Times they are a changin'....

I know I'm not perfect, I have many flaws, I swear way too much, I drink way too much coffee and of course, I have absolutely no fashion sense.

But things are changing in my house.  This weekend is the last weekend of junk food here.  I tried to just have little bits of "bad" food for when I'm craving it, but let's be honest - once you have a little bit, you crave more.  Then you eat more.  Then you crave more and before you know it - there goes half a block of chocolate in one sitting.

So no more.  From now on my focus will be healthy eating, with some exercise thrown in if the kids will let me....

Another thing that has changed recently - I've left a parenting forum of which I was a member for nearly 4 years. A very active member.  A member who had over 14,000 posts in that time.  I was very addicted, and I admit, it made me a better mother because it opened my eyes to things that I had never thought about before. I don't parent my 4th child the same way I did my 1st.  I know better, so I do better.  However, with this extra knowledge and "friendships" there came a cost.  I ignored my children's needs sometimes. Got angry at them - "for godsake, just let me write this post!" springs to mind.  Did the people on that forum really care if I answered a thread?  Probably not.  Did my kids care that I yelled at them so I could do so?  You bet your arse they would have.

So no more. Its time to cherish my kids the way they should be cherished.  More listening. More dancing.  Less yelling.

And like my friend had on her facebook status one day - "Love your children like they are your own.  Discipline them like they are someone else's."

Its time for change.

Celebrating but not celebrating...

Today The Baby turned 6 months old.  6 months!!  Halfway to a big 1 year old, then I will never ever have another baby, just a few toddlers and some preschoolers.

Today also marks 6 months of breastfeeding.  I've been congratulated about it, worth celebrating because it blows all my previous experiences out of the water.  But, I feel weird celebrating something that is perfectly natural.  Same as I did after my VBAC's - I felt weird being all jolly and all "wow, I did something amazing, I had a natural birth after 2 c-sections".  Because all I did was something that happens every single day all over the world.  I'm not special, I'm not amazing, or strong or any other cool stuff - I'm just doing what heaps of other women do.  All the time.  All over the world.

I think its sort of sad that these things have to be "celebrated" and its far from the norm of society.  So today is a bittersweet celebration, I acknowledge what has been achieved, and I'm proud of that, just wish it didn't have to be "celebrated" - you know?

Anyway - here's to 6 months Baby!

 And here's my chicken - comes complete with dimples.

Questioning the label

I've been thinking a lot about labels lately.  I've described myself as "a little bit crunchy".  A few months ago, I didn't even know what a "crunchy mum" was, I had to ask my friend.  Apparently its those ones that have home births, breastfeed, co sleep, cloth nappying, babywearing, non vaxxing, you know - all those "hippy" types as my mother would say - at least that is a quick sum up of it.

However, in my musings over the past week - I'm really not "a little bit crunchy".  On paper, yes, it appears this is the case.  I basically had two homebirths. I breastfeed The Baby.  I babywear - and own 3 different types of carriers.  I haven't vaxxed my youngest.  I co-sleep. I use cloth nappies.

If ever I was asked why I do these things - my answers certainly wouldn't match up to the normal "crunchy" type.  I had 2 previous c-sections, one purely because I didn't want to ever go through labour.  I have formula fed the 3 other children, its only the 4th one that its been successful with.  I wear The Baby because she won't let me put her down to sleep during the day, and I have 3 other children to take care of.  We haven't vaxxed The Baby because we haven't finished our research as to whether we want to or not.  We vaxxed the first two, and delayed with Speedy.  We co-sleep because Sparrow and Speedy creep in overnight at some ridiculous hour, and The Baby wakes up if we move her once asleep.  So I keep her next to me.  Cloth nappies?  Disposables are expensive when you have 3 in nappies.  Plus, it is less landfill and they are pretty cute.

So I'm changing my "label".  I'm not "a little bit crunchy".  For me, my new label will be "Whatever Works".  All those things work for me.  I'm a normal mum, doing Whatever Works for me.  For my family.  For our family happiness.

I hope people look past "labels" and see that every mother out there is doing whatever works for them, regardless of whether or not it would personally work for you.  More acceptance and less judgement is pretty much all we are asking for.  Actually, no - its what we deserve.  Sometimes its worth pushing past those labels and getting to know the person underneath - because they could turn out to be a pretty awesome friend.

Poppin' my cherry

In blogging world that is.

I'm not sure if this blog will go anywhere, if I will ever publish more than one post, but I suppose you have to start somewhere.

A bit about me - I have 4 kids.  3 animals. Only the 1 husband (but I have an ex-husband if he counts...).  We live in Tasmania, soon to be relocating to Brisbane just before Christmas.  So my children are Sparrow (4.5 years), Coo (3 years), Speedy (nearly 2) and The Baby (nearly 6 months).  They work together as a group to frustrate and entertain me in (almost) equal amounts on a daily basis.  Sometimes more frustration than entertainment, however if I'm in one of my "exhausted beyond belief" moments, I'm usually so giddy with exhaustion that I find everything more amusing that I normally would.  Which is probably good for the kids because those are the days where mummy is slightly crazy and spends most of the day laughing at nothing, tickling, dancing and being stupid,  opposed to the regular days where she's one step away from curling up in a ball and rocking in the corner.

Today I am having a Thermomix demo (I already own a Thermomix and not exactly sure why I'm having a demo but I believe I got talked into it somehow...) so I suppose its time to go prepare the food, clean toilets etc.  Plus Elf Man (my husband) has just asked if he can murder one of the children, so I think that's my cue to come in and ask if he wants another child.........or at least ask him to make me some breakfast!