FREE Online resources - Coronavirus UK

FREE Online resources - Coronavirus UK

One thing you can say about us Brits - once we have our cupboards full of toilet rolls and pasta we are quite generous. Thousands have signed up to volunteer to help the NHS, and offer services to help the elderly, vulnerable and lonely.

DISCLAIMER - I have not been paid or rewarded in any way to include links

Here is a list of FREE online resources I have found as I have whiled my time away online, some are just for the duration of the coronavirus epidemic, some are regular free resources.

Please bookmark this page and keep coming back as I will add to it as I find new resources.

New additions will be highlighted in RED

I'm Fed Up With Cleaning - Can I stop now please?

I'm Fed Up With Cleaning - Can I stop now please?

I don’t know about you but I’m fed up with cleaning. It was fun but now I'm bored with it. Also I have to keep doing it. When I didn't polish everything to within an inch of it's life, I didn't care about the odd fingerprint. I didn't even notice them. Now everything is shiny I have to polish, polish, polish! I wonder why I do it. I dust, I polish, I sweep but it just gets dirty again.

It's Mrs Hinch's fault. She quickly rose to fame with her perfectly clean house and her unique use of every cleaning product that smelt. I didn’t want to use all the chemicals she used, but still found myself cleaning anything that stood still.

I'm polishing everything until it shines. Taps, toaster, kettle, you name it. If it has a glossy finish I'm there with my polishing cloth. And that’s my point, I don't want to do it anymore.

What’s the point anyway? The kettle didn’t boil water faster, or suddenly make the coffee. It showed no gratitude for all my hard work. Once it was shining and looking lovely it became too posh to boil, it died. Did I kill my kettle with over polishing?

How to Ensure You Get Your Bag Intact in the Airport Arrivals Hall

I was chatting to Cath from Passports and Adventures, (on social media of course) about how hard air travel can be with little ones. 

Even without children, one of my biggest worries is arriving at my destination without my luggage. Imagine having to spend your holiday money on essentials and a new wardrobe! Cath had lots of great tips and ideas and I asked her to share them with us.

Cath, Alex and their gorgeous German Shepherd 

Cath is an Irish expat who now lives in Portugal with her husband and son. A former scientist, she gave up working when they emigrated south from the UK. She is a family travel blogger and hopes that, through her blog, they will inspire more families to travel, especially with the toddlers in tow. As a family they love travelling and have started working their way through their family travel bucket list. Cath writes about their family travels and experiences on her blog, Passports and Adventures.

Here are her tips.

Cleaning Without Chemicals - Reducing My Plastic Footprint

Cleaning Without Chemicals - Reducing My Plastic Footprint 

Back in August I started my journey into reducing my plastic footprint. I'm commited to making a difference, who isn't after seeing those images on the TV?

I'm not a crusader, more a plodder. I think if I start with the easy stuff, then the trickier bits will just fall into place. So I ditched the plastic wrap (cling film) and it was so much easier than I thought, in fact I prefer the way I store food in my fridge now.

Then I was introduced to Mrs Hinch via her instagram account. For ages I didn't watch her stories, as I hate cleaning. Peer pressure and FOMO, (fear of missing out) made me watch.

10 Tips on Baby Led Weaning For Absolute Beginners

10 Tips on Baby Led Weaning For Absolute Beginners

I'm not an expert, I'm just a grandmother trying to do the best I can when looking after my grandson. His parents wanted to do baby led weaning (BLW) with Bear, but ended up doing a mixture of BLW and traditional weaning (purees) this time they were determined to go the whole way. When Bee's mummy went back to work he was nine months old. He was already a long way down the BLW route and I had to learn quickly what to do.

27 ways to entertain grandchildren during the summer

27 ways to entertain grandchildren during the summer

I look after Bear, who is three and Bee who is nearly one, for four days a week. During school term Bear goes to pre-school for a few hours each morning. Now it's the summer holidays we have to entertain them both, without breaking the bank.

Sadly many places put up their entrance fees during the holidays so days out cost more. It's also harder when one child is not walking, many places are out of bounds at the moment, mostly because I do not want to carry Bee and he doesn't want to be carried.

We are lucky in Wales as museums are free and once you hit sixty then all residents are entitled to a free bus pass. So what do we do to entertain the little ones?

10 Ways I'm Reducing My Plastic Footprint - and you can too

10 Ways I'm Reducing My Plastic Footprint - and you can too

When I was younger hardly anything was plastic. Shoes and handbags were made from leather, shopping bags were cloth, milk came in returnable glass bottles and so did fizzy drinks. We shopped at the green grocers and they just put the vegetables loose straight into the bag, soft produce such as tomatoes were put into paper bags first.

Meat was from the butchers and was wrapped in grease proof paper, then white paper. Chips were wrapped in newspaper, we were told that newspaper ink made the paper clean, it was more likely to be poisonous!

How to Grow Potatoes with Children

How to Grow Potatoes with Children

Children love gardening - they love the digging, watering and the harvesting. Many plants can be grown without a garden, just a big pot and somewhere to put it.

Sadly many children think fruit and vegetables come from the supermarket. They do not know that potatoes grow in the ground, tomatoes on bushes, apples on trees. It is easy to show them by growing your own fruit or vegetables. It doesn't need to be much, you can grow fruit or vegetables in pots. Start with potatoes but also try strawberries and tomatoes.

Bear has helped in the garden since he was old enough to walk. When I said we were planting potatoes today he asked "and tomatoes Nanny?" "I have to check they are red before I pick them" Yes, he remembered from last summer and he's only three.

Growing potatoes is easy, here's a quick guide. Even if you have never grown anything before, try this.

How To Stay Warm This Winter on a Budget

How To Stay Warm This Winter on a Budget

Oh my goodness it's cold out there! It may look lovely and sunny but my thermometer is reading 5 degrees and with that wind it feels so much colder. It's nice to be tucked up indoors although I remember the year when our boiler broke. It was the coldest week of the year and we had a huge hole in the side of the house. It certainly made me think about how to keep warm without stress and running up huge bills.

This year I'm teaming* up with Contact Numbers UK to help promote their #WinterHeatingHelp campaign.

British Gas have a number of ways to help keep cosy this winter with smart meters, "Hive" active heating systems and flexible tariffs. When it comes to boilers, you don't need to be a customer to contact British Gas for support. They offer it to all!

Not everything needs to cost more. Here are some of my favourite tips.

Christmas Made Easy- Sign up for alerts and tips

Christmas Made Easy

Christmas Made Easy if only that was possible. I'm sat here exhausted with only two days to go. I keep reading parents struggling to get the presents wrapped, the food shop bought and the stockings filled. It's such a busy and stressful time.

Even though I always plan to be more organised next year, it sort of creeps up on me. I suddenly realise it's too late to bake my own cake or steam my own pudding. My cards start arriving and I've missed the scout post and second class post again, so they all have to go first class knowing that some won't even make it until the New Year.

2018 is going to be different. I am going to plan it and stick with it. The difference is that I am going to share it with anyone who wants to join in. I'll send out a newsletter when appropriate (no spam - I promise) with alerts, tips and shopping lists.

Easy To Grow Paper White Daffodils for Christmas

Easy To Grow Paper White Daffodils for Christmas

We all love fresh flowers and especially love having them in the house at Christmas, Paper Whites are easy to grow, look wonderful and have a scent that reminds me of honey. To be precise they are Narcissi, but are commonly called daffodils.

10 Great Accounts To Follow On Twitter

10 Great Accounts To Follow On Twitter

Twitter is a place to tweet (chat) to other twitterers (people lol) in less than 140 characters. Well that's what it started as, a chat room. Now it is harder to find people that like to chat but if you can find them it is still a great place to be. Twitter moves fast, I find it hard to keep up with people I like without lists.
The best thing is that you do not have to follow someone to put them on a list, I have Donald Trump in one of my lists (Funny, clever and Trump) but I wouldn't dream of following him.

10 Great Pages To Follow on Facebook

10 Great Pages To Follow On Facebook 

Facebook is an American social networking site. It is free to use and started as a means for college students to stay in touch when they were off campus. It is a website where users can upload photos and videos, chat and have instant messaging. It is an easy way to keep in touch with family and friends. Accounts can be private (the user chooses who can see what is posted) or public where anyone can access the content.

Vitamin D Awareness Week with BetterYou

Vitamin D Awareness Week with BetterYou*

BetterYou is supporting Vitamin D Awareness Week which runs from 23rd - 29th October and asked me to join in. I have a personal interest in Vitamin D as I suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder) and found that taking Vitamin D supplements really help with my symptoms. I plan to start taking a daily supplement from October and continue right through the winter until the days are longer, and the sun is stronger, (usually end of April, beginning of May). I take DLux 3000 as it is a mouth spray that absorbs easily and tastes great, in fact, I feel better almost as soon as I have used the spray. BetterYou invited me to take a test to find out my Vitamin D levels but firstly why is Vitamin D important and how do we get it?

Gift Guide For A Three Year Old

Gift Guide For A Three Year Old*

Three is a magic number, toys and gifts that were out of bounds are now suitable. Bear was three last week and he had some amazing gifts. Some were bought because he asked for them and some we thought he would love. Three is an age where their hand eye co-ordination matches their imagination. They can put together puzzles and make their own games up with the simplest of toys. Gifts do not have to be expensive and most of these are affordable and suitable for both birthdays and Christmas.

10 Aphrodisiacs To Boost Your Love Life

10 Aphrodisiacs To Boost Your Love Life

The theme for Day 12 of #Blogtober17 is Love. Aphrodisiacs are suppose to increase your libido. For thousands of years people have believed that certain foods can boost your love life.

The Romans thought that foods worked as aphrodisiacs if they were warm, moist and made you windy.
In the Middle Ages people thought that anything that looked phallic, like cucumbers, would increase desire and in the medieval period many herbs and spices (such as basil, saffron, pepper) that were used in love potions were banned.
Honey was widely thought to be an aphrodisiac and the Honeymoon was named after the custom of couples drinking honeyed mead in the first month after their marriage. I  am not sure if they actually work but there's no harm in trying.

How to find your goals and achieve them

Day 6 of #Blogtober17 is Goals. This got me scratching my head, laying in bed awake and generally deciding that I do not have any goals and that I am happy plodding along, but that's not strictly true. I have goals but they are vague. They are wishes, dreams not goals. Unattainable because they have no structure and no measurable end - there is no goal. So it got me thinking (and googling) what does it take to find your goal and once found how do we achieve them?

How To Use Flowers In Your Home - #Blogtober17 Day 6

How To Use Flowers In Your Home - #Blogtober17 Day 6

I love fresh flowers, they brighten up a home. We are not all florists (and I am completely rubbish at arranging flowers) so how can we use flowers in the home?

10 Ideas For A Date Night Without Leaving Home #Blogtober17 Day 4

10 Ideas For A Date Night Without Leaving Home

The phrase date night may make you cringe a little but whatever you prefer to call it, dedicated time together in a relationship is important. This is especially true when you have children. Date night is not just for hopeless romantics.

There are a million excuses to not have a date night from not enough time and no childcare to not enough money but it does't need to be expensive or even away from home. The most important thing is that the time is set aside just for the two of you.

An Easy Photo Gallery Wall

An Easy Photo Gallery Wall 

I was given* some Command Strips by 3M as part of my bedroom makeover. I had planned to hang a photo or two on one of the blank walls but found it hard to choose which ones. I then thought it would be nice to make a feature of the photos and hang them in a gallery. I was worried that it would be difficult to do but needn't have worried. It was so easy so I thought I'd share it with you.