A Quick Read

I stole this from a friends Facebook - i'm not sure how long its been doing the rounds but i thought the my fellow mummy bloggers out there might enjoy it. Click on the pic for a larger version - you know, if you dont want get all squinty to read the fine print there....

Just as an aside, i dont actually have any friends like this, it just struck a chord, ya know?

Just Call Me Slummy Mummy

I’m suffering from mummy guilt. Or maybe I should make that housewife guilt, because its not exactly the mothering side that I’m feeling guilty about, but rather the taking-care-of-housework side. That is, I kind of feel like some things are getting away from me and that makes me feel like I’m not doing the best job I can.


See there is cleaning washing piling up all around me – some that needs folding, some that I’ve already folded and just haven’t put away yet; dirty washing to be done sitting in the laundry; I haven’t vacuumed the floors in well over a fortnight and I think my wonderful post-baby hair fall is causing my bathroom tiles to resemble a shag carpet. Even as I take 10 minutes or so to sit here and blog, I know I could be using this time to put away the clean dishes ( that Mick washed last night ) or fold some of that piled up washing ( most of which Mick washed on the weekend ). I also know that all those parenting and mummy magazines say that the dishes can wait – whats most important is me and my baby – but I cant help but feel that bad that my house does not look like my mothers house, or at least the way I remember my mums housing looking when I was a kid.

Granted, my mum also let the clean washing pile up ( so maybe that’s hereditary ) but as far as I can remember Mum always had the carpets vacuumed, the furniture dusted, the dishes washed,dried and put away and had everything ready so that when Dad got home he could cook the dinner ( yep, my Dad did most of the cooking. He’s just better at it then my mum ). I know my mum had the whole “ it’s a womans work “ thing ingrained in her brain by my grandma and believe me, I don’t want to be some kind of weird Stepford wife, living only to please her husband. But I feel like Mick deserves a nicer, neater house than what I keep it, and I feel like I’m letting him down in someway. He says I’m not and, besides, I make him awesome muffins… but still, I just feel like I could do better.

So tell me other mums – and not-mums who manage to keep everything in order: how do you do it ? And, if like me, your in slummy-mummy territory, how do you feel about it?

I Wanna Be Like Mike...Umm, I Mean Martha

And by Martha, i mean Martha Stewart. See, since becoming a first-time, stay at home mum ( SAHM ) i've been watching a fair bit of day time tv. I've kept up with Dr Phil, Oprah, Ellen and the girls from the view, but i've also found a new found love for 'The Martha Stewart Show' and for the Australian version of 'Ready!Steady!Cook!' I've been drooling madly over all the delicious food they cook on these shows and then it gets to dinner time and i'm inspired to make something just awesome for Mick and myself - only i dont have the pantry stocked with fancy ingredients that Martha has. I dont do too badly - its not like i dish up the boring old meat-and-two-veg - but i cant just whip up some gorgeous fancy meal without some degree of preparation.

So as of grocery shopping this week i'm inspired to stock my cupboards and fridge with some cooking show basics: filo pastry, rock salt, bread crumbs, frozen berries, tumeric, paprika, soba noodles. You know, things like that. I mean, i already have mixed dried herbs, plain salt and 2 minute noodles, but they just dont cut it. If i have all that stuff then i can just pop on my favourite recipe website, www.taste.com.au, and find myself a meal to impress my fiance with every night, without having to drag poor Flynn to the supermarket when i only need to buy one or two items.

So tonight, bearing in mind that i dont yet have my fancy pantry set up, we'll be having barbecued lamb steaks topped with avocado and melted feta, accompanied by my mixed tzatziki salad concotion - cubed cucumber, red capsicum, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach covered in tzatziki dressing. Y-u-mmmmmmm......

Thinking Happy, Week 4

Hello again, and welcome to week 4 of Holly's " Operation Think Happy "! Just a reminder that this involves listing 7 things that have made you happy this week. Focus on the positives people!

1. The moment, #1 - I was in the middle of getting dinner ready last night when Flynn decided he wanted to have a grizzle, so Mick scooped him up and took him outside. After a few minutes i go to the door and out in our driveway, there they are - Mick lokking down at this little wrapped up bundle in his arms, chatting to him about God knows what. I just stood at the door, unseen and smiling.

2. The moment, #2 - A few hours later, i've finished feeding Flynn and he's lying back, all milk drunk.... but not taking his eyes off his daddy. Its like, even at 8 weeks old, Daddy is his hero. Too, too sweet.

3. Planning an engagement party - finally! We've been engaged since October but havent even thought about an engagement party yet. Its not going to be anything fancy, just a big bbq at my parents house, with family and friends.

4. Chocolate truffle balls - I stole this very simple recipe from Welfare Wisdom and completely loved it! Basically get a packet of your favourite biscuits ( like Caramel Tim Tams for me, or it could be Oreos, Mint Slice etc ), blend them into crumbs, mix with cream cheese, chill, roll into balls and then cover with melted chocolate. Yummmmm.....

5. Cucumbers - or, more specifically, cucumbers from our vegetable garden. I dont know how my farmer fiance does it but they're big, green and fresh...oh, and free!

6. Mothers group - This was the fourth week of meeting up with my mothers group ( a group of first time mums - our babies range in age from 8 to 16 weeks ) but its the first i've actually ' clicked with ' some of the other mums. I'm a little shy and it takes me a while to warm up to strangers, so it was nice to be able to have a little chat and not feel too self-concious about it this week.

7. Hitting the 8 week mark - that is, my son is now 8 weeks old and i havent broken him yet! He's also gone up a size in the clothing for the first time, so that was a nice little milestone to hit...

You Can Still, and Will, Do This....

The past was called to my attention today and i realised that i'm not as contemplative now as i once was. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing - i still contemplate, but the things on my mind are now more often trivial than deep and meaningful. I blog about the days random happenings and make lists of curious tidbits instead of musing on my innermost thoughts. I suppose its because i'm happier now - and with happiness there is a definate lessening of internal contemplation. Or internal damnation , which was quite often what was happening in my case. I've stopped looking inside and trying to figure out what was wrong - i still delve inside every now and then but i dont see much wrong anymore. I dont feel like there's so much i need to get off my chest, which really decreases blog post subject matter. That being said, i could make regular posts about how good i'm feeling, and how things are going so well or how much brighter the world seems - only i know that if i was reading a blog where every second poast was sunshine and rainbows i'd be completely turned off. Life needs its yin and its yang, its black and its white, its ups and its downs, in order to be interesting. And so does a blog - just as a blog that was continually full of doom and gloom would become boring, so would continual " happy-happy-joy-joy ".

Whats my point here ? I'm trying to convince myself i'm still capable of deep and meaningful; that i'm still able to ponder the intellectual and the emotional and not just the trivial and ridiculous; that i can still become absorbed and lost in a film or book or album instead of merely watching or reading or listening. And most of all i'm trying to convince myself that being able to do all these things will help me raise a wonderful person, with an open mind and an open heart.

I want to be the mumma who helps her child to experience and live and learn and grow and.... be. I want to let my child know that its a good thing to be smart; that their are hundred ways to do things but that doesnt mean that any one of them is the single " right " way; that thinking for yourself is awesome and being a sheep is not; that different does not always equate to worse. I would like to think i'm up the this task. Admittedly, its crazy to think- not 18 months ago i was still seeing a pyschiatrist, trying to convince myself that i was not the boring/dumb/ugly person that i imagined i was. I had to learn to rely on myself, knowing that true self-reliance and belief was all i needed. Now ? In approximately 9 weeks time i will have someone in my life who will rely on me for everything; their reliance on me will literally be the difference between life and death. Its a sobering, scary yet exhilirating thought.

My life is not going to be mine anymore - and yet it is, and so much more mine than it ever was. Its just going to be different, thats all. And isnt the proverbial change as good as a holiday ?

Its Not Easy Being Green...

So.... " Wicked! " was, well, wicked. It was great. Amazing. Thrillifying, as the would say in Ozzian. And my mother enjoyed it too, which was a relief because i wasnt sure it would be her exact cup of tea. And i think my bubba enjoyed it because the entire way through the second half i was being kicked. Actually, i'd heard of a study that babies in the womb, when played music, will react most ot classical, so i suppose a musical like " Wicked! " almost falls into that category.

I wont give away details for those who havent seen it but suffice to say i totally recommend you get yourself some tickets when you can. I can also say that you will probably spend a good proportion of the first half disliking one of the main characters ( although i wont say who ). Oh - and " Defying Gravity " will absolutely blow your socks off. Which is a good thing.

What else did we get up to on our little roadtrip ? Baby furniture shopping - and it wasnt successful at all. Now i'm not going to be one these fussy mums who only wants brand name, expensive furniture or baby clothes or whatever, but the one thing i have my mind set on is getting a nice, quality, baby change table. You can get the standard baby change table, which is a plastic three tier trolley - kind of like a food service trolley, only plastic-er - but i'd like to get a change table that acts as a peice of furniture. Wooden, white , with three or four drawers, so thatw hen your finished using the top as a change area, the whole thing just becomes a chest of drawers for the little one's room. And do you think i could find one in my price change ? Uh.... nuh. The least expensive one i could find was still priced oat over $500 and i just cant afford to be spending that on ONE thing.

Let see: we've already bought a pram, but we still have: change table, cot and car seat to go, not too mention all the little stuff. So $500 on one item is a bit much when Mr Gil and i are trying to stick to a budget. Good news we may have found an alternative to the baby change table - a regular chest of drawers that i can put a change mat on top of - so that may be another item to be ticked off the list.....

I'm Off To The Land Of Oz

Yes, the moment is finally here - i am finally getting to see " Wicked! " tonight. To those of you who are not into musicals that probably doesnt mean much, but if you take into account that i tried to get tickets almost 5 yrs ago when i was in NYC and am only now just succeeding in that aim well...... thats a long wait. 5 years is a long wait for anything really. But the wait is over - my mother and i are roadtripping 6 hours ( probably longer when you add in all the toilet breaks my pregnant bladder will need.... ) down to Sydney to see the show tonight, and will be roadtripping it right back tomorrow.

6 hours you say ? WTF ? Here in Australia ( or at least where i come from ) a 6 hr roadtrip for an overnight event isnt really all that long - we do it all the time - and even if it were, i'm thinking this roadtrip will be well worth it. I have heard such great things about " Wicked! " the musical, and i read the original " Wicked! " novel by Gregory Macguire about 7 years ago, so i'm pretty confident i'm going to love it. So much so that i will probably buy the soundtrack.

Which means i can swap all the songs from " Rent " that have been floating around in my head the past two weeks for soaring ballads about witches and wizards and being green....

Do you eat Zebras ?

Thats what my neice wanted to know at dinner last night - " Aunty Amy, do you eat zebras ? ". We'd already gone over the fact that i eat chickens, and cows and pigs and little lambs, now my almost three year old neice was concerned that i might eat zebras.
Me: " Nope, i dont eat anything that has stripes ".
Her : " What about tigers, do you eat tigers ? "
Me: " Do they have stripes ? "
Her: " Ummm..... ( big long pause )...... yes. "
Me: " Then i dont eat them ".

All this stemmed from my dad mentioning that he was going to cook up some kangaroo sausages for his lunch the next day (he wasnt making that up by the way, we do eat kangaroo here in Australia ). My neice, however, thought the whole idea very funny. " Poppy, why are you going to eat a kangaroo ? " was the first question, which progressed onto what we do and dont eat. I felt honesty was the best policy - its important that she knows when we say we're eating chicken, we mean we're eating A chicken. What is also important is that you tell her that we DONT eat worms, dirt or boogers. Because sometimes she does eat boogers and, well, thats just not acceptable.
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Ah, shoes. Every woman worth her salt loves a pair of shoes, especially if they're on sale. I've had a handful of guys ask me about womens fascination with shoes, and i cant really explain it. Its just a sisterhood thing, i suppose - secret womens business to which there is no real answer. So when my mum asked me to take her shopping to find a pair of shoes to wear to my sisters upcoming 18th birthday dinner, i sure wasnt going to turn her down. My reward for this completely selfless act of kindness ? Getting the " second " pair of shoes when my mum waa offered a " buy one, get the second pair half price " special. Yay for me! So i chose me a really cute pair of shoes*- tan, leather, stacked heel, sling backs. They'll be perfect with a pair of jeans and white tank top. Too cute!
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Now, i know that we discussed whether or not i eat zebras, which was a no. What i do eat is Thai food, and my mum and dad decided tonight would be great night to go out for Thai. Bless their hearts for letting me come along for the ride. I am telling you, there is nothing in the world like a good mussaman curry, and the mussaman curry at our local Thai place is to die for! Tender chunks of beef in a smooth, sweet, peanutty sauce, accompanied by bite sized pieces of potato and large helping of rice. Absolute culinary heaven. I have never eaten so well as i did during my three weeks in Asia. I'd always liked your regualr run-of-the-mill Chinese food, but i developed a real love for Asian flavours whilst travelling. Everything was so fresh and light and i never went hungry. The best meal i had ? We had lunch with some Buddhist nuns in a monastery on a hillside in Vietnam and the food was gorgeous. Being nuns of the Buddhist variety they arent allowed to eat meat so everything we had was vegetarian. I was kind of thinking it was going to be quite a boring, stodgy meal but it suprised me - i dont know how they did it, but it was great! You know what else was great ? Tamarind crab. Seriously, i should not get started on how good this crab was....
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So, now, onward to tomorrow. I aske dmy mum if she'd like to go to the movies, so we're going to see " The Duchess ", with Keira Knightley. Umm, i mean she's in the movie, she's not coming with us, although that would be cool. I saw an interview with her on " 60 Minutes " and she seemed really down to earth, the kind of girl i'd be friends with. Keira, if you're reading this, give me a buzz and maybe we could do lunch or something.....


*I couldnt find a picture of them, so you'll just have to imagine them for yourself.