The week that was #9

This week has been a week of two halves; work, lots and lots of work, and quality time with my little family.

DOING It's been pretty busy, I've spent some more time in the car travelling and I've been getting up extra early, even on my days 'off' (when do mum's ever have a day off, really?), just to get things done. It's left me feeling a tad frazzled and a bit under the weather but I've got just 10 days until I'm having a well earned break and it's definitely in my sights.

We did have some Ethan free time at the weekend which helped us to finally get some spring cleaning done. I'll be writing about this more later in the week but we managed to tackle quite a few things and make a noticible difference. Honestly, I never thought I'd get so excited about steam cleaning my floors!

It was hard work but so worth it and we even had some time to spare, so I got to have a bath. Bliss!

We really missed little man and couldn't wait to have him home again in the end. 

TRYING I've been really good with my creams for my psoriasis and you can see a difference, particularly when I stop using them for a day or two. I'm getting a lot better at making time for it and hopefully soon I'll find out about my light therapy.

I've also been having a few more tests to see just why my blood pressure seems so high. My GP referee me to a consultant at the hospital and they want me to wear a 24 hour monitor to see if that gives them any more to go on. In the meantime, I'm doing a lot of reading and making a few changes to my diet to help lower my cholesterol and do what I can to help my health in general. The next step is to work out how I'm going to move more...

GOING This week, on Mummy and Ethan Wednesday, we went to the new attraction at West Midlands Safari Park, the Land of the Living Dinosaurs, and had a really lovely day together (check out my post last Thursday for all the details).

At the weekend, Ethan went to the Sea Life Centre on Saturday with his Nanny and Grandad (and we'll be going again next weekend to preview a new attraction - well, Ethan does love his animals, as do we!) and on Sunday morning, we headed to one of our local parks. 

We are really fortunate to have some truly beautiful places to go within a 10 minute drive time of our house and Ethan loved going on the swings and slide and visiting the geese. 

In fact, it was almost exactly one year since we first took him there and he had his first go on a swing. 

Changed a bit, hasn't he?! 

EATING I've been cooking quite a lot this week, trying a few new things and getting an almost daily dose of avocado. God, I love that stuff! I've been adding it to tuna or houmous on Ryvita or crispbread at lunch and at the weekend, I couldn't resist whipping up a couple of bowls of homemade guacamole.

Anything goes with it, just mash one avocado, chop up some tomatoes, slice three spring onions, add the juice of half a lime then add a dash of hot sauce and a twist of black pepper. Serve with tortilla chips or on the side to some chilli. Either does it for me!

I've also taken our big spring clean as a chance to use up items that have long been stuck at the back of the cupboards. You know, those nearly empty bottles of sauce and long forgotten packets of who knows what? 

Well, I cleared out all the used or (*hangs head in shame*) out of date herbs and whatnot, wrote a list of what was left then planned my meal shop for the week around what we already had. It felt so good to do this, after being in the habit of just shopping for new and fresh food each week, and I was amazed at how many meals I had the main components for already.

I've got an Easter eats themed post coming later this week do you can see some of the things I've been trying.

I've also picked up Deliciously Ella's book. If you haven't heard of her, she's a fab, inspiring health and food blogger and her book is full of interesting information and recipe ideas using foods we should try eating more of. It sits nicely alongside my other recent read, I Quit Sugar for Life, and it's helping me think about and change my habits.

WEARING My new rose print tshirt dress and plimsoles from Cath Kidston are pretty lovely and the denim dress will be mine soon (my excuse is I have a discount code to use). That'll be it... until the new prints roll round!

PLANNING Hubs and I always tackle things around the home at this time of year and we will soon be giving our bedroom a mini makeover and tidying our garden and patio. I've got lots of ideas and will be sharing our plans soon, I promise.