Mummascribbles – Mummascribbles meets…Raising the Rings – Mummascribbles

Today we meet the lovely Jade from Raising the Rings. Thanks so much for taking part Jade!

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family.
Hi *waves* I’m Jade, a non-morning person, lover of white chocolate and cups of tea. I live in Norfolk, UK and a rare breed in that I don’t drive a tractor and I’m not inbred with webbed feet. I’m 25 and that makes me the eldest of four children; I have a sister and two brothers.

I live with my fiancé, Jamie and our sons, Toby and Teddy. We’ve been together almost 3.5 years, although we’ve known each other since 2001 – it took him a while to realise that I was the woman of his dreams; that and the fact that he was in a relationship while we were at school. We’re now engaged but just as we were thinking about planning our wedding, we found out we were pregnant with our second baby boy.

Although I’ve worked in banking and financial services since I was 18, my dream career would be to become a midwife.

What do you like doing to be you, when you are not parenting, working (if you do), or blogging?
I’m usually doing one of these things ALL the time except I’m on maternity leave now.  I absolutely adore playing netball, although I can’t really play at the moment due to my pregnancy (roll on Winter league). If I had time to myself I love playing a good RPG or just going out shopping, but I haven’t done much of that lately. It’s more been about spending time preparing the house for this second baby! I do love to read too but I’ve been finding it hard to concentrate on any book recently.

What is your biggest achievement to date?
Without a doubt, it has to be my children. I know everyone says that, but they really are. I have lots of personal goals that I’d like to achieve, but these will always come second to my kids.

From your own experiences, what do you find the hardest part of parenting and what is the easiest/most rewarding part?
The hardest part for me is the patience you need. I’m naturally quite a ‘het-up’ person. My brain runs at 100mph, stressing over things that I can’t help and once I’ve got my mind set on something it has to be done ‘right now’.

The most rewarding part is seeing that little person grow and find their own little character. The way Toby comes to sit with me, wrap his arms around my neck and come at me with the biggest open mouth for a kiss is just amazing. I only need to look at him to know that, despite the hard work, every single minute is worth it. And Teddy is obviously only a few weeks old, so all those little things that newborn babies do are just too cute.

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?
I’m really lucky to be able to have Jamie home a lot more, compared to when Toby was first born, some amazing in-laws and a few select family members to help out if I need it. It’s just about keeping a routine more than anything. Using any spare time you have to get things done, even if it’s just sorting out one or two rooms, or getting your food shopping done. I always set some a lot of time aside for me so that if I’m at home and Toby and Teddy are napping together, I can try and catch up on some rubbish TV with an undisturbed cup of tea and biscuit. This tends to run into the time when I should probably be doing housework. Otherwise, if one is sleeping and the other awake, I make sure to spend that quality time with the one who’s not yet gone to bed. Or I just leave it.

Why did you decide to start blogging?
I wanted to be able to record things that happen so we could look back as a family in a few years time and really appreciate all the magical memories and little adventures we might have usually forgotten about. I love being able to share my experiences with other people and blogging seemed one of the best ways to do it. I have family far and wide, so it’s also somewhere they can come to keep up with what we’re doing. Not only that, I don’t have a huge network of friends so it’s nice to have somewhere to get support from other parents.

Tell me a bit about your blog?
I write about family, parenting, lifestyle and pregnancy and whatever else I think I might like to look back on or have on my blog. I originally started it in November 2013, 3 months after I’d had Toby, but took around a six month break and only really picked it up again earlier this year.

What do you want your blog to achieve and where do you hope to see it go as it grows?
I’m not really sure which path I’d like to take with blogging. I’m quite happy to keep it as a diary and work with lots of fantastic people. But that’s not to say I wouldn’t like to be able to make a living from it. Writing is something I enjoy anyway and I’d love for it to help me become a SAHM.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a blog?
Don’t get caught up with watching your stats. I know a lot of bloggers still do it and this becomes the be all and end all. Yes, it’s lovely to know that people are reading and sharing your content, but equally you should remember why you first started blogging.

If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
1. Jason Isaacs. Just because, hello! He is a bit of a dish for an older man isn’t he?

2. My great-nanny, Dorrie. She died when I was just a baby and I’ve heard so much about her. It’d be nice to see what she was like and what she’d say if she could see us all now.

3. Ed Sheeran. I’ve got a thing for gingers, I love his music and think he’s a genuine guy. Plus I’ve had so many dreams about him it’s a bit weird actually..

Tell me three random facts about you
1. My star sign is Libra

2. I’ve met Gordon Ramsey

3. I didn’t want children until I was 30

You can find Jade at www.raisingtherings.com and over on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+