February's Lockdown Teen Style with Femme Luxe

{This is a paid collaboration with Femme Luxe}

Lockdown - Home School Style

It's been the strangest of years and now we're heading towards the end of (what we hope is) the final lockdown and the girls and I have been reflecting on how being home has been a blessing in so many ways. They've loved being able to dress in comfy and casual clothes for months and I think it will be a big shock to have to get back into tights, ties and blazers for school.

Let me share with you some of the great lounge suits, tracksuits, call them what you will, that they've been wearing this February. They have been gifted to us from Femme Luxe and the girls are really pleased with them.

Above Miss M is wearing Lizzie joggers in hot pink and these retail for £11.99 currently, although as is very often the case with Femme Luxe, you can use their current discount code for 25% off, making them £8.99. So always check on the price or google for discount codes as I've always found one each time I've ordered so far.  Other colours differ in price and are £12.99, £13.99 and £14.99.

These joggers are available in sizes 6 - 16 and I'd say they come up generous in size. They are also a really good length, both of my girls are 5ft 7/8" and they are long enough for them, which is unusual and really pleased them both. 

They have a hidden drawstring inside, cuffed bottoms and really generous pockets, which is always a plus. They feel nice and fleecy on the inside and are a mix of polyester/ cotton. I've found them to wash up well, but you can't tumble dry them, which is a bit of a shame. 

Feeling Thankful in February Lockdown

I'm pleased to report that my mood is much improved since the last time I wrote a reasons to be cheerful post. The announcement on Monday that the UK has a plan for the next few months has really boosted me. I can't wait to be able to see my parents, go to church, travel for a break away and have a meal out. I don't do lots of extravagant or expensive things in life but I do really enjoy the simple things and I can't wait to enjoy them all again. 

That said, I have been still looking for the silver linings in this lockdown and have many blessings to count -

*  As I tided the kitchen this morning I watched a kestrel flying overhead, a pheasant wandering past my window and a then bunny hopping by and I reflected on how much I love living in the countryside.

*  I helped with community meals today at church and it was great to have a chat with a few people. 

*  Our little cat is being very affectionate with me at the moment, I still marvel at the fact that I now like cats. 

Lockdown Exercise Options Recommended by Teenage Girls

Miss E is enjoying her resistance bands from Neon Sheep

{This is a review post, we were provided with the items from Neon Sheep for review}

This lockdown seems to be so much harder than the original one last Spring and as such motivation can be lacking to get outside and do all the things we enjoy and most importantly keep us fit and are good for our bodies and minds. 

I'm lucky that my twin girls have been enjoying having the time to focus more on their fitness but it is just such a shame it keeps raining so much at the moment. I asked my girls to share what they (and their teenage friends) have been doing to exercise during this lockdown -

Chloe Ting Workouts on YouTube

Miss E is loving the Chloe Ting workouts, there is a massive variety and they all seem easy to do from home, all you need is an exercise mat. There are workouts to target all areas of your body and challenges that last a few weeks, so the variety is good and will keep you going for some time. Best of all, her content is all free.

Miss E didn't have an exercise mat so she was chuffed when Neon Sheep sent her a grey yoga mat for use when she is exercising. She was also really pleased that it is a good size, as at 5ft 7" tall she wondered if it would be long enough for her. This lightweight mat is currently on sale at £10.

The Body Coach Workouts

Joe Wicks, AKA The Body Coach is another person with a great YouTube channel. My girls were keen for me to emphasise that it is not the PE with Joe Wicks that teens like but his other workouts, especially the 7 days of sweat. Have a look on his chancel and again, you'll see a great variety of workouts. 

Roller skating

Miss E loves to rollerskate and this is great for your core strength and general balance. It's something you can do alone or with friends and you don't need much space outside. Paths, parks or cycle trails are all good places to go skating and if you manage to improve your skills during lockdown, it will be useful for when the roller discos open up again later in the year.

Yoga

Yoga is not only great for helping with your physical fitness, but it is also a wonderful way to help calm and centre yourself. You can feel the stress leave you and a new sense of mental clarity take over, which is just perfect for this unpredictable and stressful time we find ourselves in.

We have been using Yoga with Adriene on YouTube and again it is free content. She has a great 30-day program on there at the moment, called Breath. Miss E is loving the cute little pink yoga socks from Neon Sheep, they are £3 and have little rubber dots on the bottom to ensure you don't slip. 

She also received these workout leggings and matching bra top. The leggings are available in size XS to L and they retail at £19.99. Miss E is wearing a size medium. They have sweat-wicking and quick-drying properties and Miss E says they have been really comfortable to wear. I can confirm they have also washed well too. The sports bra is available in the same size range and sells for £16.99. I really like the mesh detailing on the back and it gives good support in the bust area. 

Cycling

Cycling is another great form of exercise during this lockdown as you can do it alone or with members of your family. Or even meeting with one other person for the purpose of exercise outside. Start small if you haven't cycled for a while as you may find you'll ache in odd places the day after and then slowly build up your stamina, distance and route. 

Going for a Run

The Couch to 5K app is really useful for people just starting out on their running journey, as it gives you a safe way to build up how far you'll run and with what intensity. Of course, your teen may already be quite fit and not need an app like that, but always remember to do some stretches and a short warm-up before any exercise.

Footwear is the most important thing when running so make sure it is comfortable, well-fitting and not too heavy on the foot. Then why not grab a running armband to put your phone in and head off to enjoy some music or a podcast as you take in the fresh air. 

Create your own Workout

There are loads of great article out there about creating your own HIIT workout and it is easy to do this as you don't need any equipment. You can even use a site like Interval Timer to plan your time intervals and have an auditory reminder of when it is time to change activities.

Miss M likes to plan circuits with her twin. So she'll get out any exercise equipment they have like a gym ball, weights, kettlebells or resistance bands and then they decide which exercises they'll do in which order and sort times out. This kind of workout is good as you can change it every time and it stays fresh and fun. It is also nice to do it with another member of your family, as you can then have a bit of friendly competition and compete against each other. 

You can see Miss E with a resistance band in the very top photo. This is one of a set we received from Neon Sheep. For £12.00 you receive five different length/ resistance bands, a door anchor, 2 padded foam hand grips and 2 ankle straps, all supplied in an easy to carry nylon bag.

There really are so many ways to keep fit during lockdown, it doesn't have to be boring and even if the rain never lets up you can exercise in your house or even the garage if you want a bit of fresh air but to stay dry. 

Do share with us any different ways you've been keeping fit during lockdown.

Why not pin this post for later?

Enjoying Lockdown in Femme Luxe Loungewear

{This is a paid collaboration with Femme Luxe}

As we're all spending so much time at home right now, loungewear is definitely the order of the day. My teenage girls have been spending their days in fluffy pyjamas and tracksuits, so when Femme Luxe got in touch and asked if I'd like to collaborate again, the girls were over the moon. Last year they had some great T-shirts from them and they are wearing and washing really well. 

I have to admit that as a larger lady it's not a site I've ever had a look at, their clothes are definitely for the smaller and more trendy lady. Some items go up to a 16 but many just seem to go up to a size 14 and it is one of my pet peeves when clothing manufacturers call a size 12/14 an XL. You can't possibly call a size woman extra-large, but I'll save my rant for another day as this post is about the clothes the girls have received and they do actually really like those.  

Trendy Loungewear

Surviving Home Schooling and Feeling Thankful #R2BC

Time to sit down and bash out my little dose of positivity. It's been a good couple of weeks, and I've managed to get out a couple of times - nowhere particularly exciting of course but it still counts and it's good for my soul.

I've been feeling really thankful this last week and that is amazing as it is like a drug to me, soothing me, reminding me that things will be OK, and we can all get through this. 

Here is a list of just some of my reasons to be thankful -

• The girls are getting on with their homeschooling (in the main!) and the most frequent thing I have to do is jivvy them along and threaten consequences if they don't knuckle down and get on with the work.
• You can tell the school/ teachers are now more confident with teaching remotely as most of their resources are in Google classroom and thus easy to access and the girls are having a few live lessons every day too.
• My JJ is a treasure, he just gets on with his college work and is really self-motivated. He's such a good lad and is happy to help the girls too if they need it. That sure helps me as I have no idea bout most GCSE maths or science. 
• Miss E is constantly on Facetime with a girl from school and they seem to be establishing a really lovely and deep friendship during this lockdown. I pray it continues when they return to school. 
• We had to take the cat to the vets for a check-up as he was bitten last month and he is healing well, this meant Miss E and I got out and we could get a cheeky McDonalds drive-through.
• We've found out some stuff that has been going on for one of our twins and it is difficult stuff (I won't go into it) but I am so pleased to now know and to be able to offer her support. We've talked more and spent more time together this week, which is very good.

Review: Ticket to Ride - Europe Board Game - Great for Teens

{As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, any affiliate links will be marked with #ad}

I first played the original Ticket to Ride (#ad) board game about five years ago with some friends and I've been hooked ever since. I'm not quite sure why it took me until the first lockdown last year to actually buy it, but I am so glad I did as myself and the children have played it so many times. I am a bit dismayed that they can all beat me quite so easily but it is still a lovely way to spend time together.

There isn't that much that can bring all the family together for an hour or so, but this is one of them. Ticket to Ride Europe really is a hit with the teens, I suppose it is a game that is a great blend of strategy, fun and luck that only takes an hour or so.

Useful information

Recommended age: 8+ years

Number of payers:  2 - 5

Length of play: 30 - 80 minutes

Time to learn the rules: 10 - 15 minutes and the booklet is super easy to navigate

Time to set up the board: 5 minutes

Cost: You can normally pick the game up for around £30, although I notice it is sold out in many places as I publish this. The RRP is £39.99.

Aim of the Game: 

To score the highest points by collecting and paying the coloured train cards, so you can place your train pieces on the board and complete the routes on your route cards. 

I think having four players is my favourite for this game, as it offers a better level of challenge on which routes we all try to claim and makes the gameplay about an hour long. Basically, the gameplay on the Europe edition is the same as the original North America version but there are also a few added features like completing a tunnel, where you have to be lucky or you'll end up playing more cards than the train pieces you'll lay; taking a ferry, which requires you to have a certain amount of locomotive cards as well as the necessary coloured train cards; or using a station to give you access to a route that is already blocked by another players trains. 

Dating in Hertfordshire - Finding Love during a Pandemic

Photo by Tibor Pápai on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post}

What an odd time we are living through right now. If you're not attached and finding love is on the agenda it really isn't the easiest time but you know what they say in life, "nothing worth having comes easy" so don't despair you can still find someone to have fun with, devote your life to or even marry, depending on your desire. 

Dating in your Local Area

Being responsible at the moment means staying close to home and therefore dating within your home county is a great idea, as it means you won't be travelling long distances to meet up with new people. It also means that you'll be familiar with the areas where you'll go to meet your date/s and this will help you to feel safe. 

I lived in Herts for 15 years and lots of my friends dated and found love within our local area. You often find that by searching locally you find someone with the same kind of aspirations in life and someone who enjoys living in the same area as you do and therefore if you decide to commit long term you shouldn't have to make a big upheaval and move away to a new area. You'll retain all your friends, maybe make some new ones and can stay with your job and local clubs. 

Of course, you won't go on to marry every person you date and therefore if you'll continue to live in the same area once you have broken up, you need to make sure you break off any relationships well, so you can ensure there are not any awkward moments in the future. And on the flip side, you might meet people who you know you are not romantically suited to but actually, you get on wonderfully as friends and you end up with some new friendships from your experience. That is surely a win.

Hertfordshire Dating can be a delight and I thought I'd share some great places to meet your new date or to take an existing date across this beautiful county. For more ideas take a look on Trip Advisor too.

Reasons to be Cheerful - Sharing a Little Lockdown Cheer

It's been a while since I shared one of my happy posts and of course, I know that remembering to be grateful makes a massive difference in my life. So here is my long-overdue update of many of the things in my life that are making me cheerful and thankful right now.

An easy one to start us off. I've been enjoying doing some baking during this lockdown and I'm very pleased to say that my bakes have been turning out really well. Here we have choc chip banana bread, chocolate brownies and lemon cake. 

I'm working through a series with my church at the moment called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and I'm finding it very useful as I realised a few months ago that I have been stifling my emotions for about the last decade and it is time for me to start feeling again and acknowledging the joys and hurts of life. 

I've been spending time in one of our prayer rooms that is filled with an art installation called 1000 bottles of tears. I've been using the bottles to try and help me release some of my repressed emotions. I've managed tears in my eyes twice now, which feels like progress! (Not everyone's kind of reason to be cheerful I realise, but I'm pleased!)

Eat Out to Help Out - Find out who is Offering 50% Discount in August 2020

Orangery Tea Room, Battle, East Sussex

Do you feel ready to join in with the Government's August scheme to help boost spending within the hospitality sector? From the friends I have spoken to, this scheme feels like a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they are keen to get out and have a meal, enjoying a sense of normality in this strange time, but on the other, they can be fearful that too much of a sense of normality is what will lead to a rise again in cases of coronavirus.

I've been out for a couple of meals since restaurants were allowed to re-open again at the beginning of July and personally I have found them to be fine. We booked for a time we knew would be less busy and found there is excellent distancing between the tables and considerate servers. So, for us, we will be joining in with this scheme and enjoy taking advantage of 50% off food and non-alcoholic drinks at participating businesses.

I felt it was apt to be organised, as all restaurants have less capacity than normal and booking is encouraged for most good restaurants, so I have booked for one night a week to try out a few new places and have some (hopefully) really enjoyable meals. My husband said to me to book for the ones that are normally more expensive and we might avoid, as this gives us an affordable way to try them out.

Summertime Reasons to be Cheerful #R2BC

Time just seems to have been escaping me recently. The easing of lockdown has meant that the centre where I live is slowly re-opening and this means I've been busy helping my husband get things ready and also doing the social media. Add that to my regular work, looking after the house and trying to keep the kids interested in their education and I've been a busy girl. Here is my home looking really beautiful as I drove back in at sunset the other day -

I've had some great walks out in our grounds with my kids over the last few months. Sunset is a popular time, once dinner and tidying up is done, we head off and wander. The girls go on the swing, they teach me tik tok dances and they laugh at me, it's bliss!

Bridging the Learning Gap with MyTutor

{This is a collaborative post}

What a funny old year this is turning out to be, and of course, I mean funny, weird as adverse to funny and making me laugh. The children have now been home since mid-March and the girls are slowly (but hopefully) surely badgering away with their school work via the online system. I've been quite impressed with their school, who keep setting work and checking in with them to ensure they are OK.

It's a bit of a different story for JJ, my 16-year-old though. He should have just been finishing his GCSE examinations, but of course, they have been cancelled. So, in reality, he hasn't done any schooling for about three months and he still has another three months until college starts in September (hopefully!). He is the kind of lad who has a thirst for learning, so he'll often watch educational programs and listen to podcasts just for enjoyment and that's reassuring for me.

Thankfully he is a really bright boy, so I'm not too worried but had he have been a different kind of kid, I'm sure I would be much more concerned. Six months without any formal learning is a long time to go and that's why I was so pleased to let him have some online tutoring with MyTutor. He'll be studying Maths and Further Maths at A-level, along with Computer Science and Law, and realistically maths is a skill that needs continual input and practise to keep your skill level up.

When I first chatted to JJ about doing some online tutoring, he really wasn't interested. He didn't think it would be interesting and he said he probably wouldn't like the tutor. Nothing like having an open mind, right? However, I'm pleased to say that he is loving it and asked me for more sessions.

Read on to check out mine and his full review of our start to end experience with MyTutor.

Reasons to be Cheerful - Beach Walks, Relaxation and Cocktails!

Another week in lockdown is down, time really does seem to be going fast and I am loving that things have been relaxed a bit and we can get out as a family and take some walks.

Life is still generally really good and I am feeling super thankful. We should have been away on holiday in Devon right now, which would have been amazing with this great weather, but we're doing OK here at home too. 

If I could have one wish now, it would be that the girls would knuckle down and do their schoolwork better, but I can't have everything I suppose!

Here are just a few of the things I have been really thankful for in the last couple of weeks.

• Having my pre-op for my next TCRE operation, I'm just waiting for a date for the actual operation now
• Some good blogging work coming in and getting that all completed
• My SEISS grant being paid from the Government
• Chilled time out in the courtyard outside my home, enjoying a nice cool drink in the evening, reading, chilling and often having the cat keep me company. 

Reasons to be Cheerful - Lockdown Continues

Morning friends, I'm pleased to see the sun has come out again and the rain us due to stay away, so that makes me smile a lot.

I'm just going to launch straight into my reasons to be cheerful this week and I'm going to have to be a bit, Pollyanna, on a couple of items too, as it hasn't been the most dynamic of weeks.

1.   Loving my mornings - the rest of my family are not morning people and this suits me just fine as I get some alone time. I'm enjoying waking about 8am (which feels like a lie-in) doing my exercise DVD, then having some breakfast and a cuppa, tidying the kitchen and putting the dishwasher and washing machine on and then having a shower and getting ready. There is definitely joy for me in routine. As I do these things I tend to watch/ listen to a devotional and then enjoy my latest boxset, it is The Rookie and then I have some good recommendations for future series.

2.   Walking with Miss E - I had a fab walk around the grounds of our home the other day, just chatting away to Miss E. It is so good when your teens (or near teen in this case) want to chat with you.

Staying Home - Reasons to be Cheerful

Two baby goslings born this week

Staying home is definitely starting to feel like the new normal. I'm suspecting we have a few more weeks of this yet and then at least a year of getting used to a strange new normal again, where we can't meet in big groups and don't go out anywhere near as much as we used to.

Thankfully I have a beautiful home in an amazing place and this is making staying home a lot easier for us. I still have lots to do and plenty of space to move about it. Here are the things that have been making me feel extra cheerful in the last couple of weeks -

1)   Finding my enthusiasm for exercise again with Leslie Sansone Walk at Home DVD's and I've got myself a new Fitbit to keep track of my steps. I'm enjoying starting each day with a 35 minutes 2-mile walk aerobics session and this gets about 3500 steps on the clock to start the day. It's so much easier to do the exercise when you do it first thing!

Looking for Reasons to be Cheerful in Lockdown

Wild garlic on JJ and my walk earlier this week

It's the end of another week and yes, like everyone else, they are all merging into each other. We're coming into our seventh week of being home as a family now as the kids came out of school early as my hubby had a cough and we were recommended to isolate. I can hardly believe they have been home learning for that amount of time. I think we are finally finding a bit of a rhythm and the girls are getting on with their work, which in turn allows me time to do mine.

I must say I felt quite normal last night. I headed to Lidl to get a bit of shopping and there were very few people there and it didn't even feel like we were purposely distancing (but we were) and then I picked up an Indian takeaway for us all and came back and enjoyed it with Saturday night TV. It was blissful to take the 20-minute drive in the early evening sun.

Today I am doing my normal Sunday routine with an online church service, a roast dinner and then probably a walk with my JJ this afternoon. Perhaps exploring a new part of our local area. but this is becoming harder as we have to keep walking further and further out. If only we could drive somewhere!

It's not been a bad week here, how can it be when the sun is shining and we have so much space? The girls have been swimming in the lake, playing ball and creating environmental art. We've had a BBQ, outdoor worship around a fire and some great food.

Keeping your Teenager busy during Lockdown - Over 50 Ideas

 (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, any affiliate links will be marked with #ad}

It looks like lockdown will go on for another few weeks yet and who knows when school will recommence. I've been gentle with my 16-year-old JJ for the last few weeks, he has had some leeway to play games online, chat to his mates and just sleep (Isn't that what teens do best?) but now I need to get tough and get him doing some different things.

He'd have me believe that because he doesn't have to take his GCSEs I should allow him to wallow in his bedroom for the next five months, but that can't be good for him, so I revisited the posts I'd already written about getting your teen off their screen/ tech (you can check them out here and here) and enlisted my girls to think about all the different tasks we could get JJ involved in.

These are things all teens (or maybe even tweens and twenties too) could do and will hopefully either enjoy, learn something new or get a sense of satisfaction from. I suspect many of them will get an eye roll and the declaration of 'lame' but still, I'm on a mission to get JJ doing some different things.

I'll start with the activities I have already managed to get him to do during this lockdown -

1. Go for a walk and chat to whoever you're with. Try a new route and discover your neighbourhood
2. Play outdoor games with the family - frisbee (#ad), football, handball
3. Teach your siblings to whittle wood and make skewers for toasting marshmallows, or create a carved walking stick
4. Light a firepit or small campfire and toast marshmallow, or make easy dough to cook on a stick
5. Play board and card games. Favourites recently have been Catan, Azul and Ticket to Ride
6. Watch a film with the family
7. Watch a theatre show with the family (The show must go on is showing an Andrew Lloyd Webber one each weekend)
8. Cook us all dinner, or lunch, or yummy waffles (we have this fabulous Waffle maker #ad)
9. Bake some treats - we've had courgette and cheese muffins, Easter chocolate cake and fruit and nut flapjack so far
10. Do housework - Empty and refill the dishwasher, hand-wash the pots, change his bed, hoover and dust his room. Of course, none of these are particularly exciting but I find he'll do them fine if we work alongside each other and chat as we go
11. Do the recycling
12. Hoover, wash and polish the car. Ours looks great now and we have nowhere to go! lol
13. Do an M.O.T on the family computers to check they are running optimally and free up space
14. Sign up for the daily newsletter from TEDed, so he has good content dropping into his inbox that will inform and engage him each day
15. Create a family music playlist. We enjoy him playing random songs and the rest of us have to be quickest to guess the song title and the artist. This was something we used to do in the car, now it is home-based. 

Reasons to be Cheerful - Lockdown Edition 2

French onion soup cooking in the pot and cooking dough on sticks

This lockdown lark really is a funny old thing. I feel busier than in my regular days and all I seem to hear is 'Mum'....  but I will be forever grateful that I have people who call me Mum and I get to spend time with them during this craziness.

As you know, we are super lucky with where we live and I, therefore, can not moan too much. The weather has been brilliant and we have been all over the site, walking, playing, having cook-outs, swinging, bike riding and in the paddling pool too. We also heard yesterday we can swim in the lake if we want to.  I totally will NOT want to, but I suspect my girls might. (For anyone not in the know, we live in the 220 acre grounds of my husbands work and this means we have a whole private estate to enjoy at this time. We're not being naughty and going out!)

We put the paddling pool up today and the gazebo will go up tomorrow, so we can eat outside. I am really enjoying being outdoors a lot and have managed to clear out loads of garden toys and have a good tidy.

Reasons to be Cheerful during Lockdown

I feel a little guilty writing this post, as my experience of lockdown and having self-isolated is quite different to most peoples. As most of you know we live in the grounds of the conference centre where my husband works, and whilst normally we yearn for a little private space, during this lockdown we are super grateful for a closed front gate and 220 acres to roam free in.

Thankfully the time we self-isolated went quickly and no-one developed any symptoms but of course, we have no idea if this is because we've already had the virus, which seems to be the thinking at the moment, that around half of the UK population might already have had it and not even realised. It will be pretty cool if this is the case.

Here's a few fo the things we've been really enjoying over the last couple of weeks -

The board game Azul. As soon as I knew we'd be isolating as a family, I ordered this and I was so glad I did. It can be played with 2 upwards players and it is good fun and takes only about 30 minutes to play.