* advent. more specifically advent with Bliss.
* when children nap; to sleep or not to sleep
* discipline strategies for a strong-willed toddler
* wonderful christmas gifts for infants, toddlers & their mummies!
* and for a long time I’ve been thinking about sleep and faith
* how incredibly tired I am of saying “please don’t do that”
* how incredibly tired I am of hearing “no” – in general, not only in response to the above.




If I’m really lucky, I might actually get a chance to write more about these things over the coming weeks.

A friends said to me this weeked “We can have it all. We just can’t have it all at once.”

She’s said it a few times and it got me thinking. I don’t particularly want it all, and certainly not all at once. Perhaps I am lucky that I’m not “made” to be a career woman; it certainly takes some of the pressure off.

There are other pressures, of course; but they are for another post on another day.

Really this coment got me thinking about something I read on another blog last week.

The author, Nicole Unice wrote “One a bad day…I wonder if I’ll be one of those women who says, “God planted a dream in my heart, but it wasn’t until decades later when my kids were grown and I had scores of wrinkles that it actually became a reality.” I wonder if I’ll be like Sarah or Hannah who lived whole lifetimes without realizing the desires of their hearts. I wonder if I can keep the faith, if that’s my path.”

When I read that I had one reaction – me too.

In 2008 year I started thinking about my purpose. I was spurred on my the birth of Bliss, the decision about whether to return to work and thinking about turning 30. This milestone is now only a few short months away and I’ve come no further in thinking about my purpose or my dreams for the next decade. God led me to a wonderful job that has been a perfect fit for my stage of life and passions and I’ve been blessed with another beautiful child.

Yet when I read that comment it resonated so strongly with me. I love my kids, I love being home with them, I love the home we have and the fact that I am gaining in confidence and competency in “running a home”

but

there are dreams,
passions,
visions of what could be – some noble, some just plain fun

that just can’t be realised while I am doing all this.

and I’m ok with that
most of the time.
There are a multitude of blessings and joys that come with what I am doing at the moment.
God is not absent in this season of life.
Perhaps what I have realised is that as I travel through my 30s, I will live the reality of the dreams of my 20s, raising my beautiful kids, loving my husband and enjoying the many beautiful relationships that are blossoming through this season of life.

Yes, the dreams are not gone and on a bad day I feel a little stuck.

but,

On a good day (which most are) I am filled with gratitude for the life I am living. The challenge before me, and dare I say before us all, is to let God be present, and let Him guide us through the life he has called us to live.

And maybe, just maybe, I do want to believe that you can have it all, just not all at once.

I was recently approached by Braun to review their newly released Multi Quick 7 Cordless Hand Blender which I was more than happy to do, or rather HH was more than happy to do as we all know that he’s the cook around here!

It arrived, along with some other lovely goodies and it’s already taken the place of most prized kitchen accessory.

We were given one of the older versions for our wedding 5 years ago. At the time HH proclaimed it to be the best present we were given. Sorry oldie, you’ve been usurped. This cordless version sits permanently on the kitchen bench and gets used all the time, even by me *shock* – hmmm…it seems that I do occasionally cook…but don’t tell anyone!

Not have the cord makes it super easy to use and having it permanently on the bench means it just gets used all the time. The double latch function means it’s safe from little fingers (you have to hold down the top and side buttons at the same time for it to turn on) as well as being a power saving feature. It blends, purees, chops onions and the like and comes with a tall canister in which to mix sauces etc…

This is definitely our most used kitchen accessory and now that we have it, I can’t imagine cooking without it! So if you need to buy a wedding present that you know will be loved and used regularly I would absolutely have to recommend this mixer and if you need something really useful in your kitchen then you really can’t go past this either!

Weeks 4-7…finally!


The best things about the past 3 weeks
- how many good days we are having. – I really thought it was going to be even harder second time round but we are doing surprisingly well, especially at the start of the week when we are recharged from the weekend.


- how gorgeous Bliss is with Bear – can’t wait to get some footage of her soothing Bear by cooing “it’s alright little man, it’s ok little darling.” Just divine! She also gets her stool and sits next to him rocking him – sometimes she rocks him right to sleep! Another time she went and sat next to him while he was crying, unhooked the cradle hinge and started rocking him, reassuring him while I was getting dressed. I ducked into the bathroom to hang up my towel and when I came back into the room Bear was asleep and she had re-hooked the rocking hinge so it was locked again. Just amazing.


- how gorgeous Bear is! Not just did we get some lovely photos of our cutie pie taken, but he’s got the most beautiful, gentle nature. He loves having his face stroked, it makes him coo & smile. Just delicious!!


- a new family dinner routine which is both fun family time & making the evenings much easier.


- I’m learning new things about both my kids and what makes them tick - this is both very helpful and really encouraging for me as I think about how to be the best Mum to each of them. I’ve learnt that if Bliss is having a “toddler moment” and not responding to me, if I say “Bliss, look at me” and get her to look me in the eye then she is able to stop, calm down and respond appropriately – or, one at least one occasion so far she will deliberately defy me – but  at least it’s obvious that that’s what she’s doing & I can then respond appropriately to that!


The challenges
- trying to get Bliss out of nappies for her day sleeps…and failing
- the housework – it just. never. ends.
- conjunctivas going from Bliss, to HH to Bear and now me…not to mention me then taking the eyedrops prescribed for Bless only to realise after almost a day on them that I am a breastfeeding mama and probably should check about taking antibiotics – whoops!

What I’m thinking about…
- the “digital profile” I am creating for my kids via this blog and facebook, especially as Bliss gets older and her personality is developing more keenly…how do I write and stay real about being a Mum without creating a legacy for my kids that will exist forever on the world wide web…thoughts anyone?


- that Bliss is going to be able to understand a lot more about Christmas this year and how to put into practice some of the traditions I have had sprouted on about over the past fews years working in Children & Families Ministry.


- that the second time round this parenting gig is a whole lot easier!

Part 2 of Bear’s birth…(I’m going into quite a bit of detail of the day tor my own sake so won’t be offended if you skim read or skip this all together).

I arrived at the hospital feeling really pleased that I was already in labour and hopeful that this would mean minimum intervention (on the induction front). I was pleasantly surprised to be led straight into a large birthing suite that was all ready for me. This was a ‘luxury’ I missed out on with Bliss.

The midwives were lovely, there were two of them as one was a trainee. It was amazing how ‘normal’ the first hour or so was; contractions were timed, we chatted in between, played around with the TENS machine (which I found just as annoying second time round as I did the first). I was all very low key & social until we were well into the second hour there and things started to heat up. By the time my OB arrived we were cracking and there wasn’t much to do aside from breaking my waters but just let things happen.

What happened next is a bit hard for me to describe. I jumped in the shower to help with the pain somewhere around 10.30-11am and when I got out about an hour later and had the HH just massaging my back when the contractions came, I started to panic. A very close friend had had a very difficult birth a couple of weeks earlier and I started to think about everything that had happened with her during the labour and then the post-birth complications and then I started thinking about being tortured and how I’d crack straight away and what if my family was depending on me not too…crazy stuff, none of which is very helpful to be thinking about while in labour.

They gave me the gas, which helped a bit, but I was really wanting an epidural though I hadn’t said anything yet. I told the HH and the midwife that I was panicking and while they were very reassuring and told me that I didn’t look like I was panicking, I reiterated “well that’s fine that I don’t look like I am panicking, but I AM panicking.” (Thank you calm birth techniques for enabling me to not actually panic but to be able to control myself, had I not been able to at least control the way I was coping with the panic I think I would have been quite freaked out.) At one point, not knowing at all what I was thinking, the lovely midwife said to me “You’re totally safe” which I found really helped me to calm down. I think she saw me respond to that and so both she & HH kept reassuring me of it.

After I told the midwifes and HH I wanted an epidural I went through another set of conflicting emotions – I knew that an epidural had been really helpful with getting Bliss out and so I knew that they had there place but this was a different birth and it wasn’t to help things move along but to help me manage the pain. I didn’t want people to think that I failed somehow, but I also knew that I didn’t need to be a hero and that I was quite comfortable with have one. The midwives were keen for me to try pethidine first but I hated it with Grace, it made me feel really out of it without helping with the pain though in my more lucid moments, between contractions, it seemed like a good idea.

Another hour or so passed while this was all happening and just after midday I said that I definitely wanted one. The anesthetist was on the ward so could do me straight away but if I didn’t want one he was leaving and would come back if I called. To me this confirmed my decision as the thought of deciding in half an hour or so and then having to wait for him to get back to the hospital and get organised – hmmm, no thanks! The midwives called my OB who said he was OK with me having one but thought there probably wasn’t any need as I was likely to deliver soon though noone would tell me what “soon” meant and the HH and I both thought that because everything else had moved so slowly up to this point we were still several hours away. In fact, it was at this point we should have called my Mum and told her to make her way to the hospital.

blog directly from my brain without having to actually find the time (like at 3.30am!) to do it….

Bear is now 6.5weeks old.

A very talented friend took these photos a week ago…I think they are quite gorgeous