Guest post - Life with Munchers

Today my 'Bloggers Home' post goes live over on Life with Munchers blog. Do pop on over & have a look.

I met up with Mummy Muncher at the weekend and we had some fun at Satrosphere, Aberdeen's science centre Maybe even as much fun as the little ones...!!

Mini Fondant Christmas Cakes at Wayfair

If you haven't spotted it already, then my Mini Fondant Christmas Cakes tutorial is now live over on the Wayfair site. Do head on over and have a peek :-)

I received some kitchen equipment from Wayfair to prepare the cakes and in exchange I wrote this tutorial. 

{Guest Post - Scottish Book Trust Blog}

Today I have a guest post going live over on the Scottish Book Trust Blog on the topic of gardening.

The kids and I have been thoroughly enjoying our time outdoors, and in the evenings we have a selection of gardening themed books that we love to read at story time :-)


Growing sunflowers

Building teepees from bamboo sticks and old sheets

Choosing more plants at the garden centre

Getting ready to grow some vegetables

Our lettuce patch

Sensory play with sand

Painting with stencils under the shade of a tree

Growing some flowers from seed

{Easter Holidays}

Aberdeen Skyline

The kids & I are driving up to Aberdeen this morning. I'm looking forward to staying with my sister who will look after me a bit & help out with the little ones so I can get some rest. I'm still not feeling great thanks to a Crohn's flare-up & I have 8 weeks of steroids ahead of me!

As a result of me feeling so poorly, I've not been as active on the blog. So please bear with me as I get back on my feet.

The Silver City with the Golden Sands!

If anyone would be interested in guest posting on my pretty pink pages, then please get in touch. My email address is on the 'About Me' page. Perhaps an article on gardening with little ones, or something crafty? Or a fashion & beauty post? Or a favourite recipe? Just some ideas :)

{Guest Post: The Winter Blues}

Today's guest post touches on the topic of a previous post of mine, technology and the impact it has on playtime. Karen's children are obviously older than mine as she talks of texting and Xboxes, but I agree that being inside because of miserable weather does not need to mean boredom. As my kiddies get older, I love the idea of starting a tradition of family game night... I also have lovely memories growing up of doing puzzles with my dad before bed. I picked up this game at the supermarket recently. We're yet to play it, but I thought with the penguins it was perfectly themed for winter! 

Penguin Pile Up Game from Sainsburys, £4.99

Anyway, enough of my blabbing... over to Karen:

Getting most kids’ out of the home during summer time is not a big deal. With the sun shining, ice creams vans parked on every corner in the UK, fun activities, music blaring and long days you don’t even need to give them that nudge they sometimes need! When winter arrives it seems harder and harder to keep them active as they would rather sit in front of the heater than pop down to the corner shop to get that desperately needed loaf of bread. As a parent of two, during winter I have to admit that after a long day at work all I want to do is curl up in bed and switch the telly on...but then where does that leave my children? Most of their winter is spent in front of the T.V, playing games, texting...just about anything that will reduce their boredom.

Family Movie Night {image source}

When I do have the energy I find that my short winter days are spent nagging them to do something productive and get out for a while. I get them off the T.V so they get their phones out. I take away their phones so they fire up the Xbox. I demand they switch off the Xbox and I wave my arms towards the front door like a mad woman and I can see their scepticism as the rain and wind darkens the skies and batters the window. At that moment I asked myself ‘Would I really go out in that weather?’ I think that every parent reading this will know what my answer would be.

It finally dawned on me that I had to change my attitude towards winter so I could teach my kids’ something. I thought back to my childhood winter days and knew what I had to do. No amount of pushing them out the door was going to do it. I understood that winter is opposite to summer in physicality and in the spiritual sense. The idea that both summer and winter balance each other out led me to make very small changes in our lives...without stepping out the door.

Changes began with simple conversations. After work rather than allowing everyone to escape to their individual rooms I would try and get them to sit down together at dinner and ask questions. After a few times filled with tired responses and moody faces I was delighted to see my kids were actually enjoying our little time together! Baby steps led to our winter being completely transformed and I started to look forward to the end of work to finish off that ongoing game of monopoly or that television series we were watching together.

Family game night {image source}

Thinking back I realise it was the small changes that brought me closer to my children during the winter. It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t my children that had to be taught a valuable 'lesson'...it was me. I made the effort to make my kids winter just that little bit more magical and maybe one day they will carry on the small traditions I introduced to them with their own children. So, to all parents out there have a happy family winter!

Author Bio

Former British Airways cabin crew member, Karen Rayner currently lives in Warwick with her husband and two children, Charlotte and Jack. She is the founder of Childrens Funky Furniture, an online furniture store which provides imaginative and creative furniture items that appeal to young children. Karen also writes extensively about how to create artistic and vibrant bedrooms that children can relate to and enjoy. Follow Karen on Google Plus.

{Guest Post}

I'm not even going to introduce this guest post, as he's written his own wee intro. Read on...

I read and enjoyed @Glasgow_Mummy ‘s blog post called Do you have a TV in your bedroom?

It reminded me of the type of blog post I used to do, and when @Glasgow_Mummy offered me the chance to do a response / guest post, I jumped at the chance.

You see, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I used to blog.

I used to blog a lot.

I’d talk about relationships, and marital problems, and dating dilemmas, and fatherhood issues, and rant about all manner of things.

You might have read it.

It was called The Life of a Single Man.

I’m @Single_Man_75

Or I used to be.

I haven’t been @Single_Man_75 since early April now.  A lot of things prompted me to lose that identity and nowadays I reside on Twitter under a less anonymous account.  If you want to look me up, I’m @therock7507 and my name is Gary.

So I figure I need to respond to Sarah’s post.  She started by asking if we have TVs in our bedroom.

So do I?

Yes I do.  I always have, from when I was a child.  I can’t recall when I got one, but it probably dated from when I got my first computer, maybe aged 8.  For a long time all I did was play computer games on it and nothing else, but as I became a teenager then I started watching TV up in my room.

I blame this for the slow development of my social skills.

In fact I still have a severe lack of social skills, as those who have met me will attest. (I disagree!!)

I used to watch a hell of a lot of TV in my room as a teenager.  In fact, I barely went out.

So it seemed natural to have a TV in my room when I moved out to go to University and later to move in with the woman who became my wife.  She had also had a TV in her room for a long time and we regularly watched TV.

It wasn’t a good marriage, as some of you who read my blogs on the subject may remember.  Like Sarah says, having a TV in the bedroom can hinder communication in a relationship, and I’d certainly subscribe to that view.

TV often became the only thing we’d do in the bedroom.

Yes you read that right.  And the things you’re thinking right now, they’re right too.

So when my kids have been growing up, I’ve steadfastly refused to allow them to have TVs in their bedroom.  I just won’t do it.

I still have a TV in my bedroom but the only time its on is when the kids come into bed with me in a morning.

In relationships I’ve had since my divorce, I’ve found that the women involved don’t like the TV and so we’ve never lay there and watched it.

In short, we’ve found other things to do in the bedroom.

Yes you read that right.  And the things you’re thinking right now, they’re right too.

Sarah also asks about laptops and tablet devices.  I have both.  The tablet is a new thing and comes via my work, but I can’t imagine life without it.  I’m almost permanently attached to it.

But I agree with Sarah about laptops – during the worst times of my marriage, going on the laptop became, for her more than me but definitely for both of us, an escape route.  It meant we didn’t have to spend time together and, in doing so, we drifted apart.

The same is true of Sarah’s next point about going to bed alone.  When my then wife was using the laptop, usually on Facebook, she would stay up late to chat to friends (and the person who she eventually cheated on me with) – and I’d go to bed alone, resenting this.

Its not the same as going to bed on an argument, which is something I’ve never done (as I can’t leave an argument alone until I know its over and done with), but I take the point.

Most of these mistakes were mistakes in my marriage, and I haven’t repeated them in subsequent relationships thankfully.

@Glasgow_Mummy is right – grass is greener where you water it.  Simple gestures make a huge difference.  I remember my ex wife very rarely did any little gestures, either gifts or little verbal encouragers, or physical contact.  That says more about her than it does me, and says a lot about the state of our marriage for nine years, and looking back now I can see how poor our relationship was – but back then it was all I knew, and its only subsequent relationships that have taught me this.

I started off this guest post thinking I’d be able to put a man’s perspective on these things and that that perspective might be opposite, but its really not.  If anything my experiences have shown that Sarah has it bang on.

I’ve enjoyed writing this guest post though.

I miss blogging.

My blog is gone, almost certainly never to return.

It ran its course. It told the story of my love life, from marital split and divorce, to dating again, horror stories and success stories, casual sex and one night stands, and the stories of my unusual relationships...and in the end I ran out of things to say about love and relationships.

I had plenty of other things to say, and I still do, but the blog and my Twitter ID needed a complete rebrand and I couldn’t be @Single_Man_75 any more.

So I stopped.

Just like that.

I’m still here though.

Look me up if you want... @therock7507

I don’t talk about love or relationships any more.  Maybe that’s because I’m happy and content and in a loving relationship, without doubt the best one I’ve ever been in.  I’ve been with my girlfriend now since mid January and we love each other immensely.  Its a long distance relationship so has its share of problems that are related to distance, but in every other aspect its now very healthy and strong – though its gone through some difficult patches while we have both adjusted to being in a long term relationship again after both being hurt in the past.

I guess its impossible to reach my grand old age without having some emotional baggage.

I could write several blogs about that, and getting used to being in a relationship again.

Maybe some day I will.

For now, I miss her when she’s not around, and feel genuinely sad when I say goodbye to her.  I never tire of talking to her and both of us are constantly doing little simple gestures to and for each other.

I’m in love again, and this time its for real.

And not once has the TV been on in the bedroom.  

There’s no time for TV in the bedroom these days.

Till next time...

{Guest Post: Fun Summer Recipes}

We all want the best for our little ones, including a healthy diet. Feeding them a variety of different foods can be very difficult when you have financial restraints, work commitments, and many other factors to consider. Sometimes, by our own admission, we are guilty of whipping up ‘something quick’.  Looking for some summer inspiration to keep them full of goodness and recipes they will enjoy joining in with? Look no further. Cooking is a skill for life so introduce it to your little ones with these creative culinary delights.

Fruit Ice Pops

These are perfect for hot days and ensure your little ones aren’t getting any of those icky additives the shop-bought ices may contain. You can also make these up any fruit that is close to spoiling.

You will need:

•        Ice Lolly Moulds
•        Diced fruit
•         A blender or masher

1. Chop up the fruit of your choice. Strawberries and watermelon work well together, as do peaches and mango. Then, add them to a blender.

2. Blend the fruit until smooth, and then pour the thick liquid into your lolly moulds.

3. Freeze them for 6-8 hours, or until fully frozen, then enjoy!

{image source}

Banana Bagels

Whether you take these on a picnic, or serve them as a treat breakfast, banana bagels are a perfect way to give your kids the fuel they need while tasting delicious.

You will need:

•        One bagel per child
•        Peanut butter or Nutella
•        Banana slices

1.  Cut each bagel in half as you would cut a bread bun and toast it until warm and slightly crispy.

2. Spread each half with your peanut butter or chocolate spread, then add 6-8 banana slices. Serve open, or put both halves back together if desired. Simple!

{image source}

Rainbow Salad

A delicious salad filled with a rainbow of colour to get your child the nutrition they need in the most colourful 

form possible!

You will need:

•        Shredded lettuce
•         Grated beetroot (around 50g)
•        Three grated carrots
•        Sweetcorn 
•         2 red peppers, one cut into strips and one diced
•        If desired, some lean bacon strips, cooked.

1. Each salad should be prepared separately for maximum effect, so pick a bowl for each child.

2. Following the principles of the ‘rainbow’, layer your ingredients in the bowl, starting with beetroot at the bottom, then lettuce, then sweetcorn, then carrot, followed by red peppers on top.

3. Top your salad with the bacon and serve!

{image source}

About the Author

This article was written on behalf of Galt Toys. Galt Toys have been manufacturing toys for over 175 years, and know a thing or two about toys…and having fun!