I don’t know about you but I go through phases with my reading, sometimes I don’t read for months then I go through a spate of devouring books like they are big fat slices of my favourite chocolate cake (with cream!). Also depends on how busy work is, or the demands of the children and other stuff and how much time I get to relax!! I’ve just ordered a copy of the Penguin book The Help by Kathryn Stockett as recommended by @exmoorjane on twitter. See http://bit.ly/aLWJms

I love stories set in the deep south of women’s struggle and this sounds like no exception….

Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver…

There’s Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son’s tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they’d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell…

Cherie Blair reviews it saying ‘It weaves together the beginnings of black rights but also of women’s rights. We learn that one of the characters, Skeeter, is as trapped by the expectations of her parents and friends as are the black women she writes about. It also shows how, despite the lack of equality distorting the realtionships between the women, there was room for genuine friendship and affection, as well as incredible callousness.’

So – that leads me to your comments – I’d love to hear about what you are reading right now, or your last book and your recommendations. Add your comment below!!

We are absolutely thrilled to have made it into the Tots100 index of the UK’s Top 100 parent blogs and bloggers this January!

Our two and a half year old Tish Tash Toys blog debuts at number 85 in this index of parents’ blogs put together by Sally Whittle of Who’s The Mummy – the true story of the life of Lancashire mum Sally Whittle and her 4 year old daughter Flea. Sally is a freelance journalist, blogger and trainer and works out the scores of hundreds of mummy and daddy blogs based on three basic things: links, comments and readership.

You can view the list of top 100 blogs here at Who’s The Mummy.

I’ve flicked down the list myself and here are some of my favourites…

No. 64 A Place of my own – Kelly loves the summer but can’t cope with the sun. She’s loud and silly with friends but painfully shy around strangers and she likes penguins, singing loudly alone in the car, and Cornwall. I like Kelly because like her, I don’t like people who think the world owes them something!

No. 45 The homeschooling blog Patch of Puddles debuts really high on the list and is great for me with two children off school for days due to the weather. I’ll be using this blog next week to find some activities for my two to do should school still be closed.

Hi Florence, thank you for your comment on my previous post Stopping at Two – A Pledge to my Two Children.

Florence says “Well.. my mother had three children and she would never regret having any of us. If the government recommended we should only have 1 child, would you wish you had never had your son?”

My mother never regretted any of us too Florence, but in hindsight she says she might have planned her life differently. Of course I wouldn’t wish I’d never had my boy. I’m not saying anyone should TELL anyone else how many children they should or shouldn’t have but perhaps now is the time for us to start talking about how many children we are all having and their future – all 9.15 billion of them in 2050! We should debate the issue don’t you think?

I have met several mothers who told me their third child was an ‘accident’ and not intended.

We need much much better birth control services – yes…. in this country, in the UK!

I had a scare a few months after having my son (now aged 4) when I thought I was in the early stages of pregnancy. I called a helpline for advice on a very early chemical termination and was basically told because I was a mother of two in my thirties, I should just get on with the pregnancy. I was basically wasting their time. Had I been my normal self I would have made a complaint, but I was a vulnerable confused woman looking for advice and guidance. Luckily for me I got my period, or perhaps had a very early miscarriage, as so many women do who don’t even realise they’ve been pregnant (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/miscarriage1.shtml)

I had never wanted a baby less in my life when this happened or was more distraught at the thought of being pregnant – with an unwanted child. Both my children were meticulously planned and desperately wanted. After this scare, I changed from the unreliable pill (or unreliable me – I kept forgetting it, probably due to having a very young baby!) to having an implanon contraceptive implant put into my arm. The doctor who put it in was very surprised to see a thirty three year old mother of two having an implant as they are still extremely uncommon and generally given to 18 year olds. She said it was great I was having it though as it was such a reliable and convenient new method. At the time I had it, only about 2% of women in the UK were choosing that method (or even aware it existed maybe?). I’ve told lots of other women I have it, as I recommend they can get an impant too, especially if they want to avoid getting pregnant by ‘accident’.

Talking about population control is such an emotive subject isn’t it. My best friends will tell you how they remember me saying I wanted at least 4 or 5 children as a teenager. I feel as a young woman, my supercharged female hormones controlled me and my desire to have lots of children was, well ridiculously HUGE! If you had said to me back then, you know it would be so much better for the planet if you just had one or two children, I would have screamed at you!

I do understand anyone who desires to have lots of children, I really (really) do BUT this is not just about us, it’s about the future of these kids we bring into the world. It’s about a world that’s too small for all these people. It’s about animal species becoming extinct because people are chop-happy with the forests they live in. Do I need to go on?

If you want lots of children – why not adopt them, there are about 85,000 children in care in the UK right now.

We’ve been asking fellow businesses to donate items for our Christmas Hamper raffle for preschool here in Upottery in Devon. A HUGE thank you goes out to Judith at www.JudithGlue.com for sending us some lovely treats all the way from the top of Scotland right down to Devon. This is what Judith told me about her wonderful hamper business:

Real Food From the Orkney Islands! Our Orkney Christmas Hampers are crammed full of local Orkney produce, widely recognised as some of the best food in Britain. Most of our producers are small cottage-based businesses and you simply won’t find their products anywhere else in the UK. We aim to keep our carbon footprint low- all our suppliers are locally-based so our food miles are kept to a minimum. Everything in our hampers is sourced from our local Orkney producers who we’ve been dealing with directly for nearly 30 years- so we know exactly what makes them and their products so special!

Thank you again to Judith, all the Mums were thrilled and afer browsing the website and looking through the lovely brochure, we’d highly recommend Judith Glue if you are looking for an interesting and unique Christmas gift. The website is http://www.judithglue.com

Thank you to Sally at Who’s The Mummy for passing this Great Read Award to the Tish Tash Toys blog. My second award! Whoo-hoo.

Apparently there was an article in Reader’s Digest (so you know it’s definitely true) that said people are genetically predisposed to be mostly happy or mostly unhappy. The test to see which you are is this: can you think of 10 happy memories? Now think of 10 unhappy memories. Which was faster?

The theory is that if you’re the sort of person who remembers happy things more vividly than unhappy things, then you’re likely to be happier overall.

So, here are my 10 happy memories:

1. When I was a teenager, laughing with my Mum, brother and sisters so much we all ended up on the floor. Goodness know what we were laughing about, we’d often all hysterically laugh about utter nonsense!
2. My first kiss with the sweetest boy – Simon. I was about 11 and he was an absolute blond vision (aged 12). When I say kiss, I do mean totally innocent peck on the cheek. I adored him, but he made me feel so insanely wobbly, I couldn’t bear it and had to let him go. I regretted that for years.
3. My very first cat Kerry coming to ‘tell’ me she was in labour. I was 11 or 12, and we had an incredible cat/person connection. She got me out of bed wowling and wailing, made me follow her to the airing cupboard where I sat stroking and reassuring her while she gave birth to four beautiful kittens. I felt so needed and loved, and my lifelong love for all animals is made deeper by this incredible memory.
4. Talking of Kerry (the wonder cat!) I have another very happy memory of her. She came back to me the day after she died and curled up on my bed, as she did every night of her life. This was one of the things in my life that made me believe in life after death.
5. The first night I spent with my husband
6. Walking down Hove High Street to buy the pregnancy testing kit which I’d use later that morning to confirm I was pregnant with my daughter. The walk down to Boots was the longest walk – like in slow motion. We’d been trying for a baby for over a year and I was pretty sure we’d cracked it that day. We had!
7. My wonderful wedding day (5 year anniversary coming up on Friday!)
8. Waking up in labour with my son and having his beautiful little body in my arms 37 minutes later.
9. Moving to Devon in 2008.
10. Seeing Natasha’s face on Saturday when her Nanny bought her a real Roman coin at the flea market we went to. She’s doing Roman’s at school this term and I’m still not sure she understood the coin was over one thousand, seven hundred years old. She’s very happy about being able to take it to school, and that makes me a happy mummy too.

And I’m tagging the following people as being great reads – feel free to choose ten of your happiest memories too or perhaps make up some random questions of your own.

Elsie at Flower Fairies & Fairy Cakes & A Confused Take That Fan

I have a Meme award, how fabulous!!! Thank you to Pippa at A Mother’s Ramblings for passing this over to me.

Apparently I must compile a list of seven of my personality traits and then pass this meme onto seven other bloggers, whom I would like to torture learn more about !!! Thanks Pippa, I’ve surprised myself actually – I really enjoyed doing it.

Here are my Seven Personality Traits in no particular order:

1. I’m Independent – as the eldest of 5 children (although I actually have 5 sisters & 3 brothers in total – I did not grow up in the same house as all of them) I’ve always felt I’ve pretty much had to get on with looking after myself (get the violins out!). Always fancied an older brother though to protect me again the dragons, giants and goblins! My hubby Dan does quite a good job of that now though, so maybe I’m not so independent after all…

2. I’m Messy – an incredibly well kept secret from most people who know me as I would die if anyone came round uninvited! I will always tidy up before visitors come so they can’t see what a tardy old tart I am. And who has the messiest room – probably me, terrible really, telling the kids to tidy up when I’m by far the worst culprit.

3. Determined I am…about most things I set my mind to. For example, bagging my boyfriend as was (now husband) Dan, having my two awesome children, setting up my own business, getting various pets eg dog, chickens etc, living in a beautiful house in the country, walking up a mountain in Morocco last year for charity (when I’m scared of heights!). Picture below of a very happy and determined me – not at all on an extreme natural high induced by altitude sickness!!!

4. Selfish – or ambitious…? Perhaps again having something to do with growing up in a big family. When I was growing up, you had to fight for seconds or the comfy sofa, or hot water for a bath.

5. I’m So Vain – Ok I admit it there are too many mirrors in my house, and God knows why, I’m not the girl I once was. Can anyone point me in the right direction for the botox!!!

6. I’m Self-assured….which can come across as confident on a good day, arrogant and conceited on a bad one. Say no more, at 36 I’m finally learning to be careful about how I project myself to others. Not everyone understands my intricate layers!

7. Being empathetic is a trait which I’ve always had since running around the local park on a sponsored run raising money for the World Wildlife Fund when I was about nine years old ! I’ve always tried to help people, animals and causes close to my heart most of my life. I’m a 25 year long vegetarian (on principle), have marched against the BNP, animal testing etc, stood in front of angry fox hunters on horseback and risked getting arrested long before the law changed. I’m an ex-veterinary nurse, Women’s Studies graduate, pro-choice, green party member! My dream still is to one day be one of the Greenpeace people you see chained to various things on the news!

Being empathetic isn’t always a good thing though. Since being pregnant with Natasha, this trait has seen my emotions disintegrate to the point of crying at a newborn baby in Neighbours last week, and regularly sobbing over episodes of Tracy Beaker. Oh dear.

And I pass this on to the following seven perfectly lovely peeps:

1. Andrea at www.andreadaly.com

2. Ian at Single Parent Dad

3. Liz at Violet Posy

4. Sandy at Sandy Calico

5. Catherine at Stressed Mum

6. Harriet at The Children’s Jewellery Company

7. Aly at My Hodge Podge Life

Have fun!

My blogroll is looking a bit sorry for itself so I added some of the Mummy blogs I’ve been reading lately, usually in bed when I’m winding down the day! Luverly hubby Dan explained RSS readers to me and got me all set up. I’m hopeless – so it’s very handy to have a IT wizard for a husband, he’s even set up his own web design business (Aleck’s Dad) he’s so good!

I’ve been seeking out interesting reads and adding them to my Google Reader and now I’m adding them to my links on here. If you are in my top ten (or even if you are not!) it would be fabulous if you could add my blog to your links too – to help my attempt to get my little old two year old blog out and about in adult society !!

1. Violet Posy is a gorgeously presented blog by Liz in East Anglia. If you like shabby chic and vintage as I much do (see Bonne Vintage for evidence!) then check out Violet Posy.

2. Jo Beaufoix, aka Like Kate Moss but Not writes a quirky blog about the ups and downs of being a newly single mum with two little girls.

3. Sally Whittle, freelance journalist and blogger, author of the Tots100 index of parenting blogs writes Who’s The Mummy. I love this blog, it’s funny, informative and interesting and has a really lovely logo!

4. Not a Mummy but a wonderful Daddy, Ian writes Single Parent Dad about his four year journey raising Max on his own since his wife died when Max was a baby. Sometimes it makes me cry, sometimes it makes me smile. A good bedtime read.

5. Dulwich Mum is an amusing read…our heroine is a late thirty something Dulwich mum with two small children living in leafy Dulwich, south east London.

6. Melissa Talago shows it is possible to step away from the laundry pile and the school runs every now and then and make something happen just for you. Read about Melissa’s sailing challenge in More to Life Than Laundry.

7. Are we nearly there yet mummy? is a fantastic blog written by zany crazy Laura. Loving this one.

8. Tara has been talking mumbo jumbo since 2002 on the Sticky Fingers blog. A great read.

9. Millenium Housewife is in the middle of the Midlands in the middle of her life in the middle of one husband, two children and a dog called Twizzle!

10. And finally, my best friend Marieke Napier is writing her own blog up in Wiltshire. Ramblings of a Remote Worker is not really a mummy blog – but Marieke is a mummy and it’s a blog so try it and see. Marieke has been recently shortlisted for a Remote worker Award.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Sharon

I read an interesting article in The Independent this week about the increase in Mummy Bloggers and it made me look into the whole phenomenon a bit more. As a mum of two and busy businesswoman myself, I’ve been blogging away quietly on the Tish Tash Toys blog for over two years now and I don’t think I’ve been publicising it enough or communicating with people via my discreet little weblog.

I absolutely love twitter and will happily tweet away all day but have noticed that many mummy bloggers often get lots of comments on their blogs and chat away to people, really interacting, networking and growing through a whole community of bloggers. I’d like a bit of that mummy blog action please!

The Independent article says “Although a handful of mummy blogs were around as far back as 2006 – three years is an eternity in webworld – the vast of majority of bloggers such as mommyhasaheadache or londoncitymum are much newer to the scene.”… so my blog which started in May 2007 is a veritable antique!

Hunting around the web, I found various lists of top ‘mummy blogs’ put together by top mummy blog experts. All this research made me decide to publish my own Top Ten Blogs…Which List…Top Mummy Blogs!

1. Who’s The Mummy publish the TOTS100 list of the top 100 British parent blogs and bloggers every month.

2. Gurgle.com have listed their top 20 mummy blogs on the web.

3. Getting Ink has blogged about the 99 British Mummy bloggers on twitter

4. My Child features the best mummy blogs and daddy blogs in cyberspace

5. Cision Top Ten Blogs – Parenting

6. Top Ten British Mummy Blogs (2008) from Talking Tots

7.  Stateside Style – 50 Best Mom Blogs from Radical Parenting

8. The Daily Reviewer Top Parenting Blogs

9. Mammablogger.com lists their top 40 popular parent bloggers

10. and finally…Tish Tash Toys lists the top ten blogs…which list…top mummy blogs!

Who’s the Mummy has a great blog article called How to be a Mummy Blogger which advises to read other blogs, so I should be busy for a while reading all the recommended blogs listed above…

There is also forum for British Mummy Bloggers with over 500 members, so I need to get signed up to that quick sharp!

Lot’s to do….totally impossible during last week of summer hols….I think I’m the only mummy within a radius of 20 miles who hasn’t bought the new school uniform yet, I know….no shame!!!