Monthly Archives: August 2009

Following the Sun 1

 in places to visit / Summer / tynemouth by

The forecast for today was not great, however, that is not unusual for a Bank Holiday Monday, but we are trying to make the most of every day before school starts next week, so decided to pack a picnic and to follow the sun via a trip to Ikea to check out beds for MiniMad!!! So we looked and the bed we liked was out of stock – boohoo, but that means we can have a trip to Leeds on Wednesday to get it – yippee. The boys were very well behaved, but the promise of ice cream and play area might have had something to do with it (not that more »

Kitchen Chalk Board Wall 2

 in chalkboard / kitchen by

I am a great fan of affirmations and inspiration quotes and sayings and have been looking for a way to display some of these in my home. I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen, cooking, eating breakfast, washing the pots, putting the washer on, sitting and chatting to friends. So was ideally looking for something to use in the kitchen. I also wanted to be able to update the words as and when I needed to. MadDad came up with the idea of a chalkboard after me and MaxiMad painted the playhouse. Never one to sit on my laurels I set too yesterday. We marked out the area more »

A Perfect Sunday Afternoon

 in Summer / Sunday by

We have had one of those rare things, a perfect Sunday afternoon. Everyone of us has had a ball doing things that family’s do. The thing that makes it so perfect – well for me that is the people I spent it with, my boys and my wonderful husband. It is days like these, simple days, where riding a bike, swinging in the park, flying a kite and eating an ice cream at the stray cafe make all the surgery worth while. It is days like these that make me thankful for small things, for old folk stopping and asking where we bought our kites (the pound shop), for people saying more »

Spiritual Sunday

 in spiritual / Sunday by

I Release all CriticismI only give out that I wish to receive in returnMy love and acceptance of others is mirrored to me in every moment I am a great one for believing in karma, what goes around comes around. I also believe that the old adage of “blame where blame is due” doesn’t always apply. I try and remain positive in my life and encourage the children to do the same and often the blame game doesn’t help anyone. It is hard to change the habit of apportioning blame and it is often the first thing that comes in to my mind, so I am mindfull of changing my thoughts more »

Making Chocolate Coins

 in chocolate coins / summer activities by

I picked up a chocolate coin maker from Marks and Spencer in the January sale for £1.50 and have had it in the cupboard since then, well me and the mini’s had our first attempt at making our own coins. You can only make four at one go and need to use cooking chocolate, but it was great, if not messy fun. MaxiMad melted the chocolate in the microwave and then poured it in to the four moulds that we have. I then popped them in the fridge to set, whilst the two of them licked clean the jug!! Once they were set, we took them out of the moulds (we more »

Craft cupboard finnished

 in cork / craft cupboard / crafts by

Thanks to a wonderful friend and my in laws, I have managed to finish the inside of the doors on our craft cupboard in the dinning room. I have hooks for the boys art smocks on one door and on the other door inside I now have a wonderful cork board, so that I can pin inspiration, ideas and other things to it. I am reallt pleased with how it turned out. The finnish on the outside of the unit is unfinnished pine and we have left it like that for the last three years and are still unsure of how to finnish it, infact we quite like the wethered look more »

Enjoying a break in the rain 2

 in crafts / sewing / summer activities by

We have tried to make the most of today, as the Mini’s are pretty much over their virus (poss swine flu). The day started with nude wii (only the boys of course – I would scare the neighbours) So we have been to the supermarket, been to the park on the way home. Called at the opticians to pick up MiniMads new glasses. An ice cream with monkey blood and sprinkles (raspberry sauce to the uninitiated), whilst I unpacked all the shopping. Magic painting, I do have more than one book, but both boys wanted to do the Backyardigans, so they shared and they shared really well. Whilst the boys painted, more »

A rare event

 in sleep / swine flu by

Anyone who knows me will tell you that my two boys are energetic (that is an understatement) and always active from morning to night. Even illness doesn’t unusually stop them in their tracks. Well today it finally stopped MiniMad. He fell asleep on the sofa in the sitting room for 2 hours. It was such a rarity that I had to take a photo. He woke up and it was as though he had never been to sleep as he was back to the active, happy boy that he normally is. Sometimes I yearn for the time when they both still napped.

Wax relief painting

 in art / crafts / summer activities by

As both the boys are still not fully recovered from what we think might be swine flu, but also just may be a nasty virus, they are not allowed out of the house and are getting a little stir crazy. Even the garden was out of bounds for most of today due to torrential downpours, so I decided to do a really simple art project with them. I took a candle and drew a picture (very simple picture, as I am no artist) on to some paper and then gave them free rein with the water colour blocks. They loved seeing what was coming out, although they did have a tendency more »

Reinforcing Good Habits

 in Good habits / rewards by

I have blogged before that the eldest MiniMad doesn’t drink enough, so we are focusing on reinforcing good habits this week of having at least 5 drinks per day. I work on the FlyLady theory that it is one new habit a month, so we will be carrying this out for the next four weeks. So I have drawn up a really simple chart and one any of us have a drink we draw it on there (we have left MadDad off for the weekdays as he is at work, but he doesn’t escape the weekend) Initially I am focusing on just getting enough fluid in to both the boys and more »

The Good and Bad of the Internet 2

 in blog with intergrity by

Today has been one of those days whereby both the good and bad of the Internet has become very apparent to me. The Independent online has an article about mummy bloggers (see here for the full article), which IMVHO states that all new mums are bored, lonely and sad and need their blogs to reach out and give them something to do over the lonely nights. Well for one thing I don’t fit into that very tight stereotype, thank you very much. Yes I am a blogger (relatively new), a mummy and a woman, but I don’t blog because I have bugger all else to do. I am doing this as more »

Spiritual Sunday

 in spiritual / Sunday by

I have been up most of the nights with the MiniMads and MadDad is now not feeling well. I am tired, I didnt want to start the day today. I didnt want it to be Sunday It is only a thought and a thought can be changed I am not limited by any past thinking I choose my thoughts with care I constantly have new thoughts and new ways of looking at my world I am willing to change and grow

Swine Flue and not taking the tamiflu

 in swine flu by

It has been a long night and a hard day with the minimads, who are still suffering and them being such kind and sharing soules are sharing their pain with me and MadDad. We sent the night ministering to the boys, wiping their very hot heads, stroking backs and providing drinks to two very unwell boys. This morning has been better, well it is better once they have the calpol and nerofen in their system, as soon as it starts to wear off then they get very groucy. Having spoke to our wonderful neighbour who is also a GP with four boys under 8 and one of them with CF, we more »

Swine Flu 2

 in Uncategorized by

Today has been one of those days, we had a fab day yesterday and I put the boys temperatures down to the fact they had been running around in a soft play area for hours and it was warm and humid – well no. It looks like the mini’s have swine flu. Both have the following symptoms Temperatures Nasty coughs Sore throats Ear ache Diarrhoea runny noses Lack of appetite And MaxiMad also has the chills. Now I am not a neurotic mother, but it’s the not knowing that is the hard part. What if it isn’t swine flu and it is just a nasty virus and I give them the more »

The wonder of the Internet 1

 in fly / flylady / friends / internet by

Today I met a friend, a friend I have know for nearly three year, but never met. A friend I made on an Internet on a website for mums. It was like we had known each other forever. Before I had children I would never have dreamed of stepping foot in such a place, but I needed support and this place offered me it in spades and never in shades of grey, always black and white. I didn’t have to meet the people who offered their advise, it didn’t matter whether I agreed with them or not, they were not swayed by knowing the “real” me. Since then I have gone more »

Why we love home made play dough 4

 in play dough by

last month I made a new batch of home made play dough and added essential oils to make them smell divine. I used a different oil for each of the colours, including lavender, neroli, geranium, roman calamine and ylang ylang. MiniMad loves play dough, it is one of his most favourite things, he loves investing things with it, making sausages, using the cookie cutters and smelling it too. We had a lovely relaxing hour before swimming this morning with all three of us sat at the dinning table chatting and playing with the dough, infact we were all so engrossed we nearly missed our duckings session. The thing is it is more »

Hairy Hotdogs 13

 in fun with food / halloween by

I am not sure where I saw this idea, but it is on loads of blogs and thought we would give it a try. Basically you get a jar of hotdogs or bratwurst and cut into chunks and skewer them with spaghetti. MaxiMad took great care at this and loved doing it, while MiniMad, just shoved them in and started to eat the bratwurst before I had even cooked them. I then cooked them until the spaghetti was soft and warmed up some premade pasta sauce and grated cheese. Et Voila – hairy hotdogs, scary sausages or what ever you want to call them. The boys polished them off, this would more »

Praise, punnishment, rewards and consequence 5

 in family shop / punnishment / rewards by

We have always tried to bring up the MiniMads with positive praise and decided early on that we didn’t want to smack them, as we believe behaviour breeds behaviour, however, we are finding that this can be a challenge. Things slipped somewhat when I was in and out of hospital and physically not well enough to do much more than issue a well done or a reprimand. It turns out that the key to success for us is CONSISTENCY. We have tried the reward chart route, but found it didn’t work for us, unless it was something the MiniMads wanted really bad and they don’t want for much, like most of more »