Here we are at Wednesday again, the weeks are flying past so quickly I have to keep checking what day it is at times. This also means it is time for my weekly round up post Ramblings Of A StressedMum – 12/11/2025.
Table of Contents
My Week
Birthday
Friday was C’s birthday and one present she asked for was an hours owl experience. She is mad about animals and loves owls. We headed off and she had her friend come along as well as she wanted to see the experience.
As the weather was not great, we had a look about all the birds they had. One was a Raven that got kicked out of Raven Kindergarden at the Tower of London. He kept going for peoples snacks. C got to hold and fly 2 owls with one being her favourite. If you ever get the chance to experience this I would recommend it.
Grief
Friday was tough for me, as it was C’s birthday and her dad should have been there. This caused me to have and still have a range of emotions. Which we had both suffered all week leading up to her birthday.
C was up and down but seemed ok. Until she came out of college on Monday and said she had got a bit teary during the day. We chatted and she seemed ok.
Yesterday, she came out and seemed ok and had a good day. We got home and I could sense something was not right. She broke down, which broke my heart. We had a cuddle, hot chocolate and talked. This helped and she was soon laughing again.
Both of us have not been able to grieve fully due to my stepsons one with issues he has. The other who even now still goes on about grief and how hard it is for him. He would not let us grieve, told us it wont help and caused so much aggro that we both pushed it back.
As much as it breaks my heart, I am glad she is finally grieving.
Budgies
You may remember the egg watch last year, and on this day a year ago. Our first egg hatched to reveal little Pinkey. The picture on the left is mum and dad with the hour old baby in the middle. The picture on the right is Mum and Dad either side with Willow as she is named in the middle.
A year on and Willow is such a character and very nosy. She loves looking at phone screens or whatever we have in our hands. She terrorises the others, but is also a sweetheart and looks after Kiwi ( our rescue bird who can not fly). She chases her dad around, and hates if her mum is out of the cage and she is not.
Apparently, we have to stop at the pet shop later to get her a present.
Christmas
I love gift guides, I love sharing my own as much as I love looking through all the amazing gift guides that have started coming out. So far I have published 3 gift guides, with one more to go live this week. In case you missed them you can find them –
- Advent Calendar Guide – 2025
- The Best Children’s Gift Guide – 2025
- Christmas Gift Guide 2025 – For Her
Plus I am also working on homemade gift ideas which I will be sharing with you.
You Buy – We Donate
This is ending today sadly. I was contacted by one of my lovely PR’s about a campaign called You Buy – We Donate.
This is am an Amazon campaign to help end hygiene poverty in the UK – You Buy. We Donate. For shoppers who buy any two eligible items, which includes a great selection of baby products from Aveeno and Johnsons, Amazon its suppliers will donate a third via the network of Multibanks in the UK. It’s a brilliant way to shop essentials whilst supporting a great cause.
Giveaway
In case you have not seen them, or just need a reminder of the daily entry options. I have 3 giveaways currently running
- Win A Flying Bee -You Control With Your Hand
- Win A £10 Amazon Voucher Or A Surprise
- Win A Fart Machine
- Win A Twistii – The Torch With A Twist
Good luck
like reading older posts
time does move so fast
Time does move very fast
Hope your daughter still had a lovely birthday. Grief can be really hard to navigate – I lost my Dad when I was 19 and I still find it hard even now that I’m 40. Also love hearing about your budgies as I’m getting my son two for Christmas
Laura Sidestreet x
She did have a lovely birthday thank you. I am so sorry you lost your dad at such a young age. Grief is so hard to navigate the slightest thing can trigger emotions. What a lovely Christmas present I am sure he will love looking after them and hope you are ready for the noise
your life goes on bittersweet with joy and sadness – normal
Life does go on where all I want to do is find the rewind button
Families can be so complicated which makes navigating sudden loss almost impossible and almost unbearable. Pleased that C had a good day with the owls, anyway.
Thank you for the gift guides. I will dip into them for ideas shortly.
Lovely to read about the budgies. They’re so little but they bring so much joy.
Losing my husband so suddenly with no warning, has been a huge shock and one we are still trying to navigate and come to terms with. I hope the guides give you inspiration. The budgies are all such huge but different characters and are huge time wasters
That’s good that C enjoyed her owl experience, it can’t have been easy being the first birthday without her dad. Hope you’re doing okay and are able to take a little time for yourself and your emotions x
She had a great day, which we all did. It has been quite an emotional week this week as it stirred a lot of emotions up. We are both lucky that we are honest about our feelings but breaks my heart to see her so upset
My best wishes to C. The budgies look stunning!
Thank you, the budgies are all such funny characters
The owl experience sounds so cool! That is very neat that they offer that near you. I have never heard of that before.
As a family we have always loved birds of prey, the owl experience was amazing
omg I can’t get enough of the Budgies…Willow looks like her mom…so cute and she is a grownup now…So cute.
Willow is such a huge character, she is lighter than her mum and doesn’t have the black lines on her head like her mum. I do get them confused at times when looking in the cage for them. They are all too cute though
I am so pleased that C got to do the owl experience. It must have been a terribly hard birthday – you both have each other for comfort x
She had a great day and the owl experience was amazing we all enjoyed it. It has been hard for her and it has been a very emotional week
So sorry to hear that it has been a tough week. You are both doing so well.
I love the sound of the owl experience!
We got through another first and they are always difficult, the owl experience was amazing
thanks for sharing this. its refreshing how openly you talk about everyday challenges and small victories.
Thank you, it is also therapeutic to me as well
It sounds like you have a lot going on right now! I will have to check out your gift guides!
It has been a tough week, I hope my guide gives you some inspiration
I love the you buy we donate heads up. It might be ending today, but I think I still have time to check it out!
I think it is a great idea and a lovely way of helping
I always love hearing about your budgies, but I can’t see them. =( Two of your pictures in this post seem to be broken. =(
It is showing ok for me but have just updated the picture to see them not sure what is going on
Grieving is so hard, but it’s so important. I’m glad it was finally able to come to a head for her. That’s just what she needed in the long run.
Grieving is hard and it has been a long time coming for her, as heartbreaking as it is for me as a mum I am so glad she is finally letting it out
Oh you are organised with gift guides this year , will have a nosey now as I need some inspiration for Xmas gifts
I do love looking at all the gift guides that are coming out