Gratitude Project 18 - 20 April 2015

What a lovely weekend we had!

Mr M was working on Saturday, so I had Mac and Warrie all to myself. After a morning of chores around the house, I took them out for the afternoon.

After running around a playground for nearly two hours, I decided it was type for this mamma to go home and have a cuppa.

As I was strapping Warrie into his seat, Mac piped up with "Mummy, can we go to IKEA and play in the ball pit?". Unable to think of a valid excuse not to go, we headed over to IKEA and proceeded to wait for 45-minutes to get them into the one-hour free child care. Then I headed upstairs for a cup of tea and cake; I fully intended on working on a project I have, but ended up spending the time reading a book! It was such bliss.

Yesterday, we had a film crew at our house for a short film that Mr M is working on. I took the boys to a playcentre to meet with a girlfriend and her boys. Five hours of non-stop running around later, I headed home to find the crew still there. With two more scenes to film, I was delighted to be able to watch Mr M in cameraman mode for the first time ever.

{Mr M, doing his thang!}

It was utterly fascinating to be behind the scenes and see how the magic of the silver screen is made.

Today was a wet and miserable day, which of course meant that all the crazy people were out on the road to work.
After a shocking commute, I got out of the car only to realise that the umbrella was not in the car as I had assumed... and to top it all off, I discovered that my shoes have a hole in them, so I ended up with wet feet!
Oh well, if that is the worst thing I have to endure today, then I am a very lucky girl!

So the things I have been grateful for this weekend:

1. Spending some awesome time with my baby boys at the playground. They must have gone down that slide 50 time each - easily! Warrie crashed in the car before we made it home, so I put him straight to bed and then had a wonderful one-on-one cuddle with Mac. Which we both enjoyed. Those boys are the light of my heart.

2. My physio. I have some weird nerve/muscle/skeletal pain going on in my shoulder and neck. Whilst it hurts being manipulated, the kazillion cracks she got out of my back at the end of the session made it all worth it!

3. Mr M. I don't tell him often enough how grateful I am for him. I just always assume that he knows, but I want him to know know. Ya know? So not only will I put it out here, so the whole world can see how thankful I am for my amazeballs husband, I'm going to tell him to his face. And then I am going to give him the biggest cuddle ever!!

How was your weekend? Do you have a hole in your shoes? What was one of the biggest highlights of your weekend?

Friday Feels - 29 August

Well it's been a few of the most stressful weeks of my life - not even the week leading up to my wedding was as bad!!

But it seems as though the worst is behind me; the situation has been somewhat diffused by a mediated discussion and I can finally move on.

However this experience has left me with a somewhat bitter taste towards my work... but I'm taking it as an absolute motivator to push me into finding what it is that is meaningful and fills me with passion and excitement.

I have some ideas, but I won't jinx anything just yet. Sorry to be so frustratingly vague :)

Instead, I'll just jump right into my Friday Feels!

Hearing: I think I've mentioned it before, but Spotify has a Throwback Thursday playlist that I follow - today it was trowing back to 1984, so much awesomeness! Then this song came on:



This song is the anthem of my Mum, my brother and I.
I have such vivid memories of hearing/watching it on MTV and the three of us dancing like loons around the room. Good times :)

Seeing: The sun!! Sydney has had so much rain the last couple of weeks, and then the sun finally made an appearance yesterday - it was so blissful to walk without an umbrella!

Tasting: Every now and then, my step-dad and I get together for lunch and pig out on Hungry Jacks. This week we indulged in a double whopper meal, and it was delicious!!

Smelling: Spring. It's definitely in the air, Mr M was complaining about having an itchy nose today! Only days to go until we are a whole season closer to summer!!

Touching: The baby soft skin on my boys faces. Warrie is shedding his baby fat like it's going out of fashion, and his chubby cheeks are turning into the cheeks of a proper little boy.
I miss their baby faces something fierce... but I love watching them grow into wonderful boys, complete with fart humour, light sabers made from used toilet rolls, and grotty faces.

How has your week been? What song reminds you of dancing around the room as a child?

How I feel about my post-babies body

Last weekend, a beautiful picture appeared in my instagram feed from Keeping Up With The Holsbys.

The title of the post was The stories of our post-baby flesh, and the pictures are just gorgeous. If there is only one blog you check out today, make it this one.

It was a thought provoking post for me, as I have a real love/hate relationship with my post-baby body:

• I love, and am in utter awe, that my body incubated and delivered two big healthy babies (Mac was 4.03kg and Warrie was 4.35kg)
• I hate the stretch marks and extra skin that came with such big babies that were all out the front (you couldn't tell I was pregnant from behind). I was 117cm around with Mac and 122cm around with Warrie.
• I love that I was able to breastfeed my babies, and the amazing bonding moments we had together.
• I hate that I can now easily hold the remote under my boobs

I won't go on, you get the idea. And I am sure that there are many other mothers out there who can totally relate.

I know that I am supposed to wear my stretch marks as a badge of honour.
I know that I'm not supposed to let society dictate what "beauty" is.
I know that I should listen to Mr M when he tells be that I look beautiful, and he wouldn't change a thing about me.

But I don't.

I hate my stretch marks (yet I do nothing to get rid of them - what the heck is up with that!? Some sort of self sabotage??)
I despair that I am now 5kg heavier than my original pre-pregnancy weight. I am in the gym or running every lunchtime, and seeing no change. I'm now working on the diet side of things... Fingers crossed
I don't like to get undressed in front of Mr M with the lights on, I'm terrified that he will suddenly change his mind about me. (I have absolutely NO EVIDENCE to support this, it's just my brain going into worst case scenario mode)

Then I see such amazing photos, and I know, I KNOW, that I need to cut myself some slack. And I try, I really do....

Maybe one day I'll just wake up and suddenly be all "Oh wow - my body grew two whole new people, and yes it's softer than it was 10 years ago. But it is freaking amazing, and I am so proud to be in this skin".

Maybe.

My wish for the Royal birth

I have always wanted to be a princess.
I am probably the most un-princessy princess you'll come across, but as a 12-year old marrying a prince was high on my list of things to do. Probably the same for many a 12-year old girl!

But Kate Middleton was the one who ended up living my dream... and as I watched the Royal Nuptials whilst celebrating my own honeymoon, I will admit to a twinge of jealousy (mostly because I would have loved to have had even 1/1000th of the money spent on their wedding; we could have had a live band then!)

Fast forward just over two years, and now everyone is waiting with baited breath for the newest addition to the Royal Household.

This time, there is not even a hint of jealousy, only sympathy.

My #2 was two weeks overdue (such fun times!), and it was bad enough having family, friends and random strangers asking me when the baby was due, regularly interspersed with the "you're huge, shouldn't you have had that baby by now?" question.

I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for the Duchess to be heavily pregnant and effectively forced into confinement, if for no other reason than to avoid the press! Let alone to read all the speculation about her due date and whether she was overdue or not. 

And now, she's in "early labour" and the world is on tenterhooks for the arrival of the third in line to the throne. The press camped outside the hospital, waiting for the announcement of the newest Prince or Princess. 

What pressure for a first time mum! 

But my main sympathy lies in the days ahead; those first heady days of being a new mum, of getting to know your baby outside of your belly, of falling in love with the tiny human being that you created. 

When both my sons were born, those first few hours of it being just me, Husband and the baby were the most private and precious moments I have ever experienced. My babies were out, and they all mine.

So I can't begin to imagine how it must feel, knowing that as soon as this baby arrives it will essentially become public property. 

If I were Kate, I'd be pretending that I had been in labour for 36hrs, just to have some cherished normal "brand new parents" time with the baby and William.

I'm sure (I hope!!) that the press will continue to keep a respectable distance from the new family.

I hope that the little one is given the opportunity to grow up away from the glare as much as possible.

But more than anything else, I hope that Prince William and Duchess Catherine are given the privacy to enjoy every new moment with their baby.