A review of Swagbucks!

So I have been Swagbucking for a few months now. Swagbucks is a website where you get to do "tasks" that then give you points. The points can be used for conversion into either cash or gift cards. Depending on how many tasks you do daily depends on how fast you rack up the points. As with most things on the internet this is no get rich scheme but more of a 10 minute daily time filler that will net you some dosh to withdraw as pocket money.

So what are the tasks? ... Tasks include doing a search in their search bar, "watching" a set of videos, answering the question of the day, watching 3 short videos and answering if you like them or not, and answering surveys. These activities are daily and if all are completed then you net yourself some bonus points of the day on top. There is also a deal of the day - Eg sign up to X and get X points. If you do this the points can be big. I purchased Jessica's school shoes using this site at Clarkes and my points came back to me fine. I suspect there are other activities that can be done but I am yet to find them! There is a To Do list on the left side of the screen half way down and it ticks things off as you go which is handy. You click on the task and it takes you straight through.

They have a refer and earn section where you can refer people and earn a certain amount of points for what they do - again daily! I already have someone on this and have points trickling in daily.

How reliable is payout? Well I earnt 350 points which then got me a pay out of £3. I chose an amazon voucher as other wise you need to earn more to get a paypal payout. I had my voucher in my box within 24 hours. I would say it was before this even! Within 12 or less ... I spent it fine and have also spent 2 x further vouchers of £5. So I've had £13.50 over 2/3 months. You could earn more esp if you do all the surveys on offer. I tend not to do these any more though due to time and focus on the videos as you can just leave these running in the background in another browser to accumulate points.

So that's that! If anyone fancies a sign up feel free to use my referral here: http://www.swagbucks.com/p/register?rb=35370443

Anyone using any other methods of earning online like this? Drop some comments below! Until next time ... Keep your chin up and look to the sky! 🌞

New changes aloft?

So I have been meaning to research blogs more for a while. I hear that blogger just isn't cutting it any more and that you can really have more control and neat features over on wordpress. I had looked at this before I opened blogger way back when - yeeeears ago! However it looked cold and clinical to me then where as blogger looked more fun. I am now thinking that I can change and customise wordpress better as well as get hold of all the neat add on's. Who doesn't like toys to play with?! So I will at some point be looking into this more. I don't do changes though so this will be a real big thing for me both in terms of moving stuff over but also emotionally lol! 

I have got a site that redirects to blogger too. I like the idea of my own site and it's nice and easy to remember. We are parked at www.talesofahousewife.com! I was suprised I could get it but also pleased that I did. So if I move over to wordpress I will need to redirect that. I was highly impressed with the service I received when I got this name. I brought it through 1 to 1 at 99p for the 1st year and then the 2nd at a cheaper rate than godaddy was advertising. It helps to shop around ... 

The next day a guy from 1 to 1 called me up and asked if I needed help setting stuff up. I said no I was ok and he said I can tell. He had looked at my site all ready and said it all looked ok and good to go. He was very friendly and to the point. More impressively he was happy to put the phone down and not try and sell me anything else! However it was only a few days before the annoying calls came in from random web development people all around the globe asking me if I needed help in making my site ... I am still fighting them off now!

So that's that - A little behind the scenes update. Oh and here is a fun fact for you all. In the month of May my blog received 550 hits!!! And here are the countries we are having hits from: UK ~ USA ~ China ~ Bulgaria ~ Canada ~ Germany ~ Ireland ~ South Africa ~ India ~ Ukraine ~ Poland ~ Singapore ~ Bahrain ~ Ghana ~ Netherlands ~ Philippeans!That is just barmy! My previous to that had been 238 hits in September 2011 so a long time ago! And all those countries! We really are worldwide! So thank you all for reading my mindless drivel! I must be doing something right! As always let me know what you want to see more of?? Pop this in the comments below. Hope all are well and enjoying summer?! Well it was a couple of weeks ago but I was in bed for all of the heat and missed it all!!! Any ways chin up and keep looking to the sky. ☀

The garden rescue continues!

Well I have been MIA for a few weeks as I have been ill. I somehow managed to get food poisoning. Any way I am back on my feet now and starting to catch up from everything that got behind during this time.

I started this a few days ago but have been somewhat struck by writers block again! So many things to write about none of them feel right to do right now.

So I thought about giving another garden update and as this is where I have spent most of my time this seems best fitting.

OK So once I had recovered and started to regain some control on the house I then ventured out into the garden to continue rescuing it from the weeds!

I tend to most of my gardening in the evening. Get the kids down to sleep and get out there to it! I am that figure you see moving at the bottom of the garden in the almost dark LOL! I get out around 9 and can whip in an hour before bed whilst the days are still drawing out for the next couple of weeks.

I have been working my way up the left side of the garden. This started as basic weeding to try and find the plants that existed there. It has now moved onto digging a spades depth and sieving the lot to destone it aswell ...! Ever ambitious me! Some of the bigger stones I have put by the fences at the bottom We have some large gaps which often lets weeds and over growth through. So I have been bunging some there in the hope it might keep some of that back too.

Last month I put in some new plants into my right side border so I shall add piccies of that here. They have obviously somewhat grown since then so I need to do another posting showing those and all of the garden in flower at a later date!

The grass - aka weeds - have got somewhat tall! As the lawn has only been done twice this year I'm suprised that we haven't been tripping over them before tbh! Just so much to do out there.

My veggie patch at the top is full of weeds again following the rain so once I have finished this left side I shall be going round the whole lot again!!! This time it should be easier though ... should! Ha!

I planted some carrots in about a week ago. I can't say they are looking to happy with the transplantation though so not sure they will live. I have courgette and beans to put in too at some point. I have a raspberry plant I planted last year which has some fruit on! YAY! Got it cheap on clearance so am excited about that!

I also need to finish going over the pond and stripping back some of the growth. That is a pain to do though as the kids want to get their hands in too which obviously is not a good idea!!! Once everything is under order I can then venture out into the front garden which hasn't been touched in years bar the lawn. I really don't know what to do with that it's just one unattractive mess really and I would like to do something nicer but at the same time I don't have the time. I've even thought of growing veg etc out there but I know people would steal it lol!

We have a stone area outside our front door which is unattractive too. And whilst long term this area will be built over for now I want to do something nicer with it.

Today I started listing up my teasels on ebay to sell. I am somewhat behind on that as I have just been swamped with other stuff but they are in stock and need to go :-D I had a bid on one a few hours after putting them up too! Happy day'z!

So that's it for now! Hopefully updates will be a bit more regular from now on.  Here are my pretty poppies in full bloom to end on ... Take care all and keep looking up! 🔆

Gerd/Bile reflux ... And me.

So I have had reflux issues since my first pregnancy with Jessica. In hindsight I think I had a mild form of this even before that as I just chucked the rennies down and left it at that!

I started this post 2 days ago. And in true mother style have been distracted from it at least 4 times. I knew what I was going to write and how when I started but right now I have writers block and don't know what to write! Argh! Right I shall proceed and no doubt cause a mess of it any way ...

After my caesarean section with Jess I had a very upset stomach - in terms of pain - and the gp prescribed me Omeprozole which is a PPI for 1 month. For those that don't know a PPI basically reduces acid in the stomach so that your stomach can heal itself. The one month course was up and all was grand so I stopped at the end of the pack. Fast forward 18 months or so and I had been having a lot of chest pain again and a couple of episodes of horrific pain that gripped my throat and chest so tightly that I couldn't breath. I would be leaning over the window sill in agony. I couldn't sit or lay down and it didn't stop. This would go on for up to a few hours. My shortest time was 30 minutes.

I thought this is definately the time to see the GP. I had horrific pain after every meal that would have me laying on the bed for up to a few hours at a time. The GP diagnosed me with reflux in the March and gave me Omeprozole again. When this didn't even as much as touch it I contacted them a week later and they added in Ranitidine at bedtime. This again didn't help massively but began to take the edge off after about 6 months. I had a endoscopy in the May as I wasn't responding to drugs so they wanted to see what was really going on! The scope showed Gastritis and Bile relux. Gastritis is basically just a lot of inflammation and swelling and can cause bleeding. Bile however shouldn't be in the stomach as this stays low below the bottom valve in your stomach causing food to travel one way - down and not have anything else coming back up! I was advised to start on Sucraflate - Which is a "magic" drug that coats itself to the lining of your stomach to stop the acid from irritating it thus meaning it can heal itself. However I could not get this for love or money! Apparently the manufacturer was having issues and couldn't get it. So the GP called the manufacturer who said that I should use gaviscon advanced instead (at around a £10 a bottle!! :-O) I tried for a further 18 months ringing the pharmacy monthly to get this then gave up trying!

I had another episode along the way of the horrific and I called the ambulance out. On this occassion they thought my aorta had burst and sent me off to Southampton general hospital! This was the second time I had been in an ambulance sending my prayers up that I would survive to see my babies again! They diagnosed me with esophageal spasm's and said that I needed to get the GERD (acid reflux) under control. They didn't even seem to acknowledge the previous diagnosis of bile reflux. The only way I can describe the pain is labour pains but in your chest. The exact same tight gripping pain except this was not as kind as labour. Labour gives this to you then gives you a rest. This was one long constant never ending contraction. I tried buscopan - a muscle relaxant for IBS - out of the blue once incase it helped and it actually did. Reduced the pain to 20 minutes! Now any hint of a spasming stomach or anything down there that is quite tight and I straight away chuck in some of those incase it comes back again!

In the October of that year I fell pregnant with Sophie and anything relating to my health went out of the window. Roll on to December last year I saw the GP who was not happy that the drugs weren't controlling this. I started a flare up in the July and was still in daily pain so he referred me to gastroenterology in January. I met with them last month and was advised to try sucraflate again. I told them I had never been able to get it - apparently it is now back in stock and she got some for me there and then from the hospital pharmacy! She also told me that if this didn't help to settle it she would send me off for a ph test to determine if this was acid that was going up into my - now very sore daily  - throat or bile. I am quite scared for this as I fear that Sophie will just try and rip this thing off my face! It will basically be a catheter fed into my throat down to my stomach and will have probes on the end at various points that will detect back to a box when I reflux and what it is. Bile or stomach acid. We need to know this as apparently if it is bile then the ppi's can actually make this worse!

We did talk about surgery and I said I am not keen due to the fact it can cause more problems than you go in with and she agreed so this is off the cards so far. 

I tried sucraflate for 5 days. This resulted in really bad pain that sent me off to bed again after every meal. So I stopped using this and went back on the ppi's as she had told me to do previously. I saw the GP about something else and he read through the notes and told me to try again and that I needed to contact the consult. I dropped her a line putting her in the picture and telling her all symptoms I had ever had. She said to stay on the ppi and see if it settles things. If not she will rearrange a repeat endoscopy. I will mostly likely play this up any way even if things have improved. As in the light of loosing FIL to cancer recently this will put my mind more at ease! Stomach and throat cancers are diagnosed mostly when terminal. So I would rather have another scope and pick this up early than get to that stage ...! Highly unlikely I have it but even so ... Not good for my anxiety otherwise! 

So this is where I am at right now ~  A kinda no mans land in the middle! All we know is I am refluxing something but we don't know if it's bile, acid or both. To try and calm this flare up down I am making small changes. A few weeks ago I changed my breakfast cereal from weetos to porridge. This is meant to be good for your guts. I have reintroduced a daily dose of actimel and am eating more peppers. I have stopped having food late at night which is a massive killer. I love my chocolate before bed - which I really can't do anymore! And I miss my bowls of cereal before bed. I really need those too as I can't put weight on and have lost loads since having Sophie. I really want to put more weight on but every thing I need to eat to do so I can't. Argh! As and when my stomach settles I might sneak in the odd one here and there but need to be careful. As one bowl would be enough for me to wake up with a really painful throat the next morning which could last weeks. This sure doesn't heal quickly!

Right it's late here so I shall go and put myself to bed. Before I reach for a bowl of cherrios as my stomach is growling for food ... Sleep well all! Until next time don't forget to subscribe for immediate updates ... Chin up! And look to the sky! 🌛

We have become THOSE parents!

Saturday we went to Sparsholt countryside day. This a college farm that opens it's doors for you to look around. We arrived at 10am which is about 30 mins after it opened. The queues weren't bad at all however it was cloudly and lightly raining. This soon turned to a quick bout of heavy rain just as we were paying to go in! Thankfully within 5 mins it was all over and no more rain for the rest of the day - Horray!

We decided to get a trailer ride up the hill to the top rather than walking. Partly due to having to push a heavy Sophie up a field and mainly due to having to drag a tired Jessica up. So rather than set off on the wrong foot with an exhausted child we chose to cheat :-)

We saw cow's being milked, a fish farm, horses in a show ground, sheep being sheered, monkeys, rabbits, hamsters, rabbits and mice and reptiles of alsorts.

We found a hidden jumble sale which was good as I picked up some books for the kids for 25p each. Bargin! 

Jess found the fun fare and had a 4 minute for £2 on both the big slide and the mobile soft play unit. She wanted a go on the tea cups but the machine was broken so they got given a refund.

We then searched down the field with all the vans of food. We all chose something different so I joined the fish and chip queue for the girls, Someone else in the hog roast queue and hubby in the hot dog queue! We all queued up for 50 minutes! So nooot impressed with that wait! Thankfully I always carry snacks so handed out crisps to the girls to tide them over as it was almost 2pm when we were done!

The sun was starting to come out by this time so we sat on the grass and ate our food. Jess then had a play with some nearby toys and I had a look in the craft tent and found some more cheap books. We then headed over to the plant sale where I struggled to carry a lot of plants and push a pram! This limited me to what I could get. In the meantime the others were at the "crazy golf" which was just hitting a ball on a bit of grass. We decided to head back to the car so started walking down the hills. We diverted into a tent to buy some cheese cake for a snack. Again this was just crushed crunchie with some cream and then a choice of whatever toppings you wanted. We chose strawberries, twix, chocolate sauce and mint aero. After eating this we went back to the car. We ended the day with a mini nap on the sofa and then doing some gardening. It wasn't until bed time I realised that despite taking the sun cream we had forgotten - first time ever - to apply it to the children. ARGH! Jess was ok but Sophies face was some what red! It had gone down by morning and better by today. Deary me we have become one of those parents! ... No pictures today i'm afraid as I wasn't efficient enough this time! Well except for this rabbit asleep in a hole I saw.

All about Sophie!

So Sophie is now 21 months old! This has gone soooo quick and so slow all in one for me. I am very traumatised as it means that she is almost 2 and we can no longer call her "the baby"! :( However it also excites me as we can ditch all the rest of the baby stuff either in the loft or in the ever growing "to sell" pile. Need any baby stuff up to 2 years anyone???! ...

So they say that when you have another child they will be completely different to the first. This I got but by heck I didn't appreciate just HOW different they would be! Jess was a 5lber new born and is still tiny - measuring on the 25th centile like me. And Sophie was 7.7lb at birth and raced up to the 91st centile by 16 weeks old or so. She is still huge now! With weight comes added challenges for mummy. Until literally the last 2 weeks she would only go to sleep if rocked. Whilst I still rock her for naps (oh my poor back, hips, knees and pelvic floor!!) hubby has found that he can rock her for 5 to get her sleepy then she will let him put her in the cot. This results in her self settling if she lays still or a bit of rolling around then going to sleep. Or needing a bit of help from stroking/patting. But again this is a step down from needing to be rocked off. So we have some progress! We last gave her a try with sleep training - gradual retreat - before christmas. This didn't work as she was also going through the 18 month sleep regression so we gave up to come back to it at a later date. The imminent death of father in law became of prime importance.

Baby 2 newborn period was dead easy!! Much easier than I worried about. I had already mastered breastfeeding and cosleeping. As I was in hospital again after having her like with Jess as she was a Caesarean due to breech I knew the drill. I hated harrassing midwives to keep passing her to me for feeds every hour so I just took to cosleeping. They tucked us in and pulled the side up so we were safe which was very sweet! This time I was in a high dependancy room for the first 3 days/nights so just me and her. So once again I pulled her into bed with me and we snugged up. Every time she wanted a feed I would just latch her on leave her to it. Soooo pro :-D

This continued when we got home. Jess took to her like a dream.

I had prepared a new box of toys and books for Jess as a suprise so when I was breastfeeding I could just whip it out to entertain her. Sleeping was a case of Sophie in the moses basket for the first part of the night and she came into our bed around 3am when I was sooo tierd I didn't care so longs as I got sleep! She ended up cosleeping until she was around 10 months old when she started sleeping though the night without needing night feeds.

12 weeks til around that 10 month time I had PND and Anxiety so took on cbt. This seemed to help if for no other reason that to give me a reason to get out the house once a week - baby and child free! We had home help come in from home start but tbh they were useless over all and if anyone was as desperate as I was for someone to just take the kids and regular then I wouldn't really recommend it. If you need practical help in the house and don't mind missing out weeks at a time then it might work for you. 

Sophie has mostly been behind Jess. So not sleeping through til 10 months but Jess did this from 12 weeks. Not doing any self settling really until 21 months - Jess gained this skill around 5/6 months! She also started teething later than Jess too. I think she was around 9 months where as Jess was 8. She started solids at 26/27 weeks as that kinda crept up fast on me and I wasn't prepared for it! Jess was raring to go by 24 weeks. In regards to breastfeeds they were about the same by day but once Sophie stopped the morning feed she didn't want any substitute. Jess had cows milk Sophie just has water. With food Sophie loves all things veg and mostly all fruit - brocalli is a massive favourite! Where as Jess to this day will not touch any veg at all. And has become fussy with fruit.

Sophie is very cuddly and kissy where as Jess is quite standoffish. She doesn't really like cuddles as much. She will come up for them sometimes but gets bored quick. She is very sensitive so needs treating gently and for me to plan in cuddle times.

Sophie loves water play now. She can often be found tipping water from her drinking cup all over the place! Into bottles, play kitchen cups, over her dolls face, books - just any where!

Her favourite thing to say right now is "car," "ride". When she stands on the changing table she likes to watch what is going on out the window. And I am often fighting a madly waving arm to get her into a top whilst waving bye bye bus! She loves birds and is always saying hi birdy,

If she can't find you she can often be heard saying "where yar you". If she does something like make a mess she can be heard saying "oooooh did it" ...

So she is right little character now! She loves books and we do story time separate at bed time so that they each get their own mummy/parent time. 

Sophie sleeps funny on some of her naps. Look at these 2 pictures of her hands tucked in and her little feet crossed over lol!

She can count very well. 1-2-3-4-5 ... 9 7 8 9 ... ?! But this good as they are only meant to be mastering 1-3 pre 2 years old. Jess is a numbers girl though so recon she will follow likewise!

She has just started doing puzzles now.

Her hair is much longer than Jessica's was at this age! And it also straight. Jess has these most gorgeous curls so I am missing those for sure! The other big thing is hairclips or bobbles. We put them in and she immediately pulls them out!This is why she looks somewhat feral in most of her pictures ...!

Right that will do for Sophie! Here are a few piccies to end with :-)

Chin up and look to the sky! 🌸Remember to subscribe for updates! Until next time take care! X

All about Jessica!

So today I thought I would write up a little update on Jessica.

Jess is still doing school and nursery until the end of the month. We love Farley and really are mega upset that she only has 3 weeks left! After half term she will be in school for 4 days until September. And she will continue to have her one day a week at home with mummy. (That said the other day she said she would rather go to Farley!!!) So that will be the end of Farley until October when Sophie will start.

Jess is doing fab at school. Parents evening's have reflected her strength in maths which is what we already knew. She loves anything numbers related - always has! And is slightly behind in knowing things related to time - this morning, last night etc etc. So we have an area to work on :) I actually have a board game that has this type of stuff on it along with days of the week so we shall be working on that :-D

She has just gone up a shoe size to a size 9.5e so we need to get her more new shoes. Not bad though as I was under the impression kids grow out of shoes mega quick and was expecting to be buying new ones before the new year! I also need to get her sandles for summer and a pair of crocs for the garden too. I shall look for those in sales and ebay etc too.

Jessica is on tapestry - this is a site the school sets up that they upload the children's observations and photo's to for you to observe their progress in reception. We have had all manor of pictures from her surrounded by boys in the mud kitchen making mud soup to a picture of her being the teacher and leading the "class"! She loves doing this at home and can often be found making a register and asking her teddies, the cup?!, chair?! etc if they are here ...!! Even mummy, daddy and Sophie have to sit in class ...!

We have a new sand and water table that both girls enjoy and Jess can be found making yet more soup in one of my saucepans - sand, water, daisies and compost are a real favourite! She also likes putting in dishcloths and washing them in the water side?! 

She is very into collecting nom noms at the minute and has made a bus for them to sit in - complete with seat belts with daddy's help.

Well that's it for a quick update! Next I will need to put an update up all about Sophie! Until next time ~ Chin up and look to the sky! 🌈