Meatless Monday {2020

So here we are: week 52 of Meatless Monday 2020… Final week of 2020! – we made it guys! It’s always one of the strangest weeks of the year between Christmas & New Year at the best of times, but I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve ask Alexa what the day is this week – I literally would have no idea without her 😉 But its been a fairly calm time too, time to rest, time to go for walks whilst its light and watch good escapism TV when it isn’t. I do overall feel positive about the possibilities which a new year brings, and hope that by the end of the coming year we really would have got to grips with a new reality a new normal, and hopefully we would have learn some lessons from all the challenges which 2020 has delivered us.

Bit too much truth in this not to repost from sustainableish

Here’s what we wore:

JamJarGill: Meatless Monday {2020 – week 52}

Me: Mummy to twins Jumper = Just4Twins, Long Sleeve Top & Jeans = GAP {thrifted}, Sheepskin Slippers = eBay {new}

Boys: Shirts and T-shirts = GAP {SALE}, Trousers = various 2nd hand sources, Socks and Vests = Supermarket

What’s in my ears:

Bit of a tune which lifted me up this week when I got an email to say it was out from Spotify 🙂

Here’s my week in 4:

Brilliant little game: I came across this Matching Letters/Spelling Game through a suggestion on my Amazon feed and thought it was so good I quickly put it on the boys Christmas list and how glad I am that I did, as Grandparents got it for them and they love it! It is great as it is something which they can play together or seperately (they got one each) and it really can help them get to grips with connecting words to spellings for the first time, phonics and picture/word association, its also great for developing memory as the idea is that you look at the word, sound it out and then cover it whilst you find the letters in the dice letters. To me it is a simple but really great little game which I would definitely recommend.
Lots more walks this week: I have tried to get out every day in nature, and I know this might be a bit of a repetative message now if you have been following me a while, but I said to my husband today that one of my biggest lessons of 2020 has been just how powerful and how much of a mood changer it has been to get out in nature, especially when you are stuck at home away from your loved ones.
Showing the boys places which I grew up: Isn’t it funny how memory works, though I we now don’t live very far from where I grew up in Milton Keynes, it’s far enough that we usually just walk there when we meet to social distance walk with my parents, this week we went back to Campbell Park – there were lots of new art to discover and it was a lovely walk. I always loved all the little “magic paths” there through the woodlands – and I was pleased to find they were all still there and the boys loved them too 🙂
New Electric Foam Soap Dispensers: Yes ok I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to gadgets, I also do love something which is both practical and beautiful, better still if it is eco friendly too and this is… We swapped to foam soap dispensers last year on my sisters recomendation, and I have been so pleased with it as an eco alternative to liquid soap, as I don’t get on with bars myself, and these mean that you use so so much less as you only need 1 part soap/shower gel to 5 parts water. Only snag with the ones we had, they were manual and the boys were therefore unable to use them as weren’t strong enough to press them down. These are the perfect solution, and they’re more hygenic (we know how much we need that as a selling point right now) too, as you don’t need to touch at all in order to operate. I’m very impressed with the design and would recommend 🙂

Video(s) of the week:

So this week we started watching the critically acclaimed Shondaland Netflix collaboration: Bridgerton. I am a big fan of Shonda Rhimes, I have watched Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice since the beginning, and one of my absolute favourite audiobooks of the last year was Shonda Rhimes book Year of YES! – if you haven’t read or listened to this you must – it give you so much insight into her, her work, what goes into making world famous and successful to the extreme shows like Greys and also pitches some pretty profound life-lessons too.

I love what she does with her characters and how she works so hard to make the world on the TV look like the one outside in terms of representation of every race, sex, sexuality etc, along with some powerhouse women, sometimes in the most unexpected of places. Definitely definitely worth a watch 🙂

What we ate this week…

Breakfast:

I started my day with this lovely fresh leaf tea I’ve been gifted to test by Mystic Brew Teas (well worth checking out if you haven’t already – the tea and packaging is eco all the way through). Then the boys had their milk downstairs whilst I went up to the quiet nursery to do my meditation and yoga and drink my tea (this is my winter alternative to tea in the garden), and works well as the boys can happily watch some TV and have some milk whilst I have a little me time to start the day – which I always feel better for.

Then we had some overipe bananas so I decided to make some banana pancakes for the boys (one of them liked them and one didn’t, but if your kids/you like banana/egg it’s a great way to use up bananas). Ty, who wasn’t so keen, had a bowl of cereal instead. I had the last of the panetone toasted and we all had some clementine on the side.

Lunch:

I had some cheese and onion crisps to keep me going mid morning, and then we went out for a walk, when we came back it was fairly late so we decided to have some cereal for lunch to keep things simple. 🙂

Dinner:

Late afternoon I had a hot lemon and honey and the boys had some fruit rice cakes and I had a pack of love heart sweets from the extensive Christmas supply of treats in the house (I have to do my bit in getting through them all of course!)

For dinner the boys, collective, had beans and toast and I had jacket potato with my favourite filling of cheese, black pepper and chives from the garden (garlic chives are hardy enough to still be going strong in my veg beds) with a side of mayo and salad and a glass of fresh juice. The boys had yeo mini fromage frais for afters – which they love!