maximad | Mum In The Madhouse

maximad

tassimo, how a coffee machine has revolutionised our lives (no exaggeration)

I never thought that a coffee machine would make such a difference to our home. I am not a coffee drinker, but MadDad loves a good coffee and it is his affordable luxury in life. So when offered a Tassimo machine I thought it would be something that he would really appreciate. I was right, he is really impressed with the quality of coffee, however, this months challenge was to create our own drink, but MadDad’s coffee is sacred and he would not allow me to fiddle with it at all!

The only time I drink coffee is in the lead up to Christmas when I add Baileys, so I decided to add some and yum, very nice grown up coffee.

But the thing that has been most wonderful and completely unintentional is the freedom the Tassimo machine has brought to Maxi and our morning routine. Maxi has always been an early riser and he loves to have a hot chocolate on a morning, but at 8 I feel that he is too young to operate a kettle, so one of us has to make him one. The Tassimo machine means that Maxi can make chocolate for both him and Mini. I love instilling independence in children and Tassimo has certainly revolutionised our mornings. They are calmer, more relaxing and we get a little longer in bed!

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The things they say and do – Singing out of tune and girlfriends at 5

Whilst they were playing, Miss Frugal (who is the eldest of the bunch) taught the boys kiss, dare, truth or swear, which led to much hilarity in the car when Mini was picked truth and told me he had a girlfriend, but he had to share her with his friend at school too and that they took turns on which days they could kiss her on the cheek!

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This is our happily ever after, Life lessons from the summer holiday

I used to be a control freak, a planner, an organiser and have always needed to be in charge. I am very good at planning and getting things done, hence the fact that I manage projects. However, over the years since I had my children and worked on my depression I have learnt that perfectionists are more likely to suffer with depression and that I have to let go.

Normally over the summer holidays I would make sure we had activities planned in for each day. I would make sure that we had a schedule and an itinerary to ensure that the boys were kept busy and I was kept in my comfort zone. However this year due to recovering from my operation and lots of other reasons I couldn’t make these plans, so we had to wing it and I had to learn to let go. It was such a hard learning curve, but has taught me some great life lessons.

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When good words turn bad!

arly on down the journey that is raising children, MadDad and I decided that we wanted to call the boys sexual organs by the correct names, so Penis, Testicular, Scrotum, it is. Along the years Willie has nipped in too, but we don;t have pet names for them. Partly this was down to my experience growing up. My vagina was called a “frou frou” and my brothers penis was his tail. For a long time I thought that boys had tails to help them balance like animals and I don’t remember when I learned

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The tooth fairy made her first trip

I asked about on twitter to find out what the going rate was and settled on £1 per tooth. Maxi went to bed and popped his tooth in to a small lavender heart with a pillow on that I had made out of an old baby blanket and just couldn’t get to sleep due to the whole excitement of the tooth fairy. We kept on telling him that the tooth fairy only comes when you are asleep, so finally after what seemed like an age, but was only 20 minutes he was sound a sleep.

I made sure we had £1 and when we went to

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Overstretched, underpaid and giving it their all

have never made my admiration for the NHS a secret. I am one of the few who has seen them when a real emergency occurs. Who have seen them give their all when people where in life or death situations and watched as they provided amazing acute health care. Whats more this health care, which in other countries would costs tens of thousand of pounds is free.

nearly 12 years ago my wonderful dad was involved in an industrial accident, He was resuscitated at the scene by his work mates and the first responder (a paramedic in a car) and then blue lighted to hospital in an ambulance. Upon arrive to the A&E department he was provided with top notch trauma care, including x-rays, scans, pain relief, breathing assistance and medication. When my mum arrived at the hospital she was ushered in to the trauma department and keep pretty much informed and updated as the situation would allow.

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