MY BLOG
Dip in and out of my recent thoughts on writing, web design, family and lifestyle
Four things I’m changing on social media
Whether you use social media for business, pleasure or both, you probably know that your posts aren't guaranteed to reach everyone who follows you - and sometimes, it feels like hardly any! The algorithm that they apply to every post – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and...
First Day of School – why is it impossible to predict my children?
Last year, the oldest was making his first big leap between schools – from Infant to Junior. Despite our best efforts it was fraught with worry for him, and as we waited at the gate, he got more and more emotional (read about it here: New School Nerves - All...
Breaking Up for the Summer – that ‘School’s Out’ Feeling
At my last major networking session this month, our fabulous host – Aruna Rao, of Busy Women Networking – brought back some long-dormant memories without even knowing it. Ten minutes before the scheduled end, she encouraged Ali Moore – drawing the raffle – to “hurry...
Life Skills for the Under 10s
A friend of mine mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that when her children were young, a friend of the family – also a mother to little children – died suddenly in her sleep. That terribly tragic event, my friend said, made her realise the importance of teaching...
My ‘Unicorn’ Blog Post
Mythical beasts are, by their nature, hard to find - it's their thing. And so are blog posts that take flight, and attract more readers than you've ever had before. I managed to find one last week - so what's the secret behind that unicorn post? Last week, it was the...
Five years on – my love letter to Milton Keynes
Five years ago, we had just landed in this most infamous of 20th century town creations – Milton Keynes. Coming from a tiny, ancient cathedral city in North Yorkshire, full of centuries-old charm and rural influences, plenty of people felt able to ‘prepare’ us for...
Blogging: it’s Better than Biscuits
If you’d told me 20 years ago – even five years ago – that I’d be doing what I’ve done this week, I would never have believed you. On Wednesday morning, I went to an SJPoole networking session – not to learn from the visiting expert, but to be her. I delivered an...
The end of term seems so far away – until it isn’t
I realised today I have only two full weeks left of school days before the end of term. That means some serious planning – which probably should have been done a while back – now needs to take place. I’m discovering just how quickly time turns now both children are...
A week in the life of RLC Words
I was typing a little text to my Mum and sister the other day about what was on the agenda for the morning, and on reading it back, I had a sudden thought: I would never have imagined this as a typical day, 10 years ago, five years ago, or even when I started RLC...
Things I’ll miss about Reception Year
The time has flown by – as it always seems to do, now we are all in the cycle of the school year – and our littlest boy is almost at the end of his Reception year at school. Which made me realise that it’s not just the end for him; it’s the last Reception year we will...
Let’s stop being nasty about other women
Pre-read explanatory note: I'm not sure what I wanted to do with this post really, but here it is. I've written it and rewritten it a few times, and I'm still not sure it's right. I don't want it to come across all preachy and mansplainy, because I'm well aware that...
Planning with Military Precision – it’s School Trip Season
The school trips I did as a child are one of my strongest memories. The smell of the coaches, the excitement, wanting to eat my lunch as soon as we got there at 9:30, just being somewhere and learning things in a brand new environment...I remember every single one,...
Enjoying (Surviving) Britain’s Got Talent Week with the Kids
I love Britain's Got Talent. We’ve watched it from the start, managing to ignore Piers Morgan for the most part, and even sticking with it through the tricky Hasselhof years.I feel it has become much less spontaneous and more staged over the years - although Simon's...
Books Vs Screen – the love affair and the one-night-stand
Films or TV programmes that are based on book originals – do you prefer reading them, or watching them?You can probably guess which side of the fence I come down on here. The relationship you have with a book is completely different to one you have with a film. Films...
My Mental Health – How I’ve Calmed my Anxious Passenger
Last year, I blogged about my anxiety. It’s mild compared to many, but it’s there. It’s the anxious passenger I carry with me wherever I go, and whatever I’m doing. A lot of the time it keeps quiet, but sometimes it gets noisy, and sometimes it can be downright...
I thought SATs couldn’t get any worse
Last year, our little boy was 6 years old, and in Year 2. Nobody told him he was doing SATs, but he knew something was up - here's the account of what was happening then: SATs: this is what they're doing to our 6-year-old. When I shared that post, the most surprising...
