CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

What's better than messy play?  EVERYONE JOINING IN! Well, everyone apart from Georgie. He's still a bit young for papier mache I think. He'd only eat the glue and paper, so we waited until he was having his afternoon nap, and then me, the Hubby, Big Lad and Blondie got good and messy together! If you missed why we're doing this, then have a look at this post . Jack's assignment for one planet has grown to a planet and a moon, so naturally Tom wants the same. And then me and hubby went "I love papier mache...." so we've made a planet each too. And a rocket. I think his teachers are going to know we've had a helping hand in this....... But anyway, at least they'll know he has parents who take an active interest in his school work (and hopefully don't TAKE OVER his home work, really need to watch ourselves for that). He's only taking his own in to class. This weekend we just covered the balloons in paper. We're going

To say I am fed up would be an understatement. I am sulking on an epic level! I'm not a girl to cross right now as I am libel to bite off the head of anyone who even looks at me funny. I hoping that's a hormonal thing and that it will pass because I'll end up locked away in the nut house if it goes on much longer.... OK. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I am sulking. Today is cycle day 40! Aunt Flow is a NO SHOW and I am NOT pregnant. Yesterday I made a call to my docs and asked if I could have a telephone appointment since my 21 day blood test seems to have suggested that I ovulated and yet here I am 20 days later with nothing to show for it either way. It took a few hours for the lovely lady on reception to call me back and say that the doc would prefer to see me in person. She made me an appointment for this Wednesday morning. I half expected AF to show up no sooner than the appointment was booked but still nothing. Right now I am assuming that my body tried

Tweet   It's a Friday Blog Hop & Link Up but it runs all weekend so you have plenty of time to get your links up and meet some other lovely bloggers. You can post just about anything, but please remember mine is mainly a parenting blog so please keep your posts reasonably family friendly. I wont block you for a bit of swearing but posting anything really offensive will get you the boot. It's not fair to others who follow the rules. The Rules! Follow your Host at    CharlieBeth aka Mumma Walker   and  Mumma Walker Tries for a Girl Follow the Featured Blogger (below) Check out & link up / follow as many other bloggers as you can it only works if you remember to follow others. Please don't just link up and leave.  When you read a post by someone else that you like make sure you click "like" on the hop! Each "like" is a vote and the post (or posts) with the most likes gets to be the FEATURED BLOGGER on the next hop! Not a rule, but a

I've been a bit quiet lately. I've been a bit stressed.... I thought that with Jack going back to school and Tom starting nursery things would be a bit calmer then the crazy busy summer we had, but it's just NOT! Tom is being very difficult right now. Not with going to nursery, that's all fine! But at home he's being really hard work and winding Jack up. And Jack hasn't got the good sense to ignore him so it escalates into a full blown screaming match! Going to work has always been a bit of a haven for me. Seriously. I like my work and I like the people I work with. I've also really liked the office we've been using this last 2 - 3 years, a massive improvement on the dump we started out at. It's only 5 mins from home, close to town and tasty places for lunch, loads of natural light (which I need for my SAD), and it's a managed building which takes a lot of the stress out of things. But now we've moved..... Moving is stressful. Especially wh

I honestly don't know who is more excited about this, Jack, or me and his dad! This half term 'we' have an assignment! To learn about Neil Armstrong and the moon landing, and to design a planet! We have until the October holidays to sort something out so I have been doing a little research so that I know what I'm talking about with him. First off I YouTube'd the moon landing! And once I sifted through all the rubbish I think I've actually found a recording of it! (Great shame about the idiots arguing in the comments on the video, can't let Jack read it because of the swearing!) Next I had a look at kids ebooks on Neil Armstrong and found this: "Who Was Neil Armstrong"  so we've been reading that on and off - it's a little bit grown up for Jack to be honest but it's giving us stuff to talk about so that's ok. We are also lucky enough that Nana and Papee actually watched the moon landing on the telly back in &

I've had a few comments lately about my charting posts. Mostly that people don't get what they are all about, or that they look complicated. And one lovely comment about not letting myself get stressed by it. Why I do it. For me charting is a way of avoiding stress. Honest! I know I've posted a few times about why its driving me crackers... But I'm not really "stressed" by it. Just annoyed that my body isn't behaving! I am, at my core, something of a control freak. I try not to be in my day-to-day life. There's no point trying to "control" my hubby or kids! So I don't even bother! But I do like to feel as though I have a good handle on myself. I struggled to conceive a second time round. Charting kept me sane and gave me something I could take to my doctor and say "look, I have a problem. Help me!" And he did. Plus, I enjoy it! I love watching my temps change and finding optimum times to pounce on my hubby, I love watchi

Tweet   It's a Friday Blog Hop & Link Up but it runs all weekend so you have plenty of time to get your links up and meet some other lovely bloggers. You can post just about anything, but please remember mine is mainly a parenting blog so please keep your posts reasonably family friendly. I wont block you for a bit of swearing but posting anything really offensive will get you the boot. It's not fair to others who follow the rules. The Rules! Follow your Host at    CharlieBeth aka Mumma Walker   and  Mumma Walker Tries for a Girl Follow the Featured Blogger (below) Check out & link up / follow as many other bloggers as you can it only works if you remember to follow others. Please don't just link up and leave.  When you read a post by someone else that you like make sure you click "like" on the hop! Each "like" is a vote and the post (or posts) with the most likes gets to be the FEATURED BLOGGER on the next hop! Not a rule, but a

I can't leave this wordless.... It's too special a day! Today is Tom's first day at "big" nursery! He spent a few months doing one day a week at Applebossom in the last school year, but now he's moved up to Appletree which is the proper 16hrs per week nursery.  He was a little nervous, but his key worker came to visit yesterday. He has the same lady that Jack had when he was there so that's nice already. She had a lovely chat with him, and he showed her his Squishy toy, his pony collection, and the games he likes to play on my iPad. When she said she had some ponies he could play with today he warmed up no end! Today me and Jack walked him to his class, put his stuff away, and and Jack talked to him about the class - which made him feel very special and grown up too. Luckily when he was at Appleblossom he got to have his lunch in the Appletree room so he knew the place well enough, knew where the toilet was, where the toys are and so on. Tha

I can't believe I'm more than half way through the two week wait already! I don't know what's different about this cycle, but this time I am hardly symptom spotting at all. I got myself in to SUCH a tizz last month though so maybe this is just me with my sensible head on for a change. Plus, I've been super busy! Jack's back at school, Tom has his home visit today and starts 'big' nursery tomorrow, the office move is looming for this weekend, and the hubby has been a total grump! Probably brought about by our quick over-night stay with his family at the weekend (it was a great visit, sis-in-law turned 40, youngest nephew turned 1, but he always gets stressed when we go down). So I guess that maybe I've just been too busy. I also very confused by my chart. OK, before you all shout out "YOU'VE GOT CROSS HAIRS!" I know... but only because of the positive ovulation test. But remember the post I made about that test? Yeah... It mig

I have been sent a box of Colour Catcher sheets from BzzAgent to review. I'd heard of them, but never really given them much thought. To be honest, I assumed they were just a gimicky thing to get people to spend more money. But when you have a free sample to try you tend to want to give it a go! I've been using them now for just over a week. Not in every wash, but in the ones that count! Like Big Lad's school uniform, mine and hubby's work clothes, and my lovely brightly coloured underwear! The Challenge! I'm a busy mum, you know that. 3 kids, a job, house to run etc. I'm busy. All mums are. And the school uniform wash has, for the last year, been a right royal pain! Grey trousers, navy jumper, and a bright yellow t-shirt! I've always needed to put the t-shirt in a different wash to the rest of the uniform. I found out the hard way that just making up a load of 3 full uniforms is a bad idea - even after umpteen washes - when those bright yellow shi

10 years ago today I started blogging!  Just a little diary blog. I was turning over a new leaf after a few years of ups and downs which had included a bout of depression. I was settling down with the man I loved, I had just got some work though a job agency for the first time in a long time, which then led to the first job I ever loved! I was a different person back then. My life was all computer games, going to the pub, and office gossip (which I still love but have learned not to share on-line!) Amazing how much you can change in just 10 years! It took almost two years for me to share a photograph of my self! There I am, back in 2005. I'd lost the love for my job after some rather nasty office politics, and had started trying to run my own business (it didn't work out). I'm in my "home office" here, which is now Jack & Tom's bedroom! I love to go over my old posts every so often. Even just writing this today I stumbled across this little gem I'

I've been so crazy busy at work today, with making training videos and helping to pack for our office move next week, on top of my own jobs, that I almost forgot about ringing up for my blood test results! It's only when my friend in sales asked if I was pregnant yet (she knows we're trying, not calling me fat!) I dashed off to make the call, hastily explaining about the blood test on the way. The system is you call and the receptionist gives you the results, but because of confidentially they don't get all the nitty gritty. This makes understanding your results a little tricky! She read them out to me: "no further action needed". And that's it, that's all she had! I quizzed her a bit, hoping she might be able to shed some light on it if she knew what the test was, but she was none the wiser. She offered to book me an appointment with the doctor, but that was all she could do. Such a silly system!     I appreciate that it's not practical to hav

Tweet   It's a Friday Blog Hop & Link Up but it runs all weekend so you have plenty of time to get your links up and meet some other lovely bloggers. You can post just about anything, but please remember mine is mainly a parenting blog so please keep your posts reasonably family friendly. I wont block you for a bit of swearing but posting anything really offensive will get you the boot. It's not fair to others who follow the rules. The Rules! Follow your Host at    CharlieBeth aka Mumma Walker   and  Mumma Walker Tries for a Girl Follow the Featured Blogger (below) Check out & link up / follow as many other bloggers as you can it only works if you remember to follow others. Please don't just link up and leave.  When you read a post by someone else that you like make sure you click "like" on the hop! Each "like" is a vote and the post (or posts) with the most likes gets to be the FEATURED BLOGGER on the next hop! Not a rule, but a