Cambridge Mummy on… baking muffins

Check me out – mother of the year alert. I have baked muffins with my boys this afternoon.

Here’s the kit before I started:

How much money do you think I spent in John Lewis for today's project? ;)

And here’s the final result – yes, they are star shaped pineapple, raisin, carrot and chocolate chip muffins :)

[ahem.bum.etc. can't get the image to load. will come back to this....]

But here’s what baking muffins actually means – going to John Lewis, purchasing silicone cake cakes in the shape of a star and some brightly coloured circle silicone cases. Doing all the prep for the baking muffins project myself. Weighing it all out myself. Putting it all together and then spooning it out under instruction from E and W. Then they contribute on a practical level – they put a chocolate chip on the top of each muffin. I then clean it all up whilst they go and play. And to add final insult to injury, W refuses to try one and E has one bite, rejects it and says “but I did have a go mummy and like you say, it’s good to try things, isn’t it?”

I figured that this would be a good thing to share on my blog, because I’m sure that there’s plenty of other mums out there who start with good intentions of doing lovely projects with their children that then turn into something that’s not quite the picturesque thing you’d thought of…

It’s not just me this happens to, is it?

Cambridge Mummy on Mummy’s Day

Today is a day for Mummies. I’ve had quite a nice day really. Got to go back to bed, after getting up at 7am with littlest. But it was interspersed with littlest and biggest coming to show me the bookmarks they were making me for Mummy’s day. I think it was a *subtle* strategy on Lovely Bloke’s part… Anyway, whatever today has or hasn’t been, is what it is. It’s perfect. Because our boys are here. I’m going to the funeral of biggest’s friend tomorrow. He wasn’t even quite 5 years old yet. So it’s a big thing. He literally went to sleep one night and didn’t wake up the next day. I won’t go into it any more than that, as this is my blog, not E’s and although he’s only 5, I don’t think it’s fair somehow to write about this. Funny, as I’m happy to share pretty much anything else.

So today, even if you’ve had a box of chocolates where you can’t eat 8 of the 11 in them, like me, please try to appreciate your family and what you have. I don’t know any way to write it that’s not patronising, but wanted to put it out there. I’ll be finishing today with a couple of loads of washing, to help Lovely Bloke who is snowed under at the moment and getting an early night so I can be uber productive tomorrow morning….

x

The Cambridge Mummy blog on… wanting the scales to play fair…

So, at the start of this activity, I weighed 14 st 3lb. That’s the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life and it made me cry. I got down to 14st which was good then onto the Slimming World band wagon and by last Sunday, the 27 November, was 13st 8lb. Excellent me thinks, especially as it had just been the time of the month and I’d had a grotty week. I decided to absent mindedly weigh myself last night and I was 13st 12lb. That’s not possible surely, in less than 48 hours, to gain 4lb in weight?? !!! ?? Surely not. I was in the rudey nudey. It was the same place, but the end of the day instead of the start, but surely that can’t make 4lb of difference?

Anyway, I’m annoyed. And wanting to eat all sorts of stuff because I’m annoyed. But I’m not. So instead, I’m munching my way through grapes, diet coke and cherries. When all I want is chips and gravy. It’s a bit pants to be honest, so I’d stay out of my way, because when I’m deprived of my chips and gravy with a buttered barm, I’m a bird with a short fuse.

Here’s hoping for the weigh in on Sunday eh? Perhaps I’ll go running to see if it has an impact on it? Or maybe swimming?
Hmmmmm

Does your weight go up and down like this? How does it make you feel? What do you do?

The Cambridge Mummy blog on: our wedding anniversary – a review…

Ha ha, I love the idea of “reviewing” my wedding anniversary. That’s comedy in itself. But anyway, I’ve had some tweets about it, so I figured it would be good to write about it and, I’ve actually got lots to photos to document it, which is nice…

Day started at 7am, which is a result in itself. I scurried into the other room with the boys and we wrote special cards for daddy to tell him how much we love him. They were given to him, along with my present – the piece de resistance – a packet of Super Hero Top Trumps. This is a top present in my mind and Lovely Bloke does his best to look pleased with it, as he always does, god love him.

Then he tells me to look inside the wardrobe for my small present. I’m there quickly and searching, searching, searching – I can’t find anything. He’s telling me to keep looking and lo and behold I find a small Mappin and Webb box. Wooooo hooooo!!!! In some ways, it could have been an empty bag. But I suppose it’s what it signifies, what’s within it. So I open it, with the “help” of E.

And inside, are a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings. E is trying to help me wrestle them out of the box, when Lovely Bloke starts to flap a bit.
“Errrr, E shall we let Mummy do that?” So that’s when I realised they were a) real and b) would need to be insured on their own!!

Within an hour the boys had gone to Nanny and Grandad for bacon and eggs for breakfast, to be followed with a day at the sea side and Prezzo’s for lunch, as that’s Nanna’s favourite place to go for a meal out…

We are then on the road, planning to go IKEA, to sort out the kitchen and what we are going to do with it. En route, I do some more calculations and we realise that for an extra bit of money we could have the Howdens kitchen that’s on special offer, including the fitted kit, so we detour off to the outlet shopping place near Braintree. I think it’s called Littleport, but am not sure…

Here’s a photo of me having put make up on in the car, trying to look all “sultry”…

Me, trying to do a friendly, but not gurning face

And this is what I really look like:

This is what I really look like...

So then we get to Littleport or Freeport or Whatever It Is Called and we wander around the shops. Have to say, I’m not overly thrilled with it. But I did find a Wonder Bra outlet shop where in hindsight, I should have had the bra that was 15.00 instead of 25.00 but hey ho, I’ve lived and learnt from that one. And I found some of my jeans, not quite in the right colour in the Levi’s shop. They were 55 instead of 85, which is quite good but if they aren’t “my colour” isn’t that a bit of a false economy?

What I did find however, was something which my dear friend, Dr AKT told me I would find. Skinny jeggings. In stonewash denim. And behold. I did. She mentioned it several times, so I can only assume that she was secretly requesting a pair for her birthday. Who am I to not oblige the desires of one of my two best friends? [For the file, my other best friend, KR, would shoot me if I got her a pair of these, so it's good to note how we all have different kinds of friends who make our worlds go around...]

This is AKT's birthday present. Don't tell her though. It's a secret

And then it was on to Howdens, where we spent so much money that I had to phone the bank to tell them that a transaction of magnitude was going through! After a quick whip home for our swimmers, we visited a worktop place that does recycled glass. It’s gorgeous. And costs £3,000 for the worktop alone, not the MDF that goes under it!!! Here’s a photo for you. Does it look like a £3,000 worktop to you?

Can I justify this worktop? Please????

We didn’t get the price that day, so we skipped off to the Hotel Pool for a swim and sauna, thinking we should be able to afford it as it couldn’t be “that much” really, could it? After that it was Browns for dinner and here’s Lovely Bloke and I eating our puddings….

This is the face of someone eating chocolate cookie cheesecake even though they are too full to really squeeze it in...

Lovely Bloke with hamster cheeks from shovelling his pudding in

After that, we went to the cinema to see the inbetweeners movie. It was very busy and full of teenagers. We felt a bit old. But enjoyed it nonetheless. Then it was home, to bed and then a lie in together the next morning, before a couple of clients phoned me – and I told them I was “off” and managed to not work until my first client meeting at 1pm!

So all in all a good result all round really. Sorry this has been soooooo long, but I wanted do my couple time justice. It’s important to me that we got back to being a couple, even if only for 24 hours, only needing to check on what one other person wanted to do, not three and not having to reason in quite the same way with Lovely Bloke that I do with our tiddlers ;)

Will I do it again? Yes, without LittlePort, FreePort, whatever it is. And without the diamond earrings and the £3,000 worktop (did I mention the worktop???) Lovely Bloke, mooching about, swimming, dinner and movie is my idea of a good time. And I’m pleased to have worked that out. It’s a good feeling.

Now I’ve got to put my cape on and transform into Liz Weston, Baby PR, Marketing to Families and Social Media solutions provider for my day job. So I’ll see you later x

The Cambridge Mummy blog on: More Sunday night yodelling

“Mummmmeeeeee, we need to give you kisses… Come up the stairs right now mummy or you will be in the naughty corner…”

“William and I need to give you kiss right now. Please come here right now Mummy”

I love being a mummy so much…

Liz Weston is Cambridge Mummy, a self employed, full time working, mummy blogger and mummy to two lovely boys and wife to Lovely Bloke. They live in Cambridge (I know, but it’s good to be clear) and have a lovely life together. Most of the time.

The Cambridge Mummy blog on: Shifting the flubber

This is not me ;)

The one thing I don’t write about, anywhere, is my weight. Lots of other people do, and write really well about it. So for now, I just want to put it out there. I’m tired of being fat, of having problems with my tummy being so big, of having a horrible muffin top that keeps leaping out of my jeans. I know that I’m not that big, I know I could be bigger, I know I should be grateful for being who I am and looking like I do, but I want to feel better in my body.

So I’m fixing it. I’m eating less crap. And I’m swimming. And tonight I’ve done my best swim to date. 101 lengths, which are half of proper lengths, but involve lots of turning around, so I think they should count for more ;) And now I’m going to bed. Sweating. And in need of a shower in the morning.

I’ll write more positively about it tomorrow but for now I’m putting a marker in the sand. I’m going to kick my flubbers ass.

PS. If anyone could quote some research, true or otherwise, saying that if I lose weight my hair will grown quicker. There’s nothing like motivation!!!!

PPS. Image courtesy of arzunsushii.blogspot.com

Liz Weston is Cambridge Mummy, a self employed, full time working, mummy blogger and mummy to two lovely boys and wife to Lovely Bloke. They live in Cambridge (I know, but it’s good to be clear) and have a lovely life together. Most of the time.

The Cambridge Mummy blog on: Missing my old sister in law

Before Lovely Bloke, I was with someone for many years. It was a bad relationship and we really were not well matched as a couple but what I did have, was the equivalent of a sister in law, even though I wasn’t married to “the previous applicant” and nor was she to his brother. I loved her very much, and we both got into trouble a couple of times from saying the wrong thing, albeit unintentionally. But we’d work it out and she was a really important friend.

Watching Glastonbury tonight, with U2 has made me realise how much I miss her – hanging out, going to Glastonbury together and having the best time ever, despite the fact that the previous applicant was sick all over me and stole a sleeping bag from me in the middle of the night. Because I liked hanging out with her, she was like the big sister I’ve never had. I’m all teary now – I do miss her and I’m very sad that when the relationship with the Previous Applicant ended that relationship had to end as well. The fact that it wasn’t through my choice and apparently not through hers either, made me even more sad…

Life moves on, she’s got three children with the Previous Applicant’s brother and I’ve got my life with Lovely Bloke and our Lovely Boys. I have no idea what is happening for the Previous Applicant but I wish him well, wherever he is… And you know what, I wouldn’t change my life and what’s happened for the world. But just in case you find this blog post my lovely, somewhere, somehow, I’ve still got my Denby teapot. And I treasure it because we did have some great times together, despite me and the Previous Applicant being so badly matched together. The good thing that came out of that whole thing was me and you, and I won’t forget our driving up north together, hair tangled everywhere, me needing the loo and you telling me I’d got to “hold on” a bit longer!

Lots of love, Liz x

Postscript: Despite the lovely note from my old Brother in Law as a comment on this blog and a Facebook email from my old Sister in Law, a week after posting this post I received an email from the Previous Applicant. He is unhappy with my referring to him and my past. He’s concerned that I have unfairly misrepresented him. So to be clear, both he and I said and did things that I’m sure we both regret. His email revealed a very different recollection of our lives together to mine. And that’s just life isn’t it? People view things differently. He’s not a bad person and nor am I. We just didn’t work together. We were both to blame in different ways. I don’t think I’m a saint. I don’t think I am perfect. Unfortunately, as he isn’t in the online world he has the view that I’m basically broadcasting online without cause. Because he lives in an offline world, I appreciate his perspective. I of course view it differently because I live and work in an online world.

Even though Lovely Bloke doesn’t do online stuff and doesn’t really like it, he leaves me to get on with it. I’m sensitive to Lovely Bloke’s perspective in my writing, in radio and tv interviews and when referring to him and Our Boys in my public life.

The difference between now and ten years go, is that neither him or anyone else for that matter, is in charge of my life.  No one dictates what I can and can’t do, what I can and can’t say, what I can and can’t write on my blog. That’s not to say that I’m not sensitive to the feelings of people who I care about, like Lovely Bloke, lets be clear on that. The years before I met Lovely Bloke shaped me – they’ve helped me become the person I am now. And that’s not just my experience with the Previous Applicant, it’s everything that I went on to do, explore and try before I met Lovely Bloke. From trampoling to trying interesting risottos, it was all good. And thank you too, to the friends and lovely people I met and had some brilliant times with :)

Today, I’m in charge of my life, I’m sharing it with someone who I think is the bees knees. It’s brilliant to be on the same team as him. Our togetherness is enabling us both to raise our boys to be strong, independent individuals who look after themselves, help others and play nicely, most of the time. They don’t eat all their vegetables, but Rome wasn’t built in a day was it?

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog. Thank you to everyone who comments on it. And thank you to the Previous Applicant, for his email – for helping me remember all of this on what would have been a regular Saturday afternoon. I hope that wherever he is with he’s happy and healthy, I really do, because life is too short to have ill feelings towards people. I’d like to think that he’s gone on to have a life as filled with happiness, adventure and love as I have. I’m sorry that he doesn’t like my having written this blog post. It wasn’t intended for that. I don’t want to cause any bad feeling and I’m sorry that it has. I hope this post script, being explicit about the fact that I know it wasn’t all his fault and that I was also to blame as well, goes some way to making him feel that this post is a bit more balanced.

Anyway, I’m off to get in the bath with my boys and prepare for our photo shoot with our fabulous friends tomorrow morning. Hope you all have a peaceful evening. Me x

Liz Weston is Cambridge Mummy, a self employed, full time working, mummy blogger and mummy to two lovely boys and wife to Lovely Bloke. They live in Cambridge (I know, but it’s good to be clear) and have a lovely life together. Most of the time.

The Cambridge Mummy blog on: not wanting to forget W playing

"No Mack, you need to come this way"

I don’t want to forget W playing with his Lightning McQueen, Mack, Mater and Peso Penguin. He’s providing a voice for each of them, who are arguing about which way the hotel is, and Lightning McQueen has abducted Peso Penguin to drag him off. Peso Penguin keeps falling off Lightning McQueen so William shrieks “oh no Peso” at the top of his voice, *every time* and it’s only 7am. Mater and Mack are also having a domestic about which way the hotel is, so Mater is using his tow cable to drag Mack off in what he think is the right direction. And of course William is doing the “vocals” for that, loudly, as well, at 7am.As I finish this, Ratatouille has now stolen Mack and is being beaten up for it.

All before breakfast….

The Cambridge Mummy Blog: Cybermummy Meet and Greet Linky

Hello… Inspired by Carly over at Mummy’s Shoes, I’ve joined the meet and greet linky so people can find out more about me and vice versa before Cybermummy at the end of the month. So here’s a bit about me. Please read my About Me, as that tells you lots more about me as well :)

Name: Liz Weston
Blog: Cambridge Mummy
Twitter ID: @cambridgemummy
Height: 5ft 5 (when without heels) (same as @MummysShoes)
Hair: Short, Brown (see my About Me info for an explanation…)
Eyes: Brown.
Likes: Honestly – my favourite food is chips and gravy. Hmmm. Every time. I am partial to chocolate but not as much as I used to be, My lovely boys (Lovely Bloke, 30 something ish, E who is 4 and W who is 3 this month), Orla Kiely (the older, less widely seen stuff), helping people (like Alice with her bucket list) and learning new stuff about social media.
Dislikes:  Big Brother, cliquey bloggers, my tummy (messed up by an emergency c section that went a bit wrong), not having enough hours in the day, smelly feet, the boys getting nits at pre school.
Photo… Arrgggh, I can’t find a photo of me with my short hair, so instead here’s a link to me on YouTube, doing an interview for The Baby Show last month. At least I’ve got make up on in this one!!!
CyberMummy sponsor: The Baby Show :)  I tweet, facebook, blog and host their radio show, Baby Talk as they are one of my lovely clients. I’ll be there on a mission to find cool mums to do reviews, guest blogs and features for them, so let me know if you are interested in anything like that :)

And so too, this shall pass…

W is in the garden “Oh no, Bubba, no more water in here”. Closely followed by  ”Bubba come fill this up right now for mine watering can”.

They are so lovely together, E and W. W still talks in a language that we have to translate for most other people, but E, Lovely Bloke and I all understand him perfectly. He’s 3 next month and I’m struggling with that.

He still feels like my baby. I think he always will. I’m usually grateful for most things showing themselves to be a passing phase, but his speech and cute approach to life is something I wish we could bottle forever. That’s something I don’t want to pass…