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The school summer holiday has really brought home to me that my family only needs the simple things in life to be happy. And I musn’t lose sight of this in the weeks to come as we get back into the routine of school, activities and the general busy-ness that is our ‘normal’ family life.

When we were in Germany, our best days were when we were out walking, or on our bikes, or den building in a forest – together, and enjoying the

Den building - it's free and fun!

beautiful countryside. The boys had so much fun with yoghurt pots collecting crickets along the roadside that we didn’t go as far as expected on our walk. Was that a problem? Of course not! Why stop them having fun exploring the world around us? continue reading…

Blogging to make a difference

This week’s guest post is the start of something really special. If you’ve heard about this campaign, or seen it elsewhere great, but read again so you don’t forget. If you haven’t take your time and read and digest, then think about what difference you can make to someone’s life today.

I’ve been keeping a secret from you. It’s a bit of a big one and it’s going to take me to the other side of the world. But first we need to back-track a little. First we need to do some Maths.

It’s always a bit hard to get your head round big numbers, I guess. When you start talking about nine million children, nine million children a year dying from preventable, poverty-related illnesses, it’s hard to engage which such a huge, impersonal number.

So, let’s start with one child. One mother. Whose child gets sick. Something simple like a tummy bug, most of which us parents have dealt with at one point or another with our own children. And the treatment that will cure it? Costs a couple of quid. Except THIS mother comes from one of the poorest countries in the world, one of 86% of the world’s population surviving on less than two dollars a day, or even one of 36% of the world’s population surviving on less than ONE dollar a day. If you’re this mother you’re probably dependent on your own young children to work and help bring in enough money to survive. Chances are your sick child is already severely underweight, and watching Kai go through a horrendous tummy bug earlier in the year I know how quickly even fit, chunky toddlers can lose weight and get dehydrated.

Your child needs help fast. But you can’t pay the doctor’s fees. And so you watch your child die. From something entirely preventable. You watch your child die not because they had a tummy bug, but because they were poor.

NOW times that by nine million. Every year.

Not good, is it? There is no way that can be right.

A couple of weeks ago, I and two other bloggers were approached by Save the Children UK. As a global organisation they’re doing more than almost any other charity to fight to make the above scenario a thing of the past, pushing the world’s leaders to meet the Millennium Development Goals they pledged their commitment to ten years ago.

These are achievable goals. We’re not talking huge amounts of money here, even in the economic down-turn of many countries. It’s less about money and far more about priorities. It’s about making the fact that so many poor children are dying every year a priority.

Not a lot to ask.

And they want the British Parent Blogging community, and our friends and supporters, to help them do it. To help raise awareness of their work and spread the word. To be able to tell our children that once it was normal for children to die of easily treatable illnesses but that WE CHANGED THAT.

To launch the campaign, in two weeks, Save the Children are flying myself, Sian from Mummy Tips and Eva from NixdMinx out to Bangladesh for a week, one of the most poverty-stricken countries in the world. We will be seeing their work first-hand, seeing what a difference just tiny amounts of intervention can make, talking to the mothers and children there and hearing their stories, and feeding the whole thing back to you, live, through our writing via our blogs, and via Twitter, photos, video, podcasts and other multi-media channels. It is an incredible opportunity, one we are hugely honoured to be a part of.

We hope that, with your support, we can reach a huge number of people through our work, spread our message far and wide and really make a difference, really start something special, and drive this campaign.

We hope you’ll join us on that journey.

For more information on our project see our webpage on the Save The Children website and pledge your support by adding the badge to your blog. And don’t forget to  read our blogs,  follow us individually on Twitter and via the #blogladesh hashtag for all the latest developments, and re-tweet what you can.

We are:

Josie, that’s me! @porridgebrain

Eva, NixdMinx, @nixdminx

Sian, Mummy Tips, @mummytips

@SaveChildrenPR

We’re going to have an amazing adventure. We can’t wait to share it with you and use it to do something extraordinary.

Thank you.

With running my own business, and very active children, it’s not always easy to plan family time into our week. The last couple of years have been difficult to get holidays just for us to relax into, (see previous posts). Even though we had a fabulous week in Islay at Easter, it was only a week. It usually takes me a week to start getting into a holiday and relaxing!

View from our holiday home

So, our 2 weeks in a quiet part of Germany were going to be great for all of us. And they were.

Despite some work problems that I had to resolve remotely well into our second week, and Father-in-law’s up and down health issues, we all had a fabulous time. People are commenting this week that I look very different, so it must have been good!

We spent time doing things that we all enjoy – walking, cycling, exploring new places and having lots of fun. We don’t make enough time to ‘just have fun’ at home do we? I loved going on the trampoline in the garden. The boys had never seen me bouncing – nor had hubby! There is video proof if you don’t believe me! The 1800m summer toboggan run was the favourite activity of the holiday for all of us. How much fun is rushing down a hill at high speed cuddling your laughing child?

We found we could all be ourselves. We didn’t have to ‘do this’, make sure work was completed; washing didn’t have to be done ‘for that event’, yet we all survived with clean clothes all week! The boys loved catching crickets in yoghurt pots – how easy is that to organise?

So now we know we can play the card game Happy Families (how funny was 6yo when he laughed out loud when people forgot where the cards were? – very!), can we translate some of our relaxed fun to our home life? I’m sure we can try. These are the lessons I want to try and bring home:

• Plan time to be ourselves without anyone else around. Friends and family are great, but we can have fun by ourselves.
• Just do some fun things all together, occasionally. Don’t just leave it until the holidays!
• Plan the bike rides and walks into our diary – maybe after football matches that we’re around for?

I’m not saying we’ll be able to stick to this with other family and work commitments, but why should the fun and relaxation be saved for holidays? We all need a lot more of it in our everyday lives.

This post was written and first published at Typecast2000 blog. As I’m away on holiday, I thought it would be good to share over here as well, as I’m sure you’ll have your own comments about this! Will enjoy reading them on my return.

We don’t have a telly, or a TV card in our house. No means at all of receiving or watching live television. Yet, we have 2 active boys -8yo and 6yo, and we all love watching sport.

The conversation came to a head in the run up to the World Cup (football in case you’ve missed the news recently). My husband felt that maybe now was the time to get a TV in the house. He’s been muttering for a while now about getting one now the boys are getting older.

But “why?” I kept asking. Why do we need something that will sit in one of our family rooms that will become the focus of attention in that room and not each other, or lego, or books that we currently have (all at once today left on the floor!).

Why do we need this piece of machinery that people say “wastes their time” when there’s “nothing on”, (listen to Bruce Springsteen’s song “57 Channels and nothing on”). I hear of parents who leave their children just watching whatever, for however long. It scares me that these children don’t develop their own imagination in quite the same way as those where TV watching is limited.

Why do we need to be forced to have another restriction added to our busy family timetable when the children or hubby declare “Oh, I MUST watch xyz at something o’clock”. MUST? Why so strong? I’ve ‘managed’ without a television since I started work 15 years ago and couldn’t afford the TV licence. I can’t say I’ve ever missed it.

Am I missing something? We certainly haven’t missed having it during the world cup. I’m pleased we haven’t had no.1 son constantly wanting to watch highlights and replays, and have to sit and watch “crucial” games. Yes, BBC5Live has been on a lot, but we can do other things whilst it’s on in the background.

How do you use your telly? For you to “veg out” in front of? For your children to  “wind down” after a hard day at school? Could you manage without a television? Apparently 1% of the population are without televisions. I’m sure we all have our own reasons.

I really cannot see us ever needing or wanting a television. I don’t think the children miss out. I certainly have no idea where I would get time to watch telly! The boys are very creative and imaginative. They play, do sports, go to Beavers and Cubs. They enjoy music and dancing, laughing and computer games and playing with friends.

So, what am I/are we missing out on? I’d love to hear your views.

I’m not the only one shouting this at the moment.  Some schools are already closed for the summer. Ours break up on Friday.

Are you exhausted?

My 2 boys are exhausted from their learning and full out of school timetable of activities. No. 2 even went to school crying on Monday because he was so tired, (not helped by 2 late nights admittedly, but it is the end of term, and us parents were selfish in wanting to relax with friends). You can see it on the football pitch that all these 6yo are just plain tired. They can’t run around any more. Their bodies need a break.

I’m exhausted with running the family logistics. Even having one of those family calendars where we all have a different column doesn’t help the actual “who needs to be where with what equipment, and who’s able to take and collect?” questions. Having to think a few days in advance about washing clothes that are needed for such and such, or doing the shopping because “I can’t do it then”, uses brain power.

I’m tired, but have to say exhilerated, continue reading…

Today’s guest post is from Liz Weston of Weston Communications

Tackling time management is not an end in itself…..

Time management. I love this phrase. It’s the sort of phrase that sounds like I could be in control of things. It’s actually a very emotive topic in our house and business – we’re both self employed, so it’s we each need to manage our own time and work schedules, as well as our family stuff. I hate trying to manage my time, because it never ends up being a time management activity. It evolves into so many other things.

What’s your time management strategy?

continue reading…

The IT Department

We’ve all heard of “Identity Theft” and most of us are fearful of using the internet for banking or shopping. We hear many scare stories about not saving banking information on your computer and that hackers can steal all of your data and the babies toys through your internet connection. But how common is this in practice?

In reality internet fraud is relatively rare, provided that you follow basic security principles, and if you stick to shopping with well known high street brand names and checking for the padlock sign. Keeping a good anti-virus programme up-to-date on your computer, and being aware of warnings that pop up, is usually sufficient protection.

A much likelier scenario is for your identity to be stolen through a simple postal scam,
which is remarkably easy to carry out and which the banks and police don’t seem to
be at all concerned about. continue reading…

Last week’s guest blog provoked a lot of discussion. Not just on here, but else where in Blogland and Twitterville. There are so many considerations for parents, (I got told last week that this affects Dads as well as Mums!), when looking at their options about their careers when they start a family. I felt it only right to offer this week’s Friday guest blog spot to Muddling Along Mummy to put her view on this dilemma. Here she is:

I blog as Muddling Along Mummy [www.muddlingalongmummy.com] where I write about trying to navigate through life, work, family and still being myself.

My blog is a finalist in the Best Baby Blog category in the MADs Awards, you can vote for me by following this link if you like what you read! [http://the-mads.com/vote.htm].

I’m also on Twitter as @muddlingalong [www.twitter.com/muddlingalong].

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Last week’s post by Bumbling Tweets has inspired me to continue to talk about the issues faces those of us who are trying to balance the desire to have a career, not just a job, but also to have sufficient space for our families needs.

I went back to work full time after my first was born.  There wasn’t really a question of whether I would go back and in my field there was really no way to get a shorter week.

You see I want to work. continue reading…