5 Photos / Randoms on a Friday.

This photo adequately sums up my life.  It's friday.  Twins are asleep.  I could be picking up the house, or putting away laundry, or doing any of the 500 million things (or, like, 20 things) on my to do list.  But if Helly the Skelly can sit and chill then I guess I can too.

Kids are weirdly in love with this skeleton.  We also bought a bag of bones to play with, because that's normal?  This weekend it's time to decorate for halloween.

Life continues to be busy! On Monday this guy turned EIGHT.  Grandma made a football cake.  Kiddo was more impressed than he looks in this photo.

Eight is GREAT.  I'll add that to my kid age rhymes:

See it through till two

Survive to five

Eight is great

Last weekend I took the twins to Castle Coch to look at leaves but the leaves hadn't changed a lot.  I am just ready for leaves!  It was an adorable expedition without leaves, and I even remembered to send a photo to Elisabeth for the Cool Bloggers Walking Club:

My mom is here right now and she brought a Trader Joe's care package and it is the best! I know I'm in my 40s but I can still love a care package right?  Also, how come it took me 15 years of living in the UK to realize that all I ever want from the US is everything from Trader Joes?

I have been weirdly curious about the Pilot Juice + Pen:

Because I couldn't find it in the UK I became more and more curious, and finally I ordered it from JetPens, which is a US pen company that imports from Japan, and had them sent to the US, and then ferried over to me.  The Japanese company had weirdly complicated customs fees and the Swedish company that seemed to import/export seems curious and sometimes you just need to go with what's easiest even if the easiest thing is shipping pens from Japan to the USA and then to the UK.  

They are fun pens.  I like writing things with them.

Do you have a skeleton in your house?  In your closet?  Do you like funky pens?  What about football cakes?

10 October Good Things So Far

I know I'm a basic human with basic likes and basic needs, but I love October.  It's possibly my favourite month of the year.  

This year we are having an exceptionally excellent transition into fall.  There have been clear blue skies and leaves are changing and we haven't had the relentless endless days of rain.  

I don't know if it's the blue skies or the right cycle day, but here are some things that are working for me right now.

1. Having a Cleaner Again

I said I was basic right?  

I randomly found a cleaner and she has come three times and she seems nice and normal.  She came on Wednesday and the house is still clean this evening and it means that my Rachel time tomorrow doesn't need to be spent cleaning the house! And I find that when my house is not a total dump I don't mind spending an extra 5 minutes organizing something small or wiping down a windowsill.  

I missed having a cleaner for the last two years.

2. Writing Texts on Apple Notes

I hate texting on my phone and typing on my phone.  

At night I will sometimes write a batch of texts out in Apple Notes on my computer and then transfer them into texts using copy and paste for quickness.  I realize I could use whatsapp web the same way but I still despise whatsapp and prefer text.  

It's also good for when I am up at very early o'clock in the morning but don't want to actually send someone a text at 4:30am, I put it in notes and send it at a human hour instead.

3. Cottage Cheese

I know I'm so so basic, but I have always loved cottage cheese.  

Recently Waitrose put this cottage cheese on sale and it was so good! I haven't found a UK cottage cheese I like so I was excited to finally find one.  And then I learned that cottage cheese is high in protein and it's a US obsession at the moment and I can see why because it's so tasty.  

4. Tofu and Tempeh

I am a little obsessed with tofu and tempeh.  Maybe it's my perimenopausal protein addiction, but I've also maybe started thinking about being a vegetarian and it seems I should probably learn to eat good veggie food and not just "not meat".  We'll see what happens.  

5. Kids in Costumes

It's just really cute!

6. Library Holds, Reading, TBR

I was excited to learn that Emily St. John Mandel has a new book out!  

But 228 people got there first:

7. The New Celebrity Traitors

It's just a great show! Andy and I have been watching it in chunks in the evenings while doing stretching.  British celebrities are so... odd.  

8. Early to bed, Early to Rise

Once or twice a week I've been going to bed at 8:30pm and waking up at 4:30am and it's made mornings feel delightfully long and lovely.  I've mostly used it for sport, but I'm also still working through photo album project and just enjoying a cup of coffee before the twins wake up.

9. Twins being almost 3.

I remember when Lily turned 2 life just started to feel easier.  Many parents say 2 is a bit of a milestone... there's probably a reason that the three year age gap is fairly common!  

I had been so excited for the twins to turn 2 for that same sense of relief... and then they turned 2 and relief didn't come.  I am hopeful that twins at 3 is what a singleton (that's what twin moms call single/non-twin kids... it's a word I did not know before) is at 2.  I think it's getting easier.  Finally.

10. House goals

Something about fall always makes me want to cozy and improve my house.  The next big purchase is single beds for the twins so we can finally get rid of the cotbed once and for all! I sense an IKEA trip in the future.  I also have dreams of putting an accent wall in the lounge... stay tuned.  I love cosyfying the house for fall....

What's working for you this October?

September in Review - One Month in One Post

September was a wild month.

Lily turned 6!

I flew to New York

I got back from New York and had a 2-day workweek, followed by a long weekend with Lily's birthday party among other adventures.

Our nanny was on holiday the next week... another 2-day workweek for me (not ideal!) and 3 days of childcare (also not ideal).  I tracked time for Laura's Time Tracking Challenge and she gave me some great feedback and ideas for surviving a childcare free week.  Mostly that I need to find some backup babysitters.  Anyone know any south wales based babysitters?

Everyone survived though, and it was fun to do some toddler things.  Obviously we hit up gymnastics

Over the weekend I took all 4 kids to St. Fagans Museum BY MYSELF while Andy had a bike ride (I went climbing with a friend on Saturday, so this was the trader-off).  St Fagans has my favourite swing ever.  I don't think they built it just my family but 2 big-kid swings and 2 little-kid swings is perfect for a family of 7 / 6 / 2 & 2 year old kids:

The next weekend We celebrated Andy's Birthday, of course I will not say how old he is because that would be rude...

Then Andy did an all day bike ride and I watched all the kids all day and it wasn't so bad! I picked up one of Lily's friends in the morning and took her to Lego Club with us at the library.  There was a sign on the wall that said "do not leave children unattended" which I thought was funny because one or more of my children are always unattended.  Two year old twins instantly means one does not have enough attending. 

On the Sunday we visited friends we haven't seen for over a year and a half and it was super nice to see them again.  We played in the forest and built a hut and had more cake

THIS WEEK

On Tuesday I went to London with work.  It was great to go away and the hotel was super nice (as in, it was not a Premier Inn... but anyone who stays in nice hotels would probably not think it was super nice... I guess I should say it's nicer than I'm used to!).  I went out to dinner with colleagues and met with people that were nice to see in person.

On Wednesday I was in the London office in the morning and then took the train back to Cardiff and went to a hipster wine and cider bar to meet Andy for a date night!  A year ago I booked tickets to the Banff Mountain Film Festival - I booked early and got great seats at a great price because time is the magic ingredient

We went to the same film festival in November 2025 because Kyria was over and I asked if she could babysit and she was a great sport and did! I remember it was a bit tricky getting out (twins were good-ish sleepers but I wanted to make sure they were down before we left) and we got to the show 5 minutes before it started and it was all quite... rushed.  And also awesome! 

When I booked tickets for this year because I figured that in a year life would be easier.

And then, honestly, kid stuff got much harder for about a year.  But our lovely Nanny agreed to work straight through to bedtime and so Andy and I met in town and she managed to do a 4 kid dinner and bedtime and we got back to an empty dishwasher and sleeping kids and it was amazing.  And now that we know she can run a 4 kid dinner and bedtime (FYI, I basically cannot run a 4 kid dinner and bedtime, so this is totally impressive of her) we can start to pick some more future date nights.

Then September was over.

I have basically stopped tracking things (ie sport) so I feel I can't do a "september by the numbers" but I do love those.  I did about 2 weeks of good Peloton workouts.  I did mostly track my food and sometimes not.  

I read two books, both good.  Road to Tender Hearts was really nice and in another stage of life I would probably have found it more memorable.  It was a fun read.

Dolly all the time was super fun and nice.  Nora Goes Off Script is still my favourite Annabel Monaghan book but really I can't think of any I don't like.

September was busy and chaotic.  October is busy too, but I'm really hoping it will be a routine-based busy and not a chaos based busy.  

I can do chaos.  I don't love it though.

Weekend in New York - all the family, all the bagels, the best flight, things I miss from the USA.

That was a much longer blogging gap than expected but I am finally here to recap my trip to New York!

SATURDAY

My flight out was at 7:45am, so I arrived at the airport at 4:45 because I like being early. I was super incredibly lucky on this trip because my frequent flier mom had used some upgrade points and I was upgraded to business class for the flight out.  

Before boarding I gave myself a little pep talk about how I was not going to look like a podunk fool when I got on the flight, and that I knew how to do nice things like be in business class.

We boarded the plane and I immediately clearly did not belong there when I asked "umm where is seat 4?"

I was so so excited to see my seat!  What a dream to spend 7 hours alone in my own space.

Some other people started to board including a guy in front of me who saw me grinning and looking around and asked what I was smiling about.  I said "OMG I have never been in business class this is amazing!  Do you do this all the time? And if you do, do you think "OMG is this amazing" every time you get on a flight?"

He took that well and said "I do try to remember how lucky I am" and then he helped me put the mattress on my chair because the chair was also a bed.

Anyways, I'm so far into this post without even being in new york yet.  The flight was so amazing, people brought me food while I watched TV!  I decided to watch The Paper (which is The Office reboot thing).  It was cute.

I slept a few hours as well, on a fully flat reclined bed.  I moisturized my face and I drank loads of water and I felt so human the whole time.  

When we started to land I told the flight attendant I did not want to get off the plane and wished the flight was longer.  Sadly they did not let me stay on the plane, but I also had a wedding to get to.

I went through customs, and it was the first time I had been back to the states since 2019, and it was a bit jarring just how big and diverse and also gun-y (ie police and customs) Newark airport is.  I hope that's not a weird political thing to say?  

The customs person asked where I was visiting from and I said "The UK" and he asked "how long have you been there" and I said I live there and then he stamped me through.

I met my mom at our AirBnB in Prospect Park (Brooklyn) and we went to the local coffee shop to get a coffee.  

Cold Brew with half and half! I LOVE half and half and they don't have it in the UK.  I also love cold brew, which they also generally don't have here (or at least I haven't seen it).  You can get iced americanos, but it's just not the same.  I am fairly sure I spent $30 at least on cold brew over my 3 days in New York and it was worth it.

Also look at all these cakes!  The Coffee Shop was called Der Pioneer and it was incredible

In the afternoon I walked around Prospect Park with my aunt, and then my sister arrived and we all went to a bar to meet my cousin as part of the wedding activities.  At around 7 I was ready to fall asleep on my feet, but I stayed awake until exactly 9pm and then was asleep within minutes.  I slept all night and it was glorious.

SUNDAY

I woke at 5:30am (8.5 hours of sequential sleep <3) and googled some things to do during the short visit.  The coffee shop opened at 7am and I snuck out for a coffee and some reading:

I was alone in the courtyard, the weather was perfect, and I was so fully content.  Plus I was excited to start thinking about planning!

Later that morning I walked through Prospect Park with my brother and mom - that park is HUGE!  There were so many people out running and cycling and enjoying life.  We went to a local farmers market where everything looked amazing:

We split up at 11 because I *really* wanted to go to a stationery shop.  There was a shop about an hour away doing a Hobonichi planner launch, which are a Japanese planner I have never seen but heard about from Best Laid Plans.  I decided it wasn't worth a 2 hour round trip, but there was also a stationery shop 15-minute walk away.

I walked by some classic Park Slope brownstone buildings:

And then remembered that this area is the setting for Kate Clayborn's Love Lettering!  

I finally made it to the Analogue Stationer which was super cute.  

I tried lots of pens and bought myself a Zebra Sarasa and a Good Pens pen, which were not expensive but are fun.   I also saw what a Hobonichi planner is, and they did look very cute:

We headed to Miriam for lunch with my family.  The food was incredible - my brother and mom had the Latke Benedict (eggs benedict on a potato latke), my aunt had watermelon salad, and my sister had another incredible salad.  I ordered chicken shawarma tacos with Za'atar fries and it was the best thing I've eaten in... a very very long time.

After my giant salty lunch it was time to get dressed for the wedding!  It was an afternoon outdoor wedding.  I think ChatGPT really came through with my wedding outfit:

The wedding was at Prospect Park and it was the most perfect day.  My cousin looked gorgeous, her friends were great, her husband is lovely, and the whole wedding felt truly "them".  I'm so glad I could be a part of it!

My brother and sister and I got home late, snacked on some New York bagels, and then went to bed.

MONDAY

I woke up in time for a coffee, and a $1 loaf end:

My mom joined me for this one, so it wasn't the same at the reading morning.

Then we went to a brunch with my cousin at her community garden, where I ate more amazing bagels (I have not listed all the bagels in this post but it was at least one a day).  We said goodbye and headed to the place I miss most from the USA...

TRADER JOE'S

I was so excited.  Sadly I only had a carry-on, so I took photos of everything I would have bought.  It was like my own fall Trader Joe's spree.

I did buy a few things though - these came back with me:

My mom and I took the subway (our first subway of this trip)

And from Penn Station we took a train to Newark.  I was able to catch an earlier flight home (5pm vs. 7:30) which was lucky because the 7:30 flight was cancelled.  Unfortunately these flights were full so there was no upgrade, and it was not the glorious experience of my travel out.  The flight ran out of food (is that a thing?) and I was in the back, and I didn't really sleep, and it was only 6 hours anyways.  

We left at 6:00pm New York time and arrived in Heathrow at 5:45am on Tuesday.

It was a truly incredible trip and I realized how much I love travel and how much I miss alone time.  I know this stage of 4 kids between 2 and 7 is a stage, but it is a busy stage.

Also, I thought about the guy on my flight out, and how mundane the experience of business is for him. He seemed reminded how cool it is to fly business by watching me excitedly explore a fancy airline seat.  I think maybe this stage of parenting is similar...  4 young kids is my mundane reality... but from an outside observer it's possibly pretty cool.   I would do well to remember this is highly time limited,  and perhaps try to approach my twin cuddle mornings with the same joy I approached my solo airplane seat. 

Rachel in Wales... in America??!

During the first week of school it would be very sensible to keep routines easy and simple.  To follow Lazy Genius principles, have some easy dinners, not overplan, and try and relax into the new family routine.

Rachel in Wales is not sensible.  Rachel in Wales is reporting from Heathrow airport at 5:30am, while waiting for a flight to New York.

When I initially got the invite to my cousin's wedding I thought of a million reasons it wouldn't work for me to go. It was in New York! It was the weekend after school started.  I have 4 kids.  I'm out of annual leave.  I haven't been away in a long time, and I haven't been to the US since 2019.  I put "decline wedding invite" on my to-do list for weeks.  

And I kept... not declining.  I have only two cousins, and this may be the last time I get invited to a big joyous family gathering. 

Eventually Andy said I should go.  The wedding is on Sunday.  Last night I drove to Heathrow, and stayed overnight at a Premier Inn.  At 4am I got up and took the bus to the airport.  Saturday morning security was a breeze, and now I'm comfortably waiting for my flight.  This evening is a welcome drinks event, Sunday is the wedding, and Monday night I'm flying back.

It all seems rather crazy, but in a former life I absolutely loved travel and adventure.  And while I am probably tired now (I didn't sleep great) I also am experiencing the unbelievable lightness of being at an airport by myself.  No kids laundry, no kids snacks, no toilet hunting.  One carry on, one backpack.  One laptop.

The week leading up to this has been... a lot.  

On Tuesday I had to take the car to the garage because a bunch of warning lights were coming on.  Luckily it was fixed in a day, but that was £250 and a day of car faffd

On Wednesday Lily turned 6! We went to a science museum and then ate cake.

I know I'm biased but she is SO CUTE

On Thursday the kids started school. I did drop off, went to the gym with my gym buddy, met my BFF for a long coffee catch up, then got my nails painted for the wedding

On Friday the twins started 2.5 hour nursery again - I dropped my dad at the airport bus, sorted out all my parcel returns for wedding clothes, packed for the wedding, did some life admin, picked up the twins, picked up the kids from school, and then drove to Heathrow.

I have a million big dreams for this trip (Wedding! Family! Planning! Sorting Photos! Reading!) but really it will probably be far too short and very busy and hopefully also somewhat refreshing because I actually do really like adventure.

And I get to be on a plane for 8 hours by myself.  I am so excited.

Have you flown for a big weekend trip before?  Do you like New York?  I am not really a city person but I am still very excited.

Summer 2026 - that was a wild ride, random musings from the last few days and for the next few days

Somehow we are at the almost end of summer holidays. Last week I was in work 3 days, and then my dad arrived for a visit and I took Thursday off work to adventure with him at the big kids. We went to the cinema which was showing the Parent Trap - the adorable 1998 version with Lindsay Lohan when she was oh so cute

I'm fairly sure the last film I saw before this was Mary Poppins returns in 2019 with baby Ezra.

September starts Birthday season, which I am trying not to think about too much, except that Lily turns 6 on September 2nd and then we have birthdays for every other person in my family between September 2nd and October 30th.  It's a lot.

But this is not a looking forward post! This is a random Sunday night post.

My lack of Rachel time has meant my planning remains terrible, and I am hopping from one thing to the next without much thinking at all. This weekend I had a somewhat truncated Rachel time where I used ChatGPT to help me figure out what to wear to an upcoming wedding.  I had already bought the dress, but it guided me to a handbag and earrings.  Since wearing earrings was a 2026 goal of mine I felt this was a OK use of time and money (I currently own 3 gold ball earrings and nothing else)

Hopefully everything arrives in time,  I realize I haven't blogged about it but the wedding is in New York and the attire is "Semi-formal cocktail attire" (the people are younger than me) and ChatGPT accused some of my suggestions of being a bit too "British preppy" which is funny but also... ouch and I guess that's the style I aspire to.

Here's what I went with:

I also realized that if I wanted to look put together it would probably take a lot of work to think about what to wear all the time so perhaps my recent musings on looking a bit meh all the time are because I only have time for meh at the moment.  But style would be a fun thing to play with someday when I have more time / when it is a bigger priority.

Although last week was technically the last week of summer, this week feels like summer with school not starting until Thursday.  It's a 3 day weekend for August bank holiday.  Today we crossed a someday adventure off our life list and took a steam train into the mountains on the Brecon Mountain Railway

Tomorrow we are going to a Roman museum, and then depending on weather we will think of other adventures for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then school Thursday and a Rachel Day, which I have already filled with gym, lunch, and a nail appointment.  

I could really have used that Rachel Day to plan birthday season and get caught up on the rest of life, but there is never actually a "caught up on the rest of life".  I have forever and never to get caught up.

Speaking of being caught up - have I mentioned that I am all caught up on kids photo albums?  That is a major gold star achievement of the summer!  I am 6 months behind on the family album still, but 4 of 5 is not bad.

Oh and one final note on this random blog post - I read two excellent books in August:

Now I feel the pressure to pick my next book because these were both soooo good.

Any great August reads?  Have you ever used ChatGPT for fashion advice?  What's your next "season"... fall? Back to school? other?

Twins at nearly 3 - Change Change Change, a Breach has occured.

When my first baby was about 9 months old I was truly marveling at all the new stuff he was learning.  I asked a friend (who has older kids) if it all slows down from here because they can't keep learning all these new skills all the time right?

My friend kind of stared and said "it's different" because she is nice and didn't want to say "what you are seeing is the most boring bit, just wait! No one cares that your kid can roll over or sit up, all kids can do that, you have a boring lump of kid like everyone else's boring lump of kid".  

Maybe she didn't think that at all, but as a parent of four kids I can now confirm that it is true and only first time parents can marvel at their baby pointing to a black star or trying avocado for the first time because *yawn*

Anyways, there is change afoot in twin land now though!  

In May they moved to beds, because Clara is a crazy monkey who was going to break her foot climbing out of bed.  The transition was either just as bad or worse than I expected, because I expected it to be a horror show and it was

Then the twins suddenly got interested in using the potty, which is good, because they are about that age and I am tired of all the nappies all the time.  

It also made for some pretty weird photo ops, like this one:

Since then, one twin has really embraced the underwear situation, and the other twin has... not.  But when we leave the house we now have one twin in pants/underpants - and thankfully we have so many pairs of kids undies because we already did this twice before.  She gets to choose tractors or unicorns!  It does mean that I'm constantly on toilet vigilance, but I know it's one step closer to twins being real people.

Yesterday, another milestone.  We have a 3 story house with the top floor being the converted loft.  Ezra's room is up there, as well as my office, and then a small landing with toys and other misc things on the way in or out of the house.

We have 3 baby gates - one on the top of the steps (blocking the middle floor), one on the bottom of the loft steps (blocking the top floor) and one on the twins bedroom door (supporting them not wandering at night).

Yesterday there was a top floor breach:

And now, nothing is safe.  Or at least the top floor isn't. The top floor has all the good toys - the marble run, Ezra's K'nex, all my in process things, stuff for the charity shop.  It's going to be another adjustment knowing twins can get anywhere.

You know what's not interesting as compared to a roving band of nearly 3 year old twins?  A 4 month old lying on their back batting at a swinging object overhead.  But that's just like, my opinion, man.  And I'll probably find this bit intensely disinteresting when I get to discuss history with my 15 year old twins.