I'm Grateful

Picture found here

Oh I have been a slack tart and haven't joined in with the Saturday 'I'm Grateful' with Maxabella for a while but now I'm back.

This week , like most weeks, has had it's ups and downs but here is what I'm grateful for (in no particular order)

* Growing up in a generation where Oprah was a major influence.  I am a huge Oprah fan and last night watching the finale I realised how privileged we are to be inspired by such a great woman.

* Ginger & Ginger beer......this pregnant girls new best friends!

* Being part of the blogger/twitter community....need a question answered, looking for advice it is brilliant!

* My parents for graciously saying yes when the Madam wants to go to their place.....which means I can catch up on a lot of things!

* Mezza Italiana By Zoe Boccabella One of the best books I have read in a long time.

Apart from that I am also really grateful I get to wake up every morning.....it's always a good start!

Pregnancy, Sex & Sleep

A photo I took a while ago of all  the things I love and can't have at the moment.

I promise I will not spend the rest of the year just blogging about pregnancy....it's a great topic although I know it is not in most people's list of 'top 10 things to read about!'.  Seeing as this is my second time and it's been five years since the Madam was born it's actually a little entertaining all the things I blocked out   forgot happened at this stage.

* Trying to find a balance between maintaining a sex life and pregnancy induced narcolepsy is hard but apparently quite entertaining.  I don't usually require much sleep but now I sit or lay down and I am out like a light - apparently never to wake no matter what offer the Mr puts to me! Which is painful in more ways than one because hormones mean i want it all the time but he's to bloody fussy about me being awake!

* The amount of people that say to me 'ooohhh five year age difference, that will be hard.....I wouldn't do that if I was you' or ' it will be okay at least the Madam will be at school so you wont have two at once'........well actually I tried but I couldn't get the age difference any closer because the Mr is a stubborn &*^% and I would actually like my kids to like each other at least for the first few weeks so I'm not that fussed if they both realise they have to exist together.

* The amount of people that ask 'Do you know what your having?'....at the moment it resembles something the size of a kidney bean and a cross between an alien and a tadpole so go figure?

* I forgot how yummy lemons are and have consumed far too many so now my mouth looks like a ducks butt.

* I also forgot how lovely it is to wake up feeling hungover but not having a big night out to show for it.

* I forgot how much I forget stuff during pregnancy which is much easier this time around because I have the Madam.  Now when i leave the house she stands at the door and says verbatim ' Mum do you have your keys, your phone, your purse, your visa and your kid!'.  I have a tendency to forget one or all of these.

* How emotional I am.  I actually , in the past, have been known to be so unemotional I earnt the nickname 'the ice queen'.  Pregnancy makes up for the rest of my life it seems.  The last Oprah episodes may well send me into therapy....who knew Stevie Wonder could make me cry?????

* Did I mention that I want to have sex all the time but keep falling asleep???

Must go have a nanna nap.

Our next force of nature

Well yes I have been away again for a while.  I don't know know why but sometimes life just takes over.  The Mr returns to working away again in three weeks so we have been making the most of hanging out together and doing some work on the garden before he goes.  I hate this time anticipating that he is going to leave (he does come back for a few days every fortnight) but then we drive each other crazy when we actually have to live together again!

My other distraction from blogging is that I am pregnant! I know, the Mr , it seemed had spent the last four years telling all and sundry how 'we are just having one that's enough!'.  Then out of the blue last year decided to want another baby - which was totally cool with me as I always wanted another.  We having been trying for a while, longer than others and not as long as some, and now I am nine weeks.  I am due on Christmas Day.......I keep telling people that's because the Mr has a God complex.

I have had some health issue during and after I had the madam so as soon as we started trying I cut down and cut out as much of the unhealthy aspects of my life as I could.  I also have stalked  followed Nat Kringodouis for a long time.  Nat is a wealth of information on all things fertility and good for you and I really do credit all the information she gives on her cleanse, blog and twitter with us having baby #2 on the way.  I had some health issues when I was pregnant with Madam and as I am 'rubenesque' (is that the word?) I have really had to get my health organised and reading everything Nat writes has been so much help.

Anyway......

I am hoping now I may have my mojo back and be blogging more.  I always read every ones I have just been lately feeling like I have nothing overly interesting to say...but hopefully my writers block has shifted!

Please don't worry I will not be doing anything that resembles a pregnancy photo shoot as when I am pregnant it is often mistaken for elephantitis ...I am not one of the cute pregnant girls! Here is the first photo of our next force of nature....

Monday Morning Tunes

Why I didn't want to be the last one at the party!

                                               This picture from this fab site

I'm a housewife/stay at home mum....on that part in forms where you tick what you do for a living I tick that square that says 'home duties'.  I have been ticking that box for almost five years now and I love it.  I actually love what I do.  Sure the hours are extensive, the pay is crappy (unless you count sex as payment for a job well done as according to the Mr!) and the Christmas party is questionable but it is a a great job.

It has taken me a while to be comfortable with it, I'm not always sure I am, but I'm getting there. See I was and , contrary to common belief, am a  feminist.  I am a full on, lefty, hippy, "femo nazi" (yes someone actually used those words on me) and I am a housewife.  It's taken me a while to figure out how to combine everything into one role, into my life, but I think it comes down to one thing.....

I do what I do because I love it...not because of circumstance, other people, influence or anything else.  I am lucky enough to have a partner that supports me ( and is still my favourite person to hang with) being at home with the madam and that also allows me to pursue a few 'creative' avenues at the same time. 

I also try (yes try being the word!) to approach it in a similar way that I would any daily job.  Sure I have a fair amount of flexibility and I am not the most organised person but I have certain things to check of my list, goals to achieve and timeline to (yes try) stick to.

For a good ten years of my life I partied.  I partied hard.  It was a fantastic time with fantastic people. Yes...the 'what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas' rule applies to that time of my life.  I don't regret a second of it and yes at time I do miss it.  When I'm  am up at odd hours with a sick four year old, trying to figure out how to pay the bills and planning weekend birthday parties/menus I do sometimes think that getting all dressed up and going out to mainline cocktails with dirty names and meet lovely men who look so much better after said cocktails would be good but....

A friend, who also happens to be a very smart friend, once said to me 'you never want to be the last one at the party trying to drink the dregs out of the champagne bottle'.  So I changed it up.  I never had plans to be in a relationship, I actually did not think I could have children and I was never going to be a stay at home mum but I went with the flow of things and this is where I am.  Change is good .  It's been six years since I met the Mr, four and a half since I had the Madam.  don't get me wrong....I still love to party it just takes a different form these days.  Instead of holding up a bar and paying way too much for drinks it's usually wine and platters on the veranda or a BIG night out if babysitters allow. The one thing is, if you are open to it, change can often bring different people into your life and my social circle now has a fairly eclectic range of people and I hope that continues.

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, I know everyone's different and I think it's just human nature to have an opinion about how others live and/or work.  I also don't think because you are a stay at home mum, a housewife or work from home you are immediately 'under the thumb', repressed or have lost all chance of 'having a life'....if it works for you then that's all that matters. 

What I do works for me, it works for my family....I'm not one for hanging onto the past, I don't feel the need to relive my late teens/early twenties...the memories make me smile but now the wine is so much better!

The newest addition.....

This weekend has seen us add a new addition to the family......to join the mildly neurotic but

 lovely Karma the wonderdog (staffy x) we now have George of the jungle (American bulldog).

He is small, but only for now, as he will soon  enough tower over Karma.  We are hoping that they will be 'good friends' as oppose to the weird sniff and squash relationship they have initiated at the moment.

I can now, with a small amount of experience, say that having a male dog is kinda of like when the man  in your life has 'man flu' ....enough said :)

A peek.....

I would really love to see this

I just watched this and this in the last two weeks and highly reccomend both!

I really hope I can one day be as cool as this lovely lady.

My new favourite recipe

The boy who loves boys and that makes me love him even more.

Picture from here.