Back to work with some Twinkl

I have done it.

I have gone full circle.

Since having my children I have returned to teaching part-time, resigned from teaching, been a SAHM, returned to work as a Teaching Assistant, upped my time to five days a week, taken on a day of teaching cover and now I have just got myself a part-time teaching job again. Phew!

Following much thought, and discussion with the hubs, we decided this made sense on many levels. Better for the children, better financially, better for my state of mind, all in all a better work/life balance.

Work/life balance is something I know loads of us struggle with and within the teaching profession it is a constant battle. The working week of a teacher can be crazy but there is help out there.

In the past I've spent many hours resourcing for my classroom displays, my lessons, my support groups, for home learning. The list is endless.

This takes time but now I have help at hand in the form of the lovely team at Twinkl - some of whom are actually teachers so add that special touch!



Chocolate creativity - Brownies and Rocky Road Bars

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit excited about going to one of my local supermarkets to carry out my first Collective Bias™ task. My mission was to buy ingredients of our choice to use in some creative baking. You may know by now that I have two children that love to bake, as do I, so the children had to be consulted over this task and the general feeling was that they had an urge for a chocolate fix. We wanted to try something new so we had a quick flick through the cookbooks for ideas and it was decided. We needed ingredients for....

...Gooey Chocolate Brownies & Chocolate Sauce.

And...(our version of) Rocky Road Bars.

Accepting the changing musical tastes of my daughter

Just over 18 months ago I blogged about the suitability of my, then, five year old's playlist as she began to get more interested in the music that we were listening to. I had the usual issues to deal with over selecting music that was suitable for her ears as well as being bearable for us. Luckily she still loves The Killers and listens to Brandon Flowers' Flamingo every night in bed - result. However, she is starting to broaden her horizons and is developing her own tastes. Panic.

What I don't want to do is force my musical taste on her in an effort to avoid the things I don't like. I don't want to smother her choices. I know I will have to bite my tongue - and stuff my ears - over future music that will come into our house, much like my own parents probably did. So, when the Disney Shake it up: I heart music CD arrived in the post today for her to check out I was open minded knowing that she was going to love it, and a little bit apprehensive that I would loathe it.

I reluctantly removed my Two Door Cinema Club CD from the car stereo and let her take control of the music for the drive to swimming. I clutched the steering wheel, prepared my ears and waited....

And. I was pleasantly surprised. The voices weren't too Disneyfied and the tracks were actually ok. Edith loved it. I shook my thang. As you do. I was enjoying the moment as I know it will only be a matter of time when that kind of behaviour will embarrass her to pieces - ha, can't wait for that.

Are you intrigued? Here's what to expect...

Courgette,Tomato & Red Pepper Gratin

I've been really trying to make a conscientious effort with my food lately with regards to trying new recipes whilst watching the calories.

Easier said than done I can tell you.

I've been trying out new soup recipes, which I can just about survive on for a lunch, but by dinner I am craving something a bit more, well, substantial.

BUT, I don't want to completely blow the day's good effort.

It can be difficult.

Last weekend I received this fantastic new cookbook from Yeo Valley...

It is packed full of mouthwatering recipes and images inspired by their very own dairy, farmyard and veg garden. Recipes are clear and easy to follow with the majority showing a finshed product image - I always like this as it gives me something to aim for! The dishes that leapt out at me included Crunchy apple & raspberry granola, Blue cheese & leek tart in cheesy oatmeal pastry, Lemon curd & raisin bread & butter pudding and Chicken & mushroom lasagne.

However, due to it's vegetable content and lack of major carbs, I tackled the.....

...Courgette, tomato & roasted red pepper gratin.

Class

This week the Great British class calculator has been doing the rounds with people either gloating, being despondent or genuinely surprised at its results. I obviously had to have a go, and I may have secretly started to compare myself to other results I saw floating about online. One interesting thing I discovered was that people I knew were spanning the whole seven groups from Elitist to Precariat. Make what you like from that.

If you're interested I came out slap bang in the middle as a New Affluent Worker which apparently makes me 'young, from a working class background and a home owner'. Well, one of those is definitely right; I'm a houseowner. I don't know what the criteria for 'young' is but I feel I may have shifted out of that one by now. And as for the class? I remember my sociology A-level tutor making the statement that I was middle class due to my dad being an accountant. A sweeping generalisation maybe and I don't how true that really was. I was however raised comfortably, my dad worked hard and funded my university education, a fact my husband has always used to have a dig at me, we went to National Trust properties, we were season ticket holders at Norwich City Football Club, we had holidays on the North Norfolk coast - never going abroad as my dad would say "There's far too many lovely places to see in our country". All in all a balanced upbringing not wanting for much.

Glazed Lemon Brownies

Zingy, tangy, lemony, deliciousness in a brownie - or maybe that should be a lemonie?!

So easy to make.

Canal life

So, the sun finally decided to shine in these parts yesterday and as we had messed up our food shopping we decided to postpone our Easter roast until today. Good plan really as it is dull and cold again here.

Yesterday though we got out for a leisurely walk along the local canal at Semington.

Fishbone Bookmarks {#pinaddicts April}

Hey all. I hope you are having a lovely Easter weekend and you have seen some sunshine. We've been having a bit of a lazy school holiday here but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I have managed to pay some attention to the blog and have got the sewing machine out again. The two have been combined for this month's #pinaddicts challenge.

Fishbone Bookmarks!

I have been desperately trying to read more books lately and occasionally have more than one on the go. I hate turning down corners of pages so thought I would make some more bookmarks.

I made these ones here for a previous challenge if you want to take a peek.

I pinned this image to my #pinaddicts board on Pinterest but the image didn't link to any tutorial so I went about having a go making them from scratch.

Here's how I did it.