A Mother's Ramblings

The third week of February was half term here at A Mother's Ramblings Head Quarters. Daddy had thought about taking the week off, but in the end it was just the children and I and we had a complete blast! We didn't go away, we didn't do very much and we even managed a sneaky McDonalds so as you can see I know how to party... The Third Week of February As has now become tradition, we didn't go for a family walk on the Sunday and our Saturday, despite being Valentines Day, was just a normal family day. It did mean however, that the children, Daddy and I had a rather lovely weekend just relaxing and being together. Top Ender and Daddy watched a couple of movies together, Big Boy and I were banished to our bedrooms (we weren't really, it's just "better" this way as then we can all do what we want to do!) and of course Top Ender and I went to Church on Sunday afternoon. Monday morning, after I had waved Daddy off was just a relaxing day for the child...

Big Boy and I were walking home after School the other night, when I stuck my hand in my coat pocket and pulled out a surprise for Big Boy. At Christmas we had each been given a box of Fun Snaps by Father Christmas and mine had magically worked it's way into my coat pocket. We walked the long way home as we knew that we'd be the only ones walking down the hill, as the older children in our road wouldn't have finished School yet and none of them live between the top of the hill and our house. We enjoyed throwing the Fun Snaps as we walked down the hill, at invisible Zombies and other scary monsters that BB said were hiding around corners, behind trees and around the back of cars. Eventually we only had a few from my packet left and we were back at our house. We had an idea. With the angle we had parked the car, we figured that we could hide behind it, wait for Top Ender to come down the road and then throw them at the ground behind her in order to give her a surprise!...

Happy End of Week Everyone! I'm in a jolly good mood at the minute, I think it's because I've been surrounded by lots of lovely people over the last couple of weeks and of course that the Half Term Holidays start tomorrow, along with Mummy Home School! Big Boy had got really upset the other week because he was going to miss School for the five days that he wasn't there and he requested that we sort out Mummy Home School for the half term (it was already in progress!) so that he wouldn't miss School. I do love having children who enjoy going to School! THE SECOND WEEK OF FEBRUARY HAS HAD ME Well, we didn't go for a Sunday walk. I think that it has rather fallen by the wayside as something which we did a couple of times and then forgot about. I am going to try to get everyone going again(and soon!) but for now I might have to accept that family walks are off the menu! I did pick Top Ender up from the designated Brownie Camp drop off point and she'd ...

Firstly, Happy Valentines Day to all those who wish to be wished it and to all those who don't... Happy Saturday! Yes, I'm fully aware that I don't need to wait until Valentines Day to show my appreciation to those in my life and if you've read my blog before or know me in real life then you'll know that I don't, but I do like to do something special every once in a while and Valentines Day is a good a day as any! Today I'm ready to spoil my lovely husband and children rotten, as we'll be together and none of us will have to disappear off to Work or School... although I will be going shopping at one point with my Mum and Top Ender, leaving Daddy and Big Boy at home to get up to no good.

I love Valentines day. I love it not because of the chance I have to get flowers and chocolates (please no chocolate this year! I'll take socks as an alternative!) or because I think the shops look lovely covered in hearts and plastered with reminders that Valentines Day is coming up. No, I love it because Valentines Day gives me a chance to let everyone know how much I love them. Even you. And I love you the most, just don't tell all the others okay? I remember learning about how the Greeks had defined love as being different for different people. Phileo for friendship, Eros for romantic partners, Agape for the love of God to mankind and vice versa and of course Storge which is family love. ANYWAY. So the children weren't really into making crafts and so I didn't force them too. That's the great thing about crafting, if you're not into it then don't do it! I know that they'll ask for supplies again soon and that's fine by me.

This September Top Ender will go to "Big School". I'm acutely aware of this, as we went to visit the local schools that we had narrowed down our short-list to during the last quarter of last year. We created a list of three schools we thought Top Ender would do well at Academically, Spiritually, Physically and Mentally. The end choice however was down to Top Ender, and she picked the School where the School Librarian seemed the most knowledgeable (I must admit she was pretty fantastic, I almost asked her to adopt me) and the library was the most extensive. She is so her Mother's Daughter. The thing is, I've realised this week that I am not ready for Top Ender to be going to Big School. I know it's a few months off, but this week I realised that my first baby is growing up too fast. For months Top Ender has been requesting a desk in her room, apparently the dining table isn't going to cut it when she goes to Big School and has more homework. We...

One of the things that my friends and I chat about is, unsurprisingly saving money. A lot of my friends have, like me, chosen to stay at home and despite having joint accounts with our husbands at our banks, we sometimes feel that cooking, cleaning, doing the school run's and whatever else it is that we seem to fill our time with doesn't equally contribute to the level that our husbands do. So we talk about saving money and having a good marriage and strengthening our families and we wonder what we can do and swap ideas and recipes and talk about everything else we can think of that would be of interest to each other as much as it was to ourselves. As is normal at this time of year, we've been talking about Valentines Day and it seems that everyone has got something sorted. Apart from me. So here is my fail proof recipe that I'm using to make lovely Strawberry Milkshakes for some of those special people in my life... mainly Top Ender, Big Boy and Daddy but I might ...

One of the things I do love about February is that it seems such a short month, especially when it snows as it makes every so excited (and by excited what I mean is over react!). I think that because it is exactly four weeks long, if you blink you've missed a quarter of it and it makes it feel like time is moving along really fast. I didn't even realise the first week of February had passed until I made lunch for the children yesterday and realised it was the 7th and we'd better get a move on as Top Ender had her last ever Brownie Camp to get to! THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY HAS HAD ME Saturday started with us doing some bits a s a family. We went to the new Morrisons store that has opened in Milton Keynes, none of us really rated it, and preferred the "new" Sainsbur'ys that is less than half a mile from it and the "old" Morrisons which is about two miles away. Still I suppose that we had to go to find that out and we did find Tiger Paw Bread ...

My Sister and I love what we call "Old Music", for us it was the music that our parents played and they grew up listening to and for young chickens (my sister and I!) I think we know a fair amount of songs and different groups. So last night, we decided to head off to the Theatre together to watch Jersey Boys, which is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons... one of the groups we were brought up on. I've seen the show before, but my Sister hadn't and so sitting together in the dark singing along with her to the songs we both knew and were used to singing together in the back of the car or whilst lounging on the sofa as Children was magic.

A few weeks back, a new drink was sent to Top Ender, Big Boy and I to try out. I was intrigued about the idea as the drinks are a range of essential vitamin-enriched drinks designed especially for Children and with a sports cap and a sensible size of 330ml, they are the good size to add to a lunchbox or as is the case with my two, perfect for stowing in my handbag for when we are out and about and a bottle of "plain" water just won't do.  As you may guess looking at the bottles, they are indeed a blend of fruit flavours (Mango, Apple and Orange) with water and as an added bonus, they have no added sugar. The thing that sold me on the drinks wasn't that they are under 10 calories a bottle, but the amount of carbs in each bottle (the carb count is important for us as it's how we calculate BB's insulin) is around 0.3g. The children and I conducted a very scientific taste test, where to the sound of Salt-N-Pepa singing Push It we drank a little of each fl...

Last year, I baked some really simple Snowmen Cakes for my Primary class at Church. They were so simple and yet so impressive, that I thought it might be fun to make them again this year when we got some snow. It seemed to me over the last few weeks that Milton Keynes was the only place in the UK with no snow and as my children were getting restless (okay I was) I'm so pleased that now we have the snow!

I've been lucky enough, to be asked back to being a Bostik Blogger this year and when our first box arrived I had planned to make some Chinese New Year Goodies with the children. Luckily Bostik had thought along the same lines and had sent plenty of gold and red goodies across. This is good because red represents good fortune and gold/yellow is the centre, and an important colour for a whole host of reasons. So we were also given some glue dots (I love glue dots) and foam pads to play with. What would we make? Well I asked the children and after a discussion of how it was going to be the year of the Sheep, the same as when Top Ender and I were born we knew that we had to make a sheep and a Dragon! Big Boy started on the Sheep whilst Top Ender started on the Dragon.

When the Children, Daddy and I discussed where we should go to dinner together as the treat that we'd been saving up for we knew we wanted to go to one of the new Restaurants that has opened up next to the MK Dons stadium, or as we call it The Queens Cinema. In the end we decided as a family on Pizza Express because they do a good gluten free Pizza and Chocolate Brownie which means that Daddy would be able to enjoy a full meal too. The meal out was fantastic fun, the food was yummy and filling and we all had a good giggle. The best part however was when it was time to pay the bill. The children took great delight in pulling out the money we'd collected and handing over the right amount of cash (and tip) to the chap who'd served us and kept us entertained all night. I think that he was more surprised to see the children paying for our meal than he was that the children remembered to give him a tip.