Product Review - Letterbox Lab

Back in September (to my enormous shame) our friends at Letterbox Lab were kind enough to send us another box of their lovely experiments.

Fate & time have transpired against us but at last we have managed to get stuck in and have some super STEM fun.

We received their Investigate Box number 2 - Science up your Sleeve.

Packed with hands on experiments, with fast results, and everything you need included. Even the instructions this time were part of the fun, written on dissolvable paper!

Now one of the things we LOVE about Letterbox Lab - besides the fact the do everything for you, it fits through your Letterbox, the packaging is cool........ - is that the instruction book is clear, bright, engaging & manageable for the children to work through by themselves.  All I am needed for is a little supervision, which is great for their independence and holding their interest -

The kids had fun making their own magic wand - first levitating feathers with a balloon - then levitating Meg & Pico (tracing paper versions!) with their magic wand.

In total there are 8 experiments in the box. We enjoyed Writing with Light and Disappearing Water.  Pico in a Cage & Blooming Flower were also good fun.  But DD's favourite by far was Vanishing Flame -

The instructions re-cap every stage, explaining and reinforcing what you have just learned and asking questions to promote further investigation.

We loved that even when some of the experiments didn't go according to plan, there was still something to learn from the results. Which promotes resilience and inquisitiveness in children, and is great for their confidence as there is no feeling of failure, simply to look further into why you think the experiment didn't go as you expected, and whether or not that can be rectified.

It really is a great product, with everything you need to get stuck straight in, learning & having fun.

Find out more here -

https://www.letterboxlab.com/

Support for 'Accepting Yourself'

I originally 'soft published' the post 'Accepting Yourself - You Are Good Enough' to under 100 Facebook followers, as I wanted to gauge people's reactions and also stall a bit lol while I decided whether or not I was ready to publish it.


I was overwhelmed by the support. 


Here are a handful of the messages and comments I received.  I have collated and published them here, because I hope they will help anyone else in any kind of similar situation, because we are all warriors. We are all ALL of these things xxxx


Hayley - Beautiful, you are one of the most sincere, holistic, kind, thoughtful and inspiring people I know and I totally admire you for everything you do! So many could learn so much from you, your life, your choices and you absolutely should be talking to the world. I don’t know how you get through every day but I do know that right now I just want to give you a big squeeze and say never change! those who judge are insecure in their own choices and really not worth the energy...you give so much to so many and I ❤️you!

Emma -  I honestly couldn't have worded it better. Beautifully written. We love you x

Terrie - You're one tough lady, you always pick up and move on. Give yourself some love. Hugs girly x

Angie -  I don’t know what surgery you had done but it was obviously very serious and clearly has left you traumatised to this day. All I know is when I look at you I see before me a beautiful soul with a huge heart. I know what it’s like to always be apologising - but you have nothing to apologise for. Just carry on doing what you do, which is being awesome. I’m blessed to have you as a friend xxx

Debbie -  Omg 😮 How unprofessional! Don't let anyone ever make you feel like that again , you're beautiful inside and out and I’m so, so proud of how far you have come, you should be patting yourself on the back for all you have achieved, I love you so much xxxx

Sue - When we go through very traumatic things, they can leave there mark. But it can also make you very strong and appreciate what you have.
Look ahead to your wonderful life, with its natural ups and downs.
Feel proud of who you are, and what you have accomplished.
Plus your two wonderful children, that you have brought up with a lot of love in their hearts. Which is plainly obvious to see, by the caring way they acted after your visit to the hospital.
People can say some really hurtful things, but no matter how hurtful it is leave the nasty words with them. Don’t take it on board, it may have made her feel better about herself, but you can close your mind to her words.
It’s her thoughts, it doesn’t have to be yours.
Love yourself and all that is you.
Thank you for sharing, your words can have a Big positive change to others that are going through something that’s very hard for them.
Love and best wishes beautiful lady, inside and out 💖💖💖💖💖💖

Kim - You are kind, and brave, and beautiful. Don't ever forget that. Also, it's totally OK to feel sorry for oneself from time to time, and it really doesn't matter that other people have it "worse". You are entitled to feel however you feel, in any given moment, about your own situation. I'm proud of you for living your truth, and doing what you need to do to take care of yourself xx

Kara - Beautifully written it seems to me that this whilst painful is a beautiful growth of character and bringing clarity to yourself to know your self better, these are the tears of freedom. For the record you are amazing, your children will not grow and think anything other than you were an amazing mum, the mum who was always there for them no matter what. You have this amazing strength, broken though you are, to just stand and be there holding the gap for others. Keep doing what you do and never change you are brilliant you amaze and inspire me x

Julie -  Beautiful post, plenty of food for thought for myself there as well. I'm not a confident person, I apologise far to much, and I do my best to conform, to society's expectations. Your talent with words and expressing your thoughts, is amazing. Don't change for anyone, your perfect just as you are.

Susan -  Just wanted to say that I think you're amazing. I personally enjoy reading your Blog, your posts are always honest and refreshingly real.  I'm sure this will be helpful to others xx

Hannah - You're a strong and brave lady, don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Accepting Yourself - You're Good Enough

So today I am going to write a very personal post and then decide afterwards whether or not I am going to publish it!

Life is trundling on.  I'll admit September & October were not the easiest to get through. Change of routine, a birthday, transitions and bad weather left tempers high and spirits low and it was largely a case of simply getting through the days.  We seem to have ridden through that and are now looking forward to Christmas and all the fun stuff we have planned until then.

Home Ed wise we are more unstructured than ever!  Sometimes I worry that I am not 'doing enough'.  The devil on my shoulder is constantly whispering that DS should be doing more formal learning, and would DD achieve even more if I pushed her?  I already know the answers, I saw it with my own eyes when they were in school.  What we do is right for them.  They will, hopefully, not have to unpick a life of damaged self esteem, bad decisions and poor mental health because they were pushed into holes they didn't fit in.  I have to remind myself constantly that this, above all else, is our goal.  Anything else can be learned as we go, when needed.  Quality of life and their mental health is by far the most important thing to me.

But, as I have shared before, we are judged. Constantly.  On our choice of lifestyle.  Undoubtedly by those who are unhappy with theirs.  The ' What's she got to be so happy about?' crowd....

Well, do you know what, no more than you to be honest.  But I choose all the clichés, to see the glass half full, to look at the stars.  Because I tried it the other way.  The comparisons, the judging and criticizing others, the discontent. The carrying everyone else and never even knowing or acknowledging my own needs.  All of it.  And it was miserable.  Dreadful.  And slowly but surely it was killing me - metaphorically and in a very actual real way.  My health suffered, I was always ill.  There is only so much negativity you can absorb, only so long you can stay in the shadows before it starts to take it's toll.

I've also shared before that I completely lost my sense of self.  It was a big part of why I added my name, my actual real life name, recently on Twitter.  Because although I am fiercely protective of my children & their privacy - we discuss everything I share & I hope we are careful always - it was important for me to step out of the shadows and own who I am.  Be a person again.  Not just Mama.  (Not that there is any such thing as 'just' Mama).

I shared this quote this morning -

And it resonated with me because I know I have been apologizing my whole entire life.  I am still apologizing.  For being too big, too tall, too ginger, too outspoken, too sarcastic, too socially awkward, too opinionated, too clever, too quick, too slow, too capable, too strong, too female, too successful, too emotional, too much.  Always trying to fit other people's molds and apologizing endlessly when I don't - even when my only 'failure' has been that my wings cracked their mold because they wanted to fly.....

This week I had a horrible experience that unceremoniously transported me to my darkest place.  The place I don't like to visit but I accept is there.  Sadly I do visit, more frequently than I would like but in my life I have been blessed with The Most Amazing friends that pull me back.  I have friends that have been with me my whole life long, others 30 years, 20, 10 and they keep on coming.  Beautiful, wonderful, special souls that see into your heart and laugh and cry with you and love you fiercely. And I cannot ever put in to words how very grateful I am to each and every one of them because I know I am unutterably blessed.

But, anyway, back to the sad bit... I had to pop to the hospital for an assessment this week.  I did not want to talk about this but unfortunately it is relevant to what follows. So yes I hate hospitals blah-de-blah and because of the infection control guidelines now, I had to be swabbed even though my last surgery was 14 years ago - and I've written about that horrifically traumatic debacle previously.  I wasn't expecting this.  But more so I was not expecting the nurse to gasp at my scarring, ask 'what is it?' and 'is that what we are 'fixing' when you come in?' .........

Er.......no.  It's not.  That's just my life that I have to live with now.  But thanks SO much for asking!

She regained her composure, while I fought to regain mine, she was over-compensatingly nice to the kids (because yes, of course, my kids are always there....) and then I took them off the McDonalds as a treat for them while I stared at the ceiling willing myself not to cry into my coffee & DD asked me a thousand times if I was ok.  'Your face isn't ok Mummy' she kept saying 'I'm sorry I'm fussing you but your face isn't ok.'

So Mummy laughed a little and said things about feeling a bit tired this morning, and not particularly enjoying going to the hospital and how silly that was of Mummy because hospitals are good places....

And we went home, and I settled them in to their activities in other parts of the house, and retreated for a private cry.  Well, lets call it a sob, a real broken wave of sobs.  Because that nurse's reaction was everything I fear and everything I feel and everything I chastise myself about daily.  I know all the things to tell myself.  That it doesn't matter. That I lived. That it doesn't change who I am as a person.  That people all over the world have so very much worse to deal with and are brave and beautiful and strong. That there are people who would give anything, anything for my life in comparison with theirs.  And I know all these things are Truths.

And ok we could talk about her lack of professionalism in that moment and be all blamey but that's really not the point either.

And so I reached out and talked to a friend. Because I couldn't pick myself up. I wanted to lock my door and never leave the house again. And of course that is not reality.  I had the day to get on with, my kids be there for, so I couldn't let these feelings settle over me.  And I knew this friend would understand, and she did. She said all the right words, and more. Everything I would have said to someone else and so very much more.  And left me smiling, and sniffing, and ready as I would ever be to carry on my day.

But still it sat perched on my shoulder, will always sit on my shoulder. My proverbial parrot.

And so it occurred to me, when I shared that quote this morning that this is yet another thing I shouldn't feel I have to be apologizing for.  I am not Wrong.  I spend my life telling my kids they are Not Wrong, to embrace all their wondrous quirks and magnificence and throw love and kindness out into the world as if they were the only lights in the darkness.  And then there's Mummy, apologizing for what?  Surviving?  Not having a beautiful body?  Oh the irony!

So this is why I am blogging this morning about something that makes me feel I want to hide and die of shame. 

Because there should be no shame. 

14 years ago I had very traumatic emergency surgery that changed my life and saved my life.  Why am I sorry?

I think it's time now to let that go, or if not 'go' then at least let it out and hopefully be a little less afraid, a little more brave and be a bit more Emma Jane.

Thanks for reading x