Do you ever feel like you are just existing? You get up, get the kids, ready for school, set off on the same familiar journey, almost on auto pilot, and the day ends as quickly as it started, and you wake up and the whole process begins again. Like so many other parents I try and squeeze as much into one day as possible, juggling work, an endless to do list and trying to keep on top of the house. It’s basically organised chaos, and the organised bit might be stretching the truth a little.

There’s baskets of washing that need putting away, trousers and tops that have been shaken to within an inch of their lives rather than ironed, (anyone else use that trick?!) and I find smoothing them as I fold them can work a treat too in desperate times! Baby wipes are my best friend, just don’t look at the window ledges too close or you might see the tell tale ever so slightly smeary signs that I’ve whizzed round the picture frames with a wet wipe instead of dusting. 

It almost feels sometimes like we are survival mode. The house isn’t dirty it’s just not quite up together. Instead of Saturday mornings spent hoovering the stairs and evenings in front of an ironing board we work and play because life feels too short. I’ve been too bogged down with the weight of grown up life lately and I’ve missed enjoying the boys. I keep thinking what will they remember when they’ve left home? Will it be that there was never an airer of clean washing in the kitchen or will it be the bike rides, trips to the seaside and movie nights under a blanket with a 7pm “midnight feast”?

If I could wave a magic wand the one thing I’d want is a cleaner. To just take the stress out of keeping a busy household ticking over. Term time weeks just race by, the boys stay late for clubs three days a week and with darkness descending before we even make it back on the driveway I desperately make the most of the time we do have at weekends. All the chores mount up during the week and it feels miserable to spend a precious Saturday sorting the recycling and washing bathrooms floors. We both work from home a lot of the time and don’t have that same longing to be together as a four that I imagine so many including my sister and brother in law feel if you have a long commute or work silly hours or just simply miss them during the day. 

In lots of ways working from home is such a blessing and in others it can make you forget how precious quality time can be. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary it can be as normal as being at home on a Sunday afternoon for a roast and a game of Guess Who or taking the dogs out with their scooters. 

As part of Slumberdown’s latest and may I say greatest competition I challenged the boys to a noughts and crosses pillow game and a few rounds of duvet Twister. They LOVED it. We used every pillow in the house to make our board and then drew and cut out our own cardboard pieces. They are surprisingly competitive when it comes to noughts and crosses, whispering tactics and strategies in my ear as they tried to out fox each other!

Our version of Twister couldn’t have been easier, we whipped the cover off one of their duvets and used some sheets of coloured felt from their arts and crafts stash. We borrowed a dice from a board game and we were set. You realise how inflexible you are when you play against nimble 5 and 7 year olds! 

We are not quite sure who was the winner as we all ended up collapsing in a heap after about 4 turns and then the inevitable pillow fight took over.

It sounds silly but I need to force myself sometimes to make time for games like this. Forget the list of things that should be done, that need to be done, and put them off for just one more day. Some jobs can’t wait but lots can. With our bedroom and bathroom renovations well under way I am not going to win the battle for a show home house anytime soon but even when it’s all plastered and painted and the carpets are laid I still think I won’t be up to date on washing and ironing! Well unless my mum comes to rescue me. 

Slumberdown’s new competition is all about making the most of time with our kids and they are offering one very lucky winner the chance to win their housework for a WHOLE YEAR! 50 regular cleans and 2 deep Spring cleans from Molly Maid to help give you more time to spend with your family instead of cleaning bathrooms and washing dishes! 

All you have to do to enter is share and upload a photo of your family and a moment you wish you had more of. If you could free up more of your time with a fairy godmother visiting once a week what would you spend that time with the kids doing? Tell Slumberdown for your chance to win.

Share your photos with #LifesWhatYouMakeIt. Upload from Instagram or Twitter or upload your file directly from your phone or computer here. 

Good luck!*

Full terms and conditions can be found here.

Disclosure* In collaboration with Slumberdown - I wish I could enter though - what a prize!

I'm starting my new year's resolutions early this year. To draft less publish more! I've decided not to wait until January in the hope that when 2017 comes along I will hit the year running. 

I've been spoilt with lovely moments this year, met new faces and caught up with friends I've made through blogging at events and conferences and taken thousands of photos that have sat unedited for far too long! I feel like this year has raced away, my 35 before 35 list has too many things left unticked but instead of letting myself get consumed with feelings of guilt and despair (it grips us all sometimes doesn't it?) I am going to share. Even if that means I have some unseasonal posts coming up with sunshiny memories. Because I have so many stories untold, moments I want to record on this blog for me, for my boys and hopefully that will make you smile too.

I follow a lovely account on Instagram called allenandbear, a talented seamstress who creates beautiful homeware. It took me exactly 30 seconds after she posted her latest Rifle Paper Co fabric cushions on her feed to skip over to her Etsy store and buy them. Psst she has a few left if you love the print as much as I do!

It reminded me that I'd not shared these photos on the blog from a gorgeous afternoon with Etsy UK and Teri from The Lovely Drawer. Oh to have her skill or even the amount of skill she has in her little finger. Her hand moves with a rhythm of a gently lapping shore and watching her demonstrate the basic strokes before we started on our own practise pages almost had me in a trance. 

After cocktails and canapés and lots of giggly hellos and warm hugs we made our way into the orangery at the back of the Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings. Under a canopy of ferns and leaves we set about trying to master the art of brush lettering which is a lot harder than you might think. You need to generate the movement of your hand from your elbow, relieving the pressure on the brush on your upward stroke and coming down heavier and thicker on your downward strokes. 

Oh to have Teri's skill or even the amount of skill she has in her little finger. Her hand moves with a rhythm of a gently lapping shore and watching her demonstrate the basic strokes before we started on our own practise pages almost had me in a trance. 

We started by making simple marks, before we tackled actual words. I can't think of a more relaxing but rewarding hobby to start this winter if you fancy learning a new skill. Because when you practise you can see the letters forming, instant pieces of art from a blank sheet of paper. 

We sipped tea, drank more pretty cocktails and raided the buffet table bursting with scrumptious cake and sandwiches. A best of British afternoon!

I always been an Etsy fan. It's my first port of call for invitations and party decorations for the boys, digital sets that I can customise, unique vintage finds that save me Sundays trawling around antique shops. Of course I love a visit to a good vintage emporium, a good root around and a browse at a local car boot, but time never feels on my side at the moment and to be able to search for specific items from Etsy sellers who have done all those hours of rooting for you is wonderful! I've bought mirrors, vases, sets of Russian Dolls, all sorts! 

Etsy UK is giving so many small businesses a professional national and international platform. I have a rolling wish list of prints and glasses for Father Christmas, original affordable artwork instead of mass produced pieces. It was an absolute pleasure to hear from the Etsy UK team and how they are working hard to encourage more and more emerging creative talents to open an account and offer so much support through their rapidly growing social network. 

Have a peek for yourself, you never know Santa might have access to your Pinterest wish list board ;)

Thank you so much for the kind invitation Etsy UK to an inspiring afternoon.

Well half term didn't quite work out as planned. We started the week with a visit from my sister, niece and baby nephew, had a whole host of activities on our 72 hours mini holiday together scheduled out and then a small boy came down with a horrid virus and we spent the entire time holed up, watching Baby Einstein videos on loop. By the time they left I had caught his nasty bug and the rest of the week was a pretty sorry tale.

I've felt so guilty that we didn't have a magical week, that a precious school holiday has gone in a flash and I've not been able to keep all my promises. We've had workmen in the house all week crashing around in our bedroom, stripping the old 4 layers of wallpaper ready for plasterers to come in this week and building the ensuite bathroom walls. There are boxes everywhere, a sink and new toilet at the top of the stairs, the dust is beyond controllable and every chair or window ledge seems to be littered with odd bits I move from room to room that need new homes. Theres been no pumpkin patch outing like last year, cancelled play dates and postponed plans. We've been through every toy in the house, they've rediscovered beloved old train tracks, figures and crafts, the dressing up is now covering the landing outside their bedroom and the iPads have been a bit of a saviour. 

Turns out the boys actually needed a proper rest, they have LOVED not getting dressed until midday and although there were a few big bottom lip situations when I had to tell them I just didn't have the energy to entertain all their friends who were due to come over, in general they've relished not being rushed. They've slept in well, pottered around like little old men, there's a stack of new artwork that can't possibly go near the recycling bin and by the end of the week when I was feeling 90% better, we managed an "exciting trip" to the supermarket and raided the 75p pumpkin stand. 

On Sunday they helped me with a couple of "jobs" and were marvellous blog assistants. I have some gorgeous photos to share this week on a couple of collaborative posts and I finally dug out the camera remote to take our Me and Mine photo for this month. 

Why didn't I do this earlier?!!!! Years of running back and forwards when all I needed to get them interested in a family photo was to let them hold the remote!

They look really big to me in these pictures. I've seen quite a lot of my 9 month old nephew in the last month and they are like giants next to him. Great big lovely boys, strong as oxs' healthy and happy. They have been forced in a way to really play together over the last week, and we can see a true best friendship developing. I dosed myself up on Saturday afternoon and we raced to a joke shop for a last minute Halloween outfit for each of them. We had to veer them away from the as Sammy called it "saucy section" with the fake boobs and hen night paraphernalia and the next day he asked who would buy all those things. We had a gentle and as innocent as possible conversation with them about stag dos and hen parties and best men who dress you up etc. He cringed with embarrassment and said "Well I am not having anything saucy at all!" Ollie replied that he would be his best man and it would definitely be saucy. "BBQ beef sauce everywhere!" We couldn't stop laughing at his completely literal interpretation and he still thinks BBQ ketchup is called BBQ Beef! I loved their assumption that they will be best men for each other. 

I hope so. My pair of best friends and brothers.

The finale of our rather flat week was a Halloween lunch for a few of their school friends and if I could post the videos we snapped on our phones I would. But they got so carried away during the post lunch disco (think Crazy Frog, Gangnam Style, Little Mix and Justin Bieber all at full blast and 5 wild boys dancing/jumping on the sofa) they stripped off and were break dancing in their pants! What is it with boys and getting near naked all the time?!!! 

Rich had snuck out during a rendition of Happy and set up a sweetie scavenger hunt at the bottom of the garden and as the mummies arrived to pick up they all raced bare footed, some still just in pants, to forage for their loot! 

In just 3 hours I felt like we had gone some way to make up for the lack lustre half term holiday and we headed off to my sister's yesterday afternoon to celebrate her birthday (Hence the on time drafting one day late publishing of this post - but hey it's a vast improvement on the last couple of months!) with the boys saying words like "epic" and "sick". Apparently that's a good thing. 

It was no bad thing in hindsight that we were forced to slow down last week and they are back to school tomorrow ready to see all their pals and for once really rested. I need to tell myself that we don't need exciting adventures all the time to have a good time, simple can sometimes (if not lots of times) be just as super. 

Come and share your family photo for October with Lucy, Jenny, Fritha, Katie and Alex and I.