This weeks #MySundayPhoto was taken at the Medway English Festival fun day out we had with Martyn and the boys yesterday. Izzy absolutely loved having a go on this red bus, sitting at the top of course! I love how happy she looks here.
My Sunday Photo – The Gull Lightship
My Top 10 WordPress Plugins
There are literally thousands of different plugins out there that do all sorts of things so I thought it may be useful to list my top 10 WordPress plugins. Any blogger will know plugins are essential to help them get what they want out of their blog. . When setting up your site for the first time there are a few must have plugins & a few extras that will just help make blogging easier for you & user friendly for your visitors too!
My Top 10 WordPress Plugins
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Jetpack by WordPress.com
Jetpack connects your blog with wordpress.com it has ton of useful features such as showing Stats, providing security & spam protection, automatic plugin updater, as well as boosting image loading speeds. That’s just the free version too!
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Yoast SEO
Most bloggers have heard of SEO and how important it is when writing posts, Yoast helps you by analysing what you write and giving tips to improve your writing & use of keywords to boost your posts and make them easily searchable.
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Word Fence Security
Another security app which provides an anti-virus, firewall & malware scans to help keep your blog protected. It also allows you to view real time traffic and hack attempts.
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Akismet Anti-spam
Another security feature to prevent spam comments getting through to your blog, it catches anything it considers to be spam and allows you to review it and either approve or delete the comments.
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Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
Google Analytics gives Real-Time Statistics on your WordPress Dashboard by automatically tracking the code in every page of your website.
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Cookie Bar
You must display a cookie warning on your site to let your visitors know that your website uses cookies. Cookie bar makes it nice & easy!
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CommentLuv
This plugin lets your visitors link up their most recent post by selecting CommentLuv when commenting. This helps increase comments & community spirit. It makes it much easier for me when someone comments to return the favour!
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Broken Link Checker
This plugin is extremely helpful, it detects any broken links and images and notifies you via the dashboard so you can either update or delete them.
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Addtoany Share Buttons
This app allows you to add as many different social media share buttons as you like to display on your blog to help you visitors share your content on pretty much any platform! There are over 100 different social share buttons available with share counts which are also integrated with Google Analytics to track shares.
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No-Bot Registration
After recently being hacked by bots I was told about this plugin which helps prevent bots getting through. It works by blacklisting emails and presenting people with a security question when registering or posting a comment.
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Share drafts publicly
Ok I lied.. but I had to add in this last plugin as it has been so helpful for me! If you want a second opinion on your post or you are working with a company who wants to see your post before it goes live this plugin allows you to share a private link to your draft!
What are your top 10 WordPress plugins? Have I missed any you think are important when starting up a blog?
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Hiring A Man With A Van With Bidvine
I’ve been searching for a man with a van using Bidvine. Bidvine is a site that helps you hire trusted local service professionals easily. It’s really simple to use, you fill out a form beginning with your postcode and which service you are looking for. You then go on to answering service-specific questions. Bidvine then sends this job request to trusted local professionals to bid on.
Bidvine covers the whole of the UK so you can guarantee they will help find the service you need. They have an IOS app too for the IPhone users looking for services on the go.
We make hiring local, trusted service professionals ridiculously simple – and help people use the time saved to pursue their passions.
I went through the form and was quite impressed with just how specific the questions were! Perfect for finding exactly what you need, when you need it!
Man With A Van – Service Request Form
Firstly you are asked if you need a few items or furniture moved with an option for other so you can specify yourself. Next you are asked how far you need the item moved in miles. You are then asked how many large items & small items you need moving. The next questions are how many flights of stairs there are when collecting and dropping off the items with the option of service elevator, which we have.
There is also the option for other services needed such as; Packing items into boxes, Boxes, Padded blankets, Large furniture moving (i.e. piano, safe, billiards table) & Storage as well as the option to write in something specific. You can then select when you need a man with a van & if you want to add photo’s to your service request as shown below. Then you are asked if there is anything else you would like to add to the service request and to confirm your postcode. Finally you are given the option to create an account (if you haven’t already) using Email, Facebook or Google to sign up.
Selecting a Pro!
Your service request is instantly sent out to trusted local professionals to bid on, it’s likely you will get several responses! Once you have received bids you can contact the professional you have chosen through Bidvine, by phone or using email.
To help you decide which professional to choose from customers are encourage to leave reviews and Bidvine even have a lit of their Top Removal Drivers as well as a list of Pro’s Perfect for moving your piano!
Bidvine is a brilliant site for finding a range of local services for hire. Whether it’s a Man with a van, Domestic cleaning, Interior Painting, Personal Training or even Piano Lessons there are plenty of services. The company have some brilliant values too helping support both the customers and the professionals providing the services too, something I love to see.
Bidvine makes finding the services you need much simpler all round. With such a wide range of services listed Bidvine connects you with the most trusted professionals in your local area to get the job done. I will definitely be using them in the future!
Have you heard of or used Bidvine before? What do you think? If you haven’t do you think Bidvine could help make finding a professional easier for you too?
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My Sunday Photo – Purple Flowers During Half Term
Our Favourite Audiobooks This Week – With BookBeat
Our favourite audiobooks this week.. That’s right! We are mixing up our favourite books post this week thanks to trying out audio books using BookBeat. A day later than normal as it’s half term. BookBeat is a digital streaming service that allows you to listen to audiobooks on your mobile. There are thousands of audiobooks on BookBeat and for £14.90 per month which you can cancel at any time it’s well worth the cost!
Eva especially was rather impressed with BookBeat, and stealing my phone to listen to them. The menu’s are easy to navigate and it took her no time at all to find her way around the Children’s section. She even worked out how to find audiobooks suited to her age group and added books to ‘My Books’ so she could find them again later. The app is so well laid out and I love that you can click info on a book to find out more about it too.
Eva’s favourite Audiobook this week
Syd Hoff’s Danny and the Dinosaur and the girl next door is Eva’s favourite audiobook this week! She loved that she could listen to the story. Eva got distracted at the library but we had planned to pick up a book she wanted to listen to so we can help improve her confidence reading out lout. By enhancing her knowledge of punctuation and how it is implemented in a sentence/paragraph by following the words in a book as well as listening to the audiobook. She sometimes rushes her reading and forgets to use punctuation and I think by doing this it can really benefit her. There are a long list of books saved for her to listen to, I’m sure it won’t be long until she shares another.
Izzy’s Favourite Audiobook this week
With Eva having found the option to search audiobooks by age range we were able to find some nice short audiobooks for Izzy to listen to. She absolutely loved The Tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr. I was surprised to see Izzy pay attention and listen to the words. Although she didn’t have too much to say about the audiobook she did say she liked the Tiger, haha! I’ll be adding more book suited to her age range & see what she thinks of them.
My Favourite Audiobook this week
Oh yes, we really are mixing things up, Even I’ve joined in & picked my favourite audiobook this week! I don’t really get the time to read more than a blog post here or there these days so it’s been quite nice to be able to download an audiobook to listen to on the bus or whilst out shopping alone. I haven’t had much time to listen so I haven’t finished an audiobook yet myself but I have started listening to Patricia Cornwell’s Depraved heart. I have read most of the Kay Scarpetta series and really enjoyed them so it’s been quite nice getting a chance to hear a new one! I’ve only read up to the Book of the dead before & having got back into the storylines with this audiobook I’ll definitely be catching up on the others too!
What have you been reading or listening to this week? What do you think of audiobooks? Are you a fan or do you prefer to flick through pages? Have you heard of BookBeat before?
Fancy a month’s free trial? http://www.bookbeat.com/uk/blogteam
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Improving My Mental Health & Sleep With S+ By Resmed
To try improving my mental health & sleep I received the S+ by Resumed to test out and review. Anyone with any kind of mental health issues knows just how important getting enough sleep is. Add in Chronic pain & most days are a disaster so I was interested to see how the S+ could help me. The S+ is a sleep tracking device which is COMPLETELY wireless! No wristbands or pad’s to place anywhere. A plus for me as I don’t like wearing wristbands whilst I sleep or having any strange lumps in the bed.
I was interested in seeing how the S+ tracked my sleep and see if there were any ways of improving my sleep routine to help manage my anxiety mainly! It took me a while to remember to set the S+ to Sleep each night due to my medication knocking me out most nights! (Hence disappearing from twitter at random times each night!)
The box contains:
- S+ Pod
- S+ Frame
- 59″ micro USB cable
- AC adapter with dual USB ports
- User manual
The S+ Pod sits in the S+ frame which allows you to adjust the positioning of the pod. The pod needs to be within arms length of where you sleep, I have a small bedside unit next to my bed so I placed the S+ on there and adjusted the position so that it pointed towards my chest. This allows the S+ to monitor your heartbeat.
S+ App
I downloaded the S+ By Resmed App & synched my phone to the device via Bluetooth. I looked through the S+ Guide to get an idea of how the app & monitor work.
Pre-Sleep
The S+ requires you to let it know when you are going to sleep using the app. This then takes you through Pre-Sleep where it asks you questions about your day. Questions include things how many caffeine drinks you’ve had, how much exercise you’ve done, how stressful your day was and a few other’s too. This helps the monitor to work out where improvements can be made to improve your sleep score.
Monitoring your sleep
The S+ records how long it takes you to fall asleep each night along with monitoring your sleep across the night. There is also an option to set an alarm to wake you up at an optimal time based on your sleep. Each night you are given a sleep score from 0-100. I started off quite low with a score of 65 on my first night with only 64% REM sleep & 70% Deep Sleep with 9 disturbances across the night.
Using the data from the first 3 nights helps the S+ work out what could help improve your sleep score. This also takes into account the room temperature & lux. My first night the temperature was 25c & lux 0 (light). These are considered good ranges for sleep so I didn’t need to change anything there.
Still tired but less stressed
Seeing all this information the S+ tracks made me realise just how hard I’ve been pushing myself. Even following the tips my sleep only improves by a tiny bit because I’m still waking in pain. It can be tough being a spoonie and always feeling exhausted, it sometimes makes you feel like maybe you are just lazy. Seeing on the chart how frequently I wake and just how much time I spend awake across the night made me realise it was no wonder I still woke up exhausted! My first score has been my highest so far this week!
Not being so hard on myself after seeing how little sleep I’ve managed each morning has helped my mood. Now I don’t feel quite as guilty saying I’ve had enough & I’m too tired for the day, especially when I see I’ve had a rough night. It’s one thing knowing you are exhausted it’s another being able to see exactly why. Seeing how many times I wake across the night I realised I wake more than I thought too.
Improving my mental health & sleep
I have actually been a little less anxious since remembering to set the S+ each night. I’ve felt less guilty about dosing up where I can see the pain is waking me regularly & it’s not just in my head. Following tips along the way has been helpful too & keeping track of my caffeine intake as I thought I actually drank more than I do across the day!
I’ve also felt a little less depressed each day as I don’t feel like I am just lazy constantly. I can see I’m not sleeping well & as shown in the graph above shows timings too. I know I’m going to bed at a decent time & I know I’m at least trying to get more sleep & rest enough each day but I’m still waking which is obviously why I still exhausted every day.
I would definitely recommend the S+ as it shows the information you want to know & provides some really helpful tips too. I’m determined to keep using the monitor and try to improve where I can! I wish I had remembered to try it out much sooner, I may do another post soon to share with you all how continued use has helped!
Would you use the S+ or have you got one already?
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My Sunday Photo – Hayabusa
Windowsill Garden For The Girls
The Mr has set up a windowsill garden for the girls since spring is here and they don’t have a garden to play & grow in plants in.
Eva & Izzy have a small glass greenhouse the Mr picked them up in Ikea last year. They planted a few plants when we first bought it. Unfortunately girls pulled them apart trying to feed a ‘pet’ fly that was dying on their windowsill. Yes my children are weird.
The Mr decided now both girls are older to try again so set the greenhouse back up on their windowsill & gave them a small succulent to get them started. Izzy then picked out these two weird little Bear grass head plants to grow with Eva.
The girls really enjoyed getting involved and soaking their bears in water to help them start growing. They love doing things like this although they do pick some rather random plants!
Learning to Repot Plants
Izzy again went shopping with the Mr & came back with another two small succulents and a Grow kit for peppers! The Mr showed Izzy how to repot the small succulents into slightly bigger pots. She helped fill the bigger pots with soil before gently holding the plants as the Mr helped get them out of their tiny pots. Izzy was really excited to put the plants in the bigger pots and popped them in the greenhouse alongside the other plants.
Next they planted California Wonder Pepper seeds in the pot of soil. Izzy enjoyed getting involved and getting her hands messy! Izzy placed the Peppers next to the greenhouse as it was too big to go in with the others. Luckily they had thought ahead though and bought a mini propagator for it!
So far the girls have behaved with them & Izzy has remembered the bear heads need watering every morning too which is lovely! The girls have agreed Izzy will water the plants when Eva is at school & Eva will water them at the weekend. The Easter holidays are coming up so we’ve agreed they can take a turn each day then.
A Windowsill Greenhouse
I miss having a garden so much and growing our own fruit & veg, Eva loved growing & eating strawberries! its nice the girls are still learning to look after & grow plants even if it is only tiny random ones they have picked on their windowsill.
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Our Favourite Books This Week – Week 5
Our favourite books this week is back again. Although the girls have spent a bit of time on their tablets this week they have also picked up a few books too. Eva has been curling up in a corner on the sofa with a book in her hand, absorbing herself in new stories this week.
We missed the library this weekend, instead heading out for the park to enjoy some sunshine, so the girls have mostly chosen books from their bookshelf. It was tough to get Izzy not to pick the same books as last time but we got there eventually!
Izzy’s favourite books this week
Izzy picked 2 Disney books this week. Her first choice is the Lion King. Her favourite part of the book is when Simba meets Timone & Pumba. She thinks it is funny when they eat bugs and loves them singing ‘Hakuna Matata’. I think she finds is funnier as I randomly say ‘Hakuna Matata’ for absolutely no reason haha!
The other Disney book Izzy has chosen is 101 Dalmations. She loves it when Purdita and Pongo get all their pups back from Cruella De Vil! She likes seeing them all back together as a family with the pups safe as she thinks the pups are all ‘soooooo cute!’.
Eva’s favourite books this week
Eva also picked a Disney book this week. Aladdin and the White Baby Camel has been one of Eva’s favourites. Her favourite part is when the White Baby Camel is returned after being stolen by thieves! She does love a happy ending bless her. Both girls love Disney books as most kids do & they have read most of theirs so I think I need to get back on the hunt for more.
The second book Eva has chosen this weekend is Mr. Forgetful from The Mr Men series. Another series the girls really enjoy which I remember reading as a child. Eva loves it when Mr. Forgetful passed on the wrong message because he was so forgetful. I can see why Eva likes that part as she regularly passes on messages wrong by either not listening in the first place or just forgetting lol!
