Ways to embrace change

Hey readers, 

In life, there are going to be times when the change will occur and it can be hard but here are my top tips to help adjust to change in your life.

1. Personal growth. 

Sometimes to move on with your life and envolve change has to occur. Learning something new or having change your environment can have a positive impact on your personal growth. 

2. New Beginnings. 

Change can be good because it means you are open to new directions and allowing things to happen rather than being closed off and staying in the same life. We don't know what the future has to hold but trying something new means you are open and you never quite know what is around the corner. 

3. Acceptance.

Acceptance can be really calming because you have accepted the situation and allowing change to occur means that you have let go and allow the anxiety to sleep away. Being prepared and open allows you to keep hold of the positive energy and give you a better chance of succeeding with the change. 

4. Question your fears. 

Sometimes reflecting on the reasons why you feel anxious and going through positive affirmations to help ease anxiety when dealing with change. 

5 Ask for help. 

If you're really struggling sometimes asking for help such as having someone to talk to or getting someone to do something while you adjust to the situation can help adjust to the change in your life. 

6. You are not alone. 

I know sometimes dealing with anxiety regarding change can feel like you are the only person in the world to feel like this. However, you have to remember that everyone has fear over change and you not alone. 

 7. Victories.

When going through change it is important to celebrate the little victories to help you can confidence to move forward. 

8. Positives. 

A clear and defined way to help with change is to write down the positives that have come as a result of the change to help with the acceptance of the new direction that you are travelling down. 

9.  Back up plan. 

Always good to have a backup plan if you are scared then it might be useful to have something in place. You can slowly build your confidence by taking small steps to move forward. 

10. Vulnerability. 

It is ok to allow yourself to be vulnerable because we can't all be strong and have our sh*t together all the time. Sometimes, it is ok to vulnerable and not know what is happening with the time you will get through it and overcome the fear of the change and hey you may even be thankful of the change at a later date.

How do you deal with change? Love to hear your thoughts in the comment section. 

Cheers for reading X 

Purple swirl meringues recipe.

Hey readers, 

Check out this twist to the classic meringues with these fun and colourful swirl meringues.

Ingredients. 

★ Blue and purple colouring. 

★ 4 eggs. 

★ Caster sugar (we have golden as it is what we bake sponges with but use any you have).

**The sugar should be the same weight as what the eggs (with the shell on) are**. 

Method.  

1. Heat oven 150°c fan or equivalent. 

2. Make sure that everything is washed with a load of detergent even if you think it is clean as a tiny bit of oil/grease will stop the egg white from whisking. Wiping the bowls with lemon juice works a treat as a degreaser and speeds up the whisking later.

3. Measure out the same weight of caster sugar as your whole unbroken eggs. 

being stuck with golden castor doesn't matter because it only slightly dulls the white colour of the meringues. 

4. Separate the eggs and keep hold of the whites. Separate one egg at a time then put that white in the main bowl, this way if one yolk breaks you only lose one egg, not all the ones already separated (doing it this way with our children resulted in two individual eggs lost but thankfully not the whole batch each time) 

5. Put the sugar in a bowl with the eggs white. 

6. Whisk the mixture - a couple of minutes slow speed, couple of minutes medium speed and then medium or high speed until you get 'stiff' peaks. 

When you pull the whisk out the peaks should pull up and fold down on themselves gently. This is when you should be able to tip the bowl upside down. 

7. For the colour, take out a spoonful of the mix and put in one bowl and the same again in another bowl. 

8. In each colour bowl and a good squidge of colour and mix in a little. 

9. Put the blue mixture down one side of the piping bag. This was messy but we just did the best then laid the bag flat and squashed to the side with a silicone spatula on the outside of the bag. 

10. Repeat on the other side with the purple mixture - much messier.



11. Add all the white mixture in the centre of the bag the best you can, we used a tall jug to stand the bag in but a pint glass or vase works well too.

12. Pipe the mixture on the baking tray. Make sure that there is space between each meringue as they expand a little when baking in the oven. A little tip- put a tiny bit of meringue mixture on all the corners of the baking tray to help stick the greaseproof paper down.

13. Put the meringues into the oven on a low shelf and turn the oven down to 140°c - bake like this for 50 minutes. 

14. After 50 minutes, turn the oven off but leave the meringues in there and the door closed for a few hours until they are dried out and cold.
  

15. Put the meringues on a rack and melt some chocolate whichever way you find best - we use supermarket own milk 30%  cocoa and dark 70% cocoa mixed together- very nice. The easiest way for us is to break the chocolate up and place it in a bowl in the oven at either 40°c or 50°c for a few minutes.

16. Finally, the children dipped their bottoms into the chocolate then into either sprinkles or chopped hazelnuts. (the meringue bottoms, not their own!)

17. This produced a lovely light crisp meringue, if you want chewy or soft on the inside then you can experiment with a softer whisk consistency for chewy or couple of drops of vinegar and a small amount of cornflour for softer innards. Another method of bake we used to use was 120°c for 2 hours then turn the oven off, this seems to leave the meringue less 'hollow'.

Cheers for reading X 

My Sunday Photo 19/05/2019

Happy

Hey readers, 

This week I have felt HAPPY!

This is because I just have got loads done and having the energy to do something has put me in a good mood. 

I had a lovely weekend with the boys and my eldest was much calmer compared to some weekends where is very anxious (loads of different reasons why). 

We enjoyed a spot of baking, went to the local park and just had a nice time without too many squabbles. Makes a big difference where there is more of a chilled vibe. 

I have also enjoyed the return of the sunshine of course and it has helped lift my mood. I found watching the new Louis Theroux documentary moving like someone who suffers from mental health issues along with parenting knows how tough it is. 

So, yeah I am rather happy and just enjoying the moment which often doesn't always come easy to me. 

Cheers for reading X 

5 things to remember when you feeling anxious.

Hey readers,

When in the depths of anxiety it can feel like aq turmoil in your brain. It can be hard to get past the feelings of anxiety. So here are five things to remember when you are feeling anxious.

1. It will pass. 

I know this probably obvious to people however when you are experiencing anxiety it is hard to see anything else. But remember it will pass as time goes on and they feels will end. Hold on to this thought and if you can reflect back to previous feelings of anxiety and remember that they passed.

2. Facts. 

Remember that anxiety thoughts are not facts but feelings. You don't have to believe them as they are just thoughts. There are millions of thoughts going through your mind and you have the choice to listen to them or not put any value on them, It is amazing when you let go the anxiety thoughts will disperse, however, it holds work so stick with it be worth it in the end. 

3. Change.

Sometimes it is easy to opt to stay in one place and feeding them anxious thoughts. A good way to help think about something else is to change the scenery, it does not have to be complicated it could simply be a walk down the road or around your local park. Changing the scenery is great for the mind especially getting fresh air makes a big difference. 

4. You are not alone. 

When going through an anxious time it can help so lonely and like you are the only one person suffering from anxiety, however, that is not true and there are many people who suffer from anxiety and from all walks of life. It doesn't matter what your age, wealth or background anyone could experience in anxiety. It is a known fact that people in the UK 1 in 4 people experience mental health problems each year. 

5. It is ok. 

It is ok not to be ok. It is ok to have anxiety and sometimes just accepting the anxiety can help reduce the stress and pressure that builds up from the stress of worrying about it all.  

Cheers for reading X

Reasons to love lego

Hey readers, 

I assume most people have heard of Lego which is a toy for children and adults. The idea is to follow the instructions and build an item made of Lego bricks such as say a car or a hospital. Lego is brilliant and I have listed the reasons below why you should check it out.

Fine motor skills.

Lego can be fiddly and tricky but with the time you can strength your fine motor skills. It is a skill to hold one brick and using the other hand to place the brick into its slot.  

It's ageless. 

The brilliant thing with Lego is that there is so much variety. There are different blocks and skills fro different ages. Lego is available for toddlers right up to adults. Therefore doesn't matter what age you can still get that buzz from building something spectacular. 

Patience and organisation skills.

With Lego, you need a lot of patience because it takes time to organise the pieces in colour because in my opinion the easiest way to follow Lego. Then the process of building the model takes time but you will be rewarded with latent satisfaction. 

Planning ahead.

This key with Lego is to be organised with planning ahead and getting the bricks in order. It is important to read the instructions and then have a go at putting the bricks in place. 

Teamwork and communication. 

Now with teamwork and communication, this only applies if your working with someone else. Each person needs to know what they are doing and what the plan is. Say one person gets the brick, whilst the person reads the instructions and builts. Communication is important when it comes to Lego. You have to talk to one another as you need to know what each person is doing so there is no confusion or arguments. 

Facing challenges. 

With Lego at times, it can be challenging you may not have the strength or struggle to identify the colour brick in the instruction manual or working out the diagram to which way the brick is facing. Sometimes, you get it wrong and only later that it isn't going right and you have to go back and redo. This is rewarding as it helps you learn I think via your mistakes and accepting that you know things go wrong. 

problem-solving. 

Lego can be tricky where you have to work out how to solve a problem. Sometimes you have to do trial and error and this teaches you how to come up with a solution through trying different scenarios. 

Spatial awareness.

Using Lego can help with improving spatial awareness by working out how mentally rotating objects and planning how bricks will be placed before building can help understand where to place the bricks. 

Rewarding. 

Finally, the best part of Lego is the reward you get for all the effort and time you put into building into making the Lego item to then be able to tangibly see it at the end and know you have created that design through the Lego instructions. 

Do you like Lego? Love to hear your thoughts in the comment section. 

Cheers for reading X 

My Sunday photo 12/05/2019