A Mother's Ramblings

Last Sunday the car was covered in salt and sand from our trip to the seaside to see Nanny B, so Top Ender and Daddy went for a quick car wash whilst Baby Boy and I stayed at home. Top Ender was sitting in the front seat whilst they were in the car wash and was looking out of the passenger window. "We're moving Daddy" said Top Ender "No it is just the brushes making it look like we are moving" answered Daddy knowingly "No we really are moving" said Top Ender "No Top Ender it is just the brushes, it is making an optical illusion" Daddy said trying to dust the dashboard "We really are!" exclaimed Top Ender "Top Ender! Daddy pleaded "I swear we are moving!" muttered Top Ender A few minutes later as Daddy started the car to drive out of the car wash he realised that the handbrake wasn't on. "Oh erm you know what Top Ender? We probably were moving." he admitted "I knew it!"

Some of the most common search terms for my blog is to do with food, new dinner ideas, frugal meals etc. Well instead of people coming here and being disappointed I decided to post some new dinner ideas that come in at under £1 per person. It's also good timing as this coming month I have told Daddy that we are going to be eating cheaply... very cheaply. First things first if you want to (or need to) cut your food budget there are several things that you can do that will save you a small amount each week depending on what you shopping budget was to start with! Eat meat free one or two nights a week. Even if someone in your family feels that a meal isn't complete with out meat and two veg, if they know that the food budget needs to be cut they should understand. There are some meals that they might not even notice the lack of meat in listed below! Portion control. Think about how much you serve everyone at meal times, it might be too much. Try reducing everything slightly

This is a great quick and easy dinner, that can be made with store cupboard ingredients. When I worked it out I think it cost around 40p per person as it serves six.

I apologise for being useless, but I'm not feeling too hot this morning and I can't find who linked to me in this post.... so I shall make up for it at the weekend but I wanted to get the video up! In the mean time if you would like this meme please feel free to take it and I shall add you to the list at the weekend!

This time last month you all thought I was mad. Well this time yesterday you thought I was mad, but this time last month I posted Christmas Club - January  and in it detailed a few things that you could do in January to get ready for Christmas. This month I am going to start getting a little more serious about putting money aside for Christmas. I have already said to Daddy that I want to put 10% of my wages to one side each month, not just for Christmas I hasten to add but for Birthdays and general rainy days! Daddy and I saved a £1 a week last year with the Tesco Bonus club. Lots of Supermarkets run schemes like this where you save a certain amount and if the card is cashed in at a certain time you get a bonus. It can vary from Supermarket to Supermarket, but some of the deals are very good; Wilkinsons will give you £1 for every £19 you spend, Iceland is £1 for £29 and a further £1 if you carry on to £49 on the same card you get a further £1, Morrisons gives £1 for £49 saved

This is a little reminder for me of what I want my Dining table to look like. Not this.

It was Big Cousins third birthday so Top Ender, Baby Boy and I went to see her and Baby Cousin and to have a special tea together. Big Cousin was most pleased about this and allowed Top Ender and Baby Boy to play with her new Peppa Pig House. The four of them had a great time, although I am not sure that Baby Boy and Baby Cousin understood much of what was going on, but they did appreciate being given tasks to do. When it was time to go Baby Boy was first to get his coat on, despite normally being the last. Nobody thought it suspicious. It wasn't until we saw Baby Boy walking to the front door clutching the new Peppa Pig House that we realised just why he was so eager to go home! Might have to get Top Enders Peppa Pig set out for Baby Boy to have a play with again!

There's nothing happening here today, so feel free to move along and not to read this. Everything that I want to say is coming out wrong and I would rather that it didn't. I am such a happy person to everyone that sees me, but really I am very dark on the inside. I beat myself up a lot over things that I probably couldn't control even if I tried, but even though the rational me knows this I can't stop it. I worry that I am not the kind of parent that Top Ender and Baby Boy need. I want to hug them more, hold them close and take away all the problems that they could ever face but I can't do that. They won't let me. And I wouldn't take away all the problems. They need to make some mistakes to learn right? I worry that I am not the kind of wife that Daddy deserves. I love him as much as I can, but he deserves better. And he at least deserves one that doesn't fall asleep half way through a conversation. I worry that I am not the kind of daughter that m

The weekend at my Nans went exactly as expected... apart from it didn't rain whilst we were at Cromer and because I was wearing make up she thought I had lost weight rather than her normal comment of have you put weight on? She also seemed to totally understand what Twitter and Blogging was!

Whilst we were at lunch the other day Baby Boy decided to throw his cup off the highchair. Daddy lunged across the table for it, but my lightening reflexes caught the cup between my thigh and the high chair. "Wow that was good!" remarked Daddy "I have magic thighs!" I replied Unfortunately along with my stomach that is where the magic seems to stop and gather.

Top Ender was sitting in the front of the car whilst we were driving home. We were all chatting together about various things when Top Ender suddenly shouted out "Look at that!" and started pointing to the sky, just above the rear view mirror. Wondering what was happening both Daddy and I bent to look out the window and it was lucky that we were at a junction or Daddy might of crashed the car. "That is the biggest rain drop I have ever seen!" Top Ender explained "Well apart from that one just above it.."

As it is half term Top Ender has been allowed to stay up late to watch films and spend time with us before going to bed. Tonight she and Daddy were watching The Golden Compass whilst I worked. At one point Daddy was a little lost with what was going on and asked "What is in the bag?" "Well Daddy if you weren't busy playing on your phone you wouldn't of missed it would you!"

I read a post earlier this week on Notes from Lapland asking for stories as entries to a competition with the theme What's The Most Revolting Thing You've Ever Done? I couldn't think of a single thing. I mean sure there was a dodgy meal in France when I was ten or eleven that I think was horse casserole and there was the film Van Wilder: Party Liaison with that scene with the dog and the eclairs and left me never wanting to eat popcorn in a cinema again. Anyway today I did something that really and truthfully is the most revolting thing ever. I don't care about giant roasted ants, slugs in the sink or even eating whole snails, this is all of those and some. This is not the post about finding Baby Boy with smeared poop from his nappy everywhere, and then finding it in his mouth too and thinking its true what Little Boys are made of. This is not the post about Little Cousin who was sick in my mouth, or the time that Auntie found the dog eating the contents of Lit

Whilst watching In The Night Garden with Baby Boy this evening Daddy was pondering. "Is there someone in that?" he asked gesturing at Makka Pakka. "Well yes..." I answered baffled at his confusion "Yes, but is it an Adult?" he furthered "Well I doubt it's a child" I replied wondering what the signs for dementia were and with only a touch of sarcasm "Or a Midget" he suggested definitively (but quite quietly) "Midgets are counted as Adults" I answered slowly (for my benefit more than his) Makka Pakka Originally uploaded by TechStyle

It has become the arrangement that if Baby Boy wakes up earlier than Daddy or I want to get up (After 5am but before 6am) he can come into our bed and have his morning milk whilst we all doze together. The other morning it happened and we all dozed off together after a few minutes. Top Ender came into our room just after 7am to announce she was awake, but after a quick cuddle with me decided to go downstairs to listen to her ipod without her brother hassling her for a listen. Daddy decided that he would go downstairs to use the toilet and to just check that Top Ender was okay a few minutes later and as he left the room Baby Boy rolled away from me into the space that Daddy had just left. He opened one eye and looked towards the door and Daddy "Ssh!" he hissed at his Daddy's retreating back. A few minutes later Daddy reappeared and gently edged into the bed. Baby Boy rolled over to me and cuddling in to me whispered whilst snuggling into me. "Ssh Dad-Dad

Then I can buy Easter eggs for a January birthday. I can complain loudly that I don't see my Grandchildren enough. I can spoil the Grandkids rotten. I can tell my children that they were just the same at that age. Or I could take round huge tigers for the Grandchildren to play with. Of course the giant Tiger will breed if it is allowed to roam freely. The grandparents forgot to mention that when they brought it round. That Baby Tiger Cub there looks a little tamer than the other two though doesn't it? And because its Friday and Friday means a video of me here is one I prepared earlier. I'm not quite sure how I got involved in a Twitter Dance off... but I think that my team won.  

Baby Boy had insisted that Daddy sit down on the child sized bench at the toy piano and play for him. Baby Boy had then picked up some spoons in order to play the air drums as Daddy launched into singing Rocket Man in his best Elton John impression to date (he also does a pretty good Barry from the Bee Gees impression, a very good Yellow Wiggle and once a very good impression of Otis the Aardvark. His impression of Hagrid isn't that good however!). Top Ender was sitting on the sofa and suddenly jumped up and rushed to the bathroom squealing as she went; "I have a little bit of sick in my mouth!" "I didn't think I was that bad!" sassed Daddy Top Ender was completely unharmed in the making of this Blog Post and the subtitle is a line from Rocket Man!

I never knew that watching Kids TV Programmes would be so beneficial. I mean I knew that my kids learnt from them, but I didn't realise other than the five minutes of peace that it gives me that *I* would learn from them. It all started last week when Baby Boy and I decided to give the new Fireman Sam a try. We had seen a fire engine earlier that morning and spent the rest of the morning nee nawing around the living room. Anyway the episode was about how air feeds fires and the annoying kid Norman somehow managed to learn this at the Fireman training session. Fast forward to Sunday and the idea that instead of any other form of potatoes we have deep fried chips with our oven baked Salmon and vegetables. Daddy, Baby Boy and Top Ender were all in the living room whilst I was serving up in the Kitchen. It was just time for the first lot of chips to be taken from the fryer and as I lifted the basket out my eye was caught by a pretty orange colour under the oil. At first I thought

Going past this sign (yes I did make Daddy drive that way the next day so I could take a photo!) Top Ender was practising her reading skills and stated that the new McDonalds in the area wasn't very good. "Whys that Top Ender?" we asked "They only serve two meals every 24 hours" explained Top Ender

Last week in the comments I was challenged by Michelle at Mummy from the Heart  to drink a glass of water before every meal. I did this and I found that it helped a lot... not with not eating as much, but with my headaches! I am normally really good with drinking water and drink several glasses a day, but nothing near as much as I use to drink when I worked in an office. This week I found that I was drinking more at the level I use to drink at and my headaches were gone! I have modified my routine again so that I am now drinking three bottles of water during the day and a further bottle in an evening. I would just like to add that yes, I do drink more than the UK government recommendation of 1.2litres of water a day but this isn't something I would recommend to people unless they check with their Doctor like I did! Weight wise this week I haven't put anything on and I haven't lost anything. Staying the same weight is annoying, but I would rather that than having put

I have been tagged in the Shiny Happy People Meme by New Mummy over at New Mummy Tips  and I was actually very pleased that I got this one as I had been waiting for it! So this is the Shiny Happy People Meme and the rules are; 1. Name a song that makes you happy - a song you would listen to if you needed a sudden injection of happiness. And 2. Post an image that makes you smile. It can be anything - a silly photo, an image taken from the Internet, It just has to make you smile. So here is my song. Yup Ghostbusters. I stick by my choice!!!! And here is my image. Okay so there are two here, but I couldn't decide! These were the first two pictures that were taken of me Top Ender and Baby Boy. I just love how in the first picture I am looking at the camera and Top Ender is looking lovingly at Baby Boy and in the second photo Top Ender is looking at the camera and I am looking lovingly at Top Ender and Baby Boy. And now I tag; Bare Nake

I stole this from American Mom in England its just for fun. Here's a list of 99 things. Bold the ones you have done and post on your blog! 1. Started your own blog (Your reading it!) 2. Slept under the stars (Camping counts right?) 3. Played in a band (I was lead Vocals) 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower (Twice!) 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland (Paris counts right?!) 8. Climbed a mountain (Snowden twice and two others in the Alps but technically it was by cable car.) 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo (See number 3. And lots more times too) 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris (With the Lovely Daddy) 13. Watched a lightening storm (My favourite thing to do!) 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (Knitting and I am sure I did something else) 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning (Re-cooked Rice Valentines Day 2008) 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (In 1995) 18. Grown your own vegetables (P

I need to have a word with Mrs Wise Owl. Top Ender was playing with Daisy and Daniel (her rabbits) and had just put them to bed. She then announced that they had been having sex and they had filmed it on their mobile phones for them. A quick discussion about what sex actually was (in broad terms) and she told Daddy and I that it was okay because her Rabbits look the same naked and so it was just like having sex with a mirror. It was at this point Daddy nearly wet himself laughing and had to duck out of sight. As I was saying I think I might need to have a word with Mrs Wise Owl.

Having been doing this for a month now, I can see where we have made huge improvements and where we need to improve still. We have doubled the amount of recycling that we have each week and have educated ourselves on just how much can be recycled (Cadbury Creme egg wrappers for example!) and how easy it is. In fact we even looked back at a trip to Wales where we went to the Centre for Alternative Technology (where I took the photo below) and discovered about recycling across the world and what we could be doing at home to reduce our carbon footprint! Daddy even admitted that my idea in Week Two of bringing the recycling bin in from the garden could be adapted so that we use our main bin in the kitchen as a recycling bin and buy a second smaller bin for other waste as we now have more recycling than we do general rubbish.