Category: Family

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Bloggers Saving Lives – Help Us Sponsor Children for #shareniger

Who says bloggers don’t get anything done?  Well not us, that’s for sure, we do have blogger power.

Parent bloggers have raised enough for 6 children so far, and are on the way to 7 children in Niger for the next year.  Help us do more and expand the network willing to help.  Lots of us can’t justify the whole price at over £20 a month each, so the sponsorships are being gathered in a way that almost everyone can afford to join in with.

A subscription for anything from £1 gives us some to add to the pot, or even just a one of donation of whatever you can afford gives enough to sponsor a child for a year when it is added into the pot.  Some bloggers are doing a child share and for £6 a month, they are committing to 1/4 a child each.  Two children have just donated for 1/4 of a child.  How fabulous is that.

#ShareNiger came about when blogger Sian To went to West Africa and the Niger region with World Vision.  The trip was shared among our community by blogging and tweeting, and the media picked up on the stories.

How could anyone fail to be moved by the plight of this lady trying to keep her whole family alive on the pack of baby food she is given to feed just one child.

I know you need to know more.  I have pledged and paid for my 1/4, if you can pledge anything, a family will live a little easier in the Niger region.  Supported by World Vision, and with promises from the Government to pledge £1 for every £1 we raise, Sian and Merry Raymond are gathering bloggers together to sponsor children in the deprived area Sian visited.

If you can’t afford to give money towards sponsoring a child, you could help to do your bit by retweeting or blogging and helping raise awareness among your own online community.  For anyone who read this far, thank you for reading, and lets see us get to 10 children with the support of social media.

If you can join in, click here to sponsor a child in Niger.

Sian To –  Share Niger Story

Chris Mosler – Vaccines One Year On 

Merry Raymond – how to join us and sponsor a child in Niger.

 

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Project 366 Day 5/365 – Summer Sun

Summer Sun – we go to a club every week that we help run.  For my special needs child it really is his lifeline out of school.  With other children that he can relate, he doesn’t have to worry about what is said or done.  If another special needs child says something out of turn, it really is because they just don’t like each other, and nothing to do with their disabilities.  It is lovely to see these kids acting like kids, and the mums get to have a coffee and a chat with other mums that “get it”.  Friendship is fabulous.

It’s nice to see kids making the most of the sun, even it if it is just to laze about on the grass.

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We’re jinxed…. Just send us the bill….

You could be forgiven for thinking I’ve thrown in the towel and decided to be Miss Misery Guts this week.

Looking back on it, it’s not going to be all plain sailing to fix, but hey, we’re all alive, and I can afford to put food on the table for my kids.  So – why on earth have I been finding myself almost biting my nails and nervously chewing my hair with appliance breakdowns?

Answer me this, just who invented the full moon phase?   Whoever that was must have been a wizard of epic proportions to be able to smite us down with such a wave of an electric wand.

I’m not in the slightest bit paranoid for thinking that the lunar phase of the mood is responsible for the breaking down of electrical currents, and the shortening of the lives of our favoured and prized household machinery gadgets.

Starting slowly, the trouble brewed gently.  A fridge that doesn’t keep food cold is no use in a home where you need a week worth of school dinner ingredients on those hallowed cool shelves.  Buying fruit on Friday and having it go rotten by Monday really hits home about how we depend on our American Style Fridge Freezer.

After three weeks of looking for a side by side American style fridge I could afford, I admitted defeat and signed on the dotted line for an early delivery on Thursday this week of a regular American style fridge freezer.

The dishwasher chronicles have gone on for a while, so it was no stranger that it decided to give up the ghost and join the old fridge freezer in the graveyard for electrical appliances.

That would be enough for most people, wouldn’t it?

Not for us apparently.

With a rare blast of sunshine on Thursday, kidlets went out into the garden to play a little footie, as you do when you’re an adolescent boy wanting to show off your newly found testosterone injected strength.

Good neighbours are hard to find and we’ve got two.  Thankfully neighbour across the fence next door understands the problems with middler, even if we rarely ever see or speak to them.  Middler had decided to start bullying them, which ended in two broken windows in their newly (expensively) built extension,as he decided to use their window as target practice for the chuckies around our patio.

Profuse apologies and embarrassed conversations led to taking measurements to get the toughened glass window units replaced.  Thankfully we have contacts who have given us the units at cost, and we can also fit them for zero labour charge.

If we’d had to pay labour, we’d likely have been into the thousand bracket instead of the hundreds to fix.  Middler is now grounded for the rest of his natural born existence.

Friday morning came and went in a flurry of activity and under breath muttering as I blamed the man, completely unfairly, of switching off the boiler before he departed for money making activities.

Getting the kids ready for school with chattering teeth and cold showers really made the start to my day complete.  With massive foresight, I refused to go for a combi boiler when we installed our last one and insisted on the dual, so we still have the gas fire in the lounge and electric for hot water.

The engineer has been and he’s not sure if the fan has gone, or if it is just the transformer so another 3 day wait for a teeny transformer.  If that doesn’t work, there’s no point in getting the fan as it costs about half the price of a new boiler.  What’s worse is that the boiler is only about 7 years old, and I’m gutted at the cost implications, especially as the one I grew up with chugged along for over 20 years.

Tuesday came and I decided to vacuüm the lounge.  This proved to be an exercise that needed much wrestling with tube, hose and uncoupled couplings care of Dyson jigsaw puzzle hoovers.

Determined not to get to appliance 4, and disaster 5 of the week, a pair of sugar tongs managed to shift the contents of the last hoover user, a 12 year old whose top drawer is likely to have been vacuumed, as it is the hiding place he stuffs empty sweetie wrappers he has illicitly procured from the kitchen.

What more can possibly go wrong?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A visit to John O’Groats should be OFF the Bucket List. It’s not worth the effort.

Hyped up over the inflated egotistical corporate self promotional drivel, my family and I were taken in, and began a journey related to the appreciation of the Northern Territories of Scotland.  At the very top of Scotland, we began with a journey to see the topmost camping sites in Scotland, and visit John O Groats (or Jon o Groats depending on where you come from).

John O Groats is the place that end to enders from Lands End start and finish. The distance from Lands End to John O Groats is approximately 874 miles and is technically the furthest distance points for our little UK island

Dunnet Head is the actual furthest point, but John O Groats is the place that has turned commercial.

Pretty leaflets and alluring descriptions pulled us to striking an item from our family bucket list.  Come to think of it, we may have to rethink the drivel in our bucket if this is what we are reduced to.

Should’ve stayed at home……or should we?

“Are we nearly there yet  mum?” every five minutes in a three hour hour journey with 100 miles of driving, drives us a little into brain mush.  “I need a pee” seemed to resonate with any one of the three of them needing to stop off at the entry of every little village we passed along the way.

“Muuummm” a voice calls in panic from the loo.  Racing into the gents and expecting goodness knows what, a little boy pipes up that there’s no loo roll.  Running off for some leaves at the side of the road isn’t the most enjoyable way to spend five minutes on a car stop.

Visiting any toilet as a female is an effort of epic proportions as there is always the problem of what to do if there isn’t any toilet roll !!!   When the boys were smaller, pants were known to be disposed of in a toilet bin when loo roll was in short supply.

“There’s nothing to see,” eldest says in disgust as we roll up to the car park with the aura of excitement waning.  We see the signs for John O’Groats.  Expecting gorgeous views and unspoiled beachy areas, we parked up in silence as the exact nature of the place became clear and the heavens decided to rain on our parade in buckets and spaces, with cats and dogs to spare.

Disappointment abounded.  I know the season hasn’t officially started yet, but come on, there were dozens of cars there in the short half hour that we stayed for, so they should have been a bit more prepared for people this close to opening season than they were.

Grudging the 60p it cost for three boys to take a leak, I pushed them through a tatty turnstyle with skewed sign on it. With the amount of 20 pees they must take, surely they could afford a decent sign and a clean of the toilet floors now and again.

Promising littlest who is museum daft a browse of the “last house in scotland,” I finally admitted defeat in the tattyness and sheer pointlessness of the visit.  The “last house” was shrouded in scaffolding, as was the tearoom thing, the hotel, and it seemed like almost everything else there.

Harbour John O'Groats

 

Most of the shop units were empty and looked deserted.  The deco pieces looked skanky and dirty.

From its workshop, Caithness Candles looked like it does a roaring trade in what looked like penis shaped candles.  As a chandler myself, I gave their showroom a miss.

The caravan site looked nothing like website pics and I was pleased that we left the van behind to come up for a look.  Staying there would have been soul destroying.

Caravan Site John O'Groats - View 1

Caravan Site John O'Groats - The Lone Van

 

The only two places worth a small visit seemed to be the gift shop and the ice-cream shop but be prepared for extortionate prices for an ice-cream cone.

Craft Shop

 

“Horrible,” eldest summed up and he was quite right.  The harbour is skanky and miserable.

It’s a pointless visit if you want to see nice scenery and I’d advise going to either Dunnet Head or Duncansby Head.  We didn’t have time for Duncansby Head, but I’ll tell you about Dunnet Head in another post as it would spoil it to have it added here.

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Easter holiday plan of action…..

 

Watching my kids frustrated at not being able to have the ultimate freedom offered to children around their own ages is difficult.  Although they are coming up to the age when they should have more freedom out and about, their life circumstances has meant that they are not ready for the full-blown parent free experience that comes with leaving the house at 9 am and not coming home until 6 pm for supper.

That might have been my life as a youngster, but it isn’t going to be the tweenage life of my boys.

Middler finds all crowds challenging when he isn’t on medication that helps to keep his anxieties in check, but is he really all that different from a 2 or a 3-year-old child who just needs a little more TLC instead of the constant battle he faces from outsiders who think he is simply a spoiled and self obsessed lad who should be disciplined more.

In all fairness, I have given up with the mindset that he is ready to be introduced to age appropriate activities, no matter who says he should do more, and I have regressed into a more child like state of parenting for him which sees me pander to his inner baby.

Yeah, yeah, I hear the strict brigade chanting ferociously into the wind that I will regret babying a 10 year old, but hey, he has special needs so they can mind their own business these days, and scornful frowns might just see me turn to laugh at their ridiculosity (I know it’s highly unlikely to be a word, but it does sound good?).

Are the holidays going to be fun? Time will tell.

The first week we have a bit of space to ourselves as a family as middler goes to respite for a few nights, and then I am taking them away for a week in the caravan for the first outing of the year.  I am looking forward to it, but also dreading at the same time.  He is so much more work when we are away as we can’t lock all doors and windows and walk around with keys around our necks.

That got me to thinking about what I am going to do with them all, considering two of them are going to be highly rested is an understatement.  Littlest will begin to turn night into day as he strives to be awake at times midder is sleeping, and eldest will be annoyed at having to help keep his younger brother on the straight and narrow.

Plan of action – activities for kids this Easter

Give the bikes a little TLC, and pencil in a few days during Easter for bike runs.  The kids can do with the fresh air, and my rear end could do with the exercise.

Easter egg planning.  My boys may be older, but I don’t think kids are ever too old to roll boiled eggs with painted faces down a nice steep hill.  In emergencies, the longish driveway at the front of the house would serve, but the dog may spend a week on emergency potty runs after scoffing all the smushed up eggy bits as she uses her expertly trained nose to seek out any food in a crisis.

Fake a drawing competition on my blog, with a prize that any child of mine would be delighted to have, and of course, one of their entries will win *cough*.  Hmm, I might actually make a real competition on the blog for kids, I like that idea and have some PR things lying around that would make perfect gifts.  My boys would love to pick the winner.

DO NOT DO SHOPPING – Online is my very bestest friend in school holidays.

And of course, I would never pretend my kids are all 2 years younger than they are to get access to the local playframes.

They’re just tall, honestly !

How does everyone else cope with the Easter holidays?

I know our situation is slightly more different to most as I have special needs to consider, but hey, he’s not that much different to keeping an inattentive toddler amused 24/7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mothers Day Haul for the Scottish Mum Household from the Kids and Warner Bros.

Mothers day is a good day for some, and not such a good day for others.  Motherhood came to me by adoption, but a mother I am.  Warner Bros. came first with a fabulous box of feel good movies for me to watch (when the kids are not here) and sent through Doctor Zhivago, An American in Paris, Gone with the Wind and The Blind Side.

From the kids, came a lovely bunch of flowers, a box of Ferrero Roche chocolate, a little make up bag and a prettily decorated daffodil from my middle boy who made it at his special school.  The teachers had spent time to help him write out the card himself, and he is as proud as punch of it.

There were two little golden oscar chocolate figures in the Warner Bros. pack, of which one was a little broken, but it still ate well.

Yum said littlest who was a little worried at first by the gold coating, but it was tasty.

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Three generations of Scottish Mum women at the age of 18 ish.

Uncovering some family photos, I came across some lovely photographs of my grandmother, that I have not seen in years.

We don’t have many photographs as a family, and there are so few of me that it is shocking.  I will go to my grave, as almost the faceless entity, mother of 3 adopted children.

My grandmother – how hip and trendy was she.  I wish there were lots more photographs.  My grandfather took the photograph so I have no idea who she is posing on the bike with.  We Scots didn’t all run around in our kilts and sporrans, even in the early 1900’s !!

 

My mother – now where DID she put that dress??

 

And last, but not least (I hope) – me, with awful bouffant hair, but I wish I was still as slim as that.

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I Demand a Parent Contract – Full and Binding

Image: maple / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I had to go shopping for a birthday card this morning.  After wandering endlessly looking for one that the little mister might not think was too gauche, or too girly, or too boyfriendy for his gal pal, I eventually found one that looked plain enough to be boring, but sensible enough not to be misconstrued as anything remotely resembling a card that someone who has a crush on you would send (phew).

Thinking about the ensuing afternoon and future possibilities kept me in a daydream as I imagined fussing about as mother of the groom, and pointy finger wagging in his direction if he dared to so much as divert from his route to have a pint half an hour before the ceremony.  That led me on to thinking about what clothes we should wear, what other people would think – and a lightbulb moment ensued.

Why, just why on earth do we care so much about what other people think?  Ok, so they might raise their eyebrows at the potential of an 11-year-old groom having a pint on his way to his wedding, but come on, I’m allowed to daydream.   My little mister is just not caring in the slightest about how the future is going to turn out, as he’s not even on very good terms with most of the women of this planet (myself included).

So, all this planning and scheming and wedding attire drooling is all about me.   I can’t be the only one who thinks that the rollercoaster rides to get that far are just too much to live with.  Oh the pressure.

I’d love to set out a parental contract for rules between parents.  It would have to be signed and witnessed by all classmates mums and noted by a qualified barrister (free of charge of course, it’s for mums).

PARENTAL CONTRACT

1 – Attire
All children under 10 years old must attend any function, party or playdate with mandatory ripped jeans, dirty shirt, messed up hair, egg dribbling from chin, and a big cheesy grin.  Parents must come straight from doing housework with no make up and scraped back hair.

2 – Birthday Parties
Bring a small gift – what on earth makes people think it’s ok to give anyone under 90 a voucher, or a ten pound note, it’s a child’s party?   Smile when you enter the room, and for goodness sake, don’t let the gossipy ghouls put you off from going over and dipping your hand into the party food.  Size issues MUST be left at the door, and any parent partaking of party fare must eat 4 chocolates and 3 sausage rolls as a minimum.

3 – Playdates
Do not spend 5 hours pre-cleaning your home for 4 pre-schoolers to run around and mess up.  You’ll only regret it.  I promise that I will only clean my house to the degree that you will not be sitting in a pile of hair and fluff when you take a seat to watch the proceedings.   Dirty dishes may be hidden in the oven, and mucky clothes make very good cushion stuffers.

I will light a candle bearing the smells of filtered coffee and freshly baked double choc chip muffin, so be ready for a  watery latte and supermarket cake.

I will only provide clean activities without water, colour or squeezies and I expect you to do the same if a playdate is reciprocated.

4 – After Playdates or Parties
We agree to a mutual verbal thanks for any presents received.   Thank you cards – pored over by bored tinys and tweens that get ripped up 5 minutes after they are received must be banned by mutual appreciation.  Arrive on time to pick up your offspring if you have dropped off and run for the hills, and you must agree to actually come in and help put rubbish in the bin before you go.   Visit my toilet and clean up after your own child if they poop in my toilet and I will do the same for you.

That is about all I can think of just now, add any more that you can think of below.

Please don’t read and run, leave a comment to let me know you’ve been here.  We all love a bit of comment love, and the back-link won’t do you any harm either 🙂

 

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Internet Safety Day & Online Games for Children

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV1ZCF4oueQ

It was Internet safety day yesterday, and while I didn’t get to writing a post about it, I came across something that is aimed at children which worried me.

I am pretty vigilant with my boys lives online, which is probably a bit hypocritical considering how large my own online footprint is these days, but that probably makes me more aware of the possibilities.

My two had joined the growing army of young children who were playing Roblox.   I would ask that all parents whose young children use it to exercise caution.  Please research the reviews well and use the forums before you decide to allow your children to use it.  I would recommend that this site be used for over 16’s and possibly over 18’s.

Obviously it is up to each parent to decide what their children have access to online, but I would stress to do your homework around the online world style games offered to children.

When I first read the access request, I felt reassured that it was similar to the Penguin Club style interaction which keeps it safe for children, but it is very different indeed.

Moving on to the positive, there is a yearly campaign that helps promote safer use of the Internet among children and young adults.

This year they ran with the tagline:

“Connecting generations and educating each other, with the slogan: “Discover the digital world together… safely!”

This videos I have attached to this post are quite powerful.

Our children and young adults can be easily led.  We wouldn’t open our front doors to children and let strangers in, yet we don’t monitor our children enough online to ensure that they don’t open a portal to their safety bubble through the online world.

Be aware – check what your children are accessing, and who they are talking to.   Try it out for yourself when they ask for access to a new Internet game or craze as that is the only way you are going to know if it is age appropriate or not.

 

 

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What NOT to feed our pets !!!!

Most of us are guilty of it, and I have many a time scraped the leftover food into our dogs dish, or given her a treat or few from what we are eating.  Apart from a vague knowledge that grapes and chocolate are not that great for dogs, I had not really looked into it in any depth.

I’ve seen a few statements recently about dogs and wolfing down the Christmas candy, and I am guilty of giving the lolloping labrador of the house the odd square of chocolate and she is highly addicted to melon.

I am however, going to change my mind on the chocolate issue as having a look at some of the symptoms of doggie overdose have me utterly convinced that one more square of the cocoa variety is going to have her rolling onto her back with all four paws up in the air for her final breath.

Just to put things into perspective, I had a look for the most poisonous foods I could find for dogs (and other pets).  If your pet shows any of the signs or symptoms of poisoning after eating any of these foods, call your vet urgently.

1 – Cocoa  and Caffeine Treats

Chocolate – say no more, and coffee bean type treats.   Seemingly they overstimulate the heart and the nervous system.

Signs of Poisoning :  Increasing heart beat, agitation, diarrhoea, shaking, very thirsty, restless, seizures

2 – Fruits – Grapes and Raisins 

Thankfully I found no evidence of poisoning with melon as a result, but the possible effect of grapes and raisins opened my eyes as they can damage or cats and dogs precious kidneys.

Signs of Poisoning: Very thirsty, being tired, being sick and needing to pee more often.  As few as 4 – 5 raisins could be poisonous for a dog up to about 10kg.

Fruits – Seeds

Keep away form apple, cheery, peach and plum seeds as they contain cyanide.

It doesn’t take much to realise that a pet ingesting cyanide may become very sick, very soon.

Signs of Poisoning: Sickness, heavy breathing, irregular heartbeat, coma.

Fruits – Avocados

As well as having a high fat content, persin can cause problems in dogs.

Signs of Poisining: Sickness and diarrhoea.

3 – Alcohol and Yeast

I have heard of people laughing at stories of tipsy toms or drunken dachshunds (well, not really, but you get the picture).  It seems that alcohol has a similar effect to chocolate in poisoning our pets.  I think we might have been more aware of the dangers of alcohol in comparison to chocolate, but it is still a bit of a shock to realise that it affects all pets nervous systems.

Bread doughs and uncooked yeasty mixes are attractive to dogs but give the same effect as the yeast turns to methanol.

Signs of Poisoning : Increasing heart beat, agitation, diarrhoea, shaking, very thirsty, restless, seizures

4 – Vegetables – Onions

Any of the onion family can cause problems for our pets, and can also include garlic and chives.   They can destroy blood cells and damage kidneys.

It is difficult to know how much is too much, but effects from these can build up in the system.   Watch table scraps for cooking with onions and garlic in it.

Signs of Poisoning : Increased heart rate, tiredness, lethargy, being sick, diarrhoea, pale gums, blood in pee.

5 – Xylitol

This is a sweetener, used as a sugar free replacement and often used in chewing gum and sweets.  It does not agree with dogs, and causes an increase in insulin leading to low blood sugar, and can cause severe liver damage.

It does not take much to poison a dog so be aware if your four legged friend gets into a pack of your sweeties.

Signs of Poisining: Staggering, collapse and seizures, being weak and could be sick.

6 – Macademia Nuts

Pets in general tend to like nuts, especially dogs and small animals, so I was surprised to see that macademia nuts can cause muscle and nervous system problems for dogs.

Signs of poisoning: Being sick, being lethargic, shaking and body temperature increasing.

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For the future, out goes chocolate for my girl, and thankfully her favourite melon gets to stay.   It is important to remember that not all animals will show all symptoms, so if your animal has overdone one of the things on this list, and begins to show the symptoms – please get good advice from a vet.