Product Review and Giveaway - Po-Lice Hair Bands

Head lice. They are nasty little beasties who were put on this earth just to make everyone itchy. Just hearing the words head lice is enough to make even the sanest person start quietly scratching their head. Are you guys as itchy as me right now, because even just writing this stuff is making me want to remove my scalp.

I was contacted recently by a company called Po-Lice. They specialise in making head lice repellant hair ties. Of course the minute they started discussing head lice my head started itching like crazy so I jumped at the opportunity to try their hair ties out, even if just to stop my own crazed scratching.

Head lice are the scourge of children everywhere. They are tiny and sneaky, and now they have started to mutate into "super bugs" which just means they are even harder to eliminate once your child has caught them. Parents spend hundreds and thousands of dollars each year buying special nit removal shampoos, conditioners ointments, and other treatments, Then once they eliminate the little nasties, they then go out and buy preventative sprays to stop the bugs from returning. This is exactly what I did the last time head lice swept through the local schools, but there was something that concerned me when I went to buy my repellant. Upon looking at the ingredients on the bottle, I was disturbed to find I could neither recognise nor pronounce any of the ingredients inside. All of them were unfamiliar chemicals, which meant I had no idea exactly what I was going to be spraying on my daughter's head. I know in this case chemicals would be the lesser of two evils, but I still felt bad putting them on my child.

Can you imagine trying to de-louse this much hair? 

That is where the Po-Lice hair bands are different. They contain only natural plant based extracts which have all been proven to repel head lice. This means there are no nasty chemicals coming in contact with your child, and you can rest easy in the knowledge that you are using a totally natural product. The hair ties do have a distinct smell to them, given the combination of ingredients inside of them, however I found this to be not unpleasant, especially with the addition of both tea tree and lavender oil.  Now because these are hair ties infused with plant oils, it is essential that you do not get these ties wet, as the oils can be washed out. So you need to put them in dry hair only. Each hair tie can last up to 2 weeks if used correctly.

So once I received my package of 8 hair ties, I popped one in Miss K's hair, and I even gave some to my sister for my niece to use as well. I would have included one for my nephew too, but sadly he's just not as into accessorizing as I am. Before I put the hair ties in Miss K's hair I checked it thoroughly for head lice, and came up clean, so I know there was no previous infestation. I checked her hair each day for two weeks while using the hair ties, and by the end of my test period she still hadn't been infested. Upon checking with my niece, I found that she came up clean too.

They have good grip and strong elastic too which is always a must when dealing with thick hair

For any of you who are interested in purchasing the Po-Lice hair ties, they are available in packs that can last you anything from two months right up to 12 months, and can be purchased directly from their website. You can also check out their Facebook page to see testimonials from other customers. But for one lucky reader I have a 2 month supply of Po-Lice hair bands to give away today. 

To enter all you need to do is go down to the comments section below and tell me in 25 words or less the worst experience you've had with head lice. Even if it is just the fact you become a crazed scratcher the minute someone so much as mentions them, leave it down below. I will pick a winner at random and the results will be announced on my Facebook page.

This giveaway is open to Australian residents aged 18 and over only. One winner will be picked based on your answers. Competition ends on Saturday 4th June at 8:00pm EST. Winners will be announced on Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday 8th June

Disclosure

In the interest of honesty, despite the fact that it is not Australian Law that I make this disclosure, I will say that I did receive free products for the purpose of this review. All opinions given here are my own and have in no way been influenced by Po-Lice Australia or anyone else. 

An Open Letter to My Daughter's Kindergarten

To the wonderful teachers who are stuck with my daughter fifteen hours a week,

Today I am writing to you with a plea for change. Normally I'm not one to complain. Normally I'm just happy accepting that life is full of ups and downs and I can usually coast through it all with a smile. But not any more.

For the most part I love what you do. You get my daughter away from her tablet and her television without complaint, you manage to get through five hours a day without her constantly begging for food and drinks like she's a starved orphan who hasn't eaten for weeks, and you get her out of my hair three days a week, for which I love you all truly, madly, deeply. But when I come to pick up my daughter every day, you never return my sweet little princess back to me. For some reason you always lump me with a giant mud monster, and this has to stop.

Exhibit A: The result of ten minutes of scrubbing mud from ONE child's jumper. You don't want to know what the rest of the bathroom looked like when I was finished scrubbing.

I get that kids love getting down and dirty, and I get that letting them play in the mud is great for all sorts of reasons. But I'm not entirely sure that the children aren't staging mud wrestling events while in your care, which is the only explanation I can find for why they go home absolutely caked in mud every. single. day. Now if these mud wrestling matches have some kind of educational purpose, whether it be you're teaching them economics by letting them bet on the matches, or you're teaching them about physics, by showing them how to body slam their opponent into oblivion, then it would be a totally different story; but from what Miss K tells me, she has learned absolutely nothing from these experiences other than mud is awesome.

Apparently she only needed 45 minutes to get this dirty

I really shouldn't be surprised that Miss K has taken a shine to jumping through every puddle of mud she ever lays her eyes on, especially given that she feels that Peppa Pig is her spirit animal, but surely not every child has the same spirit animal, and yet I notice that nearly every child is covered in mud from head to toe by the end of the day. All of us parents stand outside in a group prayer every afternoon before you let us in to sign our progeny out for the day, begging for the mud to go no higher than the children's gumboots, and every day we all laugh with you about how much fun our children had getting absolutely filthy. We give sympathetic glances to the parents with the blackest children, and mentally congratulate ourselves for teaching our children about restraint when playing with dirt. Then we all head to our cars and cry into our steering wheels.

Some of the parents are beginning to get desperate. One parent is starting to buy stocks in hydrophobic solutions, in the hopes that they start making whole outfits out of the stuff one day, and another mother has just signed her daughter up for an internship with the local laundromat, just to teach her exactly what happens to dirty clothes. I myself have resorted to doing the laundry in the dark, reasoning that if I can't see them, then the stains aren't permanent. But without your help I fear anything we parents try will only be a bandaid solution.

We parents feel that since you and your staff are encouraging this kind of messy play, it is only fair that you provide free laundering services through the kindergarten. We have even discussed signing consent forms that let our kids work for you, free of charge in your laundromat, although we're checking with a lawyer right now just to make sure this doesn't constitute slave labour, and will need to get back to you before we put pen to paper.

Whatever the solution may be, something has to be done. I know you think your mud pile is beneficial to our children, however I feel it is more beneficial that I am not curled up in the fetal position next to my washing machine every single day singing the Peppa Pig theme song over and over again.

I look forward to coming to a mutually beneficial solution at your earliest convenience.

Kind Regards

Searching for Sanity


*Do any of you wonderful readers have children who enjoy getting as filthy as my own daughter does? Please share your horror stories of dirt for days and picking mud out of kids hair with me to help me get through the next six hours of scrubbing I have to do.*

May Fly on the Wall - Things that Kept me Smiling in Spite of Myself

Welcome again wonderful people to yet another in the Fly on the Wall series. Anyone who read my post last week about my bad news may be surprised to see me joining in this month, but right now laughter is the best medicine, and my friends and family made sure to keep me laughing all month long. I'm sure you all know the drill by now, but if you're a newbie I'll explain it anyway. Today a group of 9 bloggers have all gotten together to share all of the crazy that you'd see every day if you were a fly on their wall.



But before I get into the fun, allow me to introduce you to all the other bloggers joining in this month with the craziness, be sure to visit them all and keep the medicine flowing right to the end of the bottle.

Baking In A Tornado    http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2016/05/fly-on-wall-flirting-101.html

Juicebox Confession                    http://www.juiceboxconfession.com                           

Menopausal Mother                    http://www.menopausalmom.com/                         

Spatulas on Parade                     http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/                      

Searching for Sanity                    http://singlemumplusone.blogspot.com                       

Never Ever Give Up Hope             http://batteredhope.blogspot.com                        

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy       http://dinoheromommy.com/2016/05/20/fly-on-the-wall-may/

Southern Belle Charm                   http://www.southernbellecharm.com                       

My Brain on Kids                          http://mybrainonkids.net

Apparently this month Miss K had cows on the brain because we had a lot of discussions that ended up being about cows for some reason.

Me: Can you please stop eating like a little piggy and eat like a little lady?
Miss K: No, I'm not a little old lady.
Ady: Really? What are you then?
Miss K: I'm a piggy and a cow.

Miss K still has some speech issues, but I'm struggling to figure them all out, so one day while we were working on her sentences this came out.
Me: Can you say the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog?
Miss K: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy cow!
Me: Not quite but close enough.

Me: Miss K did you just fart?
Miss K: No, it must have been the cow.
Me: But I don't see any cows in the room
Miss K: You're the cow mum.
I wasn't sure whether to be more offended that she was calling me a cow or blaming me for her farts. I'm still not sure.

Mum made Miss K a sandwich one day, and cut it into triangles.
Miss K: This sandwich tastes great granny, but it would taste even better if it was cut into squares.
Mum: I'm sorry, I thought you might like triangles for once.
Miss K: No, I only like squares.
Sadly mum did not learn her lesson and made her another sandwich cut into triangles the next day too. I have now taken over sandwich duties again for the sake of everyone's sanity.

During one of my visits to hospital earlier this month they gave me a script for a tablet that wasn't to be taken orally. I went to the in-hospital chemist to pick it up and saw they had a pharmacy intern running the front desk. He was run off his feet, so I just waited quietly till it was my turn and gave him my name. He ran off to get my tablets, but once he saw exactly what it was that had been dispensed he told me he needed to run away and let a female pharmacist explain them to me. It took all of my strength not to laugh at him and cluck as he literally ran away from the desk. I did feel sorry for the poor guy though.

This is why you shouldn't call me when I'm bored.
Me: (answering a call from Nat) Your mother is a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries
Nat: I fart in your general direction
Me: Go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
Nat: Most people just say hello.
Me: Hey at least I was speaking English this time.
For anyone who doesn't get that reference, check out this Monty Python and the Holy Grail video. All of my best ever insults have come from this scene.

Miss K was being a real pain in the rear one night at dinner. I didn't have the energy to fight her over every mouthful, so mum had been pulling her up, but it was getting exhausting.
Mum: Can I run away from home now?
Miss K: No!!
Mum: But why not?
Miss K: Because you're my best.
Luckily mum decided to stay after that. Flattery will get you everywhere in this world.

It seems that Miss K has inherited my hearing troubles.
Me: Miss K do you know what you're doing tomorrow?
Miss K: C is for cookies?
Me: Yes it is, but that's not what I asked.

Miss K: Mum does my forehead have a name?
Me: Yes it does, it's called your forehead.
Miss K: No, I have a fivehead.

While in Inverloch we watched Hairspray, which I've never seen before. This happened at the end of it.
Me: That's it, I've figured it out.
Sam: What?
Me: I was trying to figure out who John Travolta reminded me of in that movie.
Sam: And who does he remind you of?
Me: He reminds me of Ryan Stiles doing an impersonation of Carol Channing.

I want to take a quick second to thank everyone who has contacted me in whatever way over the past few weeks to share your condolences, your stories, and your love. I am truly touched to have such a wonderful big web of people standing behind me in the good times and the bad, and you are all awesome. Big love and hugs to each and every one of you.

Book Review - You Have my Heart

You all know I love books. I love to read, I love having rooms filled with shelves heavy with books, I even love to smell books (but that's another quirk for another day.) So I always get excited when I am asked to do a book review for someone, because then I get to talk about books, and the happy just gets even bigger.

Today I am reviewing a brand new book that has just been published called You Have my Heart. This beautiful little hard cover gift book was written by Corinne Fenton and illustrated by Robin Cowcher. Corinne Fenton is a well established, award winning children's author, having already published a whole slew of books for Australian children including The Dog on the Tuckerbox and Queenie the Elephant. Robin Cowcher is an award winning illustrator whose work can also be found in the Age newspaper, where she has worked as a designer, illustrator and art director, as well in the children's book Little Dog and the Christmas Wish where she again worked with Corinne Fenton.

You Have my Heart is a sweet little book celebrating love and the strength we can draw from it. The illustrations were beautifully done in watercolour in simple reds and greys giving each page a striking effect. This book was initially conceived as a Mother's Day gift, however it works as a great gift for other occasions too.

Miss K and I both loved reading this book. For us it gave us a good chance to discuss each emotion displayed on each page, and some of the situations that could cause each emotion.

It was a great way to start a dialogue with her about her feelings just to let her know that each of the six emotions that the book explores were all OK. And then we'd read it again just to enjoy its sweet message.

Pyjama pants are optional when reading this book.

This book is available for purchase now through Five Mile Press. If you have someone special in your life and you want to let them know how you feel, I definitely recommend buying this as a gift for them today.

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book You Have my Heart in return for this review. All opinions given in this piece are entirely my own.

My Little Hot Air Balloon Baby

Hello again guys, I interrupt my normal schedule to share some sad news with you guys.

This is the hardest thing I have ever had to write, and that's including when I've had to get creative with job applications. I keep starting and stopping this one, and sometimes scrapping it altogether. This is about the fifth attempt I've made, so hopefully this one makes it to your screen because I'm still not sure whether or not any of these posts are going to see the light of day.

So up until two weeks ago I was pregnant. This fact alone will surprise most of you since none of you knew I was even dating, but I was. Long story short we were friends for years, we dated for a few months, we were talking about moving in together and having kids, I discovered I was already pregnant and he freaked out and admitted not only was he not ready to be a dad again, he'd been seeing someone else for three weeks. So I walked away and started planning to be a single mum again. I wasn't scared, not like I was when Miss K was coming, simply because I've now been doing this for five years and lets face it, I kick ass as a single mum.

I was looking forward to being a mum again, I knew it was going to be tough having two kids to run around after, but kids are always a beautiful blessing, so I had more to look forward to than dread. Really the only thing I was dreading was having another ex I was tied to for the rest of my life. I was really hoping I'd made better choices this time, I really thought he was decent and it took giving him something he'd previously said he wanted to find out his true colours. But I didn't have time to dwell on it this time because I had more important things to take care of right now.

In the last weekend of April I went to Inverloch with all of my sisters and my niece Eliza. We spent two nights at an amazing holiday house ten minutes from the beach and had a fabulous time. My time was made more fabulous by the fact that for the first time in two months I wasn't plagued with morning sickness and constant back pain. I didn't think too hard about how I was feeling, I decided it was just a sign I was meant to enjoy myself this weekend and so that's exactly what I did. It wasn't until I got home and went for a scheduled ultrasound on the Monday that I realised what was really going on. The poor technician spent a full ten minutes looking for a heartbeat for me with no success. He was very apologetic, as if it was all somehow his fault and I walked out of his office in a daze. The first thing I did was call mum and start crying.

The next two weeks were a blur of doctors appointments and tears. I had mum and my big sister Sam tell everyone what was going on simply because I didn't have the strength to keep saying the same thing over and over again. The only family members I had to tell were mum and Miss K. Miss K was confused of course, and has asked lots of questions, the worst of which was whether or not she was still a big sister. My heart ached for her at this point, because it showed that for her, the most important part of my pregnancy the whole time was the fact that she finally had the chance to be a big sister. For my sake as much as hers I told her she was still the best big sister in the world and I meant it.

I've clung to Miss K like a life raft these past few weeks, as if my life depends on her existence, and in a way it does. Right now she is my whole reason for waking up, she is the one who keeps me busy and sane and without her I feel lost. Every morning that I wake up and see her little head lying next to mine I know I'm going to be OK and I'm able to get out of bed and get on with life. Every night when she goes to bed again I feel the same helplessness creep over me and I sit and wonder what the hell I'm meant to do with myself until tomorrow morning.

At least now that the physical part is over I finally have my identity back. From the time the technician told me he couldn't find the heartbeat until the moment the last doctor told me everything was over and I was nearly healed all I could see myself as was a walking miscarriage. I felt like I had it tattooed on my forehead and I couldn't understand why no one else seemed to notice it. I received no weird stares from people in the streets, none of the other parents at kindergarten even realised anything was different, which of course they wouldn't, because I hadn't even gotten to the point where I was telling people I was pregnant, so there was nothing to notice, but to me it was the biggest part of me, and I couldn't understand how it could be so invisible to everyone else.

The only thing I'd bought for the baby before we got the news was a beautiful original print. It is a water colour of a zebra in a hot air balloon, and it was going to be hung on his wall near his cot. Instead I now get to turn it into a memorial picture, complete with a beautiful poem my baby sister Kim wrote for me.

Right now I'm trying to stay hopeful, and remember my blessings. I still have a wonderful family surrounding me, all of whom have been an amazing support for me right from the beginning of this saga, and all of whom have managed to forget all their own problems and lives to prop me up and keep me propelling forward. I'm on the phone all the time these days answering messages checking to make sure I'm ok, and looking at sloth and lama pictures with thanks to Nat who knows how to make me smile.

It makes me feel better knowing that for the short time that my little boy was alive he was loved totally by all who knew of him. He knew nothing of pain, heartbreak, rejection or sadness, all he ever knew was peace, and love, and that thought brings me peace.

But there is still grief to go through, and I know it isn't going to be a quick process. There are times I can get through a whole day without any tears, and then there are the days where I can't even make it through my first coffee of the day, and that's ok. I'm trying my hardest to seek out happiness, and remind myself that there is still joy in the world despite what I feel right now, and it does seem to be helping. I have a close friend who is pregnant with a rainbow baby, having gone through her own miscarriage late last year, and knowing she needs support right now keeps me from wallowing too much. I also have a whole soccer team worth of family members who managed to forget their own worries for me, so I do my best to return the favour for them whenever the need arises, which also helps me to keep my own grief in perspective.

There are times I can still feel happy, there are times I feel peaceful, there are times I feel frustrated and there are times I feel broken. I've had days where I feel like I can climb a mountain, and I've had days where all I can do is lie on the couch and stare out the window, but I know this is all just part of the process and I'm trying to be gentle with myself. About the biggest thing I've accomplished in the past two weeks is reading over 3,000 pages of customer service horror stories, but an accomplishment is still an accomplishment when your life has been ripped apart. Day by day I repair a little bit more, and one day I will hopefully feel whole again, but until then I'll just keep plodding along. Helping my family, making people laugh, being the best mum in the world. That's all any of us can do.

To my little hot air balloon baby Cooper Dean, RIP. I leave you in God's hands for now, but I will love you forever.

Helping Mums in Need

Hello my lovely audience and a Happy Mother's Day for all of you who are celebrating today. I know a lot of people are going to be talking today about what makes a mum, what it takes to be a mum, single mums, mums to angel babies, mums to fur babies, and mums in heaven. While all of these are wonderful things to talk about, I wanted to take a different approach and speak about someone who helps mums.

There are millions of organisations around the world who help mums in need. This is a good thing for women who are in situations of domestic violence, refugees, homeless, victims of natural disaster and any other terrible situation you can think of that would prevent a mother from being able to provide a safe environment for her children. The one organisation I am most familiar with, and the one I have been following closely since not long after Miss K was born is St Kilda Mums. They are a not for profit organisation which has provided baby goods for families in need since 2009. Of course despite their name they also help dads, because they believe all parents deserve a helping hand. I spoke about them recently on my Facebook page to highlight the donation drive they were currently partaking in to provide toiletries and personal supplies to mothers in need. At last count they had received over 130 gifts from very generous people, all complete with uplifting messages to be given to the mums. 

But this one donation drive doesn't even scratch the surface of what they do over at St Kilda Mums. They take donations of second hand baby goods, repair them, clean them, inspect them and make sure they are still safe to be used and then re-home them with parents who cannot afford to buy simple necessities like cots, prams, car seats, change tables, you name it. The volunteers who work for St Kilda Mums work tirelessly to provide as much as they can to parents in need, unfortunately there is always more demand for baby goods. There is always a waiting list of patient parents who desperately need supplies for their babies, and the volunteers work their hardest to get through their list as quickly as they can.

While it is great that they help parents in need, I feel it is important to highlight the impact the work they do has on the environment as well. A lot of times these good would end up in the hard rubbish because second hand stores usually do not have the resources available to ensure second hand baby goods are safe enough to resell. By repairing and then re-housing these items, organisations like St Kilda Mums are reducing the amount of rubbish we already have polluting our earth. This fact alone makes them heroes in my eyes, but what they do with them once they pass muster again just makes them super heroes.

So if you have some pre-loved baby or children's items that you aren't going to use any more, before you chuck them to the tip, see if you can't donate them to a family in need. If you would like to help but find yourself completely out of baby goods, they also accept cash donations which help purchase brand new items, and also pay for the repairs on pre-loved furniture. There is also currently a huge need for warm coats for children, just in time for another of our horrible Australian winters.  For more information, and to see some of the stories of the families St Kilda Mums have helped, check out their website here. If you would like to see if there is an organisation closer to you for donations, they also have a page which lists sister organisations both around Australia and the world. You check that out here.

Well while I could go on and on all day about St Kilda Mums and all the awesome things they do, I now have to search for my Mother's Day gift with my eyes closed. (Seriously those are the instructions I have been given.) so if you'll excuse me I'm off to bump into every wall in my house for an hour or so. Have a wonderful day to all the mums out there, whether your kids live at home and drive you up the wall on a daily basis, or are all grown up and only call you when they need something, or even if it isn't Mother's Day where you are, you are all awesome and deserve a great day today.

App Review - Jigsaw Family Connect

Hello again my lovely readers, today I am here to discuss with you a new free app which has hit the iTunes store and Google Play.

I was contacted last month by one of the developers of this app, a lovely gentleman called Simon. He is a fellow blogger who is passionate about developing positive families. So to help facilitate this, he has helped to develop the Jigsaw Family Connect app.

This app is all about being conscious about the time you spend with your children. You can set yourself goals based on how much time you want to spend with your kids, anything from 1 hour to 40 hours in a month, and then record each activity that you undertake with your children that brings you further towards your goal.

So I downloaded the free app in the middle of March, and then spent the next 30 days tracking the time I spent focused completely on Miss K. Whenever we spent any dedicated time completing an activity together, whether it be going outside to kick a ball around, or sitting in her room to read a book together, I'd write it down in the app, and it tracked my progress the whole time.

It was very encouraging, even when I forgot to tell it I was playing with my child.

The app itself is very user friendly, it has an easy to use interface and it takes next to no time to learn your way around the buttons. It even includes a page where you can find suggestions for activities to complete together, which is great for rainy days where your kids are climbing the walls with boredom. (or even the dreaded school holidays, where you are faced with the daunting task of having to entertain your children for 2 to 8 weeks at a time) and it takes the guess work out of picking something to do when your brain is fried from playing mum all day long.

Just not Monopoly, that game destroys families.

The app is currently in its first release, so there will be improvements down the road, including an increase in the suggested activities provided. However I did notice two things that would make the app easier for forgetful (and lazy) parents like me. The first thing is that there is no way to set an amount of time for completed activities that take less than an hour. I don't know about any of you, but an hour is an awfully long time to spend with my daughter, and I have never seen her last that long at anything except nagging me for more food. If any of you have children that can last an hour doing one task only, would you possibly like to discuss the option to swap with my darling she-devil with the attention span of a goldfish??

That and I'm lucky to last more than ten minutes playing backyard footy even on my best days.

The only other thing I noticed is that there is no possible way to back date activities. If you are forgetful (like me) or lazy (like me) it can sometimes take several days to remember that you need to keep entering your activities on a daily basis. Of course in the long run this doesn't really affect the running of the app, except that there are days on my copy of the app where it looks like I spent every single waking minute of one day playing with my child, and then a whole week where I ignored her totally. Of course this could have totally been the case with me, and I spent one whole day of the week playing anything Miss K wanted, only to have to spend the rest of the week cleaning up the aftermath of playing like a five year old for a whole day. I don't call her the hurricane for nothing.

I promise I spent way more time than this with her on that day, at least I think she was the one I played footy with. 

Luckily for me, when I noticed these things I contacted the developer and brought up my concerns with him. He was grateful for the feedback and let me know that my suggestions are going to be considered in the next update, so hopefully soon lazy parents like me can continue being lazy and not look quite so nutty when using this app. I have also been reassured that further developments are being planned for future updates, but a lot of these require user input, so the more of you who download this app, the better it becomes.

The best thing about this app was that it made me think about exactly how much time I am spending with my child. Of course I have her with me most of the time, except for kindergarten and visits with her father, but that didn't mean the time we were spending together was actually beneficial or meaningful for her, or me. By consciously deciding to pay attention to the time we were spending together, and the activities we were completing, I was able to see exactly how much real time I was spending with Miss K and how often I was just phoning it in, or pretending to listen while I ran through the mile long to do list in my head. While I can never say I'm a perfect parent, I always thought I was a more conscious parent. This app has not only shown me that I need to be more attentive, but it gives suggestions for exactly how I can do that. And now that I know these things I am taking the steps I need to be a more attentive and present mum.

I know I was definitely present when this photo was taken

So if there are any of you who want a way to track the time you spend with your kids, whether it be because you have a jam packed full schedule, and you want to make sure you're dedicating enough time to your kids, or simply to see if you're spending as much beneficial time with your kids as you possibly can, then download this app today from iTunes or Google Play. It's easy to use, and best of all it is totally free.

*Searching for Sanity is in no way affiliated with Jigsaw Family Connect or its developer Noon Layer. Because this app is free for download I received no remuneration for providing this review.*

**Update 26/5/16 I have just heard from the developer that the suggestions I made have been added to the latest update of the app. You can now do activities for 15, 30 and 45 minutes as well as the hours listed. There is now also the option to add a date to each activity for forgetful people like me. They have also opened up a contest through the app for regular prizes if you share activities with the community. This update is live now through Google Play however there will be a slight delay getting the updates completed in iTunes.