I started online grocery shopping when my eldest son was at school, youngest at nursery & I had a baby at home. Trying to get everyone to the right place at the right time & get a baby to nap around it all was hard enough without having to go shopping for groceries. Online grocery shopping took the stress of shopping away and I've used it ever since! Here are my tips.
I use Tesco for my weekly online
shop (having tried 2 other leading supermarkets where I encountered various problems). I find it so much easier than dragging children around a supermarket. My tips are all specific to Tesco. You can
save on delivery by opting for Super Saver Delivery. You pay for 3
or 6 months in advance but it then works out to about £2.50 per delivery, which I
feel is very worth it for not having to venture out myself. Other advantages
are that they deliver directly to your door so you don't
have to carry lots of shopping up stairs if you live in a flat above ground level. They also take it to wherever you want in your home (such as the kitchen) but are happy for you to unload on the doorstep if you prefer.
There are 1 hour delivery
slots & you can change your order up to 11.45pm the night before
delivery. I normally book my slot a few days before to secure it then do my
actual shop the evening before delivery. To secure the slot you just need to
add something to your basket & checkout. You can always remove this item
when you do your actual shop if you don't want it - just something to secure
the delivery slot.
If there are any substitutions (when the groceries are delivered) because what you ordered is
out of stock, they clearly list them at the top of the receipt & you can
either accept it or send it back with the delivery person if you don't want it.
They'll refund it there & then if you do. The substitutions can work in
your favour because they have to give you better quality if they're out of
stock, so if you order Tesco Value bread for example & it's out of stock,
you will get a nicer quality bread instead & they'll only charge you for
what you ordered. They also have to honour your quantity, so if the size you
ordered is out of stock they'll give you a bigger pack instead & again only
charge you for what you ordered. This is where online is better than going to
the shop as you have to buy what's available!
Delivery drivers will also take away
old carrier bags for recycling. If there are any problems with anything in the
order, e.g. Broken egg in the egg box, simply call Tesco & they'll refund
the total cost of the item even if most of it is still useable.
I have
local shops close by so I tend to get my own fruit & vegetables from the
greengrocers as it's cheaper, but whenever I've ordered them from Tesco they've been
fine.
You have to spend £40 minimum to qualify for super saver delivery but
that's fairly easy to do. Another benefit of super saver delivery is that you
can have as many deliveries as you want so I sometimes get 2 deliveries in one
week if we've got family coming to stay as it saves me thinking about
everything we need in one go.
I'd highly recommend online grocery shopping, especially to a fellow busy parent! After all, think of all the time you can spend doing useful stuff at home while someone else does your shopping for you. All you need to do is be at home to receive the goods! Perfect time-saving shopping!
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Baby wipes
This is a very brief but helpful suggestion for storage of baby wipes or any other household wipes. Store the pack upside down before and during use. This will ensure that the wipes you are using are always as moist and effective as possible because the moisture will stay at the top of the pack! Simple but it works!
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
TOYTs
I don't think I've blogged about TOYTs before so here goes. TOYTs are 'Thinking Of You Tokens' which were created by me to help my son who has autism to get through his day at school.
A TOYT is a hand crafted Fimo disk about the size of a £1 coin but slightly thicker and weighing approximately 5 grams. It is varnished to give a smooth and tactile finish. The idea is that the token is given to someone who is feeling down or lonely to remind them that they are not forgotten. The size is intentionally small to fit discreetly in a pocket so that when the recipient is feeling down they can feel the TOYT and remember they are being thought of.
This has helped my son tremendously at school and was also featured in the National Autistic Society's 'Communication' magazine. Although particularly useful for children with special needs, TOYTs also make great and unique gifts for anyone. TOYTs are sold in pairs so that you have a replacement if the first one goes missing. They are available in single colours or multi-coloured.
TOYTs are currently available to buy through Ebay:
Sunday, 8 July 2012
my book: FAITHFULLY PARENTING AUTISM
It's been a while since I blogged about my book and it's now available in more formats so I'm blogging about it again!
Faithfully Parenting Autism is the book I wrote to help fellow Christian parents of children with autism. It tells our story and offers practical help and advice on how to parent effectively, not excusing bad behaviour because of autism but helping parents to recognise where autism ends and bad behaviour starts.
The book has sold in the UK & USA and is now available as a paperback from lulu.com or amazon and as an ebook from lulu.com or through the iBookstore (prices vary). The book was also recently reviewed by The Good BookStall who were very complimentary & who now recommend it on their website (review below).
If you know anyone who could benefit from this, please pass on the details. Thanks!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=faithfully+parenting+autism&sitesearch=lulu.com&q=&x=0&y=0
GoodBookStall Review:If only we had this book to hand when we first realised there was a problem with autism within the family!
Nicola Maybury has written from first hand experience of learning to deal with an autistic child. Her suggestions are full of sound common sense based on what she has learnt about the subject and what she has done to cope with the very special needs of her autistic son.
I recognised so much of what she has written. Page after page I thought, ‘Yes, that is just how it is – if only we had been able to read this book earlier’.
This is a Mother sharing what she has learnt, not pretending to know it all but offering a helping hand to other struggling families. Her guidance on teaching her son about Jesus and a loving God and her invention of a TOYT(Thinking of you token) are excellent and worthy of wide publicity.
If you think your child has a behavioural problem then it is well worth your while looking at this quite short but very clearly written title.
Available from www.lulu.com
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (07/07/12)
Faithfully Parenting Autism is the book I wrote to help fellow Christian parents of children with autism. It tells our story and offers practical help and advice on how to parent effectively, not excusing bad behaviour because of autism but helping parents to recognise where autism ends and bad behaviour starts.
The book has sold in the UK & USA and is now available as a paperback from lulu.com or amazon and as an ebook from lulu.com or through the iBookstore (prices vary). The book was also recently reviewed by The Good BookStall who were very complimentary & who now recommend it on their website (review below).
If you know anyone who could benefit from this, please pass on the details. Thanks!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=faithfully+parenting+autism&sitesearch=lulu.com&q=&x=0&y=0
GoodBookStall Review:If only we had this book to hand when we first realised there was a problem with autism within the family!
Nicola Maybury has written from first hand experience of learning to deal with an autistic child. Her suggestions are full of sound common sense based on what she has learnt about the subject and what she has done to cope with the very special needs of her autistic son.
I recognised so much of what she has written. Page after page I thought, ‘Yes, that is just how it is – if only we had been able to read this book earlier’.
This is a Mother sharing what she has learnt, not pretending to know it all but offering a helping hand to other struggling families. Her guidance on teaching her son about Jesus and a loving God and her invention of a TOYT(Thinking of you token) are excellent and worthy of wide publicity.
If you think your child has a behavioural problem then it is well worth your while looking at this quite short but very clearly written title.
Available from www.lulu.com
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (07/07/12)
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Night Terrors
Night terrors are something which affect numerous children including my own son, so I thought this post might help if you too are having problems in this area. My son Archie suffered with night terrors really badly. At one point he was having several every night which was exhausting for all of us. Night terrors can occur when a child is stressed or worried or when there is a change in circumstances (such as moving house) but they can also occur spontaneously.
A night terror is different from a nightmare because with a nightmare, the child wakes up upset after a bad dream & wants to be comforted. With a night terror the child has no idea what is going on. They are effectively still asleep while crying out, screaming, hitting, kicking, biting, being very aggressive, yet have no idea they are doing it. As a mother, the thing you want to do is comfort your child if he/she is in distress. The frustrating thing about a night terror is that although your child is distressed, no amount of comforting will help, and in fact he/she is likely to push you away or become more distressed when you try to help them. The only thing you can do in this situation is try to keep your child from hurting himself/herself. The night terror will eventually stop and it will be completely obvious when it has because the child changes completely. They are no longer distressed, but calm, and confused about why they are awake, and why you are there. They have no recollection of what just happened, and will at that point normally settle back to sleep.
If your child is suffering from multiple night terrors or a night terror every night, I can recommend a solution. Our GP told us to try this and said it was the only thing she had found to work with night terrors. Basically, you wake your child up about 30 minutes before the time they normally wake up with a night terror. Give him/her a drink of milk and settle them back to sleep. This simple technique breaks the sleep cycle and is enough to stop the child entering the phase of sleep where the night terror usually occurs. This worked amazingly with Archie, and we found that he was so sleepy when we tried to wake him that we didn't need the milk to get him back to sleep, he simply fell straight back to sleep again. In fact we often couldn't wake him up but just rousing him was enough to stop the night terrors. After a few nights of doing this, Archie's night terrors stopped. I'd highly recommend this method and hope it works for you too.
A night terror is different from a nightmare because with a nightmare, the child wakes up upset after a bad dream & wants to be comforted. With a night terror the child has no idea what is going on. They are effectively still asleep while crying out, screaming, hitting, kicking, biting, being very aggressive, yet have no idea they are doing it. As a mother, the thing you want to do is comfort your child if he/she is in distress. The frustrating thing about a night terror is that although your child is distressed, no amount of comforting will help, and in fact he/she is likely to push you away or become more distressed when you try to help them. The only thing you can do in this situation is try to keep your child from hurting himself/herself. The night terror will eventually stop and it will be completely obvious when it has because the child changes completely. They are no longer distressed, but calm, and confused about why they are awake, and why you are there. They have no recollection of what just happened, and will at that point normally settle back to sleep.
If your child is suffering from multiple night terrors or a night terror every night, I can recommend a solution. Our GP told us to try this and said it was the only thing she had found to work with night terrors. Basically, you wake your child up about 30 minutes before the time they normally wake up with a night terror. Give him/her a drink of milk and settle them back to sleep. This simple technique breaks the sleep cycle and is enough to stop the child entering the phase of sleep where the night terror usually occurs. This worked amazingly with Archie, and we found that he was so sleepy when we tried to wake him that we didn't need the milk to get him back to sleep, he simply fell straight back to sleep again. In fact we often couldn't wake him up but just rousing him was enough to stop the night terrors. After a few nights of doing this, Archie's night terrors stopped. I'd highly recommend this method and hope it works for you too.
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Reduce the frequency of your child/children getting ill
There is a very easy way of reducing the number of times your child gets sick, by following a few simple hygeine rules. This may sound over the top but I've found it very helpful in reducing the number of times my children get sick.
Every time we get back home from being out, the first thing we do (after taking coats and shoes off) is to wash all the childrens hands properly. This way I know that whatever germs were on their hands from being out are now gone and won't enter our house - or indeed my children's mouths! I do this when we get home from being out anywhere, as I'm sure you know, children touch everything! A day of school results in very grubby hands, including toilet trips(!); a visit to a mother & toddler group where toys have been played with for years without being cleaned is another germ fest; even when we just pop out to the shops, the potential number of germs picked up on hands is amazing - door handles, shop shelves, items for sale etc, so you can imagine how many more germs could potentially be picked up by a trip to the doctors waiting room, where everyone who touches anything is ill. It's a very simple rule but works fantastically well. I also ensure I keep hand cleaning antibacterial gel on me whenever I'm out so that if the kids need to eat or somehow get very messy hands, I have a way of making them clean again. This may all sound over the top but it definately works!
Every time we get back home from being out, the first thing we do (after taking coats and shoes off) is to wash all the childrens hands properly. This way I know that whatever germs were on their hands from being out are now gone and won't enter our house - or indeed my children's mouths! I do this when we get home from being out anywhere, as I'm sure you know, children touch everything! A day of school results in very grubby hands, including toilet trips(!); a visit to a mother & toddler group where toys have been played with for years without being cleaned is another germ fest; even when we just pop out to the shops, the potential number of germs picked up on hands is amazing - door handles, shop shelves, items for sale etc, so you can imagine how many more germs could potentially be picked up by a trip to the doctors waiting room, where everyone who touches anything is ill. It's a very simple rule but works fantastically well. I also ensure I keep hand cleaning antibacterial gel on me whenever I'm out so that if the kids need to eat or somehow get very messy hands, I have a way of making them clean again. This may all sound over the top but it definately works!
Friday, 16 March 2012
Keep packed lunch food chilled easily
Keeping packed lunch food at the right temperature when it's going to be kept all day in a hot school is not always easy. The last thing you want is your child to get ill because they've eaten something that's become too warm. You can put an ice pack in their packed lunch box but I find the easiest thing to do is freeze the food you want to be chilled or place it next to something frozen to keep it cool until it's time to eat. I do this for sandwiches and fromage frais. Check on the packaging if things are suitable for freezing before trying this. I freeze the fromage frais that come in tubes and place them in the lunch box on the morning of the day they will be eaten. I also freeze bread and rolls. If I'm making a sandwich which needs to be kept cool, I take the roll or bread out of the freezer the night before to butter it, then place it back in the freezer overnight. In the morning I simply add the cheese or other filling, then place the sandwich in the lunch box ready for school. It stays suitably cold until it's time to be eaten but also has enough time to thaw properly.
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