I’m writing this drinking a chai latte, but that’s not really relevant to Life without Coffee, just as the book isn’t realy about quitting caffeine. Life without Coffee is written by the inspiring Afiniki Akanet, a mother, doctor and entrepreneur – who also has two other books under her belt. It is a personal manifesto, written for anyone who has ever said, “I don’t know how you do it.” In the book, Afiniki sets out her own personal values, and leaves space for the reader to reflect on what this means …

 What were we doing this weekend? Getting gunged alongside celebs like Kate Garraway!
My kids, and several hundred more, took part in the Beano launch event for its new “boredom-busting assault on the WORLD” and new look across the comic, annual and Beano products.
Building on its much-loved comic roots, Beano’s new digital “Ultimate Feed of Awesome” is jam-packed with original videos, along with the best bits of YouTube, games, pics, quizzes and interactive fun to help imaginations run riot and keep kids (and even some grown-up ones…) giggling for hours.  It will be …

Parents and caretakers today have an aversion to letting kids get dirty, in part because of the notion that children may get sick from germs they pick up. Children spend half as much time outside as they did only twenty years ago; school age kids ages spend a daily average of 7 hours and a half hours using entertainment media or screen time and only 6 percent of 9–13-year-olds go outside by themselves.
But for millions of years, children have grown up constantly exposed to the microbes around them. Consider a …

‘Cast Life: A Parent’s Guide to DDH: Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip Explained’ offers a much needed life line to parents with children suffering from Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH).
DDH occurs when the ball and socket of the hip joint do not fit snugly together and whilst it affects between one and three children in every thousand, information and support is shockingly poor leaving parents feeling confused about what happens next.
Inspired by her son who was diagnosed at four months, the author, Natalie Trice, knows all too well …

I was recently given a Huawei E5573 4G Mobile Wi-Fi from Three to test out and review. The claim is that this mobile gadget would let me take the internet with me wherever I went. This costs from £9-14 per month depending on your data needs. My overall verdict is that I’m just not sure about it! Read on to find out why.
My first attempt at using this failed. We’d gone away for a few days glamping – for the children at least I was keen to try out a wifi and internet …

There are, perhaps, some products that shouldn’t be sent to me to review. Anything that implies that ‘Mum’ is responsible for household tasks is going to present me with a challenge: perhaps I should spend the next 500 words talking about the fair division of household labour rather than reviewing what is a nice notepad for making shopping lists?
So, focussing on the product for a moment, it’s good. It has a magnet attached to the back so you can stick it to the fridge. Inside the pages are split into …

If you work with a team spread across different locations, project management software can make a big difference in coordinating work seamlessly and ensuring good communication between team members. I was pleased to get the chance to review Wrike, a cloud-based software that helps teams  collaborate and work smarter even when they’re geographically separated.
So, what does Wrike offer? Up to five users are free, which gets it off to a great start for any small business. There are also professional and enterprise plans which are paid but offer lots more functionality. …

We’ve just been to a friend’s birthday party for her ten year old. Two children were sick during the party … thanks Norovirus! What’s your worst party nightmare?
For me, this year, after arranging parties for the nine year old in November, then two in the same week in March – my 6 and 13 year old have birthdays two days apart – I have vowed to take a week off work in the run up to party time! There is so much to organise!
To help with this I was sent …

 “Before I was seven years old I had lived in a house truck, on a commune, in France, in New Zealand, in Ireland, and several homes in England. I had been bathed in a sink, had a pet goose called Lucy, and I think it would be fair to say that my parents gifted me with a curiosity for the world.”
Ebonie Allard writes about her new book…
My first career was as a freelance TV & Film Production Buyer. I worked hard and played harder. I suffered from burn out at …

Britain now has by far the highest divorce rate in Europe1 and a survey by Relate2, looking at relationships in 2014, revealed that honesty, commitment and communication are the top three ingredients for loving relationships. If you’re spending this Valentine’s Day dreading another evening with your partner, or you have simply run out of things to say to each other, read on.
Whether you’re a retired couple, busy parents or even loved-up newlyweds, it is easy for habit, hectic lifestyles or stresses to get in the way of finding the time …