Thames Valley Mums Blog

Everything a mother says in one day, condensed to two minutes and 55 seconds

Not sure who this woman is and why she is singing to a huge audience, but this is hilarious!

This post was written by Susanna, a Thames Valley Mums founder. She can also be found at her blog A Modern Mother.

10 yummy things to do with blackberries (recipes included)

I love this time of year. All across England, hedgerows are full of blackberries just waiting to be picked. It brings back childhood memories, sometimes bitterwseet. Though I looked forward each year to plucking the juicy berries off their prickly nests and eating them by the handfull, their arrival signaled that summer was soon coming to an end.

But what an end! As a family, we love going blackberry picking and we will often come home with bucket loads. We make jam and pies and crumbles, and I always pop a few in the freezer to bring out in the depths of winter to remind us of warmer times.

So if you are at a loss for what to do with your pickings, here's a list of 10 things to do with blackberries, recipes included below.

1. Bake a blackberry and apple pie
2. Make blackberry and apple jam
3. Try blackberry cranachan (had to add this Scottish recipe)
4. Bake a blackberry and apple crumble
5. Put in a summer Pavlova
6. Create a blackberry fool
7. Make a blackberry smoothie
8. Put a few blackberries in lemonade
9. Freeze a few for later. Do not wash. Lay evenly on a baking tray and put in the freezer. Put them in a zip lock bag the next day and then use as needed.
10. Eat them plain or sprinkled with a little icing sugar. They're yummy!

Here are the recipes:

The Last Lecture: Achieving your childhood dreams

I'm known for being a bit behind in current events. I come by this honestly (my parents still don't have cable TV) but I'm sure it is made worse by the fact that my brain can only handle so many bits and bytes and mine is on overload with kid stuff.

So when my friend Charlene asked if I had heard about "The Last Lecture" I gave my usual blank look.

If you haven't heard about this, let me explain. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon in the US. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2007, he gave a moving "last lecture" on achieving your childhood dreams that was videotaped and widely distributed on You Tube. To date, the lecture has been viewed by more than 6 million people.

YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE TIME TO SEE THIS. It is worth all 76 minutes. It is a good reminder of what is important in life.

Note: Randy Pausch died this summer.

This post was written by Susanna, a Thames Valley Mums founder. You can also find her at her blog, A Modern Mother.

Hubby going to the US? Don’t get mad, get shopping!

I always know when my husband is going on another business trip state side. He’ll call, or send an email, saying something like “honey, there’s a big show in (fill in major US city, most likely Las Vegas) next week and so and so says he can't go, so I might have to instead”.  Or “(Fill in major client name) is having an account review meeting in New York next week, and I might have to attend to make sure it goes well”.

In reality the trip is already in his diary and he has already booked the travel. But he has this thing about “setting expectations” and he thinks that if he gives me some advance notice of extended travel, that I will not rip his head off by the time het gets home. I guess there is some truth to this.

But what he hasn’t realised is that I’ve changed my stance on US travel. Instead of being annoyed with him it, I look upon it as a shopping opportunity. With the dollar still weak against the pound, there are deals to be had in the US!