Author: Scottish Mum

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Competition / Giveaway Baby Products Worth £40.00 Closing 25th February 2011

 

UPDATE

All eligible entries allocated numbers and the random number generator has done its work.

And the winner is @cheekyd19 – Danielle Welsh

Hi Danielle, the prize is yours.  I don’t think we have tweeted before, so it’s nice to meet you.   DM me your address details, or email me on:

scottishmum@gmail.com

I have decided to make a second prize as so many people have entered, and I have another set of car window shades for the lucky person to come in second.   Another random generator and it came up with : @paulahaylock

7 Lovely items to get this month.

This month, the giveaway is around 6  different products, and there are 7 items.

In the box, will be.

  • 2 x Baby on Board Signs with sucker cups for your cars.
  • 1 x Bump Belt – for adding to your seatbelt when 2 months + pregnant.
  • 1 x Baby Sippy Cup
  • 1 x Clippasafe Baby Harness & Reins Multi Coloured
  • 1 x Pack of window blinds
  • 1 x  Beautiful Beginnings Teddy gift set

1 – Leave a comment below, telling me that you want to enter,  follow me on twitter @scottish_mum and Tweet this.

“I entered to win baby goods worth £40 from Scottish Mum http://scottishmum.com/2011/02/prcompetition-…by-goods-worth/”

2 – For an extra entry.  Friend me on Google connect (on the blog front page), and/ or like my page on facebook.  !/pages/Scottish-Mum/165660773455038

If you are already doing all of these, then it is an easy entry.  Competition ends 25th February.  I allocate each entrant a number, based on how many entries they have, and then draw at the random number website to make it fair.  Good luck to everyone who enters.

If you are new to my blog, your first comment will need to be approved before it shows up.

This competition comes to you from Scottish Mum and has no connection with the product manufacturers.   By entering, you are agreeing that Scottish Mum Blog, or anyone connected with it, are not responsible in any way for the use of the product, and you use it at your own risk.

         

 

Scottish Mum Blog 

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“Belonging” Doric Poem

In twa thoosan an eliven
We’ll mind it fir life
Iss wis yon year wi muckle bleed
Fir thae fa canna stann up fir themsels
 Oor cooncil took awa their aid
An’ll mak em wait fir yeers oan end
 Bairns wi needs canna find help
Stuffed intae skewls thit canna cope
 An admittin it noo micht help mebbe ane
If they blabber the truth tae us a
 If inclusion’s a wye fir us tae see
Oor bairns’re nae a fit fir them fancy wyes
 Foo sad it maks me tae spy misery
Oan faces o bairns nae wintin tae be
 Find em a space fariver it be
An pit back oan a smile
Fit mair greetins tae see

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Bloggy Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2,3 – Week 6!

This is my first go at this so bear with me until I get it sorted.  Doing blog hops has not been my speciality yet, and the only one I have tried, ended up with me just messing it up.  Here is hoping that I manage to get it right this time.

Okay – my reasons to be cheerful.

1 – I have a fantastic mother who does so much to help me, that I cannot even begin to describe how much she means to me as a mother.  She struggles with diabetes, thyroid disease, arthritis and has just passed her 5 year mark for breast cancer.  And yet, she still always thinks of me and my children first, and never complains.  I landed an angel.

2 – My relatively new circle of friends (1 year plus),  has brought me back into a fantastic life, that revolves outside of my own little home bubble.  They took me in, made me one of them, and now I would be lost without them.

3 – I found twitter and blogging.  While I am not Mrs Wonderful Blogger, I am loving it.  I have the opportunity to interact with other women like me.  I can meet and talk to people as and when I need support, a talking to, or just a bit of gossip or banter.

4 – Like some of the other bloggy mums, I have recently been contacted by some PR’s wanting to work with me, which is fantastic.  This is an amazing boost to confidence considering I had to start from scratch when I lost a few months of posts in October.   I have only been going again since November under my new name, and I am happy with how things are going.  This is fun for me, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

5 – This is a holiday weekend, and I don’t have to rush getting the kids up for the next 5 mornings.

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@scottish_mum / My Top 5 Reasons for Twittering

Yada, yada, yada.  I see the look on the faces of anyone that I mention twitter to.  It is normally met with some kind of snigger, and snort, or some comment of how they have far too much to do to spend time on twitter, or asking why I would want to talk to strangers every day.   After that, I don’t tell them I tweet. 

Because of the reactions, very few people know that I tweet.  My husband and kids know, and they snigger and snort at it.  I have two people in RL apart form that who know, and they are fine with it.  So much so, that they even know about this blog.   If you are reading this, yes, you know who you are.  That’s it though.   To other people, my twitter doesn’t really exist.

My enjoyment of using twitter is totally founded on the fact that I have met new friends very quickly.  These are friends, whom we rarely meet, or hardly know, yet we talk to each other nearly every day.

Pre twitter, it was hard for me to imagine that I would enjoy it so much, or that I would end up setting up a blog, and writing away into the cyberspaceworld.  I would like to go public as some of you do, and reveal my face to the world, but I am not comfortable doing that at the moment, so I am doubly grateful for the lovely people who have come into my twitter stream. 

My top 5 reasons for tweeting

1 – I have someone to talk to at any time of day.  There is always someone on the other end of the keyboard in my timeline now.    And that is not just anyone.  They are going to be people like me, with kids, with problems, and not pretending that everything in their lives is rosy.

2 – I don’t have the time with special needs in the family to do the coffee mornings, lunch groups, or mummy socialising locally, and twitter offers me the opportunity to mix with both special needs and mainstream mums.  I get the best of both worlds, which doesn’t happen in real life.

3 – I am doing something that I would never have done before.  Thanks to twitter, I am travelling 500 miles to a place I haven’t been to before, to meet a few hundred other women who have met through blogging at Cybermummy in London.

4 – I found blogging.  Through reading some other peoples blogs, and deciding that I needed an outlet to keep me sane, I started blogging last year.  I messed up when I transferred across to my own domain and lost it all, so it was start all over again.   This blog started in November / December and will take time to build up, and at the moment, I am enjoying having somewhere to splurge.  Do I want to take it further, not yet, as it’s fun.

5 – I thrive on the sometimes multiple, fast conversations going on.  All those  people who join in, all the people helping each other when someone asks for help, and the fact that it keeps me sane. 

That’s it from me.  I think I have been lucky in that I have not managed to get myself into any twitter arguments.   This is the secret though isn’t it.  It’s like a little secret society of fast moving conversation followers.  The speed it moves in comparison to facebook is astounding.

Thats it from me, and if you haven’t tried twitter, it takes a little time to find your circle, and expand to follow the people that you like.   I tried three times before I really got into it.   I’ll have withdrawal symptoms on holidays this year !!!!!!

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My Top Kitchen Gadgets

I thought it might be fun to write about my most used kitchen gadgets.   I’ve already written about my close relationship to the soda stream (here).

Favourite gadgets are not always the things you think they are going to be when you buy them.  Pre children I had loads of things that were tucked away at the back of a cupboard, never to be used, and were eventually ebayed or thrown out.

Now I find myself buying some of the same gadgets that I threw out.  Having 6 people in the house means that having enough of any one thing to go around everyone can be difficult if you are buying from supermarkets, as you need to buy multiples of everything.

If you buy a standard large pie from a supermarket for a family of 4, thats one thing, but you need two pies for a family of 5 or 6, or someone has to do without and have something else.  Having to make two different meals is irritating for me.  I like one lot of cooking, and everyone eats the same things.

Yes, I might have one child who only eats the potatoes with cheese on top if its red meat, but basically I like one lot of cooking, and people can work around what is on offer.   Things like bread, cakes, scones, pizza, quiche etc etc are easily sorted at home and will be future gadget blogs. 

I love my Panasonic Breadmaker, my budget price Slowcooker (19.99 from Aldi), Kenwood Mixer, and DeLonghi coffee maker.

I have an electric hand blender, and it comes quite close to my now must have gadgets, but I would happily live without it.

The five must have’s are the ones I would now go out and urgently replace if they broke / wore out.    I am going to do individual reviews on each one over time, but at the moment, I would love to find out which gadgets other people think of as their “Must haves”.

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Cuts to Services for and of the Disabled

With one special needs child, and two others who need some assistance at school, but who cope with a little extra support, it fills me with horror to read the stories of what is going on around Scotland this year.  The support staff from different authorities seem to be targetted.  The cuts are savage, and directed at the welfare of the disadvantaged population. 

When other cuts, such as music have been mentioned, people have been up in arms and complaining about it in huge numbers.  It is sad that ASN children are not seen as an attractive enough issue to warrant the public rising up to protect them.

I am ashamed of my country, my government, and my local council.

There, I’ve said it.

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When Is The “Right” Time?

I sat down for ten minutes today, thinking about what I am going to blog about next, and it hit me that the only things coming into my head are the negative things.   If I sat and blogged about all the things that are bothering me, I would bore you silly, and you’d probably be rolling your eyes into the back of your heads.  I’ll leave those for another day.

Then I decided to tell you (again) about the huge positive thing in my life at the moment that keeps me sane.  I write, profusely.   If you read my blog, you are probably not surprised by that, as it is mentioned all over the place.

 I am finally finishing some of the projects that I started over the years when the kids were smaller.   Two are in revision stages, which I am loving, as these are nearing my pedestal state of “finished”.  I don’t yet know if they are any good or not, but I am happy with the achievement in getting this far, and keep adding to, and changing the plot to make them the kind of story I would love to read.  There is definately an art to finishing, and I am finally mastering it.

To keep my momentum going, I intend on self publishing my book of local language poems as I don’t believe a publisher will find these marketable.  The scottish population is too small for it to end up on any best seller list.  I am going to publish it though, and it will just be for the experience, and to be able to have my name on something that I have written publically.   I do intend to query the manuscript to a few agents as a tester for later in the year, and I am very very close to that.   The poems are just for fun, and my kids love reading them.

I haven’t yet entered any competitions, but I am planning to submit some short stories and poems this year.   I made the decision that this year, my work is going to go public, and if no-body likes it, then it can be revised until people do.  It has taken me a lot thinking and soul searching to be able to do this, and I am still quaking in my boots at the thought of going “public”.

Yours worriedly
Scottish Mum

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“Burns Nicht” (Doric Poem for Robert Burns “Burns Night”)

Hive ye iver wonnered fit thon Burns Nicht wis a aboot, an fit they did.  Read oan fir hoo them that likes tae celebrate Rabbie Burns birthday wi a supper dae it.

Eence mair comes roon the 25th, the birthday o the baird
Fir Rabbie’s supper eence agin, the tartan clamored laird
A ower the warld, folk gaither wi freens, an beat thon Selkirk grace
Tae celebrate a man o words, a poet fu o grace

We start wi soup, an hud oor weesht, afor mair grub is seen
The chunter soonds the warning, thit the haggis is oan its wye
An oan a platter, fit fir a king, the beast is piped oan in
Tae an address, an pomp worthwhile, is slit frae end tae end

Wi neeps n tatties, the dish doled oot, an a dram o whiskey rare
We’ll hae a toast, tae the Queen, an then’s oor Rabbies turn
Mair thanks tae a, fa did the wirk, tae mak a crackin nicht
An then them lads and lasses joke, wi jibes tae ane an a

An efter a them tales are ower, the dancin micht begin
Or mebbe jist a tale or twa, lik Tam o Shanter playin
An fan its ower we’ll a gie thanks, and link oor airms a hither
Tae pay respects an sing a roon o Auld Lang Syne thigither

Author: Lesley S Smith

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Disability Injustice and Cuts to Services

I was absolutely astounded to read the case of  Riven Vincent, but not surprised.

In case you have not yet heard of her, or read the news over the last couple of days, she has asked social services for residential care for her daughter, as she can no longer cope at home.    She asked for additional respite to help her, and it was refused. 

For one, I am not surprised that this has happened, and I do believe that it is going to happen more and more often as the cuts that the Government send down to local councils bite.  In my own local council, there are several cuts to disability and ASN childrens services which have been given the green light for swathing cuts.

People who have never lived with severe disability, or mental illness, have actually no idea of what stresses they and their carers are often under.   The long term effects of people who do not access help are far reaching.

1.  On average, it can take years for requested services to come into effect.  Thats if they are offered at all.  Contrary to popular belief, it is quite difficult to be allocated a social worker for a disabled child, even if you ask for one.

2.  DLA to which disabled people are entitled, make applicants jump through hoops, and expect people with disabilities to manage to complete a novel sized application form intelligently.   Many give up trying to get it. 

3.  Parents with disabled children are often not in a position to fight for their children, as they are exhausted by the day to day caring.  They are an easy target.

4.  If services, respite and additional care is not offered when it is needed, suicide rates and passing off to care services will increase as people cannot cope in their homes.

The fact that Riven Vincent has asked for her daughter to go into care is not surprising.  She has other children to look after, a huge workload with Riven, and being denied enough support for her to be able to nurture her family properly.  

I do not pretend to understand how hard it is for her with a doubly incontinent child, not enough incontinence pads, and insufficient support to allow her to care for her other children.  I know how hard it is for me with my family, and my heart goes out to her, and those like her.

She gets no sleep, and it cannot carry on like that.  I have huge respect for her, and the fact that she has asked for help shows how strong a lady that she really is.  

Leave the political stuff aside.  This is a family that is struggling, who asked for help and were denied. 

I wish Riven Vincent all the luck in the world, and I hope that she gets all the help she deserves. It sounds like an awful situation that she can neither move forward, nor backwards from, unless someone takes charge to help her.

Moving the blame back onto local government is a disgraceful cop-out.

Thats my opinion.

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Seven things you don’t know about me.

Here are the guidelines
Link back to the person who gave it to you.
Give 7 facts about yourself.
Award up to 15 great bloggers you’ve recently discovered

I’ve been tagged by Carol Finds Her Wings (via twitter) and Mummy Alarm (via twitter) to share seven things that you don’t know about me.  I blog anonymously so this is going to be a difficult one to do.

1.  Rollercoasters and huge fairground trains, loop the loops, and aerial display rides terrify me.   Not just slightly scared, but out of the ordinary, pathetically panicked.  I won’t go on one, even for kids, but Disneylands Vertical Hollywood Towers I could do all day long.

2.  I don’t like peppers.  Red, green or yellow.  I swear I could smell a piece of pepper in a meal from 100 paces.   In restaurants, I always ask for my meal, “with no peppers.”    A third of the time, the meal comes out right, the second third, they have fished the peppers out of the pre-cooked meal and I reject at the first forkful.  The last third of the time, the meal arrives, with the peppers intact, as if nothing were wrong. 

3.  I have absolutely no sense of direction, none at all.   I struggle with maps, and get lost with perspective.  In theory I can, but put me somewhere strange, and in no time at all, I’m twirling in circles.  London should be fun.

4.  My very first concerts were Thin Lizzie (first boyfriend took me, honestly),  Paul King (dressed to the left), Duran Duran, (that was worth seeing) and Simply Red (umm ok, but stuck at the back), & Suzi Quattro (who, I hear you ask).  The first record I bought was Donny Osmond “Puppy Love” and I used to imagine being picked out of the crowd to be sung to.  Ok, I was only about 5, but still.   In public my favourite singer of all time would have to be Marti Pellow from Wet Wet Wet, but I cheat with Robbie Williams.   My secret passion is rock, and I’d love to see Bon Jovi, and Aerosmith.

5.   I don’t get David and Victoria Beckham bashing.   They worked hard, played hard, took advantage of opportunities, made a fortune out of some very clever marketing, and seem to be happy.

6.  I can make candles, all sorts of candles, big and small, in glasses or pillars, plain or scented, and I love them all.  A hobby that became an obsession to the point I’m pretty good.    Anyone who comes into my house is likely to have their noses offended by the notes of wildflowers, bakery, fruit, or spice.   I use them all the time, so have grown accustomed to the stench.  Its good when a relative comes to visit and you only have instant coffee.  Light up the candle in the kitchen and they really will believe, the percolator is going, for a special treat.

7.  I moaned and winged about getting a real bike, to go out with the kids for a cycle ride.  After four years of wingeing, the bike was finally mine, and it’s already been relegated to the back of the shed as it never sees the light of day.  This spring, I AM going to dust it off and actually get round to using it.

The blogs below are the ones I am about to tag for their 7 secrets.   I don’t remember seeing theirs, and I am sure nearly everyone else has been tagged by now.

Twinkly Mummy
The Boy and Me
Soft Thistle
Crystal Jigsaw

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Competition Giveaway – Crystal Deodorant Worth £5 + Ends 23 Jan 2011

Win a crystal deodorant.

Over the years, I have spent lots of money, and spent much time in looking for, and trying out new deodorants and anti-perspirants.  Last year I found a natural deodorant that worked for me.  It is a salt deodorant which has many fantastic properties, and the main one is the lack of things bad for you.   

I used to stay away from things like garlic and onions as they seemed to come out through my pores.  No matter which deodorant or anti-perspirant, I used I could not find one that kept my underarms smelling sweetly from morning to night without being self-conscious.

My expectations when I tried a salt crystal deodorant, were much the same as the approach I had taken to the many other concoctions I have tried, and fully expected it not to work. 

I have been using them for a few years now, and have found the brand that I like the best.    Lafe’s deodorant salt crystal deodorants have no additives, no parabens and are easy to use.  You just wet them, then rub it on your skin.  No chemicals, nothing nasty and it works for me.

It’s giveaway time, and I have one of these to give to a lucky reader.  It is a large deodorant stone, which is likely to last anywhere from 9 months to a year and more before it needs to be replaced.  It comes with it own dish to sit in your bathroom or in a cupboard and has a little velvet pouch in case it is needed for travelling.

I will put all the entries into a hat and draw a lucky winner on the 24th January.

These stones retail at approximately £5 – 7 with postage on top.  

TO ENTER – restricted to UK & Ireland entrants only.

  1. Leave a comment on this post to say what you have done, AND subscribe to the blog via email or rss feed to have your details entered into the hat once.
  2. For a second entry,
    Follow me on twitter if you are not already  , and tweet the sentence below.
    “I entered to win a Salt Crystal Deodorant worth £5 + with Scottish Mum.  Enter to win before 23 Jan.  http://scottishmum.com“
  3. For a third entry
    Follow me on facebook as scottishmum and post the sentence below.
    “I entered to win a Salt Crystal Deodorant worth £5 + with Scottish Mum.  Enter to win before 23 Jan.  http://scottishmum.com

Results will be posted on scottishmum blog on 24th January 2011.  Make sure you check to see if you have won.   If it is unclaimed for 24 hours, I will pull another winner out of the hat.

Each person has the potential to have their name entered three times to win.   If you are new to my blog, your first comment will need to be approved before it shows up. 

This competition comes to you from Scottish Mum and has no connection with Lafe.   By entering, you are agreeing that Scottish Mum Blog, or anyone connected with it, are not responsible in any way for the use of the product, and you use it at your own risk.

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How a Soda Stream broke my addiction.

One of the things I used to do regularly was buy diet drinks.  I was totally addicted to them.  I would have a raging headache if I didn’t have any, so it was not good.  Last year, I decided that I needed to stop the ridiculous cost that I was spending monthly on drinks if I wanted any money to spend on anything else.

I was drinking up to 4 litres and sometimes more a day, and nothing else if I could help it.  Drinks also had to be super cold to be totally enjoyable, and give the breath taking feeling in the back of the throat when drinking.    All that caffeine and artificial sweetener was not doing me any good.  I had tried to stop a few times, but always gave in with the headaches and went back to my old habits.

The brand I liked, I won’t mention, but it was not easy to stop.   I had terrible headaches for about a week, and a sore throat.  I decided to stick it out, and had one or two cups of coffee a day to try and alleviate the caffeine withdrawal symptoms from such a long term caffeine habit.  Using the coffee did help, and I saved one for bedtime so that the headache would go down a little for trying to get to sleep.

I tried drinking water, which is just yeuch to me.  Ok, I know people like it, and it’s the lifegiving nectar, but I just don’t like it.  If I have to drink it, I will, but I’d rather have something flavoured.  I began to use cordials and got fed up of how boring it was.   Then I bought some bottled fizzy water and that was great with the cordials.

Carrying around lots of bottles again, nearly had me revert to picking up the brand I so desired, and on a whim, the next step was to buy a soda stream (just to try it, as you do).  I bought it when we were on holiday and it was reduced in price, so it was a bargain.

I didn’t really expect very much from it, and at first I thought it would be a flash in the pan, and believed I wouldn’t bother with it once the gas bottle ran out.  I didn’t bother with the soda stream syrups, and use the fizzy water it makes to add to lime juice and cordials.  I have even fizzed up some boring wine to make it more fun to drink.

I order enough CO2 bottles to last a few months at a time from Lakeland, and they cover the returns cost so it works out pretty cheaply now to have fizzy water on tap all the time.  The kids and Mr Scottish also use it a lot, and the buzzing is a frequently heard noise in this house.

I’ve kicked the caffeine and now use decaffeinated coffee, and I can have a caffeinated drink now and again without stressing about it any more.  Freedom from 20 years chained to a brand of diet drink may seem silly to some, but it was a big deal for me.

I love my soda stream, and it is THE most used kitchen gadget in our house next to the kettle, but shhhhhh, I would never admit that in RL.


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