Mummascribbles – Mummascribbles meets…This Mama Life – Mummascribbles

This week we meet the lovely Sarah from This Mama Life. Thank you so much for taking part Sarah 🙂

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family
Hello! My name is Sarah and I live with my husband Rob, daughter Little I, a baby bump and the cat Cosmo! Rob and I met out in the Middle East almost seven years ago and what was meant to be a quick holiday rebound romance turned into something else altogether. I haven’t been able to get rid of him since! We are a military family so we are currently living on the South Coast of England, despite being Scottish, due to Rob’s posting, and he is currently deployed overseas until Christmas. Boo! My family recently moved back from living abroad and are now based in Aberdeen, where we hope to settle one day. I’m a full time working mama who manages our blog, and YouTube channel, in my ‘spare’ time and absolutely love it.

What do you like doing to be you, when you are not parenting, working (if you do), or blogging?
I think that leaves less than an hour a week! I love travelling. I love visiting new cities, travelling abroad and within the UK and exploring new areas with my little family. Not particularly exciting but I thoroughly enjoy shopping, reading beauty/fashion/interiors blogs and planning the sh-t out of my life. We also enjoy a spot of baking when we manage to find the time. And last but not least, I do love a good box set. Pretty Little Liars has been my most recent obsession.

What is your biggest achievement to date?
Very cliché but it’s probably meeting my husband, having Little I and getting pregnant with this little tin of mini beans. I am all about family and come from an incredibly loving family myself, so I feel very privileged to have my own little wonderful family unit who make me insanely happy every day. Another big personal one is managing to make returning to work full time after having my daughter work, and also managing to grow the blog and YouTube channel at the same time. I guess graduating from uni is one too!

From your own experiences, what do you find the hardest part of parenting and what is the easiest/most rewarding part?
The hardest part is the relentlessness. Being a parent is a 24/7, 365 days a year, job and I don’t think anything can prepare you for that. The worry, stress and tiredness levels are on a whole different level to the types you experience before you become a parent. Two year old tantrums are no walk in the park either – especially in public places. The most rewarding part is 100% the love you get back from the little menaces. An unprovoked hug or kiss is the best thing in the world. Little I is a bit of a comedian as well, and always has me in stiches, which is so much fun.  

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 basically never sleep! I am lucky that I am a bit of a night owl and can cope with minimal hours of sleep. This means I can stay up till 12am blogging and editing for YouTube and still (usually) get up for work at 6.30am the next day. Although in saying that, now being 30 weeks pregnant, I am struggling a bit more! I’m also lucky that Little I is a good sleeper and goes to bed, 99% of the time, with no problems at 7pm. It means I am usually guaranteed an evening to sort everything I need to and catch up. It’s all about utilising the time you have when they are asleep! I am also an organisation freak. I can’t sit down if my house isn’t 100% the way I want it to be in terms of being clean and tidy. I guess I sacrifice ‘me time’ to make sure that everything that needs doing for Little I, the blog and the house gets done.

Why did you decide to start blogging?
Like a lot of other parent bloggers I started out blogging purely to record a personal journey for myself and my family. Over time it’s grown and grown and has developed into something a lot bigger than I ever imagined it would, which makes me happy!

Tell me a bit about your blog?
This Mama Life aims to be a fun, informative, modern parenting and lifestyle site with a clean, fresh and easy to navigate design. A place where parents, parents to be and non-parents, can pick up advice, check out fashion and beauty posts, read reviews and enter competitions etc. I’m trying to include a lot more personal posts these days as well because people seem to like those.

What do you want your blog to achieve and where do you hope to see it go as it grows?
I would love to continue to experience more wonderful opportunities through the blog and to keep helping other parents and parents to be. We’re lucky that the blog has opened up a lot of doors and we’ve had the chance to connect with a lot of great brands and people. Since Rob deployed I’ve had a lot of military wives get in touch and it’s been amazing to be able to help others in a similar situation to ourselves. Oh and I’d like to get to 5k subs on YouTube this year (we’re currently at 3.3K)!!

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a blog?
Choose a name with longevity. I had to change the name of mine a year in and it was an absolute nightmare. Do your research and read lots of other blogs for inspiration.

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

1. My grandparents – because I miss them.

2. Prince Harry – because I think he would be a right laugh and I love how much he does for charity etc.

3. Nelson Mandela – because he is a true inspiration and would have a crazy amount of stories to share.

Tell me three random facts about you

1. I can pull surprisingly accurate emoji faces.

2. My right pinky finger has an extra ‘joint line’ on it but no joint.

3. I always wanted to work for the UN as a development economist.

Along with her blog www.thismamalife.com, you can also find Sarah over at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube