by Olipophatbaby | Oct 16, 2017 | Lifestyle, Motherhood
I have woken up yesterday, literally feeling how I look in this picture. And FYI, yes I still do have the night before’s make-up on.
However, feeling like utter sh!t, with my breath resembling that of dog poo, and my hair similar to that of a scarecrow, I can safely say it was definitely worth it. Although, I did attend a children’s party, which included jumping around like a maniac on a trampoline sweating the alcohol out of my system whilst refraining from vomiting on small children.
You see, I went to a Mexican themed charity night, to help raise £44,000 for a chap called Mark who suffers from MS.. Now the chances are if you are reading this blog post, you probably have kids, with it being a mum blog and all that. And if you don’t have kids, just imagine the below anyway, but close your eyes and think ‘child’hood pet instead.
But for all those parents, guardians or carers, I’d like you to take five minutes to just to look at your children, but I mean really look at them and just watch them for 5 minutes. Are you starting to feel how much you love them, and how much they love you back? Can you sense how much they need you and you need them? Now, can you think back to all the times you have taken them to the park, pushed them on a swing and how you may not have understood how lucky you are to be able to do something so simple as a visit to the park?
Think back to how many times you have been ‘too tired’ or used the line ‘I think the parks closed today’ as an excuse not to do something so simple and small. Or even how many times you have chosen housework over time with the kids (again, I used to be guilty of this, but after 6 years and three children, I have come to terms with I’m never going to have the Pinterest house I dreamt of, unless I bin all the kid’s toys, clothes, and games. Which I have been tempted to do. More than once.)
Have you, just like me, taken kicking a football, or playing tig, or hide and seek for granted? Just expected that you will always be able to do such things. I know I have, I haven’t even give it a second thought up until recently and reading Marks story.
Imagine being told that you have MS, and that without treatment you won’t be able to do all the things I have mentioned in the above. I have known Mark for two years, and Mark is one of the of those guys who would help anyone, always smiling, and available to help anyone, and a guy you wouldn’t even know this was happening too if they didn’t need the funds. Mark just wants a chance to be able to do all those things we sometimes take for granted and give his two small children, Oliver and Laucian who are 8 and now 6 the dad they have known and will continue to know.
We take so many things for granted as parents and as human beings, and it is only in the face of adversity that we sit up, we listen and we change.
Imagine, if that was you who needed the money for treatment, that is you watching your children and wondering with the ‘what if’s’. I can’t bear to imagine not being fit and healthy for my children, and I know I have taken the fact that I am for granted. Anyone who reads this, share it, donate to this page, tell your friends on social media about it. It is in moments like these when people pull together to get things done. So lets flipping do this and help to send Mark to Mexico for his treatment.
Think about how much money have you may have spent frivolously on coffee’s, chocolate, those bloody LOL’s in Tesco?
Click here and bloody donate NOW! and press the share button!
Lots of love
Jess #MOMboss
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/marksmexicosalvador
by Olipophatbaby | Oct 13, 2017 | Winging healthy food like..
Hello everyone, Sam the foody blogger here. I hope you’re having a fabulous week?
So this week I’ve had a serious lack of food, lack of car, lack of hubby and a lack of supermarkets who lack the ability to drive down the bumpy track to my home.
So awaiting my mum and sister to come to the rescue, I was questioning “what the hell am I going to feed my children for breakfast?”
I mean, to be honest, I could literally eat anything at anytime! So on this occasion with only having a few ingredients in my house, I decided on chocolate pudding and why the hell not. I mean, toast, who says you have to have toast and cereal, who says you have to have cereal. NOT ME!
This recipe I call all the 2’s
Because, it’s a simple, quick, and delicious breakfast which only takes 2 minutes!
Ingredients
Almond milk (as much or as little as you prefer, we prefer a thick smoothie to eat out of a bowl – so use less for this)
2 x tablespoons of chia seeds
2 x tablespoons of Cacao powder
2 x dates (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
2 x small bananas
2 x halves of avocado (so basically 1 avocado, but that doesn’t fit in with all my ‘twos’)
2 x teaspoons of protein powder, any will do. We use an organic hemp version
Method
Chuck it all into the blender!
TOP TIP *put the Almond Milk in first, so the powder doesn’t stick to the sides!
Blend on and off until you get the consistency you require which therefore = one happy child ??
Lots of Love
Sam #MOM
by Olipophatbaby | Oct 11, 2017 | Working It.
YAAAAAS!!! 9pm couldn’t come quick enough. The Apprentice was back on TV and what an episode. It’s so strange to watch the series this year. I remember instantly what its like to be working with morons, oops I mean a high caliber and a fine bunch of business individuals, Nah, I do mean morons.
Everyone talking over one another, fighting for airtime, wanting to shine in front of the LEGEND (deserves capitals) that is Claude, and trying to prove to Karren that you are more than the idiotic fool presented infront of her, all whilst wondering what information is being fed back to ‘The Don’, Lord Sugar.
And then you have the added pressure of the producers enticing you to go stir crazy, planting seeds of paranoia, which over the 12 weeks will turn into a frikin oak tree and reduce you to tears. HMM, sometimes it only takes 2 weeks….
Me two weeks deep into The Apprentice.
Firstly, I am not going to give you a word for word on what happened in this weeks task, I’d fall asleep myself writing a full synopsis, and I’m already regretting committing to a weekly conclusion. However, getting back to tonight’s episode, Task two – It simple, great quality and great margins. The boys (and I say boys, because let’s be honest…) dived straight in for the quality and luxury market, it’s bloody marvelous that it looks good, rephrase that, that you want it to look good but if you aren’t making money from it, or enough to warrant the work, then it’s not going to work. Especially with that mood board.
Whereas the girls have the ethos of, f@!k this, let make as much cash as we can selling crap, actual crap. At this point, I’m between a rock and stone (or whatever that metaphor is), I don’t know which team to back! The only thing swaying me towards the boys team, is that smooth talking, on hold, LA style voice, Jeff. I knew as soon as
I knew as soon as I heard the ‘music to my ears’ start to talk, that this young chap, this breakdancing genius, this mathematical whizz, was the underdog of this series! The born winner… erm, how wrong I was.
I mean, I know he messed up on the numbers, but HAVE YOU SEEN HIS MOVES? Just when i think he is in, they take him away from me. I need my weekly fix of that voice. Failing that, I need to find a new love for this series, well, luckily I have two, Michaela and Sajan.
I particularly liked Michaela’s use of the word ‘bell end’ in this episode, very business-esque especially in that recognizable Northern accent, a cut from the same cloth, Michaela is in my final 5.
However, I do think a boy is going to win this series, I say this as the boys are;
A) shockingly sh!t
B) have lost two weeks in a row
Which means one thing….the underdog is amongst them somewhere. Could it be my PF (Personal fave) in the boys, Sajan? I mean the clues are literally written on the wall, in red, yellow and blue! Yes I feel I could be onto something here, he could be my new champion. Him or maybe Ross, it would appear this guy gets away with murder or has some sort of cryptic power. No one tells ‘The Don’ (in so many words) to ‘shut it’ and get away with it. Could Ross be a potential winner? And have Shugs intrigued by his lingo and lack of manners..hmmm, one to watch.
Overall, it would appear judging from this episode, that if you want to succeed in life, then sell crap for a high price, forget to respect your elders (Sorry Shugs), and leave breakdancing, at the break of dancing.
Which leads me to next week, selling robots, I am eager to see how Michaela and Sarjan perform, hopefully, full witted and entertaining.
Much Love #MomBoss
Jess xox
by Olipophatbaby | Oct 11, 2017 | £20 Sundays #MOMknows
Parenting is bloody expensive when you have one child, let alone three! I remember the days where I thought nothing of spending £3 on a Barbie electric toothbrush from B&M’s, when I only had one child. NOW, I dread the moment when all three need a new toothbrush! Actually saying that I dread all seasonal spends. The ‘back to school’ spend, the ‘winter coat’ spend, the ‘summer wardrobe’ spend, even the ‘weekly food shop spend’… #NoEndToTheSpend
One thing I never dread however is the weekend spend, I always ensure we do something as a family that is fun, age appropriate and doesn’t cost a fortune. The reason being I remember on more than several occasions where I’d spend a small fortune, the kids would cry…ALL DAY! I’d get the “she cant cope” look from a number of civilised members of the public, (You’re right, I cant f@!king cope when I have three kids under six having an atomic meltdown in public) and I’d be strutting my stuff with one child in a ‘fireman’s’ lift, another child under my other arm, and working the dead leg drag (dragging a small child attached to my leg along the floor). Those were the days that I’d rather it literally cost me an arm and an actual leg.
Being frustrated by this, I made a decision that I would enforce a new tradition in the #MOMhouse – £20 Sundays. And only spend money on experiences and days out that the kids would appreciate and understand the value of (I am big on children understanding the value of money, purely so I don’t get fleeced when they’re in their teens asking for designer gear).
What is the £20 Sunday?
Anything we do as a family on a Sunday has to;
- Total £20 or less for the whole day
- Be extremely fun
- Allow quality time with the maniacs
Last Sunday cost me a total of £13.84 and it was the best damn £13.84 I ever spent. We, as a family, enjoyed a stress-free and fun filled day from start to finish.
Ok, I told a small porky there, it was a little stressful, We started the Sunday off deciding that we would bake a cake to eat after dinner with a pot of tea. (Tea always tastes better in a teapot and always looks good when you’re sharing photo’s on Facebook I find – like you’re going that ‘extra’ mile).
Oh and to make things really interesting, if three kids, flour, and eggs weren’t enough, we invited my two nephews to join in the tea party. Five children later, it had to be a Victoria sponge cake that was made, two cakes and enough jobs in producing this masterpiece to keep all five kids entertained.
It started off well, the kids split into two groups with MM (Mini Maniac) being the floater amongst the two. Well, I was impressed myself with how well I was performing, orchestrating these groups. One was pouring flour into a cup, passing it on to be poured into the bowl, the same with the sugar, eggs were getting cracked WITH NO ARGUMENTS. It was going swimmingly.
However, things slowly started to go downhill after the mixture was made. Was the mixture the calm before the storm? Hell yes. There were only two bowls and five kids that wanted to lick the mixture from it.
A cry of “I want to lick the bowl” from Hatti, “No, you lick the spoon” a response from Seb. “It’s my tuuuuuurn” Olive piped up.
“It’s not fair, I’m licking the bowl” I cried after ‘accidentally’ dipping my finger into the mixture ten minutes prior and tasting a sugary delight.
And then something unexpected happened, it would appear we added too much milk to the mixture….
However, although a doomful cake seemed inevitable at this point with half the mixture on the oven floor, the cake, the kids, and my cake mixture skills turned out quite alright. …
I thought this deserved a pat on the back, so patting myself and the kids (more myself) on the back, we then got ready for the second half the day – A trek, up to a hill! My suggestion of course as I planned to devour that cake with my pot of tea later, and you know what they say…. #Momentonthelipslifetimeonthehips.
Just before we left, I popped an Aldi special chicken (with stuffing) into the oven, so it would be ready for when we got back, knowing full well I would have HANGRY kids. Again, I took this opportunity to pat myself on the back. Which resulted in happy kids AND being organized – two things that rarely happen.
And we were off, on our way…
I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get some picture for the Mother Of Maniacs blog. So this is me telling Alex to take a picture of me, taking a picture, but to also make sure it looks like I don’t know he is taking the picture. #SKILLS
and this is the picture I took whilst Alex was taking a picture of me… #Impressedmyselfwiththatone
The kids love walking, but now and again we still need to use a little bit of imagination, as children seem to get bored of walking within 3 minutes of the journey. When this happens, and if we are on a new walk, I usually use two lines:” There is a sweet shop at the top of that hill”, followed by “Eh, oooh, I don’t understand that it must have moved location”, when we get to the top of the hill. Try it, ity works every time.
But…… on rare occasions, there has been a sweet shop at the top of the hill and I have had no form of cash…The walk back from that mistake is painful. Really painful.
On this occasion though, the kids have been on this walk before, and they love the first half of the walk, running eagerly, jumping and climbing.
The second half of the walk, the walk back. Not so much. Embracing our inner superheroes and seeing ‘how fast we can back to the car’ (AKA: getting them to move in a forward direction). Initially, I thought “what a great idea”, cracked it again, another pat on the back. In reality, Olive took this role way too seriously. Every 5 minutes, she would stop, stand, pose and shout “Supergirl” and then wait..and wait…and wait. Then run off and repeat again. This happened 19 times.
Eventually, getting back to the car, absolutely starving and with cake in my mind we made our way home. Arriving home, we did a team effort – I forced the team to make an effort and to set the table whilst I prepared dinner. Hot chicken and stuffing sandwiches, on crusty bread, with gravy. Absolute treat.
And that was our Sunday. £13.84 well-spent pennys! Days with the kids can be as expensive, or inexpensive as you like. My kids, love being kids, and the beauty of children, they don’t know the difference in pricey days out or free walks. As long as they are having fun.
All ingredients were from Aldi, and for the method – google it “How to make a victoria sponge cake”.
The Cake
Self-raising flour £0.85
Eggs £1.19
Butter £ 1.39
Cream £0.75
Sugar £0.99
White chocolate (in the cream) £1
Milk (I already had this in, so that doesn’t count)
Hot Chicken Sandwiches
Sage and Stuffing chicken £3.99
Crusty bread £0.79
Gravy £0.89
Happy children, happy Alex, and happy mum
FREEEEEEEEEEE!!
A Sunday well spent, brings a week of content.
Lots of #MOMlove
Jess
by Olipophatbaby | Oct 10, 2017 | Lifestyle
Hello Fellow #MOM
My name is Samantha and I am a #MOMboss #motherofmaniacs. I have been lucky enough to have Jessica as a really amazing, gorgeous friend for many, many years and treasure the bond we share. (I paid her to say that – quote Jess).
I have two amazing little boys Sonny, 4 and Eddie, 2. I am extremely fortunate to be able to spend the majority of my time with them in between working my part-time job (twice a month) and running my own Neals Yard Organics business from home .❤
Above all of this, my main passion is maintaining a simple, easy, healthy and alternative lifestyle for my family. Believing in the universe and the “Secret” there is nothing we can not achieve.
Here I’ll be sharing with you all things quick and scrumptious to fill your children full of wonderful nutrients to promote fabulous behavior and radiant health.
So, where to start….
The best way I have found to get my children eating and drinking goodness is to get them involved!
So here at #MOMSquad HQ we tackled a fresh juice!
Was this a good idea??
Haha…. Not going to lie we had quarrels over who chopped, who switched on the juicer, who picked the Vegetables! But, they absolutely loved it.
Many spilled shots and giggles along the way, However the end results were lots of nutrients in those little bods which equaled a Happy Mum and Happy Children ❤
3 Carrots, 3 Apple and Ginger juice
Simply wash Organic ingredients and pop in juicer
Voila couldn’t be easier!
Lots of Love
Sam x
