This day I love.......

I have had several friends talk about the benefits of Lo-Dough and I have always been keen to try for myself. Lo-Dough got in touch and challenged us to get creative with our Back to School lunch boxes. They sent us a selection of their products including Lo-Dough bases, Lo-Dough brownie mix and their crumb coating. All I had to do now was get creative and come up with ideas for their lunch boxes.

Since school returned all three of my children have had packed lunches. Our school could not provide a hot lunch option due to COVID restrictions and rather than paying for for school lunches it worked out more cost effective to make lunches at home for all of my children. I try to be as creative as possible but sometimes at 6am whilst making lunches my creativity can sometimes be a little lacking. Lo-Dough gave me the opportunity to try something new with the kids and a chance for us to get creative together.

The girls decided the bases looked like pizza bases and so immediately wanted to make pizza. I decided this would be a good opportunity to create something in the kitchen and any left over pizza could be used for lunches. I would recommend heating up the bases before hand to make them crispy. We made our own sauce for the pizza and then covered them in cheese. Lo-Dough has 90% less calories than a regular pizza base.

The pizza took around 10 minutes to cook, we watched for the cheese to melt. The girls had a base each and so did Little Man.

So much for hoping there would be some left over for lunches the next day, the girls demolished them. The bases are very light and fluffy, but worked really well as pizza bases.

Lo-Dough also works well as a pastry. I was very tempted to make a pie or a quiche but I didn't think the kids would eat them in their packed lunches. Instead I decided to make something I know they love almost as much as pizza, sausage rolls!

The sausage rolls are made by taking the skin off a sausage before wrapping them in a Lo-Dough base. The base is then given an egg wash before putting in the oven for 20 minutes.

Whilst the sausage rolls were baking I began to make the brownies. The mix is very easy to use as you simply add water. Once cooked they have 65% less calories than usual brownies. You can add other ingredients if you wish such as peanut butter to the mix, however I decided to cook them as they are in case of nut allergies at school. Once cooked they were lovely and gooey and perfect to eat warm. I kept three to one side for lunch the next day, along with the sausage rolls.

The kids really enjoyed their Lo-Dough packed lunches. Whilst I might not win any prizes for taking photos of a lunch box, the kids were really impressed with their sausage rolls and brownies and asked for more. I think it made a nice change from sandwiches

Made entirely from protein and fibre, Lo-Dough can be eaten uncooked, heated or baked as a soft, light and versatile alternative to bread and pastry. As well as being low-carb, Lo-Dough is gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, sugar-free and fat-free. It’s rich in fibre, containing an impressive 9 grams. We will certainly be using Lo-Dough again. I am keen to try and use the bases to make a pie!

Thank you to Lo-Dough for sending some samples for us to try. We have not received any other compensation and all words are my own personal opinion.

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This is a featured post written in conjunction with childcare.co.uk . All words are my own opinion.

As lockdown restrictions begin to ease many of us will now be returning to the workplace and no longer working from home. As a working parent myself I understand first hand the issues of juggling parenting duties and working. Without the support of my family, of which I am aware how fortunate I am to be able to rely on them, I can only imagine how hard the struggle can be to find decent childcare. In my role of Birth photography I have to be able to find childcare for my children quickly, sometimes ensuring they are picked up from school and so quick emergency style childcare is a must. Thankfully I have a family close by that can help out, but many people are not in as fortunate position as I am.

With over 2 million users Childcare.co.uk is a trusted and easy way to find childcare in your local area. The website is split into two very distinct areas. One is focused on those looking for work. I haven’t accessed this side of the site so cannot comment on how it works but reading the initial instructions it does seem to be straightforward to register and look for work. The second area of the site focuses on those looking to hire, a parent or guardian.

Childcare.co.uk has won multiple awards including awards from the Department for education. It was started in 2009 and has grown to become the UK’s largest website for finding childcare. With over 2,500 reviews on trust pilot and an average rating of 4.9 it starts to become evident why over 2 million users have used and trusted the site with their childcare needs. I was surprised to see that the site features private tutors as well as babysitters, nannies and registered childminders which is what I expected. I hadn’t expected such a wide range of childcare available and wish I had seen private tutoring earlier into lockdown to help with homeschooling. There is no charge to use the website, and it is quick and simple to create a free profile.

With the recent COVID lockdown there has also been a few additions to the site to include Key worker childcare and NHS emergency childcare as two examples. These are selected from the search box as a normal search would be. I did a quick search for an area and found 11 registered professionals who had availability for emergency childcare. I think this is pretty good results as emergency childcare implies you need it urgently and immediately.

My eldest daughter is about to move into Year 6 and I am very conscious that due to lockdown we missed nearly half of her school year in Year 5. Whilst I am sure that her school will do everything in their power to ensure that she and her fellow classmates catch up, it does not stop me worrying about her SATS exams towards the end of the academic year. I did everything I could with homeschooling but with three children of ages varying from 4 to 9 it has not been easy to meet the demands and needs of them all. I have thought about the idea of a private tutor for some time, simply to help with bridging that gap and to help her prepare the best she can for her SATS examinations.

With Childcare.co.uk I am able to search for tutors that are local to me. I can set the distance I am prepared to travel and see a list of suitable profiles of tutors that are available. Within a 5 mile radius of my house there are 7 private tutors and 1 virtual tutor currently available. I have the ability to read their profiles and if I wish, start a conversation with them via the message button to discuss more details.

Another feature of the site which I am finding particularly useful is the school search. This September I need to start looking at high school for my eldest daughter. The search function is providing useful information to highlight schools I perhaps may not have heard of. I can check on Ofsted reports from the search results and then should I wish to contact the school directly.

Overall I have found Childcare.co.uk simple and intuitive to use. In addition to the search facility there is a wealth of information within the site and a good selection of training courses. I can see myself utilising the site a lot more over the next coming months especially to help my daughter as she begins transitioning to high school.

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This article features gifted items from MoonPig.com, however all words are my own personal opinion.

Little Man was really lucky, his birthday was just before lockdown. We had a fantastic weekend away celebrating his birthday, we didn't know at the time that this would be our last holiday for some time. Our holiday plans have all been cancelled thanks to covid19 and the plans we had in place for his sisters birthday were all cancelled too.

With my youngest daughter her birthday fell right at the start of lockdown. Presents arrived late, cards arrived late and it was all a bit chaotic. Our sorting office had closed down due to a covid outbreak. Everything had to be ordered online, as we were shielding. Family stood on the end of the drive to watch her open presents and her friends joined her on zoom for a birthday party.

What started out as the unknown has now become the new normal. We won't be visiting shops any time soon, in fact we can't any way until August 1st due to us classed as at risk. Which means my eldest daughter will also have to have her birthday lockdown style. I am once again buying presents online and trying to organise a socially distanced style party.

I was thrilled when Moonpig.com got in touch to help me with my daughters birthday this year. I was not aware that as well as personalised cards they also offer a great selection of gifts. I will admit to the skeptical side in me thinking that the gifts would all be alcohol related or of an adult theme so they would perhaps be unsuitable for a 10 year old. I was wrong. There is in fact a great selection of gifts for a pre teen child!

I always try to make their birthdays special but I think this year I have tried to make it extraordinary. I guess that is what happens when you are in lockdown. Whilst my children have all had helium balloons for their birthdays they have never had one arrive in the post before. It was really interesting them say to each other there is nothing in this box, why have you got us an empty box and then watching their reactions as a balloon pops out the box. It certainly put a smile on their faces.

When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she replied sweets. Now this could be that during lockdown we haven't bought any chocolate or sweets and just had whatever was in the house, or it could be she just wants sweets. Either way a hamper full of sweets arrived for her, so many in fact that she could lie in them! She was rather pleased.

Whilst the girls may not have had the birthdays they had planned and whilst there are no big parties I think I have made them extraordinary for them. Bringing smiles to their faces and hopefully giving them very memorable birthdays.

It is not always easy to do but with thanks to companies like moonpig.com it is a little bit easier!

MoonPig.com have a brand new app which you can download here and if you buy a gift via the app use the code APPFREEWGIFT at checkout. You will receive 1 free card, the promotion starts on July 13th and ends 17th August 2020.

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Another week of home schooling but as we can now venture outside our learning has taken a more practical role. Little Man continues to learn through play. I play games with him rather than sit him down to learn and he responds better to this.

Our new found freedom and ability to get out and exercise has given the girls something to look forward to. They each take it in turns to plan somewhere to go and it is the highlight of the day getting out and exploring somewhere new.

I have been making progress with couch to 5km and felt ready to try a socially distanced run with a friend. It felt so good to be outside and to be talking to another adult. We went on an adventure around some footpaths and the time was so needed to refresh batteries after a tough few weeks.

We had lots of left over rock from trips to the seaside in the cupboard and so for our baking this week we decided to use them up. I made a chocolate rock bark. Melted dark chocolate with crushed up rock mixed in them, and then some rock sprinkled on top. It tasted amazing and was great to finally use up the leftover rock.

On my run the previous evening I had found lots of tiny frogs, it turns out they are toads but at the time I thought they were frogs. It was a bit of a walk but I took the kids there for the afternoon to see the toads and we spent a couple of hours exploring there.

When the rain came we took shelter and played out some more, the kids didn't want to leave and wanted to stay and find more toads. We stayed until early evening and even then the kids were all asking to come back.

We had been invited by Viking direct to take part in a virtual craft event. Earlier in the week a huge box of craft materials had arrived including some items we were not expecting. I wasn't aware that Viking direct also stocked cleaning supplies as well as office and craft supplies. In addition to the craft items we were also sent toilet rolls, hand sanitizer and hand wash.

There were three activities to take part in, the first was chocolate bubble wrap. We cleaned the table using the surface cleaner we had been sent and washed our hands with the hand santiser ready to begin. The first job was to cut out a section of the bubble wrap and give it a clean. Next we tore up our chocolate into a bowl and melted it in the microwave.

Once the chocolate had melted we very carefully spread it over the bubble wrap before placing it in the fridge to cool down.

Whilst we were waiting for the chocolate to set we started our next activity. We were making ice breathing dragons. Little man chose red for his dragon and marked out neatly where to cut. The paper would be wrapped around a toilet roll tube and he marked the length he needed.

The coloured paper was wrapped around the tube and then we began decorating them with stickers and even making eyes and nose for our dragons.

The fun part was to add the ice. We did this by cutting up strips of tissue paper and sticking them into the bottom of the tube. Little Man then blew into the top and it looked as if the dragon was breathing ice.

Our chocolate had set and so after playing with the dragons for a little while we then got the chocolate out of the fridge. After peeling away the bubble wrap the chocolate had made a rather interesting pattern. The kids all loved it and wanted to make it again.

Our butterflies were now ready to be released and as the weather was finally dry and not too windy to do so.

Most of the butterflies flew straight off but one of them hung around for a little while.

We decided to make the most of the sunshine and head for a walk to the river. I think it was the perfect way to end the week.

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I was pleasantly surprised that we went straight back to home schooling this week with minimal issues. We seemed to have dropped PE with Joe and instead look at alternatives for exercise. The girls have got a bit fed up with the same exercises repeated and are wanting a change. Little Man loves Cosmic kids and so we tend to do this and play in the garden.

We focused this week on butterflies and read the story of the hungry caterpillar together. Little Man then used his hands and feet to recreate key parts of the story.

Hand and foot print caterpillar life cycle

Little Man continued with this topic throughout the week and we ordered some caterpillars to further his understanding of the lifecycle. The dogs have spent their days lazying around which is good. We spend an hour in the morning playing with them to make them tired so the girls can concentrate on school work.

The girls focus this week has been on touch typing. I feel it is a useful skill for them to have and it is something they both seem to have picked up really quickly.

Little Man has also been focusing on play based learning. I had managed to source a delivery of fruit so the children made fruit sticks. We threaded the fruit in patterns, and Little Man created his own patterns.

For two weeks we had been observing our worms. The girls had wrote ideas of what might happen and which leaves the worms would prefer to eat. It was time to write up our conclusion and let the worms go free. It has certainly been interesting learning about them and the children all understand the importance of worms.

The dogs are having to adjust to this new normal too. I forget sometimes that they are still puppies as they are very big now. I decided to treat them both to a new bed. Unfortunately I was greeted with this scene 5 minutes later!

The children are also having to adjust to a new normal. Not leaving our garden It has been hard for them to not go places and to see people. I found a local company who delivers amazing ice cream and placed an order as a treat for them.

Little Man decided to build a den to enjoy his ice cream in and to take a bit of time to rest in the sun.

Lucky for us the week had wonderful weather and we spent most of it outside. It really does make a difference and helps to improve the mood in a difficult situation.

The wonderful weather certainly helped to keep everyone motivated and it helped to get outside and play in the garden.

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