I’m sure we all have our moments when everything in life just seems overwhelming and we wish (even if just for a moment) that we had an easier time of it! I think it’s perfectly natural to have these moments… but what do you do about it? And more importantly, when you reach out to others what do they truly loving towards you? Although there isn’t a lot we can do to control others reactions to us, we can ensure that we are prepared to lovingly and helpfully respond to others in these moments of desperation!
Archives For July 2011
Growing up, it was the normal tea in our house! The default. As a child I had it with milk and sugar, but over the years I dropped both the milk and sugar (my mother always used to tell me that ‘I was sweet enough’). It was one of the things that makes a place feel homey to me… being able to have a cup of my good old faithful! Of course, I’m talking about Rooibos (Afrikaans for Red Bush) which is being toted as the next super tea according to an SMH article my brother alerted me to. Continue Reading…
We had a rather momentous event today in the life of our 4.5 month old son… though I’m not quite sure it was momentous in a good way, not for me at least! 
I’m talking about the consistency of his poop: that great lake of mustard is beginning to dry out and is being replaced by a lovely pasty clay mud consistency. I did know it was bound to happen sooner or later as he’d started taking such an interest in everything we ate (a bit like a tennis match between plate and mouth really), that we’d obliged by introducing him to solids. Still, I was hoping for later rather than sooner! Continue Reading…
Are organisations with activities that could be enjoyed by young families pricing themselves out of business? Is our society becoming too self-centered to cater for families with young children lest they be a little rowdy and disturb others? There was an interesting article in the SMH discussing Australia’s least child-friendly businesses.
Take the movies for example, it’s not cheap to take a family to the movies – and it’s not getting any cheaper. I know plenty of families that don’t feel that movies are an affordable activity for them… Continue Reading…
I’ve carried our first child for 9 months, with a very unpleasant pregnancy of nausea, awful pelvic pain and colds & flu-like I’ve never had before. I woke my hubby up one morning at 2am because my head was SO painful I seriously thought they were going to have to drill into my skull to relieve the pressure (shows like Greys Anatomy & Private Practise didn’t do me any favours in bringing this extreme experience to my attention!) And then of course… let’s not forget the fact that I gave birth! And dealt with the hemorrhoid variety of ‘joys’ that come with the territory of postnatal health! So lets just say, I’ve been through my fair share of pain. Not to mention the awesome wrist pain that comes from still having relaxin in my system and having an every growing baby boy! I’m very careful how I lift him, and am constantly telling hubby to likewise… though it seems to fall on deaf ears!
So the other day hubby starts complaining of chest pain… Continue Reading…
So we saw Bridesmaids and it was a great experience! I discovered that there was a cinema without stairs, a gradual declining room made pram access uber easy! We had plenty of space to sit and deal with our babies in, and the pram parking down the front was hilarious! The lighting was good for feeding and nappy changes without being too distracting from the movie. My son slept through a large portion of the movie… watched a little, though true to form of his male genetics he got bored with it pretty quickly! All I can say is… a good chain of links never goes astray!
The movie itself was quite enjoyable if you put aside the colourful language and the sexual references that weren’t all that necessary. I learned a long time ago that I actually prefer watching movies where the colourful language and sexual references are checked at the door… Continue Reading…
I believe I am blessed to have been born into privilege and consequently feel it is my responsibility to utilise that to make a difference in this world! No, I don’t mean that we have a fancy house, fancy cars and everything we could ever want… I mean we live in a lucky country: we have a roof over our heads, we have enough food to eat, we have enough clothes to keep us warm, we have easy access to education, we have access to world-class health care, we live scores above the poverty line and we have access to government financial assistance should we require it. I mean that we don’t have to survive on less than $1 a day, we aren’t at risk of being forced into child labour, we don’t know the meaning of being truly starving, we don’t live in fear of civil unrest or militia groups and we don’t expect children we know to die before their 5th birthday! I have been born into privilege! And I do have a responsibility not to squander that privilege!
I like to think that I am kind, compassionate, generous and loving by nature. I have a heart for those in need and have a dream of having a sponsor child for every member of our family so that each of us is at least making a difference in one other persons life! What I don’t like to think about is that fact that things get under my skin fairly easily, that I tend to view the world in black and white and don’t do shades of grey very easily! Continue Reading…
I so often see someone while I’m out-and-about (both in the real & cyber worlds) and wish that I could put together an ensemble the way they can! Scarfs, trendy jumpers, boots, jeans, skirts, jewellery… whatever the combination, I find myself wishing I had their flare/ knack/ nous – call it what you will – I wish I had it! I dress ok, I’ve got simple taste and a very limited budget… I don’t really ‘invest in key pieces of clothing’ that seems to be popular with some fashionistas who then masterfully combine their ‘basics’ (which often seem more extravagant than basic) with other great numbers they happen across in their ‘daily grind’ (far more adventurous than grind-like if you ask me) and then they round off their look with the perfect accessory which they refer to pithily as ‘oh, this old thing?!’
I’m left wondering if it’s just me, or if anyone else ever feels so overwhelmingly inadequate in today’s world of fashionistas. Continue Reading…
I’ve come home today with some big ideas and lots of research to do into the baby shop industry and their suppliers!
Is Australia really prepared to accept that prices here will always be higher than our American & Canadian counterparts? What do America and Canada have to do with it? Not much really, but they do provide us with a good comparison of the sort of prices we could reasonably expect to be paying in Australia for baby items! Why is it that many of the independent baby stores out there have to fight tooth and nail with suppliers for stock, but the chain stores don’t appear to have too many problems? Why does the ATO flag an independent baby store’s low profit margin for potential illegal activity? Why are they seemingly unaware of the Australian baby industry’s climate and how small the profit margins are for independent baby stores around the country? And more importantly to me… what is the ACCC doing about all of this? Continue Reading…
The thing is… I really do have a brain… at least I did, until said brain went walk-a-bout… which happened right around the time I was pregnant… at least that’s when I think it happened, I can’t be sure of anything these days – given that said brain has gone walk-a-bout and all that!
I arrived at the Physio today and went to park, only to find that all the parking spaces on one side of the parking were 1/2 hour spots and the parking spaces on the other side were 2 hour spots… so I reversed out of the 1/2 hour parking and got a 2 hour spot instead. Just in case. A good decision as my little man became quite cranky during my appointment and needed to be fed afterwards before we went home. While I was feeding him I was chatting to the receptionist and asked when the spots were made into 1/2 hour parkings, her response? Continue Reading…
