Before I get into the post I just wanted to do a quick intro for those who are just joining me, I have had a lot of new followers and subscribers. I usually do a monthly check in post, basically an update of what we have done the previous month and what we hope to do for the new month ahead. Its more of a scrapbook for me to look back on and an added bonus if anyone reads it. I also add in some photos from the previous month's adventures.
March is here and honestly I am so happy to see the back of February, I am so over this cold windy weather and I am very much looking forward to long sunny days. Spring is a favourite of mine, the flowers start to come out, us gardeners can start to focus on this years planting, lots of new life everywhere. I just love Spring. I know that spring does not mean the end of the cold weather, a few years ago we lived in Scotland when the beast from the east hit and we literally got snowed in for weeks. The farmer would go to the shop in his tractor if we needed anything luckily we had just done a months worth of shopping and stocked up the chest freezer. I am so hoping we don't get snow and we just go straight into sunny weather.
So let's take a look back at February.
To be honest it has been another quiet month blog wise, we took a few days out and got stuck in with our home education plans.
Some of the places we visited.. Alnwick Gardens Mad Hatter Trail, Durham Fire & Ice Festival, Fountains Abbey, Doxford Park, Ormesby Hall, Northumberland Zoo, North TynesideMorph Trail, Fullwell Windmill tour, Bolam Lake, Locomotion and a few more. We also took advantage of local food deals too.
We have also been getting ready for Toby's Birthday, he is a leap year baby so his real birthday is 29/02. Obviously this year isn't a leap year so he has his birthday on the 1st March. When he was born we were given the option of having his birthday marked as 28/02 or 1/03 so we went with the 1st March because he wasn't here on the 28th.
Take a look at some photos from February
March
Things we are looking forward to
Toby turns 14! I can't believe Toby is 14 on the 1st of March, it has gone by so quickly. We always give the boys an option of choosing a day out and somewhere nice to eat for birthdays and this year Toby has decided to keep his birthday day out for July when York Maze opens as we previously went and all three absolutely loved it. We are going to be going out to one of our favourite Indian restaurants. I wont write on here what he has for his birthday because he reads my posts!
We are heading to Alton Towers this month, I have changed the dates for this as we were going at the start of the month then realised its not open until later on so we are now going away at the end of the month instead. I have booked 4 nights in a gorgeous country spa hotel and we have a packed 4 days planned. We are super lucky to have family who stay at our house and look after our pets so we don't need to worry about that.
We have quite a few jobs in for March already and have seen an increase on our socials again too. I still can not believe we got to 16k followers on Facebook in such a short period of time and it was all organic too, so looking forward to seeing where the blog takes us in 2022.
The Boys
We have just finished our reading book for English which was Charlie and the Chocolate factory, we did questions after each chapter and we have watched the movie to compare the book to the film. We did some chocolate tasting, learned all about chocolate and the whole cocoa bean process. We took a break from work during half term so starting the new term we will be moving onto The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe and tying in a topic of WW2. We have already watched the movie this time before the book. Adam has been busy revising for his exams and recently sat a few which he thinks he did well on.
All three boys are well and truly settled into their new scout sections and they are thoroughly enjoying it. All going well they will be heading on a camp on in June for a few nights so I have no idea what Craig and I are going to do with ourselves! Elliot was super brave the other day and had to have an emergency dentist appointment because one of his baby teeth was hanging on by a thread and was causing him quite a bit of pain. He came out with a huge smile on his face after the dentist removed 3 of his wobbly baby teeth. Safe to say the tooth fairy had quite a few to collect that night and as I currently type this, 2 days later, his last remaining baby tooth has come out! Elliot has decided that he knows what the tooth fairy does with the teeth and she eats them like popcorn when watching a movie. Lovely, I know.
Food
Ok so in February I changed my diet quite dramatically due to issues with my health. I cut out red meat completely and have only been drinking herbal teas, water and fruit juice. Honestly, it has been so easy for me, no stomach pain and I feel much better. I do have some work to do because I am lactose intolerant but I love cheese and find it so hard not to eat a little bit. so my new goal is to just cut dairy out completely. For the red meat I have made simple choices and just replaced beef, mainly with Turkey. February I made shepherds pie with Turkey mince and sweet potatoes, Turkey burgers, Turkey sausages and we have also had chicken dishes. I also make sure we are eating plenty of fish every month and have things like fish curry, fish and rice, baked salmon etc. Someone on Facebook asked me about the costs and how it has impacted that and, to be honest, it hasn't because Turkey is cheaper to buy than beef. The only extra cost is I bought a bit extra fruit and veg and nuts and seeds so the cost was actually lower than it would normally be. I am upping my exercise intake too. Again I am not doing this to lose weight, I am happy in my own skin and do not weigh myself.
Gardening
I am so excited, I have already planted Chillies and tomatoes. I recently topped up my seed collection after finding out Lidl had the seeds back in for 29p even though most went through for 20p. I have previously mentioned in a blog post about how we had to move in October due to a slum landlord, we found a lovely house to rent, large Victorian 5 bed however the down side was that it doesn't actually have a garden it has a large yard. So we have just taken it in our stride and it will be our little yarden when we are finished with it. Elliot and I sat down and drew up plans for the yarden and I cant wait to see it when it is done. Currently we just have a few strawberry plants we brought with us, a bottle brush tree, an acer sapling, raspberry tree and a few hanging baskets.
Our plans so far are to make some planters out of pallets, we already have the pallets that we have been collecting. We are going to be planting quite a few veggies and some fruit too.
We inherited some vintage tea sets so we are going to make bird feeders with those. We are going to set up a bug hotel area but instead of taking up space on the floor I am going to put tyres on the wall and then pop in some things like bamboo and pinecones. Elliot is after a new trampoline so that will go into the dedicated fun area. I have plans to make a shelving unit to fit into the corner so I can grow some herbs. And we are going to put up lots of hanging baskets full of gorgeous flowers. so we do have quite a few plans and I think I will document it all on socials so keep an eye out I do have a dedicated diy Instagram but I haven't added anything to it for ages.
Dates for your diary
Movies released this month
4th The Batman
11th Turning Red
18th Cheaper by the Dozen remake ( Not sure if I even want to see this, but it does have Zach Braff in it)
Unfortunately that's it, its a bit of a boring month for movie releases to be honest.
There is no Tv Series that has caught my eye for March, if I do see something I will update this post. Currently we are watching Lost in Space on Netflix and we have been re watching CSI.
Dates to remember
1st Shrove Tuesday AKA Pancake Day
2nd Ash Wednesday
17th St Patricks Day It is also Purim the Jewish Festival
18th Holi ( Hindu Festival of colour)
20th Spring Equinox
27th Mothers Day also the clocks go forward
The Night Sky
Full Moon is the 18th March and is known as the Plough Moon. This months constellation is Ursa Major which can be seen to the North Did you know that its name is Latin for Great Bear?
Social media calendar
1st Pancake Day
3rd World Wildlife Day
4th World Book Day
7th National Cereal Day (Would love to know who comes up with these!)
8th International Woman's Day
17th St Patricks Day
18th Red Nose Day
20th First official day of spring
21st world poetry day
22nd world water day
23rd world puppy day
24th International waffle day
26th Earth Hour / Mothers Day
What are you up to this month? Let me know.
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