A bubble gum flavour Angel Delight! Sounds delightful? You bet it is! A couple of weeks back BritMums and Angel Delight Desserts kindly sent us their new, bubble gum flavoured sachets to sample and encouraged us to come up with new ways to enjoy the very popular and much loved dessert. If you have never tried it yet, Angel Delight is the easiest way to make dessert and keep kids happy in busy households on weeknights. All you need is a sachet and half a pint of milk! Oh, and a keep helper, of course :-)! We decided to take it up a notch today when we came back from school, since it was Friday and include our dessert in an Eton mess. We added the whipped Angel Delight to crumbled meringue nests, strawberry jelly and cut up strawberries. The preparation took no more than five minutes and provided Emma with an opportunity to use her fine motor skills in whipping the milk and her negotiating skills in trying to convince me to let her …

We have been away for the Halloween weekend. Went to visit Alex’s family and were very intent on giving Emma a sense of normality in the midst of all that has happened this year. I normally love travelling but I have found this trip tiring. It wasn’t only the visiting and being in a different place and the staying in other people’s homes. It was a very mentally tiring trip as well. You see, grief does that to one. It robs one of all her strength and energy and resources. I have now learned to manage life at home, I know how far I can push myself and how much I can expose myself to emotional triggers. But being away from home is a step too far for now. So as soon as we left, the nightmares started. I had prayed a lot for God to show me in dreams how Georgie is doing. Instead, I found myself in the Royal hospital, the CHU ward, time and time again. Reliving the pain. Holding babies. Being …

These are two very big words, fairness and loyalty. Two very big words we would love our children to learn the meaning and appreciate the value of. Easier said than done, you would tell me, especially if you are a conscious parent who is aware of the realities of the world we live in. Teaching about fairness and loyalty goes against the grain of what the society is teaching our children from when they are babies. The strongest gets the toy, if mummy isn’t there to watch out. The loudest one gets the attention most of the time, if the presence of a responsible grown-up isn’t there to mediate the conflict. My Emma is no different from any five year old girlie out there. She wants to be the best, the fastest, the prettiest girl of them all. She thrives on praise and would do anything to get herself noticed. Nothing wrong so far. But I have noticed that as she get older and is exposed to more TV and outside influences, the more self-absorbed …

Last year was the first year I blogged about the World Vision initiative, a night of hope. I found it important, at a time when the children in our privileged world stuff themselves with treats and have fun pretending to experience fear, to remember the ones for whom fear is a daily fact and occurrence. World Vision has kindly invited me to be part of their yearly Night of Hope Halloween campaign. This year the focus is the Syrian children and we are all invited to carve a heart in a pumpkin thinking of them, write them a letter telling them we care and make a donation to show them our support. So, here is my picture and my letter: “Dear little ones, I am so, so sorry for the hard times we have been having. I am sooo sorry you had to see things you were never meant to see. If only I could, I would give you all a tight hug. If only I had the power, I would rewind the time and …

Back in October we were privileged to be picked by Brioche Pasquier to sample and write a review about their lovely milk chocolate rolls and brioche sliced loaf. They were also extremely kind to send us a voucher so we can create an autumn picnic for the family. The lovely offering came presented into a cute picnic basket and it arrived bang on time as we were heading out for a weekend away to Newcastle. Emma was absolutely thrilled with the chocolate rolls and devoured a good few before we even arrived at our destination! I sampled the brioche loaf the following morning and I found it delightful, reminding me of my mum’s Easter cakes, full of flavour and incredibly soft. I had it toasted with a cup of coffee, bliss!! We came home and since Halloween was approaching I decided to use our Halloween molds to cut out cute shapes for Emma’s afternoon snack. Winner, once again, the loaf was perfect for shape cutting and Emma enjoyed her seasonal snack to the full! We …