Hi, I'm Kate. I'm in my 40s, married with two children. I was late to motherhood, having Monkey, my little boy, not long after I reached 40. Missy Woo, my daughter, landed not much over a year later.
For years, I worked in IT. In April 2009, I decided to take the plunge and took voluntary redundancy from my part-time job. Since then, I have been doing some studying, some odds and bits of self-employed work, and spending time with the children before they started school. Monkey started school in September 2009 and we have been getting used to school routines. Missy Woo joined him in September 2010 and since then, I have been working from home as a virtual assistant and project manager.
This blog is about the five Fs in my life that I hold dear:
- Family - I never expected to have children and I was blessed with the ability to have them. They drive me bonkers, but I love them to bits too.
- Football - I've always been a big football fan. I support Preston North End and had a season ticket BC (Before Children). I was there a week overdue. Unfortunately, my husband is from Blackpool, now a season ticket holder since they got into the Premier League. We do love Spanish football and regularly devour it on Sky, so we are united in one way - we all support FC Barcelona and have been to the Nou Camp a few times. Monkey's been once too!
- Food - probably a double edged sword. I love food, but I've struggled with my weight so have to be careful. As I've got older, I've learnt that it is better to try and eat more of the good stuff than rubbish. Luckily, I do love cooking from scratch. I bake nice stuff, but will never make it look that pretty. Be warned therefore, that any food photography from me is not going to be the lovely arty stuff you see on some blogs.
- Fitness - I was a regular and committed fitness freak BC doing 5 classes a week. I was even at one class at 5 days overdue. Having kids stopped that and I can't even afford gym membership anymore. In February 2010, I started working out at home, using EA Sports Active Personal Trainer for the Wii. I am a big fan of weights but I kept injuring myself so I've been taking it easier. I've lost weight since then, and dropped more than a dress size but I still have a way to go yet as I want to be the size 12 I was BC. I don't weigh myself. In October 2010, my hubby bought a family membership for the local gym and I've been getting back into my favourite classes, Body Pump and Body Combat.
- Fun - unavoidable when you have 2 small children, but I listed this as the fifth F as a catch all for everything else I wanted to blog about. And after all, it's my blog so I'll do what I want with it.
So, that's me in a (very large) nutshell.
I do write reviews and sponsored posts, if I feel they are right for me, my family and my blog. Reviews will be honest opinions based on samples provided for me or my family to test. I am happy to include appropriate links to relevant sites or other information in my post and photographs, either ones taken by me or stock photos provided to me. Reviews and sponsored posts are clearly marked and tagged as I believe in being honest with my readers. I am not usually paid to write reviews but I have written paid reviews, usually for the Netmums Bloggers Network, for which I am paid a fee to cover my time. I retain full editorial control over the content of these posts, and reserve the
Please don't ask me to:
- mention your competitions or other campaigns in a blog post unless I'm writing about something else,
- write a blog post to be entered into a draw,
- write sponsored content and not mark it as such,
- write a post straight from a press release,
because the answer will be no.
I have a media pack available with more information about my blog, including advertising rates, which can be obtained by emailing me at kateab65@gmail.com. You can use that email address to get in touch about any matter or you can tweet me on Twitter (@kateab).
Ta ra.