This month has been a whirlwind. A wonderful whirlwind of exciting house plans, lots of visits from my sister and a new baby girl in the family! Today, with the house feeling like it is being obliterated one room at a time, rubble down the stairs, a garden that resembles a skip as well as a skip on the drive full to bursting, we fell about laughing. The kitchen is full to the rafters with everything from the utility room which looks like it's been hit by a bomb, you can write your name in the dust on the windows and as we kept bumping into each other carrying washing and moving boxes in slap stick style, we wondered if anyone else has ever felt like they were in such a spin their head might fall off?!

The boys have had a couple of days in a local school holiday club, whilst the worst of the demolition of our bathroom walls went on and the builders are coming in and out of the house carrying great huge panels, and have adored the swimming, crafts and forest school.  I was so proud of Sammy, the club runs for 3-6 year olds with another older children's set of activities for 6-9 year olds which would actually suit him so much better, but he stuck with his slightly nervous little brother and the pair of them have been inseparable for the last week. In fact they've been the nicest and kindest to each other in a good while. They've played endlessly with the table football, been making up shows and stories and just potter around together. We were listening as they discussed which of the kids in Sammy's class Ollie liked the best and he replied "I like Sammy." We can really see a best friendship forming and without tempting fate, another 3 weeks of school holidays, even in the madness of the house, doesn't feel like a daunting prospect. 

I was frantically trying to finish some photography work, Rich had to whizz off to Glastonbury to deliver some tea and we both were rifling through the bags of clothes in the spare room, throwing things from one holdall to another ready to come up to mum's tonight to fly to America in the morning. It's not until you empty all your drawers and wardrobes that you realise just how easy it is to accumulate clothes you will NEVER EVER wear again! 

Natty whipped me into shape over the Easter weekend and in between games and feasts of breakfasts, lunches and dinners she and Andrew worked their socks off to help us move, sort, clear, skip and prepare for the work to the house over the next couple of weeks. We have ambitious plans during school holiday time. We knew it would be hard but it will be so worth it. No more freezing cold draughty winters. We slept on a mattress in the living room which the kids all thought made the best trampoline come the morning and all night could feel the whisper of a breeze coming through the lounge doors. 

It is going to make a huge difference to the whole feel of the house to have windows that close! 

We were all exhausted on Easter Sunday and just spent the day mooching around the garden, watching the children on the swings and listening to the three amigos. Natty couldn't believe how Yasmin never asked for a snack, wasn't hanging off her ankles, was just at home, chasing after her cousins, being part of the big kids gang. Then one of them would see Logan out of the corner of their eyes and race over to smother him in kisses. Sammy repeated "He's the most loveable Logan I am ever going to love" about 15 times and begged me to have another baby so he could have a baby brother too!

Umm no darling was the answer. 

It was magic watching them hunt for the eggs. It's tricky with our boys to stop them shooting ahead, running 8 paces ahead of Yazzy. So instead of hiding treats I did something different this year. I found my stash of plastic fake eggs, divided them equally and wrote each of their initials in washable chalk pen. 

I filled three buckets with surprises, pound shop figures and lots of other non chocolate goodies like half price Littlest Pet Shop pouches (Which I know sounds boring and mean but by 9am they had eaten enough chocolate to sink a ship!) and each time they found a plastic egg marked S,O or Y they ran back to the bucket to claim their lucky dip prize. There was no arguing over who had more eggs in their bags and it made the whole hunt last more than a frantic 10 minutes.

So my Me and Mine has a few extras in it this month. Two small ones who feel like mine! It's easy to say the phrase "I don't know what I'd do without my family" but I honestly don't know how we would have got through the last month without them all. In laws who have the westies at the drop of a hat, for weeks at a time when the house is in chaos and they need to be kept safe (Open doors and gates and our woofers don't mix. I am paranoid about them wandering into the lane.) and who are having the boys for us for 4 days so we can fly to New Jersey and meet baby Juliette. 

Last month I shared this photo and just before I had been in touch with this talented designer Samantha. I have always wanted an illustrated family portrait but never quite found the time to get it sorted. Thank you so much for sending us this beautiful keepsake of our family at this moment in time. I know the boys will look back when they are older and say oh Mum why did we have those haircuts?!!! But I adore them, my dumb and dumber lookalikes with their wildly funny personalities, their sleepy eyes in the morning, their great long bodies draped down our backs when we piggy back them to bed each night. Me and mine xx

Samantha has kindly offered to give away a free portrait for one lucky reader so leave a comment telling us about your family and we will pick a winner at random on the 30th April. Entrees are open until midnight GMT 29th April 2016. 

You can leave a comment on this Instagram photo too if it's easier! 

Join in with us and share a family photo. Capturing and recording our family is the best thing we have religiously done over the last three years, even if some months we get to the very last day and all the Heath boys roll their eyes and say on ho not photo time! 

Pop over and see what Lucy, Katie, Alex, Jenny and Fritha have been up to this month. In the last three years this Me and Mine gang have welcomed new babies, waved big boys and girls off to school and it's a very special project to be part of. 

I kind of love sharing this sort of post. I've got myself into a bit of a spin over the last year or so thinking that every post has to have a recipe, craft idea, something helpful or something for you to takeaway. It's hard as a blogger to resist reading the thousands of "Top Tips" posts, I know I've shared a good few of those myself but these posts with a random collection of words and photos don't tick any of those boxes. This is just from me to you.

Sharing snippets of my week, with the people I love.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on new product shots for a lovely graphic designer, which involved twirling ribbon over and over until was just right. Moose was not a good assistant and kept wandering in and making a nest out of the props! I tend to work on one job at a time, with another queued up on my desk. The light was just beautiful that day, perfect even sunlight blasting over the conservatory and the colours popped all by themselves!

Rich has had a few ideas for the tea company new blog and so we've been recipe testing, buying props and I've been researching how you make that super shiny donut glaze... I can't wait to finish them over the weekend and share a sneak peek. For once we worked really well together. That may sound sarcastic, and I don't mean it to be, it's just that usually when we put our heads together creatively it's more of a recipe for disaster. He's methodical and strategic and I have a vision of the final photographs and run with it like a bull in a china shop. We've worked from home together for almost 6 years (that's a story for a whole other post) and it is a challenge. We can spend almost 24 hours together in some weeks and it's a fine balance between bouncing an idea of each other, being a dreadful distraction/interruption when you are trying to concentrate and one of our greatest achievements all at the same time. 

To be able to support each other in our very different working lives.

Ok, so Rich might do the lion's share with his technical helpline, physical support moving all sorts of prop boxes and I constantly borrow his hands, to hold/pour something or other in a photo but I like being useful, having a role to add value.

We've lived this sort of island work life for a few years now. But you feel less alone with someone tapping away at the other end of the table. In any given day the house can be a hive of activity or like today completely still as I am on my own whilst he works in Devon.

Last week was a whirlwind week in contrast to the stillness of today and if you ever see me post on social media that I am driving to London virtually slap me. Hard.

It is not a good plan and the only saving grace of a 9 and a half hour round trip to the Country Living Show last Thursday with one of my bestest girlfriends was that we have never had so much time together, just the two of us, and we talked non stop! Over the last couple of years I've found myself saying yes to more work and no to more friends. Getting into a self imposed spiral of worry that I couldn't afford the time off to meet one of my oldest friends for lunch or meet up with a new friend I've met online or at school. I got myself into a ridiculous mental state - the busiest of busy fools and made an absolute conscious decision at new year to make more time for the people that matter. We've never been ones for a massive circle of friends. We have a small number of really close friends, couples we've gone through University with, neighbours who are like family and antenatal class lifelong family friends. Not everyone had children at the same time, but we all just pick up where we left off no matter how long it can be between visits. No one lives near us, so instead of catching up at a park or soft play, our friends dates become weekends away, overnight stays and plans on the calendar 3 or 4 months in advance. 

Friends who don't bat an eyelid at the boxes of props all over the playroom, who know how much joy I get from planning the boy's birthday parties and can tease me any time they want for emptying pre made supermarket salad post into silly little patterned bowls.

I love our friends and Emma and I scooted around the fair, picked up a few treats (How cool are these dressing up horses that we spotted on a stand in the gallery - and how perfect for Yasmin's pony party next month?! Sold to the blogger in the yellow mac!) stopped for a sandwich and then headed home. We came out of the conference centre and looked up at the most colourful corner of Islington and joked that we were in the centre of London, in the middle of the afternoon, with all these lovely streets around us but we had to be sensible and head home!

I was cream crackered on Friday morning as we drove to school, in lycra I might add, wow what a sight! These legs haven't been running in a year so it was a miracle that the gym wear fit at all! I thought my heart was going to burst as I watched Ollie race ahead for the Sport Relief mile. He tore off without us past scores of other pupils, parents and teachers only to be so pleased with himself for going so fast that he didn't concentrate on where he was running and went smack into a tree! You couldn't make it up!

I bolted over, cutting one of the corners on the field and scooped up this tearful mess with a very bloody hand that he'd cut on the bark as he slipped and headed to one of the teachers on steward duty to steal a tissue which we made into a makeshift bandage. 

After a few minutes he got his confidence back and shouted "Come on! We have to win this!" Totally oblivious to half the school who had crossed the finish line, all sitting on the wall cheering for each and every runner as they ran under the blue banner and were presented with a sticker. 

The atmosphere was fantastic. There were older children doing wheelbarrows all the way around, some three-legged competitors a teacher juggled bean bags and a few in an adults jumper running as a pair! Great traditional fun for a fantastic cause. 

After we got home I zipped to a pop up event by the Somerset Collective who were also raising money for Sport Relief, and browsed through the stalls of homemade chocolates, jewellery, clothing, prints and more. I bought a couple of lovely bits and met one of my Instagram pals who was selling her fabulous neon wooden necklaces. 

The weekend started with my sister and her family arriving from the South East for the mammoth task of knocking out our bedroom wardrobes and en-suite bathroom. I fully admit I am a sentimental hoarder, but I hadn't quite realise how much rubbish I have stored away amongst the more precious memories. Broken bits and bobs, odd jigsaw pieces that never found it's right home again in 2 house moves and birthday cards from all the boy's parties. The excess was quite alarming! My sister is almost the opposite to me and it was like having my very own Marie Kondo forcing me to make ruthless decisions about what needed to stay and go. We laughed and laughed until there were tears rolling down our cheeks at old photos, pre school artwork and hilarious pictures and filled every last inch available in the skip and loaded the car with 8 bags for the charity shop. 

The small boy was a dream all weekend and we carted him around in his "basket" Natty stopping to feed him every couple of hours with the big cousins all playing together around the chaos. 

Rich and my brother in law Andrew did an amazing job upstairs. Painstakingly taking apart the stud walling, had to work around electrics that weren't in helpful places and got rid of as much of the bathroom as possible. Natty and I brought them drinks and snacks and we gasped when we saw how different the space was when it was all down and opened up. We have a lot to fit back in, and it will definitely feel more cosy than contemporary and spacious when we've finished the renovation at the end of April/ beginning of May, but it's given us a blank canvas to start again.

I've take a few before photos to show you in another post and Andrew, being a cad designer, has mocked up some 3D layouts which give us a real feel for how the room could work better. The Heaths need storage - even with my slimmed down wardrobe. So the next stage is for the plumbers to come in after Easter, remove the existing pipework and replumb for the new bathroom. Whilst I am dreaming of pretty tiles Rich is reminding me we have to agree the positions of the toilet! I think we should replace the space you see below with a shower room behind the head of the bed and find a new space for wardrobes along the opposite wall and bring the window to the left of the photo into the bedroom. You'll have to let me know what you'd do when I share all the before photos over the weekend. 

So I didn't really have any time to open the laptop. No new post in quite a few days. But I did manage, with the tremendous help of my sister, to clear my office. Boxes of paperwork that needs shredding and recycling have all been carted out and I can see where I need practical storage, not more little baskets as Natty shouted, for props and start the spring with a more organised work space and get away from the dining table. Separate work and home.

I realised that in almost 6 months I haven't shared our office space on the blog, and it's on a long list of draft ideas that are half written, or have half the photos and no words. I looked through the basket of notebooks (yes I hoard those too) and thought oh dear, so many ideas that I've let slip. There are times when you can let yourself get consumed with an overwhelming sense of failure. When you blog you are surrounded by numbers and peers. Events you didn't get invited to, opportunities in Facebook groups you know nothing about and it's so easy to let all those anxious feelings get the better of you. To become enveloped by a wave of comparison and often feel a pressure to change the way you blog to keep up with a current trend or style. I am determined not to let all these to do lists disappear and instead have rewritten a new list with renewed enthusiasm. 

I owe my second career to the blogging community. I look over my blog over the last few months and there's no pattern, no schedule, I write when I have something to say and that may not be every day, it may only be a couple of times a week some weeks, but it's what I really want to say. I have the chance to collaborate with brands I admire and products that make me squeal at the postman and then race to school for pick up time. It really is living the dream. It's cheesy but true because the only limit is your own imagination and creativity. It's your space to write what you like!

Being a blogger is like sharing your whole life with best friends you might never meet and the best thing of all is that there is plenty of room on the internet for everyone to blossom.

And that should be celebrated. So if you love reading a blog, make sure you nominate them for a MAD Blog Award and in the BiBs this year. These awards have catapulted a generation of entrepreneurial working parents into mainstream media. It's not back room blogging in the dark of night, it's men and women fronting national campaigns, raising thousands of pounds for charity, changes people's attitudes towards disability, internationally recognised writers, vloggers and photographers sharing their heart break and happiness with the world. People you relate to, people who you feel you really know. 

I will be nominating my favourites and they aren't all the most popular or the ones with the most followers. Awards season can feel like one big popularity contest but it's not. Because we all get to decide. So be proud to tell your followers you'd be thrilled if they nominated you. Show them how much it would mean to you! Because I know I would be over the moon to be nominated this year. It's not desperate to share that you'd love to be nominated for an award, be proud of the blog you write. I put my heart and soul into mine, the blog is our lives. It's a team effort from me, the boys and Rich and it would be nothing without them. This may not be a post full of styled floral flat lays or a craft post I can pin to a Pinterest board but it's full of me and the story of my week that was. 

Happy week everyone, we are counting down to tomorrow afternoon when school finishes and the big phone call from America to say our new niece is on her way. Come on baby Marini we all want you here now so Granny can book the flights. Thank goodness for staff travel! Auntie can't wait to cuddle you in a couple of weeks!

I have blinked and a whole week of March has zoomed by. 

I wore all my hats last week, racing to a joke shop to pick up the only shark costume (Ollie decided he had to be a shark for World Book Day with 24 hours to go. He is such a shy boy that I couldn't not come through for him,  after dashing to Bristol for a development meeting, making paint cakes, and setting up Gromit's in all sorts of mini shoots. We've ended the week with a busy but beautiful weekend. Every Sunday Ollie fills in his weekend diary. He can write or draw or print some photos - anything goes. Then on Monday morning they stand in front of the class and talk about their little lives. 

Yesterday afternoon I felt like we could have written an essay - yet it didn't feel rushed. The weekend was a complete mix of friends and family, feet on the pebbly beach at Clevedon looking for fossils, learning to paint with watercolours with the master that is Harriet De Winton (Thank you Rich for my Mother's Day ticket!) and pottering in one of my absolute favourite boutiques 19 Alexandra Road before we headed home via another best friend who needed spoiling. I dropped a bunch of flowers on her doorstep and we raced home to get in pyjamas and eat a home cooked chilli smothered in sliced avocado with our feet up on the coffee table.

I have all these photos that don't really fit into a specific post - photos that tell a story. So I thought why not put them all together in a jumbled mess?!

Mother's Day for us is about trying to make sure everyone is included, all the mummies know they are loved and appreciated and finding a half way meeting point along the A303, which is harder than you think! It's quite something to see 5 families come together, for everyone to sit around chatting, topping up glasses of Prosecco, endless cheers and Mum even managed a FaceTime with my brother and sister in law in America from the play park after we had eaten!

It felt like a special day, the boys burst in with a hand made menu for breakfast, their presents they'd made from school (top marks for coming up with a paper petal bouquet teachers) and Rich surprised me with the cabbage leaf soup bowl I had lusted after at the end of the watercolour workshop. He'd snuck off whilst my best friend Tanya and I took our three amigos down to the beach to walk the dogs and sneaked it into the car!

On Sunday we all got dressed up, the children were brilliantly behaved, we booked the table early and luckily the family next to us had opted for a late lunch which meant we could take over one area of this quant village pub and empty a box of K'NEX and a bag of colouring pens and paper all over the floor to keep them entertained. 

It wasn't fancy - it was perfect. A hearty roast, ice cream sundaes as big as your face and a race around a playground 2 minutes away. My boys were desperate to go for a bike ride to finish off the day so just before dusk we ploughed down the lanes, feet in the air screaming wooooo hoo to the sheep in the fields that were running along to chase after us. It was the first ever time Ollie has ridden a bike. He's point blankly refused up until now and I kept looking back at him, peddling as fast as he could, a smile as wide as the open dirt track road in front of us, and all I could think was, my heart might burst in a minute. 

We've borrowed a bike from a friend and really it's too small, but it was to give him a chance to get familiar with a bicycle and I am hoping that this new found passion will mean a birthday bike will be on his wish list and we can blast around the village in the summer holidays. 

There was an awe I had on Sunday as we rode as fast as we could then shouted at the top of our voices because only the birds could hear us. Sammy beaming back at me trying to match my (impressive to him) speed down the open road. We rode til our noses went cold and didn't take any photos. In some ways I wish we had, but in others I am so glad I was in the moment. A little moment, a significant to me moment. 

Happy new week everyone. 

ps I couldn't have loved the Modern Botanicals workshop with Harriet more. I almost skipped out of the shop swinging my bag full of pages with new paintings on them and my wooden box of artist materials. A real good for the soul 3 hours with lovely company and endless tea. She is an absolute talent and I want to book on to her next one in early Autumn learning modern calligraphy lettering. At £35 I thought it was incredibly good value and a big thank you to Rich for getting me it as my present.