Silent Sunday.

See the other entries at Mocha Beanie Mummy by clicking the link below.

Mumra Playlists Week 2

My original Mumra Playlists was so full of great tunes from the people who took part and the effort that was put into entries was amazing so I have decided to do another Playlist post.

However there was some feed back from readers that the range was too wide and they would feel happier with a subject to work to. So here we go...

There is no pressure to list lots of tunes, one will do this time.

I have chosen this one to give us all a little insight into each other.

What's your theme tune?

This would be mine...

It is not my usual style but I think it sums me up pretty well.

Don't forget to grab a badge!

<a href="http://mumrara.blogspot.com/2011/02/mumra-playlists-week-2.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/pinkrara/VinylRecord.jpg" border="0" alt="Mumra Playlist" /></a>

The Car Seat Conspiracy?

When I was in London a few weeks ago for an event the PR company used a car service that transported us from one venue to another.

As I climbed into the car with Tabitha I realised there was no car seat and asked the driver if he had one we could use.

To my surprise the driver lent over and flipped the back panel of one of the back seats down and suddenly there we had a car seat. The panel created the lower base at a raised level and the harness was built into the back of the seat ready to go.

Photo courtesy of Ford.

Obviously this is not suitable for under 9kg babies, but am I alone in thinking why the hell are we not all being sold these as a standard option in all our new cars?

The answer perhaps lays here in this video of the great Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame and the relationship between car manufacturers and car seat makers.

The Gallery - Expressions.

I was away from home last Saturday night and Sunday morning I received this photo from Tabithas' Dad. ( Yes, she is wearing a rucksack...)

" Sup Mumma?"

To view the other entries to The Gallery - Expressions click the link below.

Guest Post by From Marketing to Milk - Angry.

I am honored to publish this guest post for a fellow blogger. 

From Marketing to Milk features on my blog roll and is one of my favorites. Milks' writing is funny, witty and clever, and always inspires thought and opinion.

It is a tough time for her right now, the darkest of times. Her mother has recently been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and the prognosis is not good. 

I too have experienced the pain cancer can bring but never managed to verbalize my feelings this well.

Milk has asked me to publish this post for her as she needs to write, needs to put the words out there. 

I happen to think the words are beautiful because they are so raw and so honest. 

ANGRY.

I'm ANGRY.

Angry that the grandparents my children will know, grow up with, remember, won't be MY parents. That the one they will call Grandma won't be MY mum, the one they will know as Grandad will be someone else's.

I'm angry that my Mum will be a hazy recollection, snapshots - splintered and one-dimensional - just as my Dad is now only a photo on the fridge. Their absence juxtaposed against a life filled with love and cuddles and memories from their other, "real" grandparents.

I'm angry that it won't be my mum that picks them up from school, that wraps her arms around them and asks them what their day was like. That she'll never see the expression on their faces as they unwrap her carefully chosen Christmas present, or heap praise on them when they read their first words.

I'm angry that I will have to live more of my life without her than I have done with. One of the most important people to me - my mother, my best friend - here for just a fraction of my life. Killed off after only the first few chapters. 

I'm angry that the person that has been at the centre of my universe for 33 years will be snatched away from me, cruelly, suddenly, and that I will have to relearn to live my life without her.

I'm angry that at just 33 I will be an orphan.

I'm angry that my "go to person", my reference point for all the decisions I make, the person at the end of the telephone when I'm feeling unsteady or unsure, will become unavailable. Permanently engaged. 

I'm angry that I will have to make sense of all of this by myself.

I'm really fucking angry, and my rage is selfish and personal. For now it's all about me.

------------------------------------------------------

Please visit From Marketing to Milk and show some much needed support to this lovely lady.

The Gallery - Togetherness.

The theme of Sticky Fingers Gallery this week is Togetherness.

This is the family photo frame we have in our hallway.

It sums up our togetherness as a family perfectly.

While we are a family unit, we are three individuals. 

All with different personalities and traits, together we are stronger but apart we can be pretty awesome too.

Happy Valentines Day.

Dedicated to my man....

Happy Valentines Baby. 

Silent Sunday.

To visit the other entries for Silent Sunday click the link above.

Mumra Playlists.

While I am down at the gym I always wear my ipod and blast out some inspiring tunes. The few times I have forgotten my headphones I have really struggled to keep the pace up and found the time passes too slowly. 

The beats of some good tunes pushes my KM/H up and also helps me stop from clock watching.

This is my current playlist, set on repeat the whole time I'm there.

Anyway while sweating away on my cross trainer the other day, I had a *brilliant* idea....

Lets share some playlists with each other, any musical styles are welcome.

You never know we might find some great new music we haven't heard before... It could be your 'Going to sleep' playlist or your 'In the bath' playlist, your 'Break up' playlist or your 'Feel good' songs.

Why not add them to your blog for people to enjoy and link back to this post so we can all have a browse.

I've even made a little badge for you.

<a href="http://mumrara.blogspot.com/2011/02/mumra-playlists.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/pinkrara/VinylRecord.jpg" border="0" alt="Mumra Playlist" /></a>

Homemade Playdough.

In my before baby life I was a nursery manager and spent 15 years looking after children.

Over the years I have made a million batches of playdough, I thought I'd be generous and share my perfected recipe with you. There will never be any need for you to buy playdough again.

This playdough is cooked which in my opinion means it lasts longer than uncooked, simply keep in an airtight container.

1 Cup of Flour
1 Cup of Water
1/2 Cup of Salt
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon of oil
Food Colouring
Vanilla Essence

The key tips are these...

• Add the colouring to the water before you pour it in to the bowl, this stops it staining your hands and spreads the colour through the dough. 
• Cream of Tartar is necessary it helps with elasticity, don't be tempted to leave it out.
• Vanilla Essence is a special addition that can be left out but adding it makes the dough smell like shop brought.

The preparation is easy just chuck it all into the bowl adding the water/colouring last, stir well and pour into the saucepan.

Using a medium heat cook it like scrambled eggs, scraping the bottom and sides away as they harden. It gets hard work towards the end but keep it moving. 

As it starts to look like a big ball of dough take a little bit off and roll into a ball in your hands (careful it is hot!) Check the stickiness is gone, if your hands come away clean its ready.

Leave it to cool and then let the kids at it.

You could also add things like glitter or lentils to give it a more varied texture and look.

The Gallery - 24 Hours.

7:30am

8:45am

9:30am

1:30pm

1:35pm

2:30pm - 5:15pm

5:45pm

6:15pm

6:30pm

6:45pm

7:00pm

7:05pm

9:00pm

To see the other entries in The Gallery click the image below.

The Dairylea Dayout.

Kraft Foods invited myself and some other mummy bloggers to London for the day to talk to them about how we mums feel about their products, hear about their new product launch and best of all attend a cooking class with James Tanner (TV Chef). 

The big news of the day was a 25% lower salt version of Dairylea being launched onto the market. The company have been struggling with their image in recent years, the health conscious modern parent has not been their friend and they agreed improvements needed to be made.

We were shown how to make Dairylea from scratch, enabling us to see what goes into it. There really is no big surprises in there. Emulsifying salt (not to be confused with common salt) binds the cheese, milk and butter together, but it just wouldn't be Dairylea without it.

The company dietitian Azmina Govindji gave us a great talk about what we feed our children and what we can do to give them a good balance of healthy foods. I loved her three colours idea, asking our children to always have at least three colours on their plate to ensure a balanced diet.

Now that's enough of the boring stuff.....

The even bigger news of the day where most of us Mums were concerned was...James Tanner is rather lovely.

After the cooking class we were taken to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch where all us bloggers got a chance to chat and gossip. 

It was lovely to finally see some faces behind the blogs:

All about the boys, Who's the Mummy?, New Mummy, Mummy from the heart, and JoBeaufoix. 

Next time lets leave the kids at home. ( But definitely invite James.)

Dairylea we love you, but then we always did.

*Our costs to attend this event were covered by the PR company, a lunch provided and goodie bags including vouchers received.

Silent Sunday - Nightvision.

Click the image above to visit Mocha Beanie Mummy and see the other entries.

Free Graze Box.

The last few days I have been enjoying the delights of having a graze box delivered to my door. This was what I had on Tuesday in my letterbox, beats the hell out of a bill!

If you haven't heard of graze.com I suggest you check out their site immediately.

Graze boxes are already very popular with office workers as they can be delivered not only to your door but also to your desk. I personally think they could be a great idea for us stay at home mums too. There is very little time to grab healthy snacks during a hectic day charging about after a toddler and besides everyone likes a treat in a pretty box, right?

The cute little boxes arrive packed full of healthy treats and keep you from ripping open the packets of biscuits or chocolate bars.

So what is in them I hear you ask?

The company has been very clever and allows you to rate your preferences when you sign up. So if you want a standard nibble box or a healthy treats selection simply click the box it then lets you go on to say what choices you love and which ones you'd be willing to try out. All this combined means you end up with a selection of foods every day that help you discover new foods and also chow down on your favourite things.

Each evening you receive an email asking you to rate your box, if you have decided you didn't enjoy something just let them know and it won't show up in your box again. Simple.

Graze have very kindly given me a special code for all my readers that means you can try out their great service by receiving a FREE GRAZEBOX and GET A SECOND HALF PRICE.

Simply go to www.graze.com and enter my special promotional code 


MUMRAFREE


valid until 31/3/2011. ( click 'get started' and enter code in top right )

Are you seriously still here?

The Gallery - Shapes.

The Gallery theme this week is Shapes.

I was probably not even three months pregnant and we were both just coming out the other side of the shock. We were not in one of those relationships where you have talked about baby names or even played with the scenario in our heads. This was total open mouthed, gob smacked shock.

I worried about how her Dad would cope as a father, how he would adjust his lifestyle to a baby coming along. 

I had tried really hard for three months to suppress too much 'baby' talk and not dared buy anything incase it had made him run for the hills. 

On this day we were in Oxford Circus shopping, as I needed some new work trousers for my expanding waist. At his suggestion we had ventured into John Lewis baby section while we were in the store.

We walked around the toy displays and I watched, as he became the man I love today. 

'I want all this type of stuff for the baby'

'The nursery needs to be classy'

'Wow this stuff is so cool'

'Check these out...'

'Can we buy this now?

I nodded and smiled.