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How travelling can bring you and your family closer together

September 28, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

A great holiday can create memories that last a lifetime, and what better way to create these memories than by spending time with your family? Upon your return, you might be surprised at just how much the dynamics of your family have changed. But if your family is religious, you may want to consider a pilgrimage or tour churches or old libraries where they can learn about the porneia definition. Here are our top reasons looking at how travelling can bring your family closer together.

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You can discuss plans beforehand

Before you jet off, you might like to get the whole family together and construct a list of all things you’d like to do on holiday. This is a great way of including everyone in the preparations and ensuring that all interests are catered for. This technique promotes dialogue – something that is often hard to achieve in a busy family home where everyone has their own likes and dislikes. You may choose activities that the whole family can enjoy such as sailing or whitewater rafting when you book rafting packages such as American Whitewater Expedition.

Bali is a destination that has something for all tastes. You can book your flights to this Indonesian paradise through an operator like Imagine Holidays.

 

You may have to learn as you go

If you’re planning on taking your family abroad, then it’s vital that you all work together to ensure the trip goes smoothly. For example, you may have to work together to navigate your way around a strange city or work out how to order food off a local menu. This is a great opportunity to encourage communication and teamwork, and you may even discover that family members have hidden skills that would not have been required back home.

You’re exposed to a new atmosphere

Arguments can be pretty common at home, and that can lead to ill-feelings developing among family members. A great holiday takes you away from that toxic environment and gives everyone a chance to clear their heads and focus on what’s really important. You could find that the anger that had built up at home suddenly disappears from the moment you get on the plane – allowing you to wipe the slate clean and just concentrate on making magical memories with one another,  if you are interested visit this great site and plan a tour now.

The memories will last a lifetime

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When you return from your trip, you may find that the experiences you shared as a family are still being discussed for months later. This keeps your home filled with goodwill and preserves that foundation of communication that had built up during your trip. Even the most mundane of events could remain a talking point for years to come. Travelling is a great tool; the more you travel as a family, the more memories you make.

You learn to compromise

When travelling, you and your kids may be forced to share the same hotel or B & B room. This can present many challenges for you all to overcome. Space can come at a premium and issues may start to appear when everyone wants to get their own way. However, these conflicts will need to be sorted quickly because they could ruin the rest of the holiday. This situation, although unpleasant for a small period of time, teaches everyone about conflict resolution and compromise, and these techniques can be utilised back home to create a more harmonious environment.

Technology will not be as intrusive

Technology is a huge part of family life, and this can mean that family members become disconnected from each other because they’re too distracted by what’s happening in a virtual world. When you go travelling, the role that technology plays will surely decrease.

First of all, you will all be too busy taking in the surroundings and embarking on new challenges to worry about what’s happening online. Secondly, you could be in a remote location that does not boast an internet connection or phone signal, so your so devices will become redundant. This factor means that your family members will be able to spend genuine, quality time together – and this can only be a good thing.

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Filed Under: lifestyle Tagged With: abroad, atmosphere, beach, compromise, family, family holidays, hotel, memories, planning, travel, Trip

July AND August Round-up

September 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

july
Can you believe it got to August 21st before I actually got around to writing my July round-up? I had remembered earlier than that but with one thing or another, I just didn’t find time to write it up. However by that point it seemed a bit random to post so late in the month and I decided to save it and do July and August together. July will be far more vague but here they both are anyway!

Watching: Fringe (Season 4-5), Vampire Diaries (Season 7), Wayward Pines (Season 1-2), Sleepy Hollow (Season 3), Grimm (Season 6), Suits (Season 6), Transformers – Age of Extinction, Bones (Season 6+)
Reading: Cinder.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): A few more ears, some bunting, an Anna skirt, along with the usual orders of bows, pencil cases and clothes.

And in other news…
– Pokemon Go became a big things for Lily. She doesn’t have her own phone and it won’t work on her iPad so I let her use it on my phone. I have to admit I don’t mind encouraging it – especially the walks to hatch eggs.
– Probably the most notable part of July was the girls finishing school for the summer, coupled with Megan leaving primary school altogether. The last two weeks were very emotional with School play, Leavers Do, Church Services, Leavers Assembly, Sports Day etc. However even though she was sad, school ended on a high note and hopefully she’s looking forward to Secondary School in September.
– We had some beautiful weather, actually like Summer for a change. It was really nice but of course didn’t last long!
– The girls washed Chris’s car, outside with Chris. They started on mine too but soon got bored and Chris ended up finishing it.
– Dentists. Enough said.
– Our first camping trip took place at the very end of July. We went to a place called Staxton, near Scarborough for the weekend and actually had a great time.

 

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Watching: I completely caught up with Bones, right up to the end of Season 10. Criminal Minds (from Season 2-), Captain America: Winter Soldier (finally), X-Men 1, 2 and 3 with the kids. Daredevil (Season 2). Containment, Musketeers and Vikings.
Reading: Cinder, Reliquary.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Harry Potter bunting, loads and loads of pencil cases.

And in other news…
– We went to Meadowhall shopping, to get Beauty and the Beast tsum tsums, shoes for Megan and of course FIVE GUYS! It was Nat’s first time too.
– Nat, Megan, Lily and I went to a Harry Potter convention and ball. We had an overnight stay at the Premier Inn, Nottingham.
– Chris bought Lily a starter set of Pokemon cards and then taught her how to play.
– We took our second camping trip, this time to Chichester, where we spent the day on a boat in the marina and got a brand new tent too!
– We got an ice cream maker to review AND made ice cream. It was pretty amazing.
– Placed an uber Hobbycraft order which was pretty exciting!
– Closet Geek turned ONE! I still can’t believe it really but its actually a great feeling. I love my work more than I ever thought possible.
– Went to see Suicide Squad at the cinema. It was really nice as Chris and I went with my best friend and her boyfriend Dan.
– I took the girls to the beach and we had a really great day. We went to Mablethorpe and the weather was beautiful. We had candy floss, ice cream and the girls got an airbrush tattoo.

Looking forward to in September:
– Megan starts school on 2nd September so that is both terrifying and exciting. I can’t believe she’s old enough for secondary school. I hope her first day goes well!
– Amy is hopefully coming to visit next weekend. I haven’t seen her since May so it will be lovely to see her and Liv again.
– (Not entirely sure I’m looking forward to this but..) Seeing the Halloween orders flood in for Closet Geek. I’m hoping its not as crazy as last year but its nice to be busy.
– Other than that there isn’t much going on this month so we’ll just see how it goes!

Filed Under: monthly round up Tagged With: August, beach, camping, chichester, cinema, Closet Geek, ending school, Harry Potter Ball, July, meadowhall, pokemon, scarborough, school, September, starting school, Suicide Squad, summer holidays

31/52

August 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

lily megan
This weekend we went camping with the kids for the first time ever. We headed up to a place near Scarborough and so one of our days out was spent there. Of course a trip to the coast wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the arcades. Lily won herself Joker and Batman in the 2p machines while Megan got Iron Man for me and Captain America for Nat (not pictured).

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 2p machine, 31/52, arcades, Batman, beach, camping, captain america, iron man, Joker, plush toys, prizes, scarborough, seaside, winning

Summer Bucket (and Spade) List

July 15, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

summer

With summer holidays fast approaching I have to admit I’ve started to wonder what I can do to occupy the kids. For the most part they’re fairly happy kicking around the house or even going out to the local park, but its always nice to get out and about – especially as we live so close to the beach and other beautiful countryside. I’ve flicked through Molly’s Guide and the Primary Times to see if there are any good vouchers for local attractions, or even free activities days. I’ve even been scouring the net for things to do that won’t cost the earth. I came across an article on Haven’s blog about alternative beach activities and since Mablethorpe and Skegness are so close to us, I figured I could put some of the ideas to use. However we will most likely spend our time in our pool if the weather gets too hot to go out, if you plan on doing the same with your family then you may want to get some swimming pool refurbishment done before summer comes around.

Anyway, with the help of the kids, I put together some bucket list items that we’d like to tick off this summer. Here’s what we came up with.

  • Visit the beach (preferably on a day sunny enough to paddle/swim and build sandcastles – easier said than done in the UK)
  • Travel on a double-decker (preferably open top) bus.
  • Go to London on the train and catch a theatre show. We’d love to see Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Aladdin. Maybe even Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
  • Swim at the local pool, preferably once a week.
  • Catch a movie at the cinema, especially on the cheap kids show either Saturday and Sunday mornings.
  • Walk to the local park, play and have a picnic lunch.
  • Get out the tent and go camping. Megan spent a few nights in her sleeping bag last week and now they’re both obsessed with the idea of going camping.
  • Go to a theme park. I recently saw that Drayton Manor had a discount on their tickets, or places like Alton Towers and Legoland often have 2 for 1.
  • Attend a Yule Ball and Harry Potter convention. We actually have tickets and dresses for this already. We’re pretty excited to be attending a ball.
  • See the poppies at Lincoln Castle. These are here till September and I would love to see them before they leave.

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As I was finishing off the list of things we’d like to do, Lily added “buy a new house”. While it’s not really part of my Summer Bucket List, I do wish that it was! I think selling the house that fast at this stage would be a bit of a dream, but I guess we can hope!

What do you have planned for the summer?

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Filed Under: lifestyle Tagged With: beach, bucket list, bus, camping, cinema, harry potter, lincoln castle, lincoln poppies, london, movies, summer, tent, theatre, theme park, Yule Ball

Week 34 – Monday Round-up (well actually it’s Wednesday!)

August 26, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Well this week I am super late in making my round up post! I’m almost half the way through the next week in fact. It’s been a really great week though, with high and lows of course but mostly good! The kids are still off for Summer Holidays of course, though it won’t be for much longer now! We still haven’t really “done” an awful lot, but everyone seems okay with that and we still have our weekend in London coming up!

The beginning of the week, we didn’t do an awful lot to be honest! The girls went to their dad’s on Monday and had to wait at my mum’s while my car had it’s MOT. It wasn’t finished until almost 3pm (after the work needed was carried out) and after it was done I needed to get new tyres as well. So I headed to Tanvic, waited while my tyres were done and then made a random decision to try to Hobbycraft in Nottingham. It was nice to walk around but fairly fruitless, I had Burger King for dinner and then headed home. Tuesday I went over to pick the girls up from their dad and we came straight home. I used the day to catch up on TV and work on my new shop website – as it was due to open at the weekend. I also booked my train tickets to see Amy on that Friday, a decision I had been toying with a little over the week before. Wednesday and Thursday were both working on my Closet Geek venture, either on the website, taking photos or actually sewing. Nat came over for the daytime on Thursday but we just sat chatting while I sewed so I was still able to get plenty of work done.

On Friday morning the girls and I got up and ready, Chris took us to Retford station. However our train to York was cancelled and this began an interesting day of catching replacement and delayed trains. In the end we got to Amy’s about an hour and a half late and after catching the bus to her house and having a cup of tea, the girls had their photoshoot – the main reason we’d traveled over.

Andy's Coming Inside Out Emotions

The rest of the day was spent with the girls on their iPads while Amy worked on photos and I worked on listings for my site. We stopped for us all to eat pizza takeaway and then one by one the kids went to bed. Amy and I ended up staying up till past midnight, getting my site ready but by the time I went to bed, it was all ready to go. The girls and I then played a sort of musical chairs with the beds overnight, each of us taking time in a different spot in a bed. We managed to find one that worked for us all and finally got some sleep!

In the morning we were up at 8am, the kids had breakfast and I had tea. We packed up all our stuff ready as Amy’s dad was taking us to the station and I checked to make sure all the trains were on time. We got to Berwick station around 9.45am which was plenty of time. The girls got some sweets and I got a sandwich, then we waited for the train to come along at 10.13am.

On the first train we had plenty of space so the girls sat together and I sat over the aisle. When we swapped at Newcastle, we had about 30 minutes to wait so we all grabbed a coffee and waited patiently. The next train we decided to all sit together, even though technically we had the extra space again. I knew I needed to open my store and the girls wanted to sit with me.

At 12pm I opened my store,  the newsletter sent out automatically (as planned) and Amy and I pushed the opening on Instagram! There were loads of hits and plenty of positive feedback so that was great! Orders came in during the afternoon and that was great too. By the time the girls and I got home I was far too exhausted to tackle anything. We’d had Subway for lunch and had takeaway for dinner – but it was pretty great doing nothing! Once the girls went to bed I watched TV but I shopped and browsed for fabric, bows and even replied to someone about a custom order!

Finally it was Sunday and though I should have been making orders and promoting my site, for the most part I was just lying around watching TV. The girls went off with their Grandma to the beach for the day so it was nice just to grab some me time. I did spend most of the day on my iPad looking for fabric, charms and ideas for my stock generally. I placed a few orders and worked on some ideas. Chris came home and we spent the evening watching TV and snuggled up on the sofa.

So that was my week! It was exhausting but it was brilliant. Not to mention my site is now officially open! If you get a minute, please go check it out. You can find it at www.ClosetGeek.co.uk – not only that but you can follow on FB, Instagram and Twitter, all at @closetgeeksite

Filed Under: Monday Round-up Tagged With: Amy, beach, Berwick, Berwick Upon Tweed, car, Closet Geek, Disney, dresses, grandma, hairbows, Hobbycraft, jewellery, MoT, Olivia, photo shoot, store, trains, tyres

Hi, my name is Bel!


I’m a forty something, mother of two, self-confessed geek!

Here on my blog you’ll find;
books I’ve read, clothes I’ve made, movies I’ve watched, cakes I’ve baked, products I’ve tried, places I’ve been, pictures I’ve taken… plus lots and lots of DISNEY!!

I’m a lifestyle blogger – covering a little of everything I love <3

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