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