CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

This weekend was cousin Edward's christening. Fun times! We stayed at the Premier close to my in-laws and saw the Yorkshire clan. We also stopped by Mother-in-law's place marker to wish her a happy birthday, and this time Jack came with us. Family always seems so far away when we travel back home again. Family outing! A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 29, 2017 at 1:13am PDT Facebook has changed it’s policy for posts to Facebook pages like mine. They are only showing posts to a few likers unless I pay to boost the views. Since I don't earn money from my blog (or at least not much, not even enough to buy one posh a coffee a week) I wont be doing that. The best way to make sure you will see my blog posts is to subscribe by email up there on the right. I usually only email once a week and include an invitation to my blog hop so you can share your posts too.   You can also go to my page, hover over the “liked” button and select

All the creative home work has to be in tomorrow - so it's a good job I am not starting the new job until 10am so I can cart off this stuff down to school tomorrow and save it from getting trashed. This half terms creative homework! Son3 could do anything dinosaur themed. So I drew him one to colour in on a canvas #homework #dinosaur #stegosaurus #colouring #coloring A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 21, 2017 at 6:26am PDT This half terms creative homework! Son2 baked and decorated some Wind In The Willows themed gingerbread men #homework #baking #gingerbread #windinthewillows A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 21, 2017 at 6:28am PDT This half terms creative homework! Son1 demonstrates the Water Cycle in a jar. Water to vapor and back to water #homework #science #watercycle #cloudinajar A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 21, 2017 at 6:30am PDT Facebook has changed it’s polic

It's kicking in now. The "working mum guilt" I just picked up my youngest from nursery (he's tucking into his lunch now next to me) and I walked down the hill to fetch him it occurred to me that this is the last time I'll be doing this for a minimum of three months. Potentially a whole lot longer. Maybe ever.... And there it is. The guilt. Sitting like a ton of bile in my belly. What kind of mum goes off to follow her career and leaves daddy to do all the parenting? Well apparently I do. Because I have to. Because bills need paying, my family need feeding, and it is frowned upon to let them all walk round in rags. My cosy part time job has been taken away from me through no fault of my own and I can only find full time jobs in a different town. So for this last year before my last baby starts school, instead of spending two afternoons a week just me and him I get virtually no one-on-one time with him. In fact for 5 days a week I will only see all of my babies

This time last week I was talking about how much can happen in a week. And this last week has been all change too! Let me start with the job interviews. I was late for my first interview. It was pouring with rain and I had walked past the place twice when one of the people there called my mobile, spotted me on the street and guided me in. Not the best first impression I have ever made - dripping wet, flustered, and late. But it went well and they offered me the job. The people were lovely and I think I would have been happy working with them. But they were not able to match my recent rate of pay and the maths didn't work (cut in pay + increased travel costs + increased child care costs = not possible) so I had to turn them down. My afternoon interview was fascinating. It was so much like the mock interviews we have done in the CIPD course that I felt very relaxed and able to be myself. The factory tour was brilliant (I do love a factory!) and everyone I met was friendly and j

Since Friday I have lost count of the number of jobs I have applied for. There have been plenty. I have made a full time job out of searching for work. Think of an online job board, I've signed up for it! And it seems to be paying off! On Monday I got a call from a very nice guy inviting me for an interview and factory tour tomorrow afternoon. I had only applied the night before! This has been a massive boost to my somewhat battered ego. Tuesday I went to clear off my desk, and was supposed to handover my unfinished projects but the people I needed to see for that weren't in which meant going back today. Tuesday was fine though - the lovely ladies in the office had a card, cake, chocolate and flowers for me. Lots of hugs. I assured them I would be back to visit and stay in touch. Those ladies mean a lot to me. I took a call of the ex-boss who says he wants to see me Monday to talk freelancing (I said I would come if I was free) Then I went to college and tried not to let my

Another new belt for Son4! #jujitsu A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 7, 2017 at 5:19am PDT Facebook has changed it’s policy for posts to Facebook pages like mine. They are only showing posts to a few likers unless I pay to boost the views. Since I don't earn money from my blog (or at least not much, not even enough to buy one posh a coffee a week) I wont be doing that. The best way to make sure you will see my blog posts is to subscribe by email up there on the right. I usually only email once a week and include an invitation to my blog hop so you can share your posts too.   You can also go to my page, hover over the “liked” button and select get notifications. Then you will see my posts and status updates in your notifications. Mumma Walker on Facebook

If you've read the last couple of posts then you'll probably have already gathered that I've not been having the best of times lately. It's been about a year since I last posted regularly. I have been so tremendously busy for the last year that I have barely felt the time passing. So here's a quick catch up. Since last year: Fred has started to speak and goes to nursery, although he still has never had a hair cut and believes the potty to be a device of the Devil sent to destroy us all. He is obsessed with Pokemon, and seems to think he is a cat. George has started school, and swimming lessons, and jujitsu. He has come home with more bumped head letters, knocks, scrapes, and bruises than both his big brothers put together. None of which to do with jujitsu. He's reading is suddenly really coming on though and he loves going to school. Tom has started to play the ucalaly, after finding the guitar to be a bit on the big side. It's a shame that while he h

I'm almost over the shock of being suddenly unemployed. I've shed a few tears in the last couple of days too. But I am also moving on...! Part of my CIPD 3 has been to update my CV, make a list of all the tasks I do as part of my job, and practice interview techniques (ok, from the employer point of view, but I also played the part of interviewee) so I don't feel as scared as I might have done normally after a decade since my last interview. I am probably going to have to wait a while to get the money I am due, so the first thing I did when I got home (apart from blubbing down the phone at my Hubby) was to call all the utilities and tell them what had happened and that I might struggle to to cover my bills until I either get my redundancy or I get another job. They were great to be fair, and a note has been made not to cut me off, and I need to keep them updated if the problem persists. My parents have come to my aide too with a quick cash injection to make sure I have

Well....... I've just come to the end of an era. Aug 21st 2006 I started working a little cleaning job, something I thought would just be a stop gap until something better came along. I didn't know it would lead on to so much more. More than 10 and a half years later I was still there. I wanted to make a difference in this company that had so much promise. I'd progressed from cleaner to site manager (looking after 20 small sites was fun, but the caravan parks were hell), a brief stint as cover for the Ops Manager (never again!), and then moving out of Operations into the Admin side of the company with credit control. (who's have thought I could enjoy a job with numbers??) I have just spent the last two years as HR (and H&S but we don't talk about that), and finally found something I really enjoy, seem reasonably good at, and got paid to do. Winner, right? Nope. Today was my last day. I go in on Tuesday to clear my desk. So... Thanks for the memories.

A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 1, 2017 at 6:41am PDT Donkey Rides! A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 1, 2017 at 10:23am PDT "Hanimoows" says Son4 (animals to you and me) A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 1, 2017 at 10:28am PDT More animals! A post shared by Charlie Walker (@mummawalker) on May 1, 2017 at 10:31am PDT Facebook has changed it’s policy for posts to Facebook pages like mine. They are only showing posts to a few likers unless I pay to boost the views. Since I don't earn money from my blog (or at least not much, not even enough to buy one posh a coffee a week) I wont be doing that. The best way to make sure you will see my blog posts is to subscribe by email up there on the right. I usually only email once a week and include an invitation to my blog hop so you can share your posts too.   You can also go to my page, hover over the “l