A Mother's Ramblings

You remember how in February I said that I'm useless at crafting and then showed you how to make a Valentines wreath as part of the Bostik Family Craft Bloggers Network? Well, it's still true. Now, I understand what a good craft selection is all about, as do most people. We've all wandered round a craft selection and seen materials that inspired those of us who wish they were better at crafting. Look at this selection we were sent to make something with this Spring. Amazing right? Well, after opening the box of craft items it dawned on me that I also know that good materials do not a good crafter make.  I've realised this last couple of months that, I'm Emmett from The Lego Movie. I need instructions, but the rest of the world seems to be filled with Master Builders or as we know them crafty people who know how to make something without instructions and make the rest of us feel bad. I'm now of the opinion that if you don't have the imagination, then ...

Yesterday we had one of our regular check ups with our Diabetic Care Team. Today I'm supposed to be going to a Bloggers Event in Central London. Yesterday, the Diabetic Consultant (lovely man, looks nothing like his photo on his Security pass) saw BB and was pleased with what he saw. He was pleased that BB was enjoying being on the Insulin pump. Enjoying isn't really the right word but it's the only way to describe how much better being on the pump is as opposed to being given seven (or more) injections a day. The Consultant was pleased with Daddy and I (mainly me, but Daddy does have input too) and the way we test and help BB to maintain a good even blood sugar level and that we were picking up on Trends that he could see looking at the numbers we gave him. BB's overall blood sugar level is still a little high, so we (The Consultant, the Diabetic care team and us as a family) fiddled yesterday with BB's ratios and the amount of insulin that he is given o...

A few weeks back, Daddy and I realised that we'd been lack in having dates with the children. We think that such dates are important for our family, because it not only gives us more one on one time with each child but it gives us a chance to show the children how they should behave and expect to be treated on a date, yes I know that they are a long way off from dating, but it never hurts to teach someone something multiple times. There is one more benefit that is really more for Daddy and I, the children will only be children for so long and if we want to make enough memories for both the children and us to remember well into old age then we have to start them young. The routine that we have worked out is that one week I take Top Ender out and Daddy has a date at home with Big Boy. The next week, Daddy has a date out with Top Ender and I have a date at home with Big Boy. The following week I get to take Big Boy out and the week after that Daddy takes Big Boy out. Occasionally...

I had an experience in the week that I wasn't sure if I should share, but decided in the end that it was worth it, so here it is along with the usual preamble that I seem to do! Do you remember when I used to post about how hard it was to make friends? I had decided that making friends sucked   and decided that my online friends were all I really needed. I've made some brilliant friends through blogging, and although we might not talk to each other for weeks on end, I know that we can easily pick up with each other when we do finally get our acts together and have a chat. But. It's not the same is it? Don't get me wrong I'm eternally grateful for the online friends I have. I'm glad for the DM's they send me, the emails, the photographs they tag me in (even though I'm not in them but they just want me to see something), the chats we have over the internet or by text message or however else it is we communicate but sometimes what you need is a fri...

Yesterday, whilst I was doing the gardening, Big Boy went for a ride on his Go Kart. With one thing and another it was really his first go outside since he got it for Christmas , or at least it was his first time where he got to be outside for more than five minutes because it was too cold or wet to be out there any longer! It was fab watching him ride between the two points we had agreed upon as his boundaries in our street and despite a few initial issues, where he seemed to forget how to peddle, he was soon speeding along and enjoying the sunshine. The  Kettler Daytona Pedal Go-Kart  has an RRP of £159 and I really wish that they'd make a large one for me to ride on (although I wouldn't say no to one of their Cross Trainers!) as seeing the fun that Big Boy had whilst he was riding on his makes me gutted that I never had one as a child. We received the Go-Kart to review.

Last weekend, we went to LEGOLAND Windsor , for a day of Family Fun. We set off rather early, but with a full change of clothes for the children, some towels and a rather large picnic tea, we knew that we'd have a great day. We started the day, having a quick look in the LEGO store at the entrance of the park and whilst we were there Big Boy discovered some Minecraft LEGO sets and Tops was able to have a good look round at all the other sets from the different themes that she loves. We did go back at the end of the day to purchase a couple of LEGO sets, and as the queues weren't as bad as we were expecting it wasn't doom and gloom adding to the end of a party atmosphere of a park full of people heading home. I think our weekly Date Mornings have prepared us a bit better for going to a theme park with the children, as we were able to split up into pairs to avoid rides that Big Boy didn't want to go on, without Daddy or I missing out on too much of the fun and thr...

We were asked if we'd like to pop down to  LEGOLAND Windsor  this past weekend to see the new Pirate Shores and Castaway Camp and to be one of the first families to experience the new attraction. Unfortunately the area wasn't quite ready for visitors so whilst I guess it will be a great new area for LEGOLAND explorers, don't hold me to it as I've not experienced it and so I can't say for sure! What I can say about LEGOLAND is based on our families visits that we've made in the past few years and of course this most recent visit. LEGOLAND is one of those places, in my humble opinion, that you have to take your children to at least once. I say this because LEGOLAND is fantastic fun and as LEGO is a great toy for imagination play I don't think I have ever met a child who doesn't like to play with LEGO or DUPLO for a few minutes at least. The only downside I have about taking your family to the park, is the price of admission but there are normally disc...

One of my guilty pleasures is watching weight loss shows. I'm not one of the people who watches whilst eating a huge bar of chocolate or a tub of Ice-cream (although I could be), I tend to watch them whilst working out myself (well Wii U Fit step aerobics) whilst watching them motivates me, watching them also annoys me. I'm one of the people that you'd normally find on these weight loss shows. I have a lot of weight to lose, roughly half my body weight if I go by the height and weight recommendations (but I'm pretty sure if I went down to that weight I'd look ill, but we'll see when I get there eh?) and I have tried on my own unsuccessfully several times. And so when I do diet and exercise, I try my hardest. I take pictures of everything that I eat and drink (I read that's supposed to help you be more accountable and realise just how much you're actually consuming), I go for a walk everyday and I use the Wii U Fit game to exercise. I have a couple of w...

Of course I'm not talking about a ramblers only kind of deal, but Walkers have partnered together with Merlin Entertainment to give away half price tickets to Chessington World of Adventures and 12 Sea Life aquariums around the UK, which is perfect if you're not sure what you can do this Easter Half Term.  The tickets available are available by collecting tokens on  multi-packs  of Walkers Baked Stars, Walkers Mighty Lights or Walkers Hoops and Crosses, which if your house is anything like mine there are extra of in the house during Easter to feed those h ungry children that roam the neighbourhood and always congregate in your living room! Just make sure that you've collected all the tokens you need before the 20th June, as that is when the vouchers are available until. As always though, check the offer out yourself as I might have misread the information.

With it being the Easter Holidays for us here in Milton Keynes, there are a few things that we like to do that marks the time as different from term time. One of the things that Top Ender loves to do is to spend some one on one time with her Gran (My Mum), this normally involves her staying overnight and then hanging out with her for the next day. Occasionally Top Ender will stay for a couple of nights, but if I'm perfectly honest I don't like being away from her for too long! Top Ender decided that when she was asked if she'd like to accompany me to see Robins Cousins (him from Dancing on Ice) Ice at Milton Keynes Theatre that a much better idea would be for her to accompany her Gran to the Theatre to see the show, after all they are the ones that watch Dancing on Ice and then after having spent the evening together, Top Ender could stay the night with her Gran. It was agreed that this would be a suitable arrangement, and so I dropped off Top Ender and my Mum at the The...

Q: What's the difference between a weed and a flower? A: Well, the only difference really is if the plants are growing where you want them to grow. The picture above is a Muscari or a Grape Hyacinth, nearly every house in my street and those surrounding it have these growing in their garden. Who originally planted them? Who knows. All I do know is that they decide to grow where ever they want, and are the bane of a few of my gardener friends lives. I personally love them. I love their purple/blue hue and their ability to grow without me planting them. I love that they add a splash of colour to my borders and that both my children know what they are called thanks to "strangers" on the internet (that would be you, yes you) who read my Facebook page or Instagram account and were kind enough to tell me what they were called. I love that the twenty minutes or so that I spent earlier in the year, wrestling with mud and leaves in order to plant Tulip and Daffodils w...

Ages ago (before Christmas) Cricut sent me their new Cricut Mini to review. I misunderstood, and thought that this was a temporary loan, but they actually gave me the machine. I wanted to fly out to Utah and kiss them all, but you know they'd probably wonder who the weird British woman was and lock the Cricut office doors. I was thinking about the machine when I first got it and thinking about how I could use it. I tried a few bits and pieces, making a little gift box for Top Ender and then a few pieces to make Thank You Cards for friends and the like and then after finding a brilliant gift that I could make for Big Boy for Christmas I decided I needed to use the Cricut machine to make a gift for Top Ender. If you don't know Top Ender's real name you do now, but remember keep it hushed! Anyhoo. Making this gift took minutes, the hardest part was keeping Tops out of the room whilst I was wrapping it, as she kept trying to come in to see what was going on. Top Ender ...

Do you remember the very swish pedometer that I was reviewing a while back? Well, as you can probably guess (as is normal with me) after a few months of wearing it, I stopped. It wasn't the pedometers fault, it was my own. I know that I'm useless when it comes to keeping up with my weight loss and fitness regime. I'm sure that it's not because I'm lazy, but because when I don't see the results I want I start to lose interest and having small things remind me on a daily basis that I'm not helping myself hurts me. With the pedometer, I could quite clearly see how many steps I had taken. I could easily work out how many steps I was lacking in reaching my daily goal and so I stopped wearing it. If it showed 0, then I knew that it showed zero because I hadn't worn it, not because of lack of effort. I know, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face right?!

At the end of last Summer, I did something a bit drastic and hastily thought out. One warmish day, I decided that I what I really wanted to do was to remove the naff concrete slab path that had been placed (haphazardly) up the middle of my lawn and add "mud" and grass seed to the scar of earth that had been under the slab pathway. Before my mind could jump into action, my body had already lifted a slab and moved it down to the patio... Ooops! The plan was one day in early Spring I'd drive to the local DIY Centre or Garden Centre and buy some "mud" (Mud is what I call anything brown in my garden. Soil/Compost=Mud) distribute it to the dented bit of garden, add some grass seed and then watch as my grass magically grew overnight into big thick strong blades. One sunny day, just before Spring had officially sprung, Daddy decided that he was going to do my job. He disappeared off and purchased several bags of "mud", a huge bag of grass seed and despi...

Breakfast in our house has become a five minute affair and as I keep telling the children, a breakfast shouldn't include a pop tart more than once a month and that not every cereal needs sugar added to it (Hear that Daddy?!). The moans then usually start about how pop tarts taste yummy and other types of breakfasts are boring and taste like cardboard and I put my fingers in my ears and start singing "Tralalala, I can't hear you!" and the conversation is paused for another morning. Until this morning. This morning I got up super super early and set the table for breakfast for the children and I. I added fun tasty fruit muffins, yoghurt and muesli, bowls of fruit and glasses of fruit juice. I scrambled eggs and grilled some bacon. I once attempted making my own hash browns and remembering this, I added some from the Supermarket in to the oven. I put out the fun plates and napkins, funky table mats that I made just for the occasion. I called the children down...

Last Saturday, Big Boy and I went out on our Mother Son Date. Big Boy had talked about nothing else all week and was determined that we were going to go to a Coffee shop and use their free Wi-Fi to watch Youtube videos over, whilst sipping Hot Chocolates and possibly scoffing down a cake or cookie before we headed off to the Food Van, so he could get his Sausage Baguette (hold the onions, extra ketchup please) and we could sit on the Cafe style chairs in the sunshine to eat our lunch. In the end we decided to go to the Cafe inside Dunelm Mill instead of a coffee shop, mainly because I wanted to buy a new cake pan and I figured I could also buy Big Boy a treat from the craft bits. We had a great time, filled with jokes, older women coming to chat to BB and tell him how cute he was or telling me how lucky I was to have such a handsome date. Big Boy thought this was hilarious but was super polite to the women and fluttered his eyelashes at them and had them eating out of his hand I swea...

So last night my children went to sleep like this. Look there's Big Boy looking all snuggly and sweaty. There's Top Ender looking like a Teenager already. And also in the dark, because she wakes up more easily than Big Boy. And this morning? Well, they are going to wake up like this. Mwhahahahahahahahahahaha!