A Mother's Ramblings

Once, in a moment of desperation, I started telling Big Boy and Top Ender a story about how they were descended from Pirates. Actually, what I said was that they are descended from several of the most powerful Pirates in history; Which means that the Bad Pirates want to get them to come over to the bad side of piracy and that since they have been born the bad pirates have tried to kidnap them to teach them the evil ways of the sea. The story kept them quiet for absolutely ages, as they listened to the tale unfold and they heard about the various ways in which the Bad Pirates tried to kidnap them, or the Good Pirates rescued them or the silly scenarios that I came up with (Pirates for example love Tomato Soup). Little did I know that this simple story to keep the fractious children calm and quiet was going to become a very popular story in our house. The problem when something becomes popular is that other things have to revolve around it. So w...

We had dinner with Daddy's Mum and her friend today, it was actually really lovely and it wasn't just me saying that the food was lovely as both our guests complimented me on the meal and they also had extra. Anyway, there are no leftovers this week (well apart from veg which I'll eat!) so it's a shame lol as we love leftover chicken! Monday - Soup and Rolls It's a Bank Holiday Monday so this means that Daddy is at home with us today and we get to all eat together. I'm thinking that we should all have something really fun, but we aren't sure what we are doing or if we are going out or staying at home and so we're sticking with Soup and Rolls for lunch unless we are out, which means we'll eat what we can get to! Tuesday - Ham Sandwiches We love Ham Sandwiches and we haven't had any just ordinary plain Ham Sandwiches for a while, normally they have cheese or cucumber or tomato etc with it. I'm also going to make the rest of the loaf ...

Another week over, another week of meals planned, I'm starting to think that it's the only worth while thing I do with my week! Maybe I should start a weekly blog post where I list what household chores I'm going to tackle on what day and see if I feel differently after doing that... Saturday - Heinz Baked Beans Tea for Grown Upz We eat Baked Beans in our house (despite me not liking them all that much) and tonight for dinner we have a special treat with a new Heinz product. I'm actually quite excited, but I can't tell you what we are having other than the baked beans as the rest of the meal is being delivered by a supermarket this morning. The children are very much looking forward to their Spaghetti though and I don't think they care what it comes with! Sunday - Special Roast Chicken with Extra Trimmings Today we have Daddy's Mother coming for dinner with her Gentleman Friend. It will be the first time that we've actually sat down to ea...

I've gone crazy for Smoothies it seems, drinking them for Breakfast, coming up with my own recipes and trying to encourage the children to drink them too as I really want to be able to put Smoothies in their lunch box to have as an alternative to Milk, Squash or Fruit Juice. Happy Monkey Smoothies asked if I'd like Tops and BB would like to try their Smoothies and so after saying yes, giving my address and waiting a few days two packets arrived in the post. My Two Happy monkeys each chose a different flavour to try, Big Boy went for Strawberry and Banana and Top Ender went for Orange and Mango. The lunch I had given them this particular day were Mini Sausage Rolls and these Fruit Smoothies were a perfect addition to them. Big Boy and Tops drank the Smoothies down and commented "Delicious" and "Tasty" before asking if they could have any more. The slurps that I had before passing them to the children (Quality inspection!) also allowed me to confirm that ...

Earlier this week, Big Boy, Top Ender and I headed off to London to meet up with some other Bloggers and the team at Smart Shoppers at a farm in Hackney. I didn't get a chance to look round the farm, the children have assured me that there were all the usual animals you'd expect apart from Cows, but we see enough cows here in Milton Keynes so they didn't mind! We took the train down, which was great fun as the children love going on the train and they got plenty of admiring looks carrying around the Smart Shoppers Heart Pinboard! At the farm whilst the children were busy painting and being crafty us Mums got to have a master class in making Home Made Body Scrubs , Bath Sachets and Face Masks. It was really lovely as I often see tutorials online about making your own at home things, but as far as I could tell you had to buy the "finest" ingredients from various places and it could cost a fortune but this was about using what you could easily buy at the Superm...

Unlike my two best friends ( Vic and Emma ) I'm not much of a girly girl and the thought of going shopping for pretty things like shoes fills me with dread. I'm more of a practical girl you know? If I'm not in my gym clothes and gym trainers then I'm in jeans and trainers or possibly flip flops (even in the rain) and although I did once own what must have been the largest shoe collection in the world for someone who never goes shoe shopping I don't have any "posh" shoes that I can wear when I'm trying to look a bit neater than normal. This isn't going to change any time soon as apart from Shoe Shopping for the Children I avoid shoe shops and do it all online when I have to (which is never) so I was destined to live in trainers I buy from Supermarkets. Until Hotter Shoes asked if I'd like a pair of Shake shoes that is. I said yes and I had hoped that they would be with me in time for our trip to Paris, as I know from the Hotter Sheepskin Ch...

I was taught how to make a Simple Sugar Scrub, which is so simple to make you could make it at home very easily and as it is so easy and is also really great to use in the shower I'm going to impart my new found wisdom to you, so that you can make it at home too! Ingredients Demerara Sugar Granulated Sugar Olive Oil (the cheap stuff) Essential Oils of your choice Suitable Jar Something to stir with Method Take the jar for your scrub to live in and take the lid off. Add one spoon of Demerara and one spoonful of Granulated Sugar. Put the lid on for a moment and give it a shake to mix up the sugars (so it looks pretty too!) Add a glug of Olive Oil and a few drops of essential oil, we used a couple of drops of ginger and a few more of Lime but you can use others that compliment each other or that are your favourites. I'm already thinking of  making a Chocolate and Vanilla one and possibly a Honey and Almond one but I'm not sure! Stir and keep la...

We love Sausages here at A Mothers Ramblings and our favourite are currently the Gluten Free Sausages that Marks & Spencer sell. This week I had planned to make Spicy Sausage Rice for lunch, but we ended up having it for dinner and I thought it would be a good meal to share here as it's quite frugal too. Cook 350 grams of rice. I prefer the absorption method, but do what you prefer! Whilst it is cooking cut the eight Sausages into three or four pieces depending on how big you want them to be. Gently fry them so that they are cooked through. When the Rice and Sausages are cooked mix the sausages into the rice, along with a can of chopped tomatoes, and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas. Add a teaspoon of Curry powder (Or Chilli powder) and gently heat for five minutes or so until the peas are cooked and everything is heated through. Serve! It was quite spicy, but the children didn't notice and it was very filling, so much so that I was convinced that I had ...

Last Sunday I walked into my local Clarks store to see that it was heaving with parents buying School Shoes. If this had been a normal shoe shop visit I would have turned back around and walked out, but thanks to the lovely foresight of the PR team at Clarks I had an appointment, so I walked straight up to the lady with a clipboard directing other customers in what to do (Get a ticket, wait until your number is called) and let her know I had an appointment. Within seconds we were ushered to a free seat and the children's feet were being measured much to the annoyance of several of the other patrons who had probably been sitting there for a good half hour. Some of them looked at us and you could see they were trying to work out if we were famous but mostly it was the dirty looks we were given that made us giggle! Tops and BB both had their feet measured with the normal attention to detail that Clarks are known for and then the assistant asked both the children what sort of shoes ...

A few words today. These headphones are identical in every way. Same Barcode, same colour, same spec, same everything. So why does one set cost 1p more?! Have you added A Mother's Ramblings to your RSS Reader ? Make sure you never miss a brilliant lunch or a fantastic family moment.   Also don't forget to follow my Weight Loss and Fitness Journey at Pippa World too!

I'm a little bit in denial that Big Boy is starting School in just a few days. I don't remember being like this with Tops, probably because I knew that she was going to love School and she was really ready for it. Saying that I know that Big Boy is ready for School, I'm just not ready for him to leave me during the day! If I don't think about them both going to School then maybe it won't be happening quite so soon. Still I know that I have to kit them out with all the things they need for School; School Uniform, School Shoes, School Bag, Lunch Box, Coat, Rain Coat and a PE Kit amongst other things and I know that we need more than one pair of trousers and more than one jumper and several polo shirts as Big Boy can rarely keep clean for a few minutes let alone a whole day and I'm not sure that I'll be ready to do a do a couple of loads of washing every night. Matalan asked if I would like to review some School Uniform for Top Ender and Big Boy, so after a...

If you had read my meal plans for the week you might have been a little confused when reading on Twitter that last night we all had Spicy Sausage Rice for our evening meal as that is what we were supposed to be having for lunch today. Then again, like my Mum you probably didn't read the blog post about what we were eating or see my Twitter stream last night and wonder what the heck I am going on about. Like an idiot I forgot to defrost the beef for last nights dinner, so I decided to bring forward the Morrisons M Savers meal I was creating forward a day. Walking around the supermarket yesterday afternoon gave me no inspiration so I had the idea of swapping the meals around. Serve Spicy Sausage Rice for dinner to the family on Monday, have the Morrisons M Savers meal for lunch. It was a perfect solution and so I set off to buy the things we would need. As you can see I didn't need a lot. A can of Pineapple £0.32 A packet of Grated Cheese £2.13 A packet of Part Ba...

We're still looking at lunches that would be good for School and help Big Boy keep on an even level in the afternoon. I think that the less the teachers have to worry about hypos the better and that will mostly be up to me giving good lunches and having good lines of communication with the teachers. Monday - Sausage Rolls Both Tops and Big Boy love Sausage Rolls and with a little pot of ketchup I know that Big Boy will be loving his lunch. I'll serve it with some Cucumber sticks and I'm going to sneak in some thin strips of Celery and hope that Tops and BB don't notice! I'm going to serve it with Cake as a pudding because BB deserves a proper treat. Tuesday - Spicy Sausage Rice Last week we had dips and veggies for lunch, we also had some new Warburtons Baked Naan Chips delivered that we dipped too. The Children loved them and I think that we have to have them again, but without the dip! This week for lunch we are going to have them with a Savoury Sausage...

Despite having a calendar and being told several times in advance it was only when I was reminded on Thursday morning that Daddy wasn't going to be here on Thursday night last week that I actually realised that the one dinner he had asked for he wasn't getting. Still I'm sure he didn't mind too much as he ended up having a Take Away at work and Tops and BB enjoyed some Fish Fingers, Sweetcorn and Chips! I've triple checked over dinner plans for this week, but as far as I can see everything is as planned... Saturday - Fish Cakes and Chips I made Fish Cakes out of Red Salmon, Tuna and a load of vegetables so I think that dinner tonight will be very healthy and quick to make! As I'm out all day, it's perfect for Daddy to make as all he has to do is throw it all in the oven and he can carry on having lots of fun with the children, playing on the Wii and possibly stalking my Twitter Stream to find out what I am up to. Sunday - Roast Chicken Having the R...

I keep being asked how I knew that there was something wrong with Big Boy and it's taken me a while to write it down because at first it seemed like I just knew, it was my natural Mother's instinct but it wasn't. There were a lot of signs and it was only because of my own upbringing that I knew one of these signs added up to something else and looking back now there were plenty more signals that we should have noticed. So first a little background. I never really thought of Diabetes as being something bad to have. My Mum had Type 1 Diabetes since before I can remember and as far as I could tell she had what she wanted to eat when she wanted and even the boy in my class who had Type 1 was fine and only once I saw him get to eat a small snack sized chocolate bar whilst everyone else got changed after PE. My Mum got my sister and I to learn how to give her injections and we were often given finger prick blood tests because we were curious about what my Mum was doing but that...

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This morning as I gave Big Boy his morning injection he screamed blue murder and pulled the needle out of his leg, I'd apparently hit a nerve which is something neither he or I was prepared for. The pain he had suffered from this tiny needle was enough for him to be in hysterics and it took all my strength not to cry along with him. I cuddled him into my lap (putting the needle down with cap on safely first) and soothed away his tears. When he was calm, I apologised to him for having hurt him, and he understood that I hadn't meant to but he broke my heart as he asked me; "Why hasn't my wish come true? I wish it all the time." I know exactly what wish he means as I was there the first night he made it. We were laying in his bed the weekend after he was diagnosed as being a Type 1 Diabetic, when giving him his injections was still an Aerobic workout and he made the wish (it ended with Amen as he still gets prayers and wishes confused) that he didn't have to ...

I'm back from the gym and I'm sitting down to eat my breakfast. Actually, that isn't true. I'm not sitting down to eat my breakfast I'm sitting down to drink my breakfast as I've made myself a Fruit Smoothie. I made one on Sunday after using Google to read a lot of different recipes as inspiration and I was surprised at how easy they are to make and this is how I made it! Recipe 6 Ice Cubes (My ice cubes are small, so they were a handful) 1 Small Banana 125ml Milk 1 Tablespoon Greek Low Fat Yoghurt 1 Tablespoon Linseed 6 Strawberries (it was about a handful again) 1/2 a handful of Dried Fruits (to use the packet up!) 1 Tablespoon Baobab Powder 1 Teaspoon Honey Method Add Ingredients to the blender. Blend. Serve. The Baobab powder has been sent to me because it is being hailed as the new Superfruit and I must admit it sounds impressive. According to the press release it has more antioxidants than gojiberries, Six times more...

If you've been following Pippa World then you'll know that I've been going to the gym every morning and working hard in order to lose weight and to start living a healthier life. Part of this has been looking at the different food choices I can make and what exchanges I can make for better nutrition value. I was rather excited when I read about Blue Diamond Almond Milk which is a low-calorie milk alternative and was excited to be given some to try out too. I really liked the taste of the Almond Milk, both the unsweetened kind and the original kind and it reminded me of when Top Ender started having reactions to dairy, (when she was about three years old) as I could have happily swapped to this then. The children were rather less keen to try the milk and so I had to find ways of sneakily giving it to them, this has mainly involved putting it in Puddings, Omelettes and making a side dish of Rice cooked in the Almond milk instead of Coconut Milk. I love eating the Almo...

For months now, it seems that Daddy and I have been hiding a huge secret from Top Ender and Big Boy. The secret was of course that we were going to be going to France for a mini break and that we were going to be going to Disneyland for the day whilst we were there. Everyone apart from Top Ender and Big Boy knew and there were several close moments where I felt for sure that someone would accidentally let the secret slip, but in the end we were able to get almost to border control before Top Ender realised that we weren't on any ordinary day trip. The children were thrilled to be staying overnight in a hotel and the next morning we set off on the Metro, the children unaware that we were on our way to Disneyland. I think we could have probably walked all the way up to the gates of Disneyland without the children realising where we were, but Daddy and I were getting rather anxious for the excitement to begin and so as soon as we were out of the train station we were pointing o...

Lunch is starting to be a bit of a battle here, Big Boy is determined that everyday he should have access to chips and Top Ender is determined that everyday should be a pasta day. Whilst I understand that they have their favourite foods and want to stick to them, I want to increase the different foods they eat and so I'm being rather strict about what they can eat and when (also because of BB's diabetes). This is leading to more arguments but I'm slowly getting through to them that they have to eat a wide selection of foods and fruits and vegetables to be healthy. Monday - Pink Salmon Pitta Salmon filled Pitta breads are one of my favourite lunches and as Salmon is an oily fish, it helps with reducing the risk of death from heart disease. Also it's tasty! Tuesday - Chicken Sandwich I don't think you can beat a nice Chicken Sandwich, and as I have some cookie cutters that I've been dying to use we'll have some nice fun shape chicken sandwiches! ...

It's a great week for food in our house his week. I'm trying really hard to keep everyone happy whilst keeping the budget low and of course making everything healthy, gluten free, suitable for diabetics and as of this week trying to exclude milk as it appears that Top Ender is reacting badly to milk again. I know it's great right? Still, at least it should help my budget if I'm excluding so much! Saturday - Bacon Wrapped Cheese Filled Hot Dogs I love looking on Pinterest at the different pins of different foods and when I saw Bacon Wrapped Cheese Filled Hot Dogs I knew that this was going to be a meal this week. I pretty much guessed how to make them, but the post at Barbara Bakes  fully explains and they are so simple that I can't wait until tonight to eat them! Sunday - Roast Chicken It's been a while since we've had a good roast Chicken so it's time for it to make a comeback. The Chicken that we had on Friday was a bit dry so I really want t...

You might remember me from such blogs as this one and Pippa World and from my Twitter stream and various other places . Dancing lifts... you remember me from there right? Well, anyway I've been missing in action for a bit and my poor little blog is being neglected. Mainly because it's the Summer Holiday and I've been chilling with Tops and BB, partly because I've been at the gym in the evenings and not sitting on the sofa and also a little bit because I've lost my mojo (again. yeah it's an annual event lol). I'm sitting down now though and I'm going to write down everything that's been going on, and things that we've seen and places that we've been and all the usual ramblings that you've come to expect from me... maybe I should make it sound more exciting! Oh, well too late now. On with the blogging! Have you added A Mother's Ramblings to your RSS Reader ? Make sure you never miss a brilliant lunch or a fantastic famil...

I didn't do a post for lunch last week as we were only going to be here for two lunches, I wish I had though as I kept wondering what to do for lunch and didn't have anything to refer to! This week I have some great ideas and plans... I just hope they work out! Monday - Rice Salad I eat a lot of Salad because I think it's tasty, but Big Boy and Tops aren't keen on Salad. I've been trying to get them to try little bits and as there is always a salad in the fridge (and on the table for evening meals) I'm hoping that the more they see me and Daddy eat the salad, the more they will want to eat it themselves. So far it's kind of working, but I thought a nice pretty rice salad for lunch might be just the way to speed it up! Just imagine this veggie rice and Chicken with a bit of Salad! Tuesday - Olympic Bento Thanks to Coke, Daddy and I are off to the Olympics today. We are both really excited and because my Mum has very kindly agreed to look after T...