Mediocre Mum – Page 6 – UK Parent and Lifestyle Blog – Travel | Kids Tech

Christmas Garland Made from Recycled Cards

How to Recycle your Christmas Cards

I have mixed feelings about Christmas Cards. On one hand I love hearing from old friends, but they quickly begin to take over all the surfaces in the house. This year with a bit of blue tac I managed to keep on top of them.

Shortly after Christmas, that urge to de-Christmas my house set in, but what do you do with all the old cards? There are local schemes that recycle them for you, but as we had a few more days off school, I was looking for an activity to entertain my 7 year old.

Over the years we have made Mosaic Placemats with them, Thank you cards and Christmas tags. I had a quick look on Pinterest and came across an idea from Party Planning Center for creating Christmas Garland with them. I have a personal hatred of the store bought shiny garland so this was a perfect solution and it was relatively easy.

The most difficult part was locating a 2″ Circular Craft Punch, like any other time we decide to craft it always results in a trip to the shops as we aren’t well stocked in the craft department. I managed to find one at Hobbycraft.

I think they’re fairly self explanatory but the full instructions can be found at the link below.

How to Make Christmas Decorations with Recycle Paper

Now that we have the circular punch, we thought we’d do a few Thank you cards while we were at it.

What do you do with all your old Christmas Cards? Do you have any other craft activities I can use my punch for?

The Loss of Innocence at Halloween

We were just baking some Halloween Biscuits?

It such a shame that as adults we lose our sense of innocence as we’re sharpened by experience and shaped by reality.

I was baking with my daughter this afternoon, a sure sign that Half-term has broken me, as I find baking incredibly stressful.

‘Don’t get shells in there, Stop flicking the batter everywhere and Don’t lick your fingers if you have raw egg on them’

Like any good mum, we hit Google images (filtered of course) and found some Halloween themed biscuits AKA cookies that looked easy enough.

We were happily attacking one of those just add water baking kits, when it all of a sudden dawned on me I wouldn’t be able to post pictures of them online. It would come across brash and incentive with recent news reports.

If you’re wondering, we made headless gingerbread men and skeletons. How could I be so intensive with the recent IS attacks and yes, I did guiltily think about the reference to eating disorders! Insane!

Luckily, I had a friend reeled me back in and reminded me that for my 7 year old it was just baking and she’s oblivious to the IS beheadings.

‘Hey, she’s just a child and she doesn’t need to be aware – she’s happy doing her baking and that’s what childhood should be about’.

I’ve decided that I would rather live my life through the eyes of a child.

Do I worry too much?

Child-friendly Radio Stations

Radio for Kids

I was on the hunt for a children’s radio station to have on in the background while my daughter was playing. I don’t want to shelter her from the rest of the world but find some of the current news is a bit graphic for a 7 year old and many topics I’m not quite ready to discuss. You just have to look at a few of the current Headlines ‘8 Dead in Florida House Shooting’, ‘Islamic State Plots to Behead’ and ‘Suspect Murdered his Wife’ to see what I mean.

I don’t tend to pay attention to a lot of lyrics in songs and happily sing along not having a clue what it’s about and I’m sure my daughter is the same, but I’d rather not have her singing things like “stay up all night to get lucky” and “I know you want it”. Call me old fashioned!

After a quick Google search I came across Fun Kids, which seems perfect, good selection of tunes old and new and slightly censored news. They have iphone and ipad apps but as I have a Sonos Stereo I simply searched for it using the Sonos Software and then added it to my favourites, so my daughter can easily access it via an iPad.

Happy Listening!

Breaking Bad – Better Late Than Never

Review of Breaking Bad

What’s all the fuss about?

Everywhere I turned Facebook, Twitter and the pub, everyone kept talking about how amazing Breaking Bad was. Many using the word ‘addiction’ to describe their new watching habits. Many watching several episodes a night and finishing all 5 series in a week or two. Quite a few of them have already started to watch it a second time.

When I tell people who have already watched it, that I’m just starting it, they all tell me how ‘jealous’ they are.

I had a general idea of the story line; a Chemistry teacher is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and in a desperation to care for his family once he’s gone, he turns to a life of crime – using his Chemistry genius to cook up the purest Crystal Meth. For some reason it really didn’t grab my attention, but with the level of hype around it I decided to give it a go as I have it via Netflix UK.

Hook, line and sinker!

I’m not a big telly watcher but I was hooked from the opening scene of the Pilot which aired in 2008. Why was a man driving a motor home on a desert highway, in his pants wearing a gas mask, with two dead guys rolling around in the back and another slumped over the dashboard? What could have possibly led up to that moment?

The cinematography is amazing, the plot is compelling and the casting perfect. I made the assumption that both of the main characters Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) were relatively unknown, but this is down to my lack of TV watching. I had no idea that Aaron had such an extensive list of credits to his name (e.g. Need for Speed, ER and Mission Impossible III) and so does Bryan.

I’m only half-way through series two so no spoilers please! Should I watch it slowly to savour it or is it impossible? I even found myself telling my taxi driver all about it the other morning.

What to do when your Hamster is Dying

When a Hamster Reaches the End

The guilt is setting in

One day I will tell my daughter the truth…..

Upon returning home from our annual trip to Canada for 3 weeks we noticed a considerable difference in our 2 year old hamster, which is equivalent to a person in their late 80s, she had aged visibly. Her eyes were dull, she lost a tooth and was moving very slowly. In the past, you wouldn’t dare leave her on the floor for a minute or two or she’d be gone, now she just waddled around like a little old lady, often toppling over.

The End Is Nigh

However, a couple of weeks ago she really started to go downhill. Caramel, the hamster, had stopped grooming herself, her bottom teeth were excessively long, her abdomen was swollen along with one of her eyes, she was incontinent and cold to the touch. Some thought her lethargy may be down to going into hibernation, but we know our hamster well and she was definitely on the way out.

After a bit of Googling, I learned that hamsters of this age, are susceptible to tumours, which would have explained the swollen abdomen and the swelling could also be an indication of impending heart failure. I was torn about what to do. I had a long conversation with a mobile vet and she said there is very little a vet could do besides, euthanizing her and disposal.

Decisions, decisions

After reading, When a Hamster Reaches the End by David Imber, as she did not appear to be in pain and it seemed imminent, I decided to keep her at home and care for her giving my daughter the opportunity to learn about the cycle of life and caring for the elderly. Plus, I felt that her natural surroundings would be less stressful than putting her in the car and taking her to the vet.

She could no longer feed herself, we hand fed her water, yogurt and the juice from crushed grapes several times a day. We used cotton buds and olive oil to clean up her bottom, baby wipes to clean her fur, gave her extra bedding and I often kept her in my coat when working at the computer to keep her warm.

‘It’s just a Hamster for Goodness Sake’

This went on for about a week. Each morning, I would secretly hope that she would have passed away in the night, but she didn’t. I really couldn’t watch it anymore so arranged to have the vet put her down while my daughter was at school. It was all very swift and professional, using an injection, I brought her home in a box and told my daughter a white lie, that she had died naturally in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe how upset I was, I couldn’t even speak to the vet as I would have started blubbering, which I put down to worrying about my daughter being upset.

But when I told my daughter, she asked to see her, went up stairs, gave her a quick cuddle and then quickly said, ‘can we bury her now?’ The actual burial was more humours than sombre. The area she chose to bury it was laden with tree roots and dry soil, but with the help of a neighbour and an axe we managed. Plus, I never realised what a busy thoroughfare the area was, full of cyclists, dog walkers and commuters all looking at us suspiciously but with a quick over the shoulder remark ‘Hamster’ it appeased their curiosity and they carried on.

In the end, I’m glad we did keep her at home for a time so we could care for her and keep her as comfortable as possible and I think it gave my daughter a chance to say goodbye properly and made it all a bit less tearful.

Would you have done the same?