#LifeLately - fireworks & superheroes

Hello! How are you all? Well, I hope.

Me? I'm a bit worn out. I'm like one of those solar controlled nodding figures - as soon as the sun goes down, I start to power down.

As any working mum knows (heck, any woman really), life is a constant juggling act and if one thing is going well or keeping you busy, there's a knock on effect and something has to give. Work is always busy and trying to keep everything going at home can be hard sometimes. (More on this theme to come later this week... if I get the time, that is!).

We've had lots of time together as a family and plenty else going on too, so we are very much counting down to the Christmas holiday and I hope to start the festive feeling soon.

The fireworks over bonfire weekend helped to get things off with a bang. We went to West Midlands Safari Park, where we often go, and had a great time.

Since then, I've been back to my uni as alumni to help at an open day, Ste has been to a car show and Ethan has dressed up as Spider-Man for Children In Need.

How grown up is my little man looking, eh? Craziness.

I've also been busy collecting for Project Shoebox (find out more in my post here or take a look at my Facebook event page). I've been overwhelmed by the generous donations of friends, family and colleagues but also complete strangers who have come across this blog or a post shared on Facebook and who have reached out to be involved.

I'm collecting for another two weeks and will be delivering the completed packages (thank you to Hotter Shoes Solihull and Merryhill for donating plenty of lovely shoeboxes especially, to help) to refuges in Birmingham at the start of December. Any unwanted toiletry items or niceties, like a Christmas card, magazine or child's toy, are gratefully received.

I'm so glad to be a part of this on a bigger scale this year and even BBC WM has been in touch to cover the story, so it really is worth all the effort and having a spare room that resembles the back room of Boots for a little longer.