Last week I spent a fair bit of time blogging and getting organised for next year. The weeks before Christmas seem to be a quiet time and I have managed to catch up on all outstanding reviews meaning I have the time to focus on a few bits behind the scenes as well as a very long list of posts I want to write. 

Aby Moore’s Wrap Party

If you are a parenting blogger you have probably heard of Aby. As well as writing her blog You Baby Me Mummy for some time she now runs online courses for bloggers one of which is her free annual Wrap party. The week long course is designed to help people set their goals and targets for next year as well as plan content and I signed up to get involved last week.

It fitted in well with some recent self reflection where I have been thinking about the direction of my blog going forward and it finally pushed me to review my focus and update my About Me page which has been on my to do list for a while.

Reviewing My Blog Categories

I have removed several categories from my header bar including Baby Led Weaning and Breastfeeding because although they are topics I am passionate about I don’t actually blog about them very often. For instance I last wrote a post redominantly about breastfeeding over a year ago and I have only categorised 8 posts with the "breastfeeding" label, yet I have been breastfeeding for most of the last 4 years and have breastfed for about 6 years so far. It impacts a lot of what I do from what I wear, to how I sleep and even how often I can go out. It’s just there in the background though and I don’t have a reason to write posts on it often.

I have moved my diary posts to a clearer category on my header. I write a diary post each week (like this one) sharing some of what I have got up to and various thoughts I have had. While these posts might contain mini reviews of gifted items or review visits they are important posts to me because they capture what is happening in my life week to week and they are always personal in nature. I hope my regular readers enjoy reading them.

Under “Parenting” I have added 2 new categories: Motherhood, where you can find my posts talking about life as a mum, and School Days which covers posts about the stage beyond toddler and preschooler. While some of the posts are about school, it’s mostly full of posts which are inspired by my eldest’s activities. 

I have combined a few categories and another category I have taken off my drop down menu is Baby Loss. My miscarriage last year was a hugely emotional time for me and it still affects me, but there are unlikely to be any new posts on the topic in 2020 so it felt appropriate to remove it.

My other header categories of: Play, Home and Away have had their subcategories tidied up slightly, but they still cover:

Play: Toy reviews, play ideas and crafts ideas I have blogged about.

Home: Health & Beauty, House & Home and Food. I have included my dairy free posts in this sub category because most of the food and recipes I talk about are dairy free anyway.

Away: Covering my posts with suggestions and reviews of days out and travel. 

There will be a few more changes during the year as I build up more content, but I think for now it should be easier for everyone to find the posts they are most interested in reading. I would love to hear from you if there is anything you would like to see more of.

Family Time - A Christmas Gathering

After a week of focusing on work it was nice to take some family time over the weekend. On Saturday we focused on doing things at home and Sunday we had a family Christmas gathering. My out-laws kindly hosted and looked after me, my partner, my children, my 2 sisters, my nephew and my mum. I think their house survived without too much damage this time and I only *nearly* destroyed their tree while trying to get a photo of Baby Boy looking cute with it. I was so excited to have an actual sparkly tree in front of me after deciding not to have a proper one this year. Baby Boy pulling it over while playing with the lights provided me with reassurance that I was right not to have one at home though.

My daughters had a lovely time playing with their cousin. I love it when the 3 of them get together, but due to distance and mainly just general busyness they don’t get to hang out together nearly enough. Maybe next year.

We got to exchange our presents (although obviously not open them) and I really hope people don’t mind that mine are somewhat lacking this year. I have spent very little money on Christmas presents because our finances are tighter than ever. People’s presents have been either items I have been gifted through blogging, things I have won or items I bought a long time ago. It won’t be like this forever, but I’m not the best at buying my sisters or mum presents anyway so they probably aren’t missing out much.

My mum came back to our house afterwards and stayed until yesterday when she flew back to France so today has been the first “normal” morning where I’ve had a chance to catch up with work. A very snotty Baby Boy who has struggled to sleep for the last few days has meant I have had my hands full too. His cold has fortunately cleared a bit today so the next priority is getting the house ready for Christmas before the girls break up from school tomorrow.