things to be thankful for

I found this last week rough. There's been a lot of things on my to-do list/plate/heart/mind/...you get the idea. It was easy to get bogged down and focus on the bad news and on the crappy situations that seemed to be everywhere I looked. Enter amazing people who I love. I have great friends. Friends who encouraged me to be thankful, friends who brainstormed with me, volunteered to help, went shopping for us, told me not to give up but to fight the negativity and to hold onto The Rock.

So this week I am being thankful. This morning before Ellie Boy woke up I wrote down 25 things that I am thankful for. If you read the list you'd probably think I've gone off the deep end! The list is full of little things like...no.6 Barry's Tea (can I hear an amen from all my Irish readers, haha?!), no.13 Elliott's 'satly scrunchy face (he wrinkles his nose like he's trying to be funny), no.20 My Hub's silly sense of humour, no.2 the sound of the rain on our flat roof and how it reminds me of the night of our wedding day.After writing down 25 simple things that I am thankful for I realised that I have so very many good things in my life. Even down to the small things. This week is already looking up but even if it's just as crap as last week it's ok, because I'm different.

What simple, small things are you thankful for today? Leave a comment and encourage someone else xx

I'm leaving you with no.8 and no.17 on my list: Black & White Photography and my son's chubby fingers.

Bad Mommie Blogger

Yes. I know. I'm a terrible blogger. I'd love to have some epic excuse for being awful at keeping here updated but the simple truth is that life just got in the way. Technology is still not my friend but I've decided to fight against all the frozen screens and unresponsive programmes and blog anyway!

Life is hectic at the moment. Two of my faveourite people are getting married this weekend, hurray! I'm helping them out by printing and sewing a couple of bit and pieces so a little busy with that. I'm so looking forward to seeing this great couple come together .The fact that they met at our wedding makes it even more sweet.

Their wedding is out of town so The Hub and I decided to leave out little prince with his granparents and spend the first night away from him since he was born. I'm completely divided between being really excited and looking forward to the break but also hoping I don't miss him and already having a little sad/anxious feeling growing in my tummy. Eeek...

Speaking of our little guy, I recently brought Elliott for his developmental checks and turns out he's doing just great. I could bore you with all the stats but the truth is if that's that important to you it really shouldn't be. Note to non-parentals: Some mothers get scary competitive about how their darling son/daughter weighs more or can roll more that than another little baby. Personally I think this is STUPID and should be outlawed! All it leads to is insecurity and worry that, "My Johnny isn't {insert said supposed 'skill' here} yet, blah blah blah..." When you sit down with a group of friends have you EVER thought to yourself, "hmmm, I wonder which of us stood unaided first...that would change everything!"? Nope, didn't think so. Babies/people are different shapes and sizes and grow at different rates. The strange thing is that whenever I've come across someone with a special needs child or a child who isn't yet reaching their 'should be' milestones, these parents are actually quite confident and satisfied with their child's own unique development. More often than not it's moms of perfectly 'healthy' kiddos who are doing the comparing and checking. I know that I've done this in the past but I'm going to make a huge effort not to go there anymore.

Am I the only parent who thinks this? Probably not, other parents probably just have a more eloquent nicer way of saying it, ha!

On a more positive (less-ranty) note, here are some cutie photos of Elliott trying to eat a pumpkin.

Happy Wednesday!

I hate technology...

this is how I feel about technology!

After almost of month of holding my laptop together with various random items from around our house, I finally replaced the dying cable. Since then my internet has been down, GRRRRR!!! Anyway, it's been a crazy busy month and I've got so many things to write about. Here's some of what's been happening around here...

So far on Weightwatchers I've lost 8lbs (in four weeks). I've found the programme fantastic but was disappointed with my own will power!  I may have already said this here before, but my problem with food is my lack of self control. I generally eat very healthily, cook all my food/sauces/soups from scratch but if I open a packet of biscuits I will eat the entire pack. All of them. Even if there are twenty in the packet.

Doing WW has helped me in lots of ways but if I can't get past this sort of overeating I won't have suceeded, no matter how much weight I loose. I've been really lucky so far and have managed to loose weight every week, even if it's only half a pound. After an incredibly unmotivated week and lots of chocolate I'm expecting to have gained weight. Weigh In is tonight so I'll let you know how I get on.

Elliott is EIGHT AND A HALF MONTHS old! Which means I'm super late doing his monthly photo and update. Will have that up tomorrow so do check back for some adorable baby photos of Elliott and Sophie!

 Eights months marked the end of breastfeeding for me and smEllie Boy. There were a couple of reasons why this was the right time for us to stop. I'm hoping to dedicate an entire post to this topic and to how we're getting on with formula and bottles.

Have a lovely evening!

(UPDATE: I did indeed put on weight, but only a half a pound! Hopefully it'll motivate me to loose more than that again next week.)

2 INCHES!!!

My sweet boy

Hello Lovely Readers!

I hope you all had a great week last week. Sorry for the lack of posts, my laptop isn't charging unless you ram one of Elliott's toys something under the flex so it doesn't die. Eeeek! (It's died three times while I was writing this post grrrrr.)

I had a really great week last week. I've been running almost every night and I'm loving it! I've been doing 4.8km runs last week and hope to hit 5.4km  next week if I'm doing well. Recently running is beginning to remind me of swimming as a child.For years when we were younger, my sister and I went swimming every friday after school and I grew to love it. I loved the weightless freedom that my body had to twist and turn in ten foot deep water. The utter silence that takes over when you plunge back in after coming up for air. The refreshingly clean feeling you get after being immersed in chlorine filled water for an hour. Most of all, I cherished the way in which the steady beat of my swimming strokes cleared my head. The way in which I could swim for an hour and not think a single thought.

Running (yes, still really slowly!) clears my head. My sweet Elliott has been a little off form recently. He is growing from my teeney tiny, helpless newborn into a crazy, fun boy who seems to know exactly what he wants. Before these last two weeks Elliott really didn't cry that much. He was SUPER BABY and now he seems to be kinda normal baby. I know I probably won't get that much sympathy from most other moms but Elliott is wrecking my head with his little whining thing! Trying to reason with an almost eight month old baby is proving difficult. I feel like nothing is working with him. I've tried cross mommy voice, giving him lots and lots of positive attention when he's being good, ignoring him when he's throwing a little tantrum. Do you know what I think after trying all of this..I think he's a normal baby. Human even. The only problem is I'm human too. I get frustrated and tired and near to clear my head. So I run. I pound the path with my big legs. Slow and steady. Only my legs aren't that big anymore. They are two INCHES slimmer than they were before I started running!!! That made my day.

So Lovely readers, what do you do to clear your head?



Hope you have a lovely day

x

Back to School

As I walked to the shops today with Elliott I met lots of kids in school uniforms. Is it really that time of year already? I guess with the weather being so cold this week I should have guessed but it still seemed almost inappropriate. As if all these small people had decided to simultaneously play dress up. That being said, there's also something about this time of year that I love. The new season, new leaf, another-chance, kind of feeling. Loads of new opportunities have come our way recently and it's got me really excited and motivated!

Speaking of new beginnings, I finally got around to getting my hair cut! My mother kindly took care of Elliott while I got pampered in the hair dressers. It was bliss. I know, I should have taken a before photo but trust me my hair was VERY long. Possibly the longest I've ever had it. It was just a bit below my shoulder blades, which sounds beautiful but it wasn't. It was thin and limp and almost, always tied into a bun as a result. I love the new cut, fingers crossed it's low maintenance. Low as in, turn your head upside down and blow dry it, because that's all it's getting!

Weightwatchers is going great! Thanks to everyone who commented and encouraged me. It's great to see lots of other people getting healthy and feeling better about themselves.This week was definitely harder than last. I got comfy knowing that I had lost a couple pounds so I wasn't as strict mentally. Then I went to a friend's babyshower where there were lots and LOTS of delicious, sweet things. I started well with fruit but then had a small nibble of something which led to a bite of about...four buns. Booo! My one encouragement was that I have been doing really well before and since. If it had been last month I would have already devoured a mars bar or two before I had arrived at the party, so I'm staying positive.

For two days in a row now I have run 3.4km. Not walk-run-walk, just run-run-run! Even more excited than having done it is that I ENJOYED it!!!! Any other time I have ever gone running it has been torture but this time I took it reeeeally slowly and enjoyed it.

What about you? Is anyone else out there motivated by this back to school feeling?

Have a lovely day x

Some photos from our weekend...

New hair, squinting in the sun!

new shoes

my faveourite bag

amazing apple trees in our garden

yummy porridge with banana and blueberries (3PP's)

My sweet boy

Baby fat

taken on holiday last month

I have started writing this post a hundred times but have never had the balls to press publish. Let's try again...
For as long as I can remember I have been heavier than a lot of my friends. In primary school I was really tall and at the age of 11 and a half I was 5'4", exactly the height I am now. I was about 10st when I was 12 but very sporty and not chubby. Then when I started secondary (high) school I started a lot of unhealthy eating habits and was about eleven and a half stone at my heaviest (that's 161lbs for all the US heads reading!).

Through college a couple of pretty weird things helped me loose weight. After my trip to Peru I was pretty sick (I picked up some sort of weird bug. No, not tape worm, you're disgusting hehe) and lost a lot of weight. I also got braces around the same time which helped me eat less because it was so painful! At my lowest I was about nine and a half stone (133lbs). The following year when I got married I was just under 10stone (140lbs).

It's so true what they say about the first year of marriage and putting on weight because by the time I got pregnant, nine months after our wedding, I was up to 11stone (154lbs) again. I was really healthy throughout my pregnancy, eating well, working two jobs and walking at least forty minutes every day. Everything was going very well until I hit Christmas and went FIFTEEN days overdue (I am currently writing Elliott's birth story so stay tuned). At that stage I thought, "screw it, I look like a whale anyway and they ways thing are going, I'm never going to give birth so I might as well eat myself to death."As you can imagine this led to a big fat weight gain. In the end I gave up keeping a record of how much I weighed and in Ireland you're not routinely weighed unless you're overweight, so I really don't know how heavy I got.

What I do know is Elliott is now seven and a half months old and I finally decided to do something about my weight and more particularly, my terrible eating habits. I bit the bullet and joined a weightwatchers class last week. I was so nervous about going on my own but so proud that I did it! I weighed in at 12stone 6.5lbs (175lbs) eeeeek!! So this week I stuck pretty rigidly to the programme while still going out once and enjoying a couple of glasses of wine spread out over the week and guess what...Im down 4.5lbs!!! WOO HOO!

It feels so good not to be in the cycle of comfort eating when Elliott is fussing or when I'm stressed/bored/nervous/happy/sad..you get the idea. This is the first week in a long time when I do not feel guilty and that feels great!!! I need to loose almost two stone (24lbs) to be at my goal weight of 10st 6lbs but I have lots of little goals in between that I am aiming for.

So that's my weight gain and now loss story! Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and even the comments coming in. Special shout out to Jess from IROCKSOWHAT who is an amazing blogger and has also started weightwatchers and lost 4.5lbs this week! Thanks to Deanna from Delirious Rhapsody who has lost a TONNE (not literally hahaha) of weight too and commented on my lovely little blog just to encourage me. Thanks girlies!

Have a lovely, healthy, yummy, fun day!

PS. I haven't yet worked up the courage to talk about this on fbook so if you're coming from there please comment below and not on my fbook page just yet, thanks :)

Ssssh

repinned here

Last week was pretty heavy. The Hub was working really hard and doing lots of overtime which meant I was doing a lot more house work, cooking and baby stuff than usual. Well, in theory anyway. To look at my house it certainly doesn't appear to have been worked on in a while. Elliott has also shortened both of his naps so that he is now sleeping just two ninety minutes naps a day eeeek! Just a few months ago he was sleeping six hours DURING THE DAY ALONE!!! Eh em...so, yeah I'm finding it the adjustment...testing.

So with The Hub/car/second pair of hands at work on Sunday, Elliott I didn't make it to church. I really missed seeing people and catching up. I missed the fun and the excitement but mostly I missed the chance to quieten my soul and spend some time focused on God. It's such a pity that God isn't everywhere and that I can't do just that at home on my own...Wait a second!?!

While Elliott rested his big, brown eyes for his afternoon slumber I too rested. I got cosy on our couch, sang my little thanks to God and then just sat there. Aware of him. Thinking about how he's got me covered, I don't have to worry. Then I was reminded of something. All week I could almost hear him whisper, "I love you. Not only that. I AM Love. Loving you isn't something I work hard at, it's part of who I AM". I needed to hear that and to know it.

During the week a girl I know said that she was on the way home from work when the taxi driver put on a song about how Jesus loves her. She was wrecked and some cheesy, country song was the last thing she wanted to hear. I get that. There's a lot of songs about Jesus that make my stomach churn with their samey chords, lyrics and cliches. What God spoke to me this week isn't like that song though.

God's Love is not an irritating song the wears you out and takes all the little bit of energy you have left after a long week. God's love changes everything. It changes who you are and how you feel. It effects how you see people, what you think of them and how you treat them. This week as God whispered to my soul, his Love changed how I saw myself and gave me courage that I am up to whatever task he sets before me.

I'm praying for you if you're reading this. (Yes, I pray! I'll post more about that again.) That you will know God's love. Not the cheesey, pukey, fake love that you think it is. I pray that you will rest and be reminded that you are loved with the kind of love that will change your world. His love is sweet and powerful, it's jealous for you, even furious. And I pray that you will find a quiet space in your day to experince it. Because when you experience the love of God, nothing will ever be the same again. It'll be so much better than you can even imagine.

Have a lovely day xx

4 Years

I was going to write up our big long love story but I think I'll keep that for another time. Today I will say that my amazing husband and I are celebrating four years of being together. We had our second wedding anniversary last month but I'm a sucker for celebrating every possible event {grin}. It's hard to believe it's been four years already but it's equally hard to imagine there was ever a day or an hour that I was this man's girl. I love being with him and sharing my life with someone so passionate, hard working and fun. He makes me laugh almost everyday and I know he does his best to love me every single day. Even when I don't understand or appreciate his efforts. Don't get me wrong, we are not perfect. We're both fiery souls so when we argue, we erupt! We've seen amazing times and rough times in these four years but they've still been the best four years of my life so far.

We've been talking a lot about how we communicate and show love to one another recently. Isn't crazy how you think you're expressing one thing but it's interpreted as the complete opposite? Today I'm going to do my best to show Kieran that I love him in a way he understands. This will probably involve a lot of food hehe.


Hope you're spending your weekend with someone you love xx

Ode to Yellow

I love {everything} in this etsy shop

When I was a teenager, for a long time my favourite colour was black. Which ironically isn't actually a colour but the absence of all colour. That kind of sums up my taste as a teen haha. Then at some stage red became my new black. I love all things red (as in fire engine red) and shiny! I have so many red clothes and accessories and even things for our home.

But then something strange happened. Something crazy bright and sunny and not very 'me' at all. I fell in love with the colour yellow! There's a lot of yellow in Elliott's nursery so maybe I can blame it on having a baby. Having said that I was almost put off yellow for life after all the lemon coloured "gender-neutral" clothes Elliott wore as a newborn. Yeah, gender neutral if you're a girl. What were we thinking, eeek!

As you can see I've been working on my blog header and changing it around a bit. This will do for now, I love the photo and the colours, but I think it might be changing again soon. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to photo editing, design and things like that.
So here is my ode to yellow, a lovely little collection of beautiful yellow lovelies from around the world.
What about you, my lovely readers? What is your favourite colour?

Amazing photography, from here

Boy yellow from old navy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutorial to add some yellow to your home, from Design Sponge

I {love} birkies

From tumblr, re pinned by me

Oh, Happy Day!

Elliott and I visited our lovely friends Kasia, Ola and little Emma today. The weather was beautiful so we sat outside in the cloud {the sun just went in...oops} and put the babies in the ball pit. Elliott had a ball {couldn't resist, sorry!} and I'd enjoyed catching up with the girls and hearing what they were up to.
Kasia and I met in college a few years ago and then had our babies just 4 months apart! It's great to have someone to chat to about what to expect in the next while with Elliott.

Speaking of himself, he's been much better today {he of course wakes from his nap as I type this, ha!} and I've been feeling better too. It's amazing how much getting out in sunny weather and having a laugh with friends can lift your spirit.

Thanks girlies for a lovely afternoon!

Tired

Today was a mixed day. I was so encouraged by all the positive feedback I received about this blog from friends on facebook. It was the highlight to a tough day. Tough as in my sweet boy barely slept for either of his naps and was pretty cranky as a result.
I find days like these the hardest. Days when there's nothing much going on, there's just me and my fussy baby. Going to head to bed now and hopefully wake up refreshed. I love that so far this space has made people smile. Don't mean to take from that, just being honest.
Sleep tight lovely readers.
x

Real Life

I've been thinking about this little blog a bit recently and what I'd like it to be. It is primarily somewhere that I want to document my everyday life, to look back on in years to come. It's also a bit of a baby book for Elliott and a place to write about all his little milestones.

You know, first time he peed in his own eye, first time we dropped him (joke!..that hasn't happened..yet) etc. I really do want to stay true to myself though and be honest. The monthly sophie photos are gorgeous but most of the time Elliott doesn't look so serene and the house is never as tidy as the clean blanket he's lying on.

In light of my new quest to keep it real I took some photos yesterday of everyday stuff. Some of my faveourite photographers, artists and poets are the ones who are able to make boring things seem amazingly beautiful and extraordinary. One day I'd love to be able to do that but for now here are some boring photos, ha.

yummy ingredients for Elliott's lunch

Elliott playing on the kitchen floor

Wind fall apples from our garden

Still in my PJ's in the afternoon

'Real' morning me! No makeup, messy hair, crooked glasses!

Beautiful roses from the garden!

Messy (but used!) craft space

More lovely roses

Dirty dishes. I hate washing up, enough said.

 I'm off to enjoy the lovely sunny day! They seem to be very rare this summer.

Have a lovely day!

7 Months Old!

Dear Elliott,

You seem to have gotten so very grown up these past two months. Your beautiful Auntie Joanna inspired you to roll again from your tummy to your back last month, and you haven't stopped since!Also last month your Granny and Aunts minded you all day while your Dad and I were at a wedding. Our amazing friends, Phil and Katie, got married and it was so lovely to celebrate with them knowing you were in safe hands and having a ball. Those 12 hours were the longest I have EVER spent away from you. Initially it was really tough. Much tougher than I thought it would be. But I stuck with it and kept reminding myself that you were having a great time so I might as well enjoy the day too.

Last month you started blowing raspberries and are singing your cute little la la songs more than ever. We started spoon feeding you and introduced you to lots of yummy foods when you were five and a half months old. So far you've had baby rice, sweet potato, pear, carrot, apple, butternut squash, broccoli, banana, courgette and more other foods than I can remember right now! I think your favourite is sweet potato and pear, not together though! And you make gorgeous yuck faces when I give you courgette, this makes me laugh!

You've also started grabbing EVERYTHING you can reach! Having you sit on our laps at the table is proving super difficult now.You may have even eaten a fistful of grass yesterday as a result of this new found skill..mommy fail. You got your very own high chair last week (thanks to some great friends) and are loving it! Now if you could just master not dropping your books and toys off it you'd be doing great..

Your little personality seems to be shining through more every day. You are one of the most laid back people I know. You love to chill out with your toys on your play mat and watch the world go by. You love the outdoors and our evening walks before bedtime. You love cuddles and you seem to love us too. We are amazed by you Elliott. Hanging out with you is so much fun. When you meet people initially you are quite shy but once you have them sussed you're happy to be yourself. You make us laugh with your goofy faces and beautiful songs.

We love you Elliott James. Keep being you,

Love Mama x

6 Months with Sophie

7 months old

Jab Day

Elliott got his four month vaccines today.(Yes. A month late. Mommy fail.) Like most, non-sadistic parents, I don't look forward to Elliott getting his jabs. Not one bit. I was pretty stressed about it yesterday and was even finding it hard to sleep last night. So there's me tossing and turning and sighing loudly instead of sleeping. My poor Hub finally asked me what I was thinking about and I told him. Since he wasn't sleeping anyway. Nothing to do with me at all.
He said that instead of feeling that it totally sucked that I was always the one who had to bring Elliott for his jabs (because the Hub is at work), maybe I should focus on how cool it is that I have the chance to care for and comfort him in that unique way.
You see Elliott doesn't really cry that much. He fusses and gets cranky every now and then, but it's been a long time since I've heard him properly cry. And when my husband said that initially I was like, "Pfft, easy for you to say, you don't have to hold him down while the evil Dr stabs him with a huge, sharp, metal instrument!!".  But then today after Elliott got his jabs (and survived, shock!) and feel asleep on my chest while he was in his carrier, I remembered Hub's words and thought there might be a teeney silver lining after all. (For the record, my Dr isn't actually one bit evil, he's really nice!)
This picture is of Elliott and I hanging out and being lazy when he was only a teeney month old baby. I love taking care of my boy x

The Very Worst Yummy Mummy

source

I read a really interesting blog post today on Jamie The Very Worst Missionary. If you don't already read her blog, you should, right now! She was talking about how God had spoken to her about being herself (and not a gay 19th century poet) and being who He made her to be. She put the question to her readers, "Who is He telling you you're not, so that you can be who you are?".

A couple of months ago I was driving along with my mother in law, when she asked me what exactly a 'Yummy Mummy' is. She had heard the phrase but wasn't quite sure what it meant. I went to describe the usually thirty something, pretty, rich women that shop in Brown Thomas and drive SUV's. They frequent Mother and Toddler Groups beautifully dressed and in full make-up. A Yummy Mummy's house is always immaculate and smells of freshly baked goods. I know what you're thinking, these women do not exist. No, they don't, not completely but you probably still know the kind of mother I'm talking about.

I am not a yummy mummy. I'm younger than all the mothers that I know, I can't afford to shop in Brown Thomas and don't even know how to drive. Most days I'm lucky if I brush my teeth and my hair, usually it's seems to be one or the other {grin}. I'm slowly growing to hate house work so my house has been pretty messy for a while now. I don't have it all figured out, I don't even have most of it figured out.

Someone once described  me as a neon brick. I'm not very subtle. Even though I hate confrontation, I die inside when I can't speak my mind, right or wrong. I hate awkward silences so will fill them with chat if no one else will. Any elephants in the room are usually pointed out and if they're not it'll really get to me. However uncomfortable I can be in my own skin sometimes, I know this is how God made me to be. He uses my words to speak into people's lives and sometimes to point out the big, fat, ugly mammal in the room. So many times my messy life has somehow been used to encourage someone else in their mess.


So, as I sit here in my messy house with my dirty dishes piled high and badly in need of a shower, I hope you're challenged by Jamie's question too and maybe even encouraged to go be who you are.

No more yummy mummy aspirations for me!

Growing old with Sophie

Just thought I'd put up all of Elliott's weekly/monthly photos with Sophie La Girafe so far. The first four are every week and after that it's every month. Enjoy!