Other Bloggers Family Lives Featuring Nomipalony

Welcome back to another week of my guest post series Other Bloggers Family Lives. This week I am featuring a fellow North East blogger the lovely Nyomi from Nomipalony. Nyomi only started blogging a few months ago but her blog is full of parenting posts, restaurant reviews and family days out. 

So lets find out more about the family behind Nomipalony. 

1.) Tell me a bit about yourself and your family? 

Myself and Papa Ginge are both 32, our son Arlo is 4 and our littlest Lena is 14 months old. Papa Ginge works full time in IT and I work part time as a Project Officer and then I am with the kids and working on Nomipalony the rest of the time. 

2.) Where do you live? 

We live in South Tyneside - it only takes us 30 minutes to get to the centre of Newcastle on the metro or by car and the same to Durham. 

3.) What is your favourite thing to do as a family where you live? 

We are pretty close to South Shields for a trip to the beach and the amusements. We are so fortunate in the North East to have such easy access to so many great beaches. Playing on the sand and in the sea will blow the cobwebs out even on the worst of days! 

We are also big foodies so love getting into Newcastle and trying new restaurants as much as possible. We are also close to Bill Quay Farm so will often pop down there for a mooch and to the cafe - we made a vlog of the last visit. 

4.) If you could live anywhere where would you? 

I've travelled around our beautiful country a lot and lived in London for a year and you'll never persuade me that there is anywhere better to live than the North East, I love it here. We have everything you could possibly want. That said I would really like to move from South Tyneside back to County Durham where I am from. I've not fully convinced Papa Ginge of this though - he's a true Geordie and breaks out in a sweat at the thought of getting further away from Newcastle/Gateshead. 

I don't have any real support where I live during the week and it makes such a difference to your quality of life with little ones when you live close enough to your family that they can be an integrated part of your daily life. Back home my sister and cousins have kids of similar ages so the kids could all go to school together and we would share drop offs and pick-ups etc, this would make working a lot easier. 

5.) Did you grow up close to where you love now and what are your favourite childhood memories of where you grew up? 

I grew up in County Durham, in a small ex pit mining village. It was a great place to grow up. I'd love to move back and raise my children there. I have so many fond memories, most involve playing outside with my sister, cousins and friends 'down the block'. There were plenty of fields and greenery to use as our playground. I was forever climbing trees and actually met one of my best friends Jess, up a tree when we were ten. We met again on the first day of school and were in form class together - we still exchange gifts every Christmas. 

6.) Have you got any exciting plans for the year ahead? 

We have just been on holiday to Spain. It was our last opportunity for a 'cheap' holiday abroad as Lena is under two and our eldest starts school in September so we will be stuck to non-term time then. Arlo starting school will be a big deal for us, all the school in our area are oversubscribed so we've no idea where he will be placed. We are a bit anxious about how we will manage one tot in nursery on one side of town and one in school on the other, on the days we both work long hours. I'm sure we will figure it all out in the end though. Papa Ginge has applied to go part-time too and drop a day a week and if that's approved it will make an enormous difference to our life - we have all our fingers and toes crossed. 

7.) What is your favourite thing about family life? 

Everything! There is so much love and happiness and laughter and chaos. I love the noise and action (writing this I do, don't hold me to this when I've two crazed kids jumping on me at 5am!). Kids really force you to re-evaluate your priorities and live in the present. They keep you honest, especially with yourself. They bring the magic back into life - there is nothing like experiencing the magic of Christmas through the eyes of a 4 year old. I love watching them grow and conquer new skills, they inspire me daily. Family life just feels so right, every day. Even on the worst days it feels like you are exactly where you were meant to be. 

Thank you so much for taking part Nyomi.

To find out more about Nyomi visit her blog www.nomipalony.com

 Don't forget to check out last weeks post featuring Keeping Strong & Moving Forward if you missed it.