skin and are approved by dermatologists. Child's Farm source the highest quality, naturally derived ingredients and essential oils, to produce a range of bath and shower products for the whole family! Here are a few of our favourite bath time activities which can all be enhanced by using your favourite Child's Farm products! 

Ice block rescue mission - Freeze plastic animals or dinosaurs in blocks of ice (I use empty, washed out takeaway tubs as containers). Run a nice bubbly bath and give the ice blocks to your little ones so they can 'rescue' the trapped creatures.

Coloured ice cubes - Use a drop of food colouring to turn water your desired colour/s. Pour the water into ice cube trays and freeze. Run a foamy bath then give the ice cubes to your tiddlers to drop in the water. As the cubes melt, the water will change colour. Older children might like to explore colour mixing using cups or jugs to melt different coloured ice cubes together. I hardly used any bubble bath for this one so the colours would be more visible.

Pouring - So simple, yet so much fun for children! Pop a range of containers in the 
bath at bath time and watch them create bubble ice creams (satsuma flavoured, naturally), make bath time soup and more than likely, pour water over each other!

Dinosaur bath time/car wash - Tell your child to choose some of their plastic animals, dinosaurs or toy cars to take into the bath with them. Give them a sponge or flannel to clean their toys.

Bath Flutes - Ace was given a set of bath flutes when he was a baby and they have been used regularly ever since. You fill them up to different levels and each one can then be used to play a different note. There's lots of fun to be had trying to play nursery rhymes or favourite pop songs! 

As Honey gets older, she is becoming more independent and often has showers instead of a bath. The Child's Farm bottles are easy for her to open and squeeze onto her hands or sponge by herself, without wasting loads, plus they don't sting her eyes. 

If you'd like to try the new scent, you're in luck! Child's Farm have offered to send one lucky reader their own bottle of festive satsuma bubble bath. To be in with a chance of winning, head over to Instagram (@stephloveshoney) and look for the photo below on our grid. Comment with your answer to the following question: What's your favourite thing about Christmas? 

*All thoughts and opinions within this blog are my own. I won our satsuma bubble bath in a Child's Farm giveaway. I am a brand ambassador for Child's Farm but do not gain commission from sales of any of their products. The 2 in 1 hair pictured was purchased by myself from Boots.