CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

I'd been shopping in town with Jack, picking up some Christmas presents and a few groceries and we were sat in traffic trying to get home. We'd been sat for a while. The two cars in front of were waiting to get into the car park but couldn't because the car in front of them was sat in a queue going round town.... I had my hand break on we'd been sat for so long. I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw a van coming up behind us way too fast. I thought "He's gonna hit us!" but I knew I had no time to get out of the way, and no where to go anyway. By the time the thought has gone through my head....... BANG! The car jolted, me and Jack bounced in our seats and our heads slammed against the headrests - so glad we have those! The car radio jumped out of the dash! Luckily I had the good sense not to have pulled up too close to the car in front so we didn't shunt into them. Jack asked what had happened and I said we'd been hit by a van. I to

Welcome to the Pin it Party! with your hosts  My Life as Mumma Walker  &  Embracing the Good Life Let's keep it simple: Link up any posts you have that you would like to have shared on Pinterest Follow the Host boards:  CharlieBeth79  and  embracingtglife Check out and pin other party linkies - as many as you can! Follow as many of the other party linkies as you can Follow this party's board and wait to see your post get pinned!  HERE I'd especially love to see great blog posts with pics, recipes, DIY, crafting, reviews, blogging advice, beauty & fashion. That said, it's pretty much rules free, but please remember that mine is a parenting blog so don't share something which might be seen as too offensive! The Button: You don't have to take one, but it's there if you want it! Tweet Follow Pin it Party by CharlieBeth (Mumma) Walker on Pinterest By participating, linkers agree to be a

We've been playing with our great kits from Galt Toys again. This week is Tom's choice: First Pottery . As soon as I laid eyes on Galt's First Pottery Set I just KNEW Tom (our 3yo) would want it. And I was right! He almost exploded with excitement at the thought of playing with it. This set it recommended for ages 6+ so I was a little hesitant, but felt that as long as he was supervised at all times, and helped with the tricky parts, he would be ok. After all, this is air drying clay so there's no worries about handling hot ovens or kilns to fire it. Messy Play My kids love making stuff! If you've been following any of the homework projects I've been posting then you'll get an idea of how much we all love to make things. This is a perfect set for families that love to craft. It comes with a modelling tool, rolling pin, great collection of paints, paint brush, and instructions on how to make the pots shown on the box. You also get a massive bloc

This week we've been putting some more work into Jack's play-food lunch box! The felt sandwich is finished! Jack found this a bit tricky, I think we aimed a little high with this idea because it took a long time and Jack lost interest quite quickly. But he gave the sewing a good try and really enjoyed stuffing the shapes with cotton wool! I think George was most impressed with it though because he's been playing with it for ages, taking it apart, pretending to eat it, and putting it back together again. I think I might make some more of these just for him to play with! We've made a start on the lunch box, which is a soap power box that we covered in aper and glue so we can paint it next week. It's just the right size for the sandwich and other things we want to pop in there. The paper and glue was something of a theme this week with a chicken drumstick & apple made of foil & wrapped in papier mache, and carton of fruit juice getting washed out tape

Well today was the big day. I don't mind admitting that I have been a bit freaked out by it all. Not in a bad way, really, but I've had a mixture of looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time. We managed not to be late, and that was my biggest worry - missing the appointment! The clinic is small but friendly and does other stuff the rest of the week. We got seen pretty quickly by a very nice lady doctor. We ran through some basic stuff, who had referred me and why, the fact that Hubby and I have 3 kids together already but with a history of secondary infertility in one previous case. She confirmed that Hubby's sperm was normal, how long my cycles are on average, that my blood tests had come back as ok for my CD3 bloods (my body is making the right hormones at the start of my cycle) but that my CD21 bloods had come back negative (saying I had not ovulated when expected), and that I was free from any other kind of health issues. All stuff we already knew.

The fantastic Echo over on  Domain of the Mad Mommy  has kindly nominated me for a Sunshine Award and Liebster Award! I thought about putting the two together for my nominations, but just lately I have met so many other lovely bloggers through my hops that I think I can easily come up with full nominations for both! (You're all such lovely folk!) 11 facts About ME: I can talk/write about stuff for hours, but ask me to list things about myself and I'm stumped! I still fancy the pants off my Hubby after more than 12 years together (he still seems to like me too!) I am on mission BABY! Determined to make a new (final) addition to the Family Walker by 2015 I actually genuinely really like my job, and it's not glamorous or anything I have a cat tattoo on my hip and some Chinese writing on my ankle (I've only ever told 3 people what it says - my husband ISN'T one of them!) I haven't had my roots done since August

Welcome to Magnificent Monday! Poor old Monday, the most hated day of the week... But Monday can be magnificent ! All it wants is to be liked !  Like this Monday by liking some new Facebook pages and making some new friends! CharlieBeth @ Life as Mumma Walker  &  Kate @ Family Fever Tweet   The Facebook Linky The Blog Linky By participating, linkers agree to be added to the blog.family-walker.co.uk email newsletter list, but don't worry, I wont spam you! I'll just email you invitations to linkups. You can opt out at any time

I'm a woman on a mission! I am going to lose some weight. In fact, I am looking to get healthier all round, but I'm starting with what I eat. This is something I have been planning to start for a while, but I had planned to put off until I had had my 4th baby and got to the end of breastfeeding (in the theory that the next baby will be my last and once my body is my own again I would have no excuses and just get on with it). Only that isn't working out as well as I'd hoped ( why ) so I'm starting NOW! Actually, I started earlier this week by not snacking between meals and before bed, and not having a snack on the walk home from school with the kids. They have theirs, but they do a lot more running around than I do and burn it all off. I don't. And I'm not in the position to join a gym just yet to start. It's worked though, and I've dropped 2lb already! So it's back to good ol' weight watchers! It's always worked for me in th

Welcome to the Pin it Party! with your hosts  My Life as Mumma Walker  &  Embracing the Good Life Let's keep it simple: Link up any posts you have that you would like to have shared on Pinterest Follow the Host boards:  CharlieBeth79  and  embracingtglife Check out and pin other party linkies - as many as you can! Follow as many of the other party linkies as you can Follow this party's board and wait to see your post get pinned!  HERE I'd especially love to see great blog posts with pics, recipes, DIY, crafting, reviews, blogging advice, beauty & fashion. That said, it's pretty much rules free, but please remember that mine is a parenting blog so don't share something which might be seen as too offensive! The Button: You don't have to take one, but it's there if you want it! Tweet <br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQP_Mt5eCt-Gr0lDwqjlvF_R5dSvbDf9hz8k

I've been quiet on here for a while and there are a few reasons for that, firstly I am quite busy with the kids and their school projects, secondly I suffer from SAD and at this time of year I do tend to go into hibernation a bit, and thirdly (but by no means least) I'm quiet on here because there hasn't been anything to report in terms of trying to conceive. On Tuesday I have my fertility clinic appointment and I am very excited about it, but nervous too. I'm worried about missing my appointment for a start - it's at 9am on a school day in a part of town that has restricted parking and they won't postpone or hold my appointment if we get caught up and are late. This means relying on other people to take my eldest to school and mind the other two while we negotiate rush hour traffic and awful parking. It's getting me stressed and we're still days away.  I'm also worried about what they will say and do. I really want them to just give me the

 We've been busy! But it's no where near finished yet.... Breakfast So far we have our banana, but it still needs painting. We made it from tin foil scrunched into a banana shape, and then covered in payer of papier mache. We've also made a start on our bowl of cereal by covering a foil pie tin in papier mache then part filling it with cotton wool. We're going to paint that and then top it with cereal and fake milk (glue and paint). Lunch We've also started our felt sandwich with two slices of bread made out of felt stuffed with cotton wool. We're going to add felt ham slices, felt lettuces leaves and cotton wool stuffed tomato slices. I found some Velcro dots in my sewing box what we can add to help keep it all together. Jack's isn't too hot on sewing. He gave it a try but it was too fiddly for him. He has loved stuffing the shapes though! We're also going to add a carton of juice, and apple and some cheese, but we haven't star

Who doesn't LOVE Galt Toys ? They truly are fab! We've been a fan of Galt Toys for - well since forever pretty much. My boys got to choose something each from their awesome collection so we could do some reviews for them. Jack chose Marble Run and opted for the 30 piece set. I remember playing with this as a kid, my Hubby still has his! And Jack has played Marble Run at school. Marble Run is a CLASSIC!  Galt Toys focus on Educational Toys and at first I thought "is Marble Run really all that educational?" But it is! You need to put some thought into those towers.... build it wrong and your marbles DON'T RUN! Do it right and you have hours of fun making complicated tracks, racing marbles to the bottom, and working out what does and doesn't work.  It's great for problem solving, as well working those creative ideas. Certainly in our house it's one of those toys that encourages cooperation too when Jack and Tom want to play with it together b

Welcome to Magnificent Monday! Poor old Monday, the most hated day of the week... But Monday can be magnificent ! All it wants is to be liked !  Like this Monday by liking some new Facebook pages and making some new friends! CharlieBeth @ Life as Mumma Walker  &  Kate @ Family Fever Tweet   The Facebook Linky The Blog Linky By participating, linkers agree to be added to the blog.family-walker.co.uk email newsletter list, but don't worry, I wont spam you! I'll just email you invitations to linkups. You can opt out at any time

Welcome to the Pin it Party! with your hosts  My Life as Mumma Walker  &  Embracing the Good Life Let's keep it simple: Link up any posts you have that you would like to have shared on Pinterest Follow the Host boards:  CharlieBeth79  and  embracingtglife Check out and pin other party linkies - as many as you can! Follow as many of the other party linkies as you can Follow this party's board and wait to see your post get pinned!  HERE I'd especially love to see great blog posts with pics, recipes, DIY, crafting, reviews, blogging advice, beauty & fashion. That said, it's pretty much rules free, but please remember that mine is a parenting blog so don't share something which might be seen as too offensive! The Button: You don't have to take one, but it's there if you want it! Tweet Follow Pin it Party by CharlieBeth (Mumma) Walker on Pinterest By participating, linkers agree to be add

A few years back I went on a very short (about 2 hours) first aid training session through work, we needed to do it for a site we were working at. Before that I had a single truly nightmarish baby first aid session as part of my antenatal classes (those plastic babies looked realistic, realistic dead.... Shudder ). Apart from that and a 20 minute lesson on the recovery position during high school that I largely don't remember, that's all I've ever learned about first aid. I've got three insane hyperactive monsters kids and an accident prone husband who keeps attempting dodgy DIY jobs round the house. Maybe I should learn something! I mean, with my lot it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong, right? Now, to be fair, what I learned in that baby first aid lesson did stick with me. I've had my babies start to choke on hastily scoffed snacks and meals, and remembering how to help dislodge that blockage - without harming them, or showing the shear

Me and Jack have been looking at these healthy eating pyramids to see if what we eat is balanced. We were glad to see that most of the time we do eat a balanced and healthy diet! So we had a look at the kinds of meals we usually eat and thought about what fake food we could make. What's on our fake food menu? Well.... For breakfast we have some multi grain cereal, and a banana. For lunch we have a ham and salad sandwich, some fruit juice, and an apple (and we're adding a cheese to bump up the dairy). And for our dinner we are serving up either pasta with tomato sauce, or chicken, mash and mixed veg. It's not 100% settled yet (might wind up being both!) What are we going to make them out of? We're going to mix it up a bit I think! We saw some FAB felt play food as made by Munchkin and Bean  and thought "We can do that!" so I think there will be plenty of felt in there. We loved making papier mache in the last project so that's bound to co

That's the headline on the BBC website. This article here . A friend of mine mentioned it in passing this morning on the way back from the school run. She'd asked if I thought I would qualify for it should we get our planned for baby. And my initial thought was "nice, I like getting a little extra when I'm home with a new baby". After all, I was more than happy to collect and use my nice voucher for cloth nappies I got when Jack was born (love my cloth nappies, used them on all 3 kids for the first 6m, still got them!) But since that chat this morning I have seen people pop up on Facebook with a whole other view. Apparently it's not the same idea as the cloth nappy scheme. It's being rolled out to deprived areas, not nationally. I could well be a million miles out of line here, but if money was the issue surely more people would breast feed. That's free. Formula costs! A lot! Tubs of powder, bottles, teats, sterilizing fluid and equipment, all that

* Proper Proud Parent Post Alert * I used to dread parents evening when I was a kid. I wasn't a bad pupil, but I got an endless list of "could do better" reports saying that if I just applied myself I could do so much more. But I've never had that much ambition so I was happy to coast along with an average grade in an average school and happily met my average needs. Jack is nothing like me. Jack wants to achieve. Jack LOVES school! One day when I was talking to him about school he told me he wanted to do really well in school so that he could get a really good, fun, and interesting job when he grows up. All credit to him! I'll support him all the way. I got to the school 15 mins early for my slot because I went straight from work, and I was just about to start looking though his literacy book - the class's books had been left out for the parents to look at while they were waiting - when his teacher popped out of class and said she was glad I was nice

Welcome to Magnificent Monday! Poor old Monday, the most hated day of the week... But Monday can be magnificent ! All it wants is to be liked !  Like this Monday by liking some new Facebook pages and making some new friends! CharlieBeth @ Life as Mumma Walker  &  Kate @ Family Fever Tweet   The Facebook Linky The Blog Linky By participating, linkers agree to be added to the blog.family-walker.co.uk email newsletter list, but don't worry, I wont spam you! I'll just email you invitations to linkups. You can opt out at any time

Welcome to the Pin it Party! with your hosts  My Life as Mumma Walker & Embracing the Good Life Let's keep it simple: Link up any posts you have that you would like to have shared on Pinterest Follow the Host boards:  CharlieBeth79  and  embracingtglife Check out and pin other party linkies - as many as you can! Follow as many of the other party linkies as you can Follow this party's board and wait to see your post get pinned! HERE I'd especially love to see great blog posts with pics, recipes, DIY, crafting, reviews, blogging advice, beauty & fashion. That said, it's pretty much rules free, but please remember that mine is a parenting blog so don't share something which might be seen as too offensive! The Button: You don't have to take one, but it's there if you want it! Tweet <br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQP_Mt5eCt-Gr0lDwqjlvF_R5dSvbDf9hz8kid7vz77b2

healthub.org.uk Just as I was leaving work today my mobile went: an unrecognised local number. I hesitated before answering it - normally I only bother answering the phone to people I know (I can be a bit anti-social like that) - but my eldest was going to the school disco with friends and there was a chance it was one of the other parents home numbers (if I only have their mobile number stored) so just in case.... I answered it. It wasn't one of the mums. It was Healthub aka the Fertility Clinic! Had I got the letter they sent? I hadn't....! The lady went on to explain that they had offered me and hubby an appointment for the 26th Nov, but that they actually had a cancellation for Tue NEXT WEEK if I wanted it! Now I really really wanted to say yes, but Hubby will be working and unable to get time off, and we'd have no one to mind the kids at such short notice. It would seem a little off being my children to the fertility clinic ! But I took her up on the original a

I still really want another baby. I'm still posting quite regularly on my other blog Mumma Walker Trying for a Girl . And there is still nothing happening..... Each week someone asks me if I'm pregnant yet and I always end up replying with a sigh and half a smile, that no. We aren't pregnant yet. I have secondary infertility, which means that for some reason even though I have had kids before, I can't seem to have them now. It's happened before though, between Jack and Tom I struggled to conceive, so this isn't something new to me. What is new is all the hoops I'm having to jump though to get treated this time that I didn't have to do last time! But it seems like we have successfully jumped through enough to finally get seen by the fertility clinic! We're booked in for the end of the month and I am thrilled! Watch this space to find out if there's going to be a NEW member of The Family Walker in 2014!