A Mother's Ramblings

Flyfour, the children and I were having a family chat, about nothing in particular just some family fun and during a long car journey, when we started a conversation about our diet. We all talked a little about how we could reduce our monthly shopping bill, our monthly cost for school lunches or food when we aren't at home, be more mindful about what we were eating when we weren't at home and doing a couple of little things that we hoped would be better for our health. Little things like eating less meat and processed foods, eating more fish and vegetables and of course a lot more exercise!

My favourite radio station, (Encore Radio) would often play songs from Musicals that I didn't know, but very quickly grew to love. One of the songs that I would often sing, along with Flyfour, was The History of Wrong Guys from Kinky Boots The Musical, and so when I was offered press tickets by Milton Keynes Theatre to see the musical, I knew that I had to take Flyfour so we could sing along and yell out "He's got a girlfriend you knob!". However, we almost didn't go thanks to Flyfour having to work and me being ill... I have never willed myself well so fast before! Tops was most grateful for Flyfour's ticket, and thanked me by wearing my boots to the show. I didn't mind though, because she was rocking them and she really did look after me the last couple of days whilst I've been so poorly.

My family and I aren't normal. We like that we are different from the norm, that we're more like The Addams family than the people that live on our street and we were going to celebrate this and hang out together during the half term by going to the cinema to see the new animated Addams Family film (see the trailer here ), coming home via the supermarket (I had a voucher to buy some bits from a lovely PR company) and making a few snacks together to share together and with some of our neighbours whom we haven't seen for a while. And then I got sick. The children were fantastic, looking after me whilst I dozed, giving me bottles of water and coming to chat to me and check I was okay every so often. They made lunch and supper together and after one trip downstairs to make sure they were okay in the early evening, I realised that they had even had some fun without me. Whilst I'd been dozing Top Ender and Dan Jon had gone to a local supermarket and purchased the f

It's half term! Whoop whoop! I'm very excited because there is a lot to celebrate, there is a lot to rest from and there is a lot to use this half term as a base to launch new plans from.... yup we have new plans for the family, for our home and for our education and work lives! Of course, on top of all of this, we are also going to be eating our favourite foods, spending plenty of time together and enjoying some free time. It's going to be so busy, but so great.

When Flyfour, the children and I were away I kept giggling when I was walking through a doorway in our hotel. It wasn't until the last walk through the doorway that I told the rest of the family as to why. Yup, it was because of that face up there. I see faces all the time, in fact, humans see faces in things all the time. It's called pareidolia apparently and so I thought I'd share it with you, as he was such a friendly little chap!

Sorry, but also I'm not sorry that this post is going to come across as a little braggy, but then again if you had a child a fab as Dan Jon, (and that's not just me saying that), then I'm sure you'd want to brag a little (well a lot) too. We had a combined parents evening/meet your child's tutor last week for Dan Jon. It was something that they do for all year seven children and parents, towards the end of the first half term to see how the new year sevens are settling in and to help them focus a little more on things that are important. It was great to meet with Dan Jon's tutor, I mean Flyfour knew him from when he was a student at the school, I knew him from when I was a governor at the school and of course from my current job working at the school, but this was different. This was Flyfour and I meeting him as parents.

Last week, I was in the sort of mood where everything looked tasty, I didn't know it but my cycle was at the point where my hunger was up but thanks to my self-control I wasn't about to eat everything as I wanted! I went downstairs to see if there was anything that I could eat in the kitchen, that was healthy (there wasn't) or maybe persuade Flyfour that what he really wanted to do was make us some of the gluten-free mini pizzas that he often makes the children for lunch at the weekend. As I'd gone downstairs and I saw a leaflet for a local pizza company sticking out the letterbox and exclaimed to Flyfour how I really fancied pizza now that I had seen the advert and then as I was looking at the advert a bit further saw there were chicken wings on sale too and decided that I fancied those too. Of course, I wasn't going to buy them and as Flyfour said that he wasn't hungry, I gave up on the idea of Pizza, got a glass of water complained to Flyfour that I was a

When Dan Jon was first starting at his senior school, there was an assembly for his house, where they explained about a few different opportunities available to the students, including being Sports Captains and House Captains and the process of how the students should apply to be considered. Dan Jon was rather taken with the idea of becoming a House Captain and so wrote a letter to the Head and Assistant Head of House to support his application for becoming a year seven House Captain. I didn't actually know he had done this, until after his application had been given to the Head of House, so I had no input into what he wrote and really, I have no clue what his letter said other than what Dan Jon half-remembered later.

Do you remember that about a month ago I was banned from giving blood due to my low iron count? Well, this is the update you may have been waiting for if you wanted to know what was going on. So. The day after I was banned from giving blood, I phoned my Doctor's surgery and arranged to have a telephone consultation as there is a rule that you can't book a blood test without having spoken to a doctor first, which makes sense, but also means I had to wait longer to book in the blood test and I wanted to give blood, so I needed to know as quickly as possible that this was a mistake and all was well!

It was the Primary Presentation in our ward today, which apart from meaning I got to sit next to my husband for an hour and together we got to watch our son sitting on the stand and giving his talk, also means that I got to listen to some of my favourite people in the ward give their two cents about whatever subject they had been given to talk about. It was a little emotional for me because this was the last time I will have an actual child of mine in the presentation, there are still several young people in the ward who feel like they are my children because I have known them all of their lives and I love them unconditionally, but this was sort of the last official primary thing at Church that Dan Jon will do before he is a member of the youth programme and means that he is growing up and growing up fast!

Oh my goodness! Do you know how good it is to write a blog post? I have honestly been sitting at home at times this last week, with my fingers over the keyboard and the words just wouldn't come out. Normally they come out at a million miles an hour and I can't quite keep up, but this has helped me to actually write and I'm hoping that now my other blog posts will come out! Keep an eye out this week!

It is World Diabetes Day today, so I thought I'd speak a little bit about my Type 1 Superhero because as we all know Dan Jon is a superhero of epic proportions! Dan Jon is seriously the most wonderful child I know. I mean really, he is. Dan Jon comes to see me every day after school and gives me a kiss goodbye (he initiates it!) no matter who is in the reception (there are normally a few students waiting for their parents). He sends me little text messages saying "Hi" or asking what I'm up to, or if I'm okay and cute little gifs.

I'm running out of food ideas again and asking the family is useless! They just say things like "I don't know" or "whatever you pick is fine!" and that means that I get to pick all the food that I want to eat, even if it means that the rest of the family don't particularly like what it is that I've picked! Still, I'm happy and as I keep telling the children and Flyfour, if Mum is happy then they'll be happy!

There are many things that I can do whilst doing something else. Use my phone and pee, tell the children to clean up whilst hiding a cookie that I'm eating, watch TV and knit (although I can't follow a pattern at the same time), make dinner and load the dishwasher, answer the phone at work whilst also spinning on my spinny chair... you know normal things. Then there are other normal things, at least I think they are normal.

One thing that Dan Jon has been excited about when going to Senior School, is taking part in weekly cooking lessons. Whilst he loves cooking and frequently does with me or his Dad, he is getting to the point where just helping isn't enough, and he wants to be making things on his own. Of course, with having Food Tech lessons, it is all down to him. The first dish he made, was Fruit Salad, which is why all weekend we have all been singing the classic Wiggles tune "Fruit Salad".

For what seems like years now, I've been looking to buy a piano. It needed to be quite good quality, it needed to sound nice and it needed to be in a price range that we could afford. It honestly felt like it was never going to happen and so I'd sort of given up a little when my sister sent me a message. Due to a few circumstances changing for her and her family (all good stuff!) they were needing to pass on their piano and if we wanted it, it was ours. WE WANTED IT!

When I was at University, I read this great thing that Jewish people used to do to try to "prove" that someone was Jewish and also to make someone feel more at ease, knowing that they were in a community that held the same values. They'd ask them about where they were from, and because the community was close, would then ask about someone who lived near there that they knew. If they knew them, then they were really Jewish, if they didn't then they may be pretending and not Jewish. As I was tweeting about General Conference last night (well actually really early this morning), I realised that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do something similar.

Another week over, by this rate it'll be Christmas before we know it and thinking on it I'm actually really excited by that thought! We were teasing the Principal at work this last week, about how I'm going to be celebrating Christmas from December 1st as he believes it should be celebrated between December 24th and 26th... Maybe I'll start this week! Right, what are we eating this week?

Twenty years ago today, Milton Keynes Theatre opened and I am so thankful that it exists. Not because of the press tickets I get, but because of what I've come to realise about myself and about you. Okay, I also love the press tickets. When it was first being built, we talked about it in my Theatre Studies group, about how we could get jobs there if we were lucky, how we could work backstage, or in the sound booth or maybe we could work on the lighting, or even work front of house. Dreams. They are the fuel of our lives.

This blog post is about some great Harry Potter stuff, that I was gifted. Many years ago, my Mum accidentally introduced me to Harry Potter. My Mum, a childminder, asked me to wrap a gift for one of the children whose birthday it was. Instead of wrapping it straight away, I accidentally read the book and got it wrapped in time for the family to take home. I was hooked and purchased all the books and films as they were released. I read the books to both the children whilst they were in the womb, small babies, small children and have even managed to force   encourage them to read the books themselves, once they were old enough to read and of course,  they both watch the films with me on repeat, because who doesn't love a bit of a Harry Potter Marathon, when the weather is a bit gloomy?! Which is why when Paladone asked if I would like some Harry Potter bits and pieces I was all over it and quickly picked some items with the £30 that Paladone had gifted me.

There is something brilliant about being a Brown Owl, that I can't quite explain, because I'm not sure what it is. It isn't the fact that I'm adored by 30 small children, although to be fair that is a huge draw. It isn't that I get to do fun things, again huge draw. It isn't even that I'm allowed to do things, like light a fire. I mean come on, FIRE! It isn't that I get to spend time with Top Ender and a few women, two of whom have become very close friends. I think, that it's that I'm proud. I'm proud when I with these girls and they achieve something that they thought they couldn't. I'm proud when they are given compliments for their excellent behaviour. I'm proud when they trust me with very important information such as which boy is cute or which teacher is funny. I'm proud because I can see how these wonderful young girls are growing up into amazing young women and I know that the world is going to

Milton Keynes Theatre is nearly 20 years old, and you can read more about this later in the week (I know, it means nothing to you, but trust me you'll love how I make it relevant!) but this post is all about Top Ender and I going to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert, after Milton Keynes Theatre were kind enough to give us two tickets and make Top Ender's night by saying if she wants them, she can have some posters from the foyer for an upcoming show that we are going to see (Six, it's going to be brilliant!). which happened just as I took this picture, hence the slightly crazed look on her face!