Littlemummy.Com

Feeling much better now, thank you for the well wishes. It’s about time we had some news from elsewhere…

Education Junction has a great post within their Science Saturday feature - Distilling Water

If your flirting with the idea of homeschooling Earnest Parenting’s How To Start Homeschooling should help make sense of things.

A two children only limit could be controversial, and in practical terms couldn’t be enforced anyway.

The cost of entertaining children over the summer is now £741 on average. Take advantage of my list of 15 Free Summer Activities

Don’t forget to join the new blog ring if you are a British Parent Blogger

Littlemummy Retro: More summer inspiration in How to Live Like a Tourist

Whilst lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. I stumbled a few links of interest.

In the spirit of July 4th, here’s a little firework thingy that might keep the preschooler busy for a few moments.

Some cupcake recipes that looked vaguely tempting (sorry, loss of appetite too)

An amusing list - The Rules of a Toddler


If anyone is subscribed or a regular reader and hasn’t said hello yet, I’d love to hear from you…

It’s been a busy week. First my brother made an unexpected visit, he’s off on service abroad for seven months. He came over for dinner on Monday and we went out on Wednesday for a bite to eat and did the pub quiz again, no luck this time.

Thursday we had tea at my in-laws which was lovely, we were also given a generous financial gift, so we spent the latter part of the evening pondering how to best utilise it. We had a bit of a wish list already which included getting our aerial fixed up, it’s kinda lying on the roof at the moment. A new fridge, a dvd combi for our bedroom and some new lightshades for the livingroom were also on the list prior to this surprise. I think we are going to also enjoy some of it by booking a night away somewhere nice for our anniversary, treat Erin to a new toy and if there’s some left perhaps a Nintendo Wii which would be a real treat - perhaps we’ll hold a Wii part to celebrate, wee (wii) get it haha…..never mind.

Friday we celebrated my sister in laws’ second graduation, she’ll start a new career as an English teacher at the end of the summer. I can expect to be turning to her for advice and assistance in the near future.

I’ve been suffering with another absess in connection with my crohn’s so Saturday was spent in hospital and Sunday lying on the sofa. Ouch.

Torrential rain has seen our roof leak….again. Not to worry it’s fixed now. I hope.

I’ve also handed my notice into my part time work at home job, it was proving a little too much to work around with Erin so I think I’m going to get a weekend job instead.

The Carnival of Family Life is online at Everyday Disasters.

I’m really enjoying the Blog Mastermind programme it’s providing me with lots of new ideas for littlemummy.com. In fact I’ve listened to about six hours of audio over the weekend, it’s like a good book you can’t put down!

Alex and I went out to a pub for a bite to eat on Wednesday night, which just so happened to be quiz night, the £1 entry fee included a raffle ticket. And guess what!! Little us, who never win anything, won a bottle of fizzy wine masquerading as champagne yippee. We gave it to our babysitter (Granny) and told her that we’d bought a special gift for her efforts. Haha, needless to say she didn’t believe us, so the truth was outed but the thought still counted.

Tip for other mums to try - Pesto. Yes, that herby, nutty, oily, parmesany stuff is going down a TREAT in the Douglas household. So far, successful dishes have included pesto linguine with toasted pine nuts, red onion and extra parmesan and pesto rice which had leftover sweetcorn, baby tomatoes and spring onions through it. It would seem that the most unusual combinations can be a real hit. I’m not complaining though, there was like, three vegetables and about the same amount of food groups in that dish, it’s got to be better than bread (which is Erin’s favourite, brown, white, cranberry, naan, garlic, they all have a special place in Erin’s diet) I don’t think she’s going to be a low-carber when she grows up anyway!

Ceri has emailed me, with her permission here is what she says;

We are holding a Big Toddle in our local authority for 250 toddlers. I am trying to get samples of children’s suncream to give to parents on the day - have you any ideas about this please?

The event is on the 4th July at 10.30am at Ebbw Vale, South Wales, if you can help please leave a message or contact me and I’ll pass the details on.

Thank You

The Simple Dollar offers some advice on how to begin teaching a teenager to manage their finances. Erin isn’t old enough to have any concept of money, in fact, she doesn’t have any concept of wanting anything other than if she sees someonelse with something, sweets, a book, a drink. As soon as she begins to ask for things in a shop, sweets, a toy, I will introduce the concept of swapping ‘pennies’ for toys/sweets etc.. I expect that point to come in the latter part of this year.

The second edition of The Carnival of Work at Home Mums and Dads is live, my post is first on the list.

Play library has a few summer games, one that I’ve never heard of - marble toes.

News report - pureed baby food is unnatural. An interesting report, but as a mother who has just lived through that stage I really can’t image babies being able to go from milk straight to solid. What do other mums think?

I’ve joined Facebook, if you’d like to befriend me please do so. I haven’t really got hooked on any other social sites (stumbleupon, bebo, myspace, del.icio.us) but Facebook seems to have caught my imagination somehow.

I have been featured in the play activities activity email (free). I believe I am in issue number seven. Sign up for free by clicking the blue link.

Would you drop off your kids to school still wearing pyjamas? I think I would be a bit too embarassed, plus dropping off kids is surely a good excuse to get dressed and organised early and take advantage of the day, no?

Start your own vegetable patch - this is one for next year for us, if we can ‘borrow’ a bit of garden. We’ll see.

Are you interested in blogging? Do you want to improve traffic to your blog? Consider signing up for Yaro’s Blog Mastermind program, lessons will be delivered by email and from what I have learned from Yaro already their’s guaranteed to be some interesting stuff. The program opens on Thursday 21st June, but you can opt-in early. If you want to check out Yaro’s blog first click here.

Littlemummy Retro - Save Money and Still Have a Dream Wedding - Gifts and Rings

It’s all work, studying, floor laying and learning to walk in our house…

I really appreciate the balance of education and recreation in ordinary mom’s post preventing the summer boredom blues. You may be able to find more activity inspiration here.

Parents - It’s not all about the children is a great post that certainly applies to a minority percentage of parents. Of course there is the other group who could be doing a little more which would help society as a whole, but that’s a different post.

Having a second baby? Trent’s getting financially organised for his second child.

Littlemummy Retro - If you have been wondering what that orange button (right hand corner) is click here to find out, then click the orange button to subscribe, or input your email address (strictly no spam!!)

It’s been a very busy weekend which mainly revolved around a friend’s wedding. It was a really nice day, the meal was lovely (leek, potato & marjoram soup, striploin of venison with mustard mash and red cabbage, followed by perhaps the best desert I’ve ever had, baked chocolate delight with real vanilla ice cream mm mmm) and we met some amazing people including a couple of guys from LA. Good stuff.

The carnival of family life is up, here are my highlights.

I love this idea of hosting your own summer camp.

Littlemummy Retro - Check out this first part in my series on how to save money on a dream wedding.