Simple Rituals & Routines

It’s really helped us as a family to build-in a few rituals to our week. There’s enough to keep it fun without it feeling like a relentless holiday camp. Wednesday night is board games, Thursday is Clap for Carers, Friday is movie night, Sunday is a roast.

Planner from Marby & Elm.

We can only manage one film a week because everyone has such different tastes. Jos hates musicals, Etta (10) loves musicals, Marnie (15) likes classic teen movies, I love a period drama. So, as you can see weekly negotiations are tough! The rules are that we take it in turn to choose the film and that everyone must stay for the whole film (!). We shop for popcorn and ice cream for the event and it’s becoming a real highlight of the week - once discussions and diplomacy are complete!

We all really enjoyed ‘The Military Wives’ – it’s a British feelgood film but there were definitely tears too at our house. Also, on Netflix was the brilliant ‘Love, Simon’. It’s a love story with Simon our hero, a gay teenager pretending to be straight to preserve the status quo as he finishes high school. It is sensitively handled and really charming - we loved it.

Next up is my choice: The Personal History of David Copperfield with Dev Patel. I’m already planning the snacks!

Games night it all about the classics: charades, Uno, Monopoly Deal (so we’re not up all night) and Dobble but next we plan on trying Ticket to Ride which we’ve heard great things about.

Rule of Games is a small independent business with an amazing online shop stocking every board game under the sun. Check them out.

I’m a vegetarian, so Sunday roast means nut loaf for me and roast chicken for everyone else. 20 years on and Cranks nut loaf is still my favorite. Give it a go and let me know what you think, or if you have a great one I should try, let me know.

We buy our meat from The Machen Brothers. They are an amazing local butcher who supports British farmers. They are also still managing some local deliveries in west London so give them a try.

The girls love to cook and this week we experimented with Hasselback potatoes with wild garlic (which if you live in the countryside you should be able to pick yourself - they tend to like shady spots) which were delicious. As novices, we used a basic recipe and adapted it to fit our ingredients.

Alison x

I’d started making a Playlist for Ali last year but never got around to finishing it. I love music and I really enjoyed taking the time to put together a little play list. She loved the surprise and now I’ve got back into the habit I’ll definitely be doing some more. Now Marnie has caught the bug and done an upbeat one for the family. Feel free to listen …. We hope you enjoy them both.

Jos x