If you ask most women who inspires them, some will say an entreprenuer, some will say a famous name and some will simply say their mum. The common theme in almost all of these replies will be women and its clear that women have always inspired other women, so I was delighted and honoured to be nominated for a Women Inspiring Women Award with Damsels in Success.

The event was organised by Lucie Bradbury, the founder of Damsels in Success and whose enthusiasm is infectious. I recently tweeted that Lucie speaks with genuine belief and sincerity and even if you dont "buy into" the Damsels ethos, you cant help but feel her enthusiasm and determination.

The room was filled full of hard working, focused, driven, entertaining (and some nervous) women and whilst the evening was about women, I couldnt help but be captivated by our host for the evening, Richard Wilkins. His mantra is "if you have no money, you're broke, if you have no energy, you're dead" and this is from the man who, in his own words, "lost a fortune and got a life". The evening sparkled with energy and his contribution to the evening fuelled this even further.

Sometimes life can get in the way of your focus and whatever it is that makes you follow your dreams, whether it be a life coach, a networking group, an evening full of inspiring women, its your life and your choices, so do it, be it, live it, love it.

Step into your life, not around it.

Anyone who has read our external blog, will know that we love Frankie & Bennys, so when we found out that a waiter who works at the Frankie & Benny’s restaurant in Widnes has a five-year-old daughter called Susanna who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, we wanted to know what we could do to help them raise money to send Susanna to Missouri in the US for a life changing operation that will enable her to walk unaided.  This isnt something we would usually post on our blog but as parents ourselves, we know we would be grateful if someone was prepared to help our daughter if she was in need.

Missouri is the only place Susanna can have surgery urgently – in the UK there is a 2 year waiting list which would mean Susanna would miss her window of opportunity to have it done as she will then be too old to qualify. The operation has a 100% success rate. They have so far raised £15K but it’s been a struggle and there is a long way to go as they need £60,000 in total.

Frankie & Benny’s is determined to raise the money by the end of July 2012 and have promised that this beautiful little girl will walk properly like all of her friends. Frankie & Benny’s is embarking on a nationwide fundraising weekend on Saturday 30^th June/Sunday 1^st July in every single one of their restaurants where they will donate £3.95 from every child’s meal purchased as well as many other specific fundraising activities for each individual venue.

A Just Giving page has been set up where people can donate as much or as little as they can http://www.justgiving.com/helpsusannawalk - a penny or a pound, every amount is worthwhile

What the money raised would do

The money raised will pay for Susanna and her family to travel to and from the States for the operation and the operation itself. It will provide accommodation for the family for a month following Susanna’s operation and further intensive physiotherapy.  It will also pay for further treatment and aftercare on her return to the UK and hopefully we will raise enough to also provide Susanna with some equipment to aid her speedy recovery. Susanna only has a short amount of time left whereby she qualifies for this operation, hence the need for immediate action.  By raising this money now, Susanna will hopefully have the operation in September and be recovering well by Christmas this year.  Just think how amazing it will be for us all to think we have played a part in ensuring it happens.

For more information about Susanna and her family, you can visit the links below:

http://www.justgiving.com/helpsusannawalk

http://helpsusannawalk.com/

http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/9682627.Future_now_brighter_for_Susanna/

http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/9339876.Susanna_needs___60_000_to_send_her_to_the_States_for_vital_operation/

I consider myself a lucky person, I am surrounded by a great family, good friends, a wonderful man and two beautiful daughters but lucky enough to win an award for Inspiring Women, who knows?

As regular blog readers will know, our website has been recognised by Theo Paphitis, we work with Sainsburys, received a MumpreneurUK website award, we were a Gurgle Blog finalist last year, have been nominated for a MAD Blog award but that winning ticket for the blog has always remained elusive. I have never tried to be controversial, more conversational and there are many fantastic bloggers that open their hearts day after day about emotive subjects but the Lilypad blog has always been for parents by parents. Somewhere to hop onto, in this little corner of the internet, its a safe haven for parents to find information, anecdotes, recommendations and sometimes just plain rambling!

Awards are viewed differently by lots of people, some love them, whilst others detest them. I sit somewhere in the middle, being recognised for the work you do is without doubt gratifying but not at the risk of your dignity. This blog post isnt about touting for votes because then becomes a popularity contest which makes me then like the "competitive mum" in the playground, I am not the "slummy mummy" or indeed the "yummy mummy" and I am quite sure that I am not considered a "mummy blogger" but whether I am inspirational or not, I am just an ordinary mum finding my path and sharing it along the way.

So if this blog inspires one person to do something, anything, from engaging with their children, listening to their anecdotes, to trying something I have reviewed and recommended, then that is a accolade I can be proud of.

Thats it, no final link for voting, what will be will be! Fingers crossed.

Fear not, this post isnt about a frenzied crazy duck but there is some definate decapitation, so you have been warned.

Its well documented that my youngest baby daughter is a strong minded little miss but her strength was demonstrated two fold when during an enjoyable splashabout in the bath, the duck sponge quite simply lost its head! She pulled its body one way and its head the other and ultimately, its spongey neck just couldnt cope! I obviously dont condone my children destroying their things but all I could do was laugh at her looking from hand to hand with surprise (and a little delight I think).

This is the before picture .... the after picture is too disturbing :-)

We dont have much luck with ducks in our family. We were in a restaurant one day and my eldest daughter decides that she would quite like to try the duck and as we always encourage her to eat different things, I was delighted that she seemed to be enjoying it. The restaurant wasnt particularly busy and out of nowhere she stopped eating and looked at me and said "mommy, where does this duck come from" I asked her what she meant and she replied "its not from the duck pond is it?" The concern in her eyes left me with a dilemma, do I tell the truth or do I sugar coat it a little, and I could see some of our fellow diners were waiting on my answer too. So I went with "these ducks are born because they want to give you a yummy dinner" She eyed me up suspiciously but I think I got away with it.

In the same restaurant a little later, we were doing some word puzzles whilst we waited for desserts and were finding words that rhymed. We did all the simple ones like cat, bat, hat, rat and for some reason I suggested sock. So we had sock, rock, dock and c*** ....... trust me, I felt like that spongy duck and thought it was going to be me losing my head! My fabulous other half took it all in his stride and said "well done sweetheart, cockrel is another word". Phew!

I think we should maybe stay away from birds in our house!