Breathe

Today Gremlin was at school, Chicken was at kindy, W@dsy was at work and I was home alone with Poppet. I loved it. It wasn't the first time, in fact it has happened twice a week for most of the year.

But today I stopped.

I stopped trying to catch up on laundry and baking and sleep. I stopped feeling guilty about being lazy and not doing enough housework or being a good enough mum. Poppet was screaming at me for no reason and she wouldn't stop.

So I stopped.

I took a deep breath, wheeled her screaming in her high chair to the bathroom and turned on the taps to the bath. She stopped screaming and just watched me. I stripped us both down and we got in. She was calm and happy. She usually hates baths, she spends the whole time trying to get out, normally she has one of her siblings in the bath with her (a parent supervising of course), but today it was me. Today we played in the bath, we giggled, we played with toys, we fed each other blueberries, we just had fun. I had been so busy for so long trying to get everything done I was missing out.

Its time to make myself breathe, accept that I'm not perfect and simply enjoy the amazing life God has given me.

Isn't she just beautiful.

Here we go again

Now that W@dsy and I have decided to stop having kids. Its probably time to get my butt back into shape. I am trying to lose 10kg by the end of the year. This is about the hundredth time I have told myself I am going to lose weight. I'm not a goal orientated person but I'm hoping this will work this time.

Do I have an awesome plan to do this? Am I going to go on some special diet? No I'm just trying to get off my butt more often and exercise and not eat junk food. This sounds like a simple plan, however... I love junk food, soooo much. There are several drive through places on my way to Gremlin's school and they call to me. They call to me I tell you. I am doing okay... so far. I am trying to remember to eat a healthy breakfast and have some healthy snacks and plenty of water on hand for when hunger strikes. I am even considering making myself a sticker chart, so I get a sticker everytime I say no to junk food, at least that way I can see my progress even before the weight comes off.

As for exercise, I posted on facebook asking if any of my friends wanted to be my fitness buddy to let me know. Well, quite a few people replied, so I decided that 3 days a week I would go out to a different location and exercise and invited my friends to join me. I asked them NOT to tell me if they couldn't make it, that way I'd have to go, because I didn't know if anyone would be waiting for me. I don't have a brilliant wet weather plan yet, but I figure for now we can meet at my place and do pushups etc when it rains. I'm one week in and going ok (Still craving burgers and fries). But of course I now have a cold :( I will keep exercising but at a lighter pace until I'm better.

Does anyone have any other brilliant healthy weight loss ideas?

Not-so-schoolmum

Now that Gremlin goes to school, I can now officially call myself a school mum.

I am discovering a whole new world I never knew existed. If you listen to everything you read on the internet you may go insane. There are blogs on how to dress for the school run, lunch box art, fancy name labels and how to organise a homework nook.

I'm a different sort of school mum. I throw on my usual "uniform" of a geeky T-shirt and denim shorts to drop the kids off. I make sure my kids get food in their lunchboxes, if I'm lucky they will even eat all of it. I scrawl the kids names on their things with a pen that keeps rubbing off so I have to do it all over again. I might even remember to occasionally check Gremlin's school bag for notes and homework.

I have also discovered a few things. I love the school holidays. Why? Because it means all my kiddies are home and I get unlimited cuddles of course, but also and rather importantly, I hate the school run. I hate having to get everyone dressed and fed with bags packed at a set time and then in the afternoon doing it all again. Then there is the small talk with other parents while you hang around at the school waiting for your kids to start or finish class.

It's quite funny, you seem to lose your identity when you are a school parent. You meet people and befriend them based on who their kids are. I am no longer Ziva, I am now Gremlin's mum. It took a while but I now have other parent friends at the school, ones who are just as crazy as me.

I will probably get the hang of this school parent thing... in about 18 years when Poppet graduates from high school.

Back on track

After a very long break I am back. I have a really good excuse for my long absence.

I had another baby.

After a really long pregnancy involving being medicated for throwing everything up and then being on insulin for gestational diabetes, I had a beautiful baby girl we have nicknamed "Poppet."

She is now 16 months old and running around everywhere.

My family has had a pretty busy time. Other than gaining a beautiful baby, we have moved twice, gained two dogs, a cat and a housemate with a cat. Gremlin has started school and Chicken is in kindy 2 days a week. Our place is pretty crazy these days but I am loving it.

Even though lots has changed, also a lot hasn't. I am still me, still terrible at housework and getting myself organised, but that's ok.

Now that I am back there will be more posts to follow soon.

Catch ya soon.