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.