Week 26 2025 – Please be aware some links contained within this blog are affiliate links, and I will earn a few pennies for every click, you do not need to purchase the product. Thank you for clicking!
Life Update
Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Life’s been a little hectic since Ted’s tooth op.
At first he was recovering really well but by the Sunday, Ted took a turn for the worst and got very sick with a post-op fever and lethargy. The rest of the week really focussed around his recovery so we got very little else done around monitorring him and loading him with meds to get him better and keep him comfy. Thankfully, by the end of the following week he was back to his usual self. We also celebrated his 7th birthday which feels totally surreal. We had a lovely time flicking through old photos and videos.
Amelia’s walking and talking has come on leaps and bounds recently. We took her last week to our favourite beach for Ted’s birthday and we were so impressed at how far she managed! Her favourite songs of the moment are Happy Birthday (always to Daddy) and Twinkle Twinkle, which is very cute! Her sleep has been all over the shop, I presume from all the skills she is building but she’s also still waiting on 8 teeth.
We have taken quite a lot of stuff to the charity shop recently as the decluttering was starting to mount up. While its a great opportunity to earn money for our Christmas total (which I’m feeling a bit behind on), I haven’t had time to list it and it was starting to get to me, soI put my sanity mental first and got rid of it all.
Speaking of Christmas, I know its only June but I’ve started shopping for Amelia. I’ve picked up a couple of bargains in the argos toy sale for her birthday and Christmas that she should enjoy.
I also booked our Santa trip with my best friend, so we have that all organised too – we went last year and decided we’d make a bit of a tradition out of it as the girls grow older.
We’ve planned a couple of weekends away in the van arpund Dan’s cricket games, so we’ve made a few fixes and adjustments to see if it makes life easier as a family of four. We’re doing our first 2 night trip in July so it should be a nice test. Thinking about adapting the van has us considering our options for the next one, I feel like we learnt a lot with this van and more so since Amelia came along which we can take into the next one.
Alphabet Decluttering
As its been almost a month since our last Alphabet Decluttering update, we’re quadrupling up on the decluttering update this time – so hang on in there! With how busy things have been, and how short I am with ideas, I’ve given myself a bit of grace ready to come back to my second pass round with more energy.
I haven’t yet decided if I’ll follow in chronological order or if I’ll pick letters at random next time. Let me know what you think over on socials!
Letter W
Ideas: Wall Art, Window area/decorations, winter clothes, wardrobe, window treatments, Wardrobe accessories (belts, ties etc.), Wipes, Weights, Wicker baskets, Wool/Yarn, Wine Rack, Weather related items, Washing powder scoops, Wall calendars, Watering cans, Whistles.
Wedding: I had completely forgot that my Mam had been storing my wedding and bridesmaid dresses for me while we had work done to the house 2 years ago and she has some guests staying soon so I’ll be loading a few wedding bits to my vinted very soon.
I also have a collection of hen party bits, some were on vinted already and others aren’t so I’m going to pop the rest of those on vinted too.
I hard really wanted to tackle my wardrobe here but I just havent had time with everything going on, so that can wait for the next pass too.
Letter X
Ideas: eXtra stuff, eXpired items, eXamples, eXpensive items, eXperimental hobbies, Xmas decorations
“X” marks the spot – Unused Zones: This is a conceptual one. Identify any “dead zones” or areas in your home that have become “X” marks the spot for random items to accumulate. This could be a specific corner of a room, a shelf that always gets piled high, or the top of a seldom-used cabinet. Declutter everything from these zones and rethink their purpose to prevent future accumulation.
When I read this one I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to target. We have 2 places in our home that accumulate clutter very easily. For this I’m going back to the bottom of the stairs and the dog crate again… I know I’ve covered these before but they’re accumulating stuff again so I feel justified to try again.
- The bottom of the stairs – this has become a bit of a hub for all our “grab bags” for cricket, swimming, Amelia’s changing bags, her childminder bag etc. But we also dump a lot of things here that we need to take up stairs when we don’t have much time around our little whirlwind so I’ll.declutter it again and rethink what is working and what is not.
- The dog crate has a more expensive project coming its way, we’re going to create a family hub area. Given this is going to be a bit more costly, its still in the planning stages but we have a few good ideas to make this space work better for us.
Letter Y
Ideas: Yarn, Yellowed items, Yearbooks, Yard, Yoga mats and accessories.
Letter Z
Ideas: Zzzzz (sleep related items), Zero use items (things with zero practical use), Zips (broken), Zone clutter.
Meal Plan
Meal planning mostly went completely out of the window this month, we’ve survived on defrosting things day by day 🙈 I’m really looking forward to my food audits so I cans ee what we have and try some different meals, I try to do these in the first month of the quarter.
I’ve been really focussed on ensuring we have fruit and veg handy to cook so Amelia gets her 5 a day as I keep forgetting to do her vitamin drops!
I’m determined to try some new tea’s atm! We’ve had a really cool pasta and cheese which we saw on the Samsung Jamie Oliver channel. Instead of cauliflower, I tried it with leek brocolli and spinach from the freezer as well and it worked really well.
I really want to try making Smash burgers using my potato masher to flatten some meatballs I got on offer. I use my masher for so many things like flattening my flapjacks, mincing eggs for egg mayo… its a pain to store so I’m glad I get extra use out of it!
I’d love your tips on how to hide veg into every day meals, so if you see any please send them over. Its a great way to add flavour without texture, and get veg into my husband who’s really funny with the textures of cooked veg.
Round Up
Its been a busy and long old month, and I’m glad we’re now in a new month. I cant believe we’re half way through the year and summer already! I love the “reset” factor a new month brings. Mel robbins has a great podcast about temporal landmarks you should check out too.
Anyway, Happy July hopefully we’ll be back to weekly updates soon!
Love, Jo-Anne x
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