Mummascribbles meets…A Cornish Mum – Mummascribbles

This week we meet the lovely Stephanie from A Cornish Mum. Thanks so much for taking part Stephanie.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family
I live in Cornwall (shocker and a big surprise I know!) with Si who is amazing simply for putting up with me for the last 5 years, and my two mini men Fin and Harley. I’m an incredibly impatient person and hate not knowing things, which is why Si hides my presents at other people’s house and I can’t stand being late for anything.

My eldest Fin has inherited my impatience, so it’s pretty much like karma has had its hand in, whereas Harley is ridiculously laid back in the extreme at times and I suspect will always be late for everything. My boys really could not be more different from each other in pretty much every way apart from the fact that they hold my heart equally in their hands.

I’d do anything for my little family, and the last 5 years being with the man I’m meant to be with have been the happiest in my life even though urghh I’m not a fan of soppiness believe it or not!

What do you like doing to be you, when you are not parenting, working (if you do), or blogging?
My only ‘job’ other than parenting is blogging, which I am lucky enough to be getting paid for on a fairly regular basis now. When I’m not blogging (but I am a LOT of the time) I like to do stuff as a family.

I love evenings at the beach collecting shells and jumping waves, singing really badly with the car windows open in public with the boys, curling up with a good book on the rare occasion I have the time, and I love being out doing stuff whether that’s a walk by a river, watching ballet, riding a log flume, seeing some fireworks or just having a picnic at the park.

I do love having the occasional child free day out with Si as well!

What is your biggest achievement to date?
Other than my handsome mini men, I’d say either overcoming my fears to do a charity solo skydive, reaching the top 100 of Tots 100 in my first 6 months of my blog or just finally being happy!

From your own experiences, what do you find the hardest part of parenting and what is the easiest/most rewarding part?
I would say the hardest part is when they are ill, it physically hurts that you can’t make them better or take away their pain. My eldest has Type 1 Diabetes and when he was diagnosed 6 years ago he almost died….whilst I feel happy every day that the worst didn’t happen and he’s still here…it kills me that I can’t take away what’s wrong with him.

The easiest part is just spending time with them, they make me laugh every single day, and they make me a sillier more fun version of myself. We have a lot of fun the four of us, and I love seeing glimpses of the men they will be when they’re older and they make me very proud.

Parenting in itself is no mean feat; how do you juggle everything you need to in order to get everything done on a daily basis?
After Fin was diagnosed he was rushed in to hospital pretty much every 6 weeks for a while afterwards as he was so weak he couldn’t fight anything off, and I ended up giving up work. These days I still don’t work as he’s ill more often than most people’s children that I know and I wouldn’t trust many people on this planet with looking after him when he’s ill – Type 1 really complicates a lot of things!

They are both in full time school though, so I have plenty of time during the day to focus on my blog, and a panicky 20 minutes every day to clean before Si gets home from work. I do need to cut back my blogging hours really as I neglect Si more than the boys, so I am working on juggling things a bit better. I never do things by halves though, and I hope my blog reflects how much work I’ve put in in the last 6 months!

Why did you decide to start blogging?
Sorry to be a Type 1 Diabetes bore (not a surprise to many!) but that was one of the main reasons I wanted to start my blog. It was very hard when Fin was first diagnosed and I had no idea where to go for support, and I was hoping to provide that for other families who are newly diagnosed…without having to train as a nurse to do it!

I have also always loved writing and in all honesty I was lonely. With the boys at school fulltime and so many Mum’s I do get on with working I was spending too long on my own and bored. I’m naturally someone who needs to be too busy, I am never just doing one thing at a time and I hate boredom.

The opportunities that my blog has given us already have been amazing, and I’ve made so many online and in real life friends through blogging now, that I don’t feel bored or lonely anymore, and I love that.

Tell me a bit about your blog?
I’m a bit greedy with my blog, I cover so many different areas because my interests are quite varied and I want there to be something for everyone if that’s actually possible. I’d say my most popular sections are my Type 1 Diabetes, Cornwall, and linkies ones.

I run a monthly Ten Things blog link up alone and a joint weekly Pick ‘n’ Mix one with Eilidh at Mummy and Monkeys, and I love how popular they both are. Though I have got about 70 blog posts to read and comment on in the next 5 days or so.

My blog is so varied that one day I can be writing about making my Will and the next I could be showing off a DIY home project or reviewing a day out or a holiday. I’m an Approved Family Friendly blogger so there may be more holidays and days out to read about on there in the near future as well.

What do you want your blog to achieve and where do you hope to see it go as it grows?
This is a tricky one as if you’d asked me a couple of months ago straight away I would have said that I wanted to be in the top 100 on the Tots 100 table…but I’m there already which I still can’t believe.

My goal at the moment really though is nothing to do with rankings, I just want my blog to help others, whether that’s to cope with a Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, to help someone spot the signs of

Type 1 and save a life or whether it’s to help someone to choose where to visit in Cornwall. I just want to feel like I’m doing something important that is valuable to others, if that makes any sense?!

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a blog?
This is one I have mulled over for a while, but it’s one of the key things people really do wrong as far as I can tell. It’s be careful with your choice of blog name!

Check that no one else is using that name as it will really confuse things on social media, you will have major competition on google searches as you’ll be mixed in with their results, plus they may not take kindly to it.

Also when choosing a name think hard about whether that name will suit you in years to come, a name like ‘Mum to a 4 year old’ for example (just made that up sorry if anyone has it!) will only be valid for that year and won’t make sense afterwards.

Your blog name is important, and it’s a big decision that shouldn’t be rushed as you may regret it later on.

If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive), who would it be and why?

Oh no last time I answered this one I chose very randomly and said Elvis and then had about 15 ‘official’ Elvis’ follow me on Twitter afterwards!

Here goes…I would choose Hugh Jackman partly because my boys love X Men (and I!) and this would give me big ‘cool Mum’ points, but also because he’s gorgeous.

The comedy genius Katherine Ryan because she is just hilarious. Most importantly my sister Tracey with my niece Melek and nephew Zeki (a cheat but they come as a package so count as 1) they live in Turkey and I haven’t seen them in about 2 years now sadly.

Tell me three random facts about you

1. I can’t stand the sound of anyone touching polystyrene or similar squeaky noises it actually makes my toes curl and makes me feel a bit sick! Of course the boys and Si use this to their advantage the scamps.

2. I can’t ride a bike, I just don’t have the natural balance to do so and almost hit a dog when I tried as a child, swerved and hit a wall instead.

3. On ‘fat’ days I wear gym clothes…not to go to the gym, but just so if someone looked at me they’d think ‘oh well at least she’s trying!’ – I never claimed to be normal by the way.

You can find Stephanie over at www.acornishmum.com and also on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram