I love letting my kids get creative in the kitchen.We recently held a “Nailed It” challenge at our house which involved 4 children (aged 9-15) being let loose on all of my cooking materials and ingredients. We’ve done a few of these “Nailed It” challenges before. (Based on the Netflix TV show).

Who knew you’re not supposed to keep wine in the refrigerator?As a non drinker I had no idea so, if friends were coming over, I’d pop a bottle of wine in the fridge for them so it would be nice and cool.But then a friend told me about wine coolers - specially designed little mini fridge-like coolers.

How good is chopped salad? It's not really something I've come across much in my life, a green salad was always lettuce, tomato and cucumber in a bowl with dressing on the side. Or, there was always the slightly more exotic coleslaw (a chopped salad in its own way), potato salad, rice salad or pasta salad.

The idea of a Christmas elf spying on my children and sending reports of good and bad behaviour to Santa is never going to be my style. I love the idea of sharing family Christmas traditions and having an elf in the house in the lead up to Christmas is great fun, but, when the elf is purely there to intimidate my children? No thanks!

I read an article a few days ago defending the old 8-8-8 work/life balance. Eight hours each of work, sleep and leisure time. The writer was trying to impress upon us the importance of a good work ethic and how working for a solid 8 hours a day is what we should all be aiming for, not shying away from, in trying to regain our work-life balance. Rather than juggling different jobs within our gig economy the writer expressed that we should all be taught that there is nothing wrong with hard work and that we should each commit to the old 8-8-8 system for a happier and healthier life.

Mainstream belief would have it that without an education our children have no hope for the future. I don’t disagree - education is vitally important. But, the way in which we educate needs a massive overhaul.Sometime ago I was asked to give my views about education to a friend who was writing a report of some kind in the hope of inspiring some changes in our local system. Here are some of my main points that I gave her: