A little life update...

It's the end of May, how is it already the end of May?! ... I know it is a cliché thing to say but the past two years have literally flown.  We are coming up to two years of living in the Middle East and our lives have changed so much.

When we decided to move out here we made a pact that love it or loathe it, we would stick our two year contract out and then see where we were at and how we were feeling.  Now we are reaching that first set of goal posts and I am actually very proud of us.  We left our friends and family in search of a better life for our children and that is what we achieved.  I mean don't get me wrong the #expatlife is far from perfect but when I sit back and look at our daily lives now I am pretty impressed.

Here is a little round up of what makes me most proud;

1. We can afford to pay for our children's music, ballet and rugby lessons all on our own

2. We have been able to ignite a passion for travel in our children.  Before we moved here the most exciting trip Posey and Lochlann experienced was a ferry trip to Ireland for a family getaway with my lovely in-laws (which was lovely by the way) but in the past two years we've lived in Abu Dhabi, visited Copenhagen and Bali as well as traveling back to the UK! - Posey and Lochlann now have places like China and Italy on their bucket lists!

3.  Our children have friends from around the world.  They are getting to learn about and experience many different cultures.

4.  Not only has our marriage survived, I honestly believe it has now begun to thrive - it took time to settle and to get used to being with each other basically all the time but honestly now I think we are stronger and happier than ever!

5. We have started to take care of ourselves a little better - eating better, having a healthier mindset (me) and working out together at the gym.


When reading those things back they all seem pretty normal, mundane things, things that I am sure many people take for granted in their daily lives.  But they're not small things to me.  When our children were very small our family helped us to provide for our children and give them all they need and whilst there is nothing wrong with that - we wanted to be able to do these things for ourselves.
I hated the guilt of knowing I couldn't always afford things for our children - only holidaying in Wales because we were fortunate enough to use our family's caravan.  The children only wearing the nicest of the cheap clothes because that was all we could afford or them having things bought by our family - I was so grateful but I yearned to do things our way - to take them to places we wanted to visit and for them to wear or play with things that we had chosen for them.
I am struggling to put this across in a way that doesn't sound like I am totally only interested in the materialistic side of life but I just mean that I wanted to feel like we could do things for our little family all by ourselves.  I guess I wanted to show what we could achieve even though we got together quickly, got serious even quicker and became parents within 18 months of being official.
I wanted to show that Sam and I were strong together, that we were meant to be despite it all seeming so rushed.

I mean between 2011-2015 we got together, fell pregnant, bought a house together (with help from our parents), welcomed our daughter into the world, fell pregnant for a second time, got married, welcomed our son & then moved house AGAIN!

Fast forward to New Years 2017 and you found Sam and I in our beautiful detached four bedroom home, the home we stretched ourselves for in the hopes it would become our forever home.  Sadly we fairly quickly got bogged down in nursery fees and mortgages repayments.  We have some really wonderful family memories from our time in our house but I vividly remember sitting down together in the New Year just after Posey's and Lochlann's birthdays and deciding that something needed to change. We knew our home wasn't what we wanted for our forever home. We were sick of working our butts off for little pay off and money always seeming tight.  Something needed to change.  We wanted to made our children's lives fulfilled with two happy parents, family adventures and a little spare cash to make life easier and that is what moving to Abu Dhabi has given us.

We arrived with two toddlers, one still in nappies and 8 rather large suitcases.  Two years later we've had two successful years in our current school, our children have both started school and really love it.  Now we are getting our little family ready for our a new adventure in a new school.


                               Us not long after we arrived...

                                Our first trip to Dubai

                                Posey is 3 here and little L is only two

                              On a desert safari for Sam's birthday

How long we will be here?  - In honesty I don't know.  Sam and I stick to our decisions and see them through. Our new contract is for another two years therefore we will be here for at least that.  It gives us two more years to save money and will see us move to another part of Abu Dhabi with new places to explore.

I do worry about the children not experiencing their childhood in England surrounded by our family but the opportunities we can give them here mean that they can spend summers getting in that quality time and the rest of the year living where our weekends involve guitars lessons, the beach and trips to the pool.  We definitely couldn't say that when we lived in Warrington!

                                                            Us now...

I am aware this post has been a ramble fest and possibly doesn't even make much sense but as these first two years draw to close I wanted to get my thoughts down.  There are honestly still moments daily where I still cannot believe that this is where we call home.

I am so glad we started this adventure, I love my little family so much.
💛

If you've reached the even of this long winded post then thank you. 🙏

A letter from an absent blogger

Guess who's back, back again... 

I have no right to call myself a blogger, not even a part time blogger.  Truth be told I haven't written since August and I have really missed it.  It is probably quite clear what excuse I am going to give... life has just been really busy. 

If you have read my blog before or follow me over on instagram (mamabrookes) then you will know we currently live the Middle East.  My husband and I both work in the same school and we have been away from the UK for just over a year now.  The meant our summer was spent driving up and down the M6, visiting family and friends in England.  This didn't leave much time for blogging.  

Then our return to Abu Dhabi saw our youngest join us at school in FS1 as well as Sam and I both being promoted into middle leadership.  Basically what I am trying to say is that life has been hectic! I am constantly tired #mumlife #teacherlife 

Because I have taken on this role at school I feel guilty for thinking about spending time writing for myself when I could probably be doing school work.  There is always something else you could be getting on with in teaching, your job is just never done.  That coupled with my new role and with the endless list of jobs a mother has meant that my blog has fallen to the bottom of the priorities pile.  

I almost forgot about my little space on the internet.  I pushed it to the back of my mind and believed that because I haven't written there was no point in starting again.  Then I remembered the point of this blog.  It is for me and it is for my children.  I am a sentimental, overly emotional fool who loves to collect memories.  It really doesn't matter why I stopped writing what matters is that I want to start again. 

I want to keep sharing our families little adventure, I want to continue rambling about motherhood and married life.  I may not be the most stylish woman in the world but I like to write about the outfits to throw on and I love to shout about small brands that I like to dress my children in.  I would also like to write more about our expat family life and add a little more lifestyle posts here and there. 

This isn't my job, this is my little hobby, my little escape from my day job.

What I am trying to say is that I am back.  And I can't wait to get stuck in, if you'll still have me? 

Hello, again. x 

Getting fruity with Kibsons.

Before I get started with this post, I feel inclined to say hello! I haven't written in a while and wanted to say hi to the few lovely people that take the time to read my blog.  How are you? What have you been up to? I would love if you left a comment to say hello on this post!

Right back to the post.

A little while back, we were very kindly invited to a little event with https://kibsons.com over in Dubai.  Kibsons is a fresh food delivery service in the UAE.  We love the company and have been using the service for a few months so were delighted when they invited to spend the morning with them.   The company was established over 30 years ago and prides itself on its relationship with customers and the quality of the produce it delivers.


Posey and Lochlann thoroughly enjoyed the event as they got to paint on canvasses using a variety of different fruits and vegetables.  You can see their creations in some of the shots below.  It was a really lovely way to spend the morning with the children and has encouraged us to get the paints out with children more often.

After the masterpieces were complete, the children were treated to a complimentary box of healthy Kibsons treats whilst myself and Sam were interviewed on camera (eekkk!) giving our reasons for using and enjoying the service.

We love to use Kibsons because we know we can trust their produce.  The children get really excited when the blue box arrives at the door and it has such a positive effect on our eating.  The best thing about Kibsons for me has to be the price of the fruit and vegetables.  If you are someone living in the UAE, I would highly recommend using Kibsons.  The quality is great, the price is reasonable and the fruit lasts longer than it seems to from the supermarkets.

Thanks Kibsons! I look forward to ordering from you when we get back to Abu Dhabi!

* This post is in no way sponsored and the opinions included are my own.

Design & Dine

So it is has been a while since I blogged ( I think that is how every post of mine begins LOL) but I tried something a little different last night and fancied writing about it.

Design and Dine was something my friend told me about a while ago but we've never got round to going.  When they announced this month's one had a travel theme I was really excited to go.  Once a month a lovely lady called Gemma hosts a brunch with a difference in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi -  the difference being that not only to you get to eat and drink to your heart's content you also get to create a piece of art work.

Last night, as I said earlier, the art work was travel inspired.  We were given a canvas, a world map and a quote.  We had to draw or trace the outline of the map and quote onto our canvasses, all the while sipping a cosmo or two!  The setting was just beautiful as it was in the Venetian Village at the Ritz Carlton.  We were lucky as we got a table right on the water's edge which created a lovely, calm and relaxing atmosphere despite it still being around 38 degrees! 



Once we had drawn out the outline we were seated for dinner.  We enjoyed 4 courses from the Olive restaurant which included: gazpacho, mozzarella flat bread, patatas bravas, olives, ricotta ravioli and then a trio of desserts to finish.  After devouring the delicious treats it was time to head back to our canvasses and get painting! We were given all the equipment we needed and shown a few design ideas.



I decided to go for a more pastel style with mine and as I hoped to hang it in our apartment, I painted the background a subtle grey rather than painting a blue for the ocean.  I certainly won't be giving up my day job anytime soon but it was fun and I like my finished product.

Now I plan to hang it in our apartment and buy some cute pins to place on it to show where Sam has been, where I have been, where we have been together and where we hope to travel to as a family.

If you live in the UAE or are on a holiday and fancy doing something a little different, I would defiantly give the Design and Dine brunch a go!

I love how many new little opportunities I have been lucky enough to have since we moved out here!
There is another brunch coming up during Ramadan so if you fancy going just search Design and Dine over on Facebook for more details.

Thats all for now :)

Thanks for reading,