A Mother's Ramblings

I loved art at school and my books and pencil cases from the time were covered in doodles and quotes from various pieces of literature that I found particularly inspiring/funny. Top Ender has developed a similar trait and is forever doodling designs for a new outfit, flowers that she would like to create through cross pollination and her name if she were to marry various celebrities. Its fantastic, I love seeing how her skills are developing and how her mind works but there is a problem and that is that I am a hoarder. When it comes to Top Ender and Baby Boy's drawings and pieces of work I can't give them up and I know that I am not the only parent out there that wants to keep every piece of work that their child does.

After coming in from the cold on Sunday Daddy told Top Ender and Baby Boy to take everything off (meaning hats, gloves, coats, shoes). "But not everything, I don't want you running around butt naked!" qualified Daddy "You can't say that!" said a horrified Top Ender "What?" asked Daddy "Butt! Butt is rude!" she said "No, it's not!" said Daddy "Oh no, its Arse  that's rude isn't it!" said Top Ender

I was at the BBC Good Food Show yesterday with Miele and took part in the MasterChef Invention Test. I created this Lemon Cheesecake with Caramel Stick and Spun Sugar. Gregg Wallace and John Torode liked it. They liked it a lot and I got through to the final three.

So it's the last month of the Christmas Club for 2010, only one month until the big day and there is still a lot to do. Well there is here anyway. We have made our Christmas pudding (it smelt lovely) but still have our Christmas Cake to make, and our decorations to put up and our advent calenders to fill with chocolate and even our Christmas outfits to be finalised!

In recent months, changes at work have left me on the road a lot - regularly driving between TV studios, satellite uplink base-stations and outside broadcast events - so when Mummy was invited by the nice people at Wildfire PR and Marketing to review the Jabra Cruiser 2 Bluetooth in-car speakerphone, I realised I had the perfect opportunities to review it for her. Because, until I started my current job a few years ago, I had never met people who relied so much on their mobile phones. For me, a mobile was something I carried to make emergency calls.

Emily tagged me earlier this month in a Meme about which song makes me want to get up and dance. At the time I had a great song in mind and wouldn't you know I had a great story to go with it. I was all ready to post it and then I forgot what the song was. And the story. You could blame my age or Daddy (I would prefer it if we blamed him) or just nod knowingly as you realise that I have a memory the size of my bladder. Be right back I just need to pee...

Many Moons ago when Top Ender was really a Top Ender at Nursery  and Baby Boy was just a twinkle in Daddy's eye, I was a Go To Work Mum. The last job that I had was at a company in Central Milton Keynes where I worked in a small team of five. Four girls and our boss ( the one I accidentally asked to have his babies ) DC.

Here at A Mothers Ramblings  we love Christmas and part of what makes Christmas so great is that you can eat almost as much chocolate as you like. That doesn't mean that Daddy can eat his entire selection box before breakfast... nor does it mean he can eat mine either! To make it more simple for some people at Christmas I like to buy Charity Gifts . This way they aren't getting something they don't want, but someone who needs a helping hand is getting exactly that. I always feel that the person getting the charity gift needs to have something else to open on Christmas Day just to make things even more special. This additional gift from me tends to be a bar of chocolate.

In the UK we don't do Christmas Letters, we do Round Robins and the problem with Round Robins is that most people dread reading and writing them. There is something about letting others know about the good that has happened that makes us feel odd, as if we are gloating or rubbing others noses in our "perfect" lives.  There is one particular branch of my extended family that send out a letter each year, and I wish I could share with you some of the more amusing aspects of them. Let's just say that even the most shocking news was delivered with a rather amusing upbeat twist and reading between the lines, I can tell that it wasn't as glowing as they made it out to be!

If you have been following the Christmas Club blog posts over the last year, then you will know that I like to get ahead with my Christmas Cards. I am going to share some of my secrets for sending out Great Christmas cards. I know that you already know how to do this, but trust me some of the tips I am sharing are sensible!

Top Ender adores Barbie films. It all started when we first watched Barbie Princess and the Pauper, I'm not sure why we first got the film, but I know that after the first viewing she was hooked. We watched that film what seemed like everyday. When Mattel asked if we would like to see the new film Barbie A Fashion Fairytale I knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before Top Ender asked to watch it all the time.

My Mum made a big deal about Halloween for my Sister and I and all the children that she looked after (she was a childminder) when I was little. Then seven years ago Daddy and I started a little tradition where we have had a little fancy dress Halloween Party for Family in the evening. Last year due to all of us here having just had Swine Flu we were unable to go to our own party!

Spotted in Leighton Buzzard a Fatherson Bakery Van.

Yesterday Top Ender, Daddy and Baby Boy were playing a game where they were spelling words cheerleader style. It's a game that Top Ender quite often plays to test us on how to spell certain words, not realising that it's actually improving her own spelling skills.

Earlier this evening Top Ender, Daddy and Baby Boy were playing a game where they were spelling words cheerleader style. Daddy was going out and so he decided to carry on the game as a "treat".

There is a secret project in the making here at A Mothers Ramblings and it required us to take a few pictures of Top Ender and Baby Boy looking a bit sad. Top Ender was sitting in the garden already looking sad, a good half hour before we were ready to do anything.

At 11am today I will take part in two minutes silence to remember the people have given the ultimate sacrifice for me to live the life I do today. Several of my extended family are in the Services and I don't think that I have told them enough how much I respect what they do and how grateful I am.

One of the things on our Family Fun  list of things that we want to do with Top Ender and Baby Boy was to go to Thomas Land, which is in the grounds of Drayton Manor. Baby Boy has seen adverts on the TV and picked up leaflets from shops and Hotels and was just desperate to go and see Thomas and his friends. Even Top Ender was quite interested in going to Thomas Land, although not strictly a Thomas fan.

Many years ago Daddy and I went to the Technology Home show. I had always quite liked the idea of a smart house (like Bill Gates has), but at the show I quickly got the idea that we did would have to be at a fraction of the cost. Luckily when I get ideas, Daddy is able to implement most of them (as he has the technical genius that I lack) and this is one of the reasons as to how and why we have a projector and screen in our living room.

I was tagged by Alethea over at Mom on a Wire in a Twitter Meme absolutely ages ago. I decided to wait until today however as I knew that something was coming up that would make a good connection to this Meme and all will become clear in a few moments!

Last weekend we were having a really simple Sunday Roast and I wanted to make it a little more exciting. I said to Daddy we should make it a Fake Christmas Dinner. We have previous form for this sort of thing, having had a few fake Christmas meals and once having a Fake Christmas meal with my Sister and Just-Like-A-Brother-to-Me complete with Christmas tree and Christmas gifts (I got soap). Anyway, Daddy looked at me as if I were a little crazy  and said something about not being so daft.

Earlier this year Daddy decided that there wasn't anything to lose and that the bad habits that we had got ourselves into with regards to bed time routines for Baby Boy and Top Ender had to be gotten rid of and new good routines had to be followed. This involved a lot of crying from Baby Boy as I had slipped into nursing him to sleep.

Top Ender loves to read magazines and comics. Before she could read , it was good because the comic-strip images would help her be able to read the story without looking at the words and now she just loves the stories that they tell. Baby Boy is still at the stage where anything with pictures and pages is great fun, and he loves to read a few of the magazines aimed at children such as the Cbeebies magazine or the Playhouse Disney magazine.

We went to London Zoo as part of the launch for Winnie the Pooh stamps . Daddy had never been to London Zoo and the last time I had been was when I was about the age Top Ender is now. We were looking forward to having a walk round and seeing the different animals, especially as one of our local Zoo's is Whipsnade Zoo which is a Sister Zoo to London Zoo. We had a great time wandering around, and for me I didn't feel like I was in the Centre of London!

We love Winnie the Pooh here in the A Mothers Ramblings house. We went and played Pooh Sticks at The Real Hundred Acre Wood  and Top Ender has met Pooh Bear a couple of times and even be invited into his home, heck we even know that the 14th October is Pooh Bears Birthday! So when we were invited to go to London Zoo to hear some of the classic AA Milne stories and find out about the new Royal Mail stamps that were being released celebrating Winnie the Pooh we had to go. Now you might think that it was odd that the launch was held at London Zoo, but if like me you know the origins of Winnie the Pooh you wouldn't think it strange at all...

We try to do fun things as a family. Mainly its because Daddy and I are big kids at heart, but also because we want to make sure that the memories that Top Ender and Baby Boy have of growing up are happy ones. That was one of the reasons that I started this blog, I wanted to remember and to be able to show Top Ender and Baby Boy in the future that they had great fun as children as I know that they are going to forget a lot of what we have done.

I wasn't going to enter the Gallery this week, because well the funny pictures that I have aren't suitable for a family audience... but then I remembered a day trip that Daddy and I took. We had a great day walking round a model village, and a maze and in a little High Street in some town in the Cotswolds and before we went home we decided we should do what all good children do and empty our bladders. That way we wouldn't get caught short on the long journey home.

One day Daddy went to Toys R Us with Top Ender and Baby Boy. I'm not sure what I was doing, I might of been prepping dinner or something else that meant I stayed at home, but I do know that when they got home they had brought two Nerf Guns. Hmm. Yeah, I wasn't happy but I was soon won over as they are actually quite good fun...