I own a sewing machine... AND........

I have a bit of a confession........ I own a sewing machine AND a serger/overlocker,,,, and guess what!!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!

I can basically only sew a straight line and as for the overlocker... OMG!! I haven't even taken it out of the box yet :O

SO, why do I have them??? Well I guess its a little bit of a quest to be a good mother and make things, a lot to do with the desire to be creative and make some really lovely things, and a little bit entrepreneurial, making some things to sell......

There really are a few things standing in my way though....
** TIME would have to be the biggest one, I mean between my mother/wife/housework activities, not to mention cyber addiction where the heck will I find the time to sew??!!!!

** Lack of knowledge.... Like so many things I have floating around in this overactive brain of mine, I have so many things I would like to do, but absolutely no knowledge in how to do them!!! Although I must say, I plan to self teach myself alot, its a real shame that most of the sewing classes I can find (and there aren't many around here) are during the day... I can't go to those because I have nobody to watch the kids... hhhhmmmmm

** Enthusiastic Children :)... Yep you guessed it, if I ever do find the time you can be sure the kids would like to help me.... and when they are asleep at night, I am way too tired to be dragging out a sewing machine!!!

But regardless of ALL of this.... I DO intend to become a sewing extraordinaire and make beautiful things, clothing and crafty... I found a course running at a local college next year, so I am going to call tomorrow and see if it runs evenings. It's actually in fashion design so I may become a sewing expert yet ;)

Please "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff"

Please take some time right now to say I love you to all you care about.

Tonight I was directed towards a site which shows the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Feature Photography Titled: A Mother's Journey. This is some of the most confronting and thought provoking photography I have seen in a long time. WARNING: If you are easily upset, the photos contain images the journey of a mother nursing her young son through cancer.... he eventually passed away :(

5 years ago, I sat with my husband and family as we watched his mother pass away from cancer. She was 48 years old and I considered that way too young to die. I often think of her, and remember how short life is. But its even more horrifying when you see a child have to battle that way, and the strength of his mother as she stays by his side.

It is such a reminder that SO MANY things we worry about every day are INSIGNIFICANT!!! We get once chance at life and we never know how long we or our loved ones are here for....

Right now I really just want to hold my children close to me and never, EVER let them go..........

Wordless Wednesday - Lunar Eclipse

I wish I had a better zoom lense, but here is the lunar eclipse as seen from the East Coast of NSW, Australia last night :)

Tackle It Tuesday

This inspiration is JUST what I need!!!! I am a self confessed hopeless housewife.... I am never on top of housework, actually it's almost always piles of junk that are falling on top of us its so bad... LOL!!!!

While blog browsing I found this at 5minutesformom.com and its definately gonna be one I join in regularly!!!! YAY!!!

This tuesday for starters we shampoo'd our entire carpet... well actually it was Monday that we did it, and I spent today trying to organise everything back into place!!!! I have so much to do around here that I need a tackle it day every day, but at least if I post my goal publicly on tuesdays I will be more likely to get something done :D Stay tuned, I will find something good for next week and include photos to shame myself ;)......

Cheap fun with the kids

So sorry about the sadness of the previous post, I just needed to share, that honestly hurt to read :(

Now onto bigger and HAPPIER things :) Today, one of my goals was to do something fun with the kids that didn't cost alot. I rarely ever pack all 3 of them into the car to go places, its just way too draining, so we went outside today for some fun instead.

We searched the house together for fun things we could do, and Mr 4 decided folding paper planes sounded fun.... Oh wow it is so good just to let your inner child come out sometimes..... We spent over an hour creating all sorts of strange looking planes and seeing how well we could fly them....

That and making creatures out of clothes pegs. I must say my imagination didn't stretch quite as far as the kids with that one, but all the same, I spent no money and had some great quality time with them today.... which is something I must admit I don't always do......

Its amazing how you can be a SAHM and yet not always spent QUALITY time with the kids..... I would recommend everyone do the same, do something fun and free and enjoy some time together :)

Tragedy - Family Dog kills newborn - Too sad :(

Oh dear, this is one of the saddest stories I have come across in so long..... goes to show why I don't frequent news pages often :( A couple with children from previous relationships, lost their first child together.

The 2 week baby girl died when she was mauled by the family dog which the parents believed was outside as they sat a room away watching TV......... THE POOR THINGS :( I can only imagine how grief stricken they must be right now...

My thoughts go out to them, and I guess it is another reminder of how careful we need to be with animals around our children. ANY animal can turn no matter how tame we believe it to be.

Domain Names for Kids - What do you think?

Oh wow, I just found the coolest article in the news at CNN .... Buy Domain Names for Kids.

Guess what the first thing I did was.... Go and see if my kids names are still available LOL.... I really don't know if I can justify paying for their own domain name for the rest of their lives just in case they use it, but the idea is pretty intriguing.

I guess as time moves on, domain names and the internet are only going to grow in importance, so it probably can't hurt!!! Imagine the joy your kids will get when they open an envelope at their next birthday and you say "happy birthday honey, here's your own domain name"........... NOT!!!!!!

There's still something a little quirky about the whole thing that I like, it must be the cyber geek in me..... :)

My Name is Busy Me and I am a Cyber Addict!!!

How horrible,,,, sitting here carried away reading blogs, googling, engrossed in my cyber world.... Mr 6 months on the sofa and Mr 4 watching a DVD when I realise CRAP..... where is Miss 2.......

Out in the kitchen eating sugar straight out of the container of course!!!!

Phew what a relief!!! No need to prepare lunch now, and at least it wasn't poison......

Time to log off for a while me thinks.........

10 Things I love about motherhood......

1. **The fact that no matter how messy my hair is and how daggy my clothes are the kids don't notice
2. **The smiles and laughter we all share together
3. **That I have an excuse for the saggy baggy parts and stretch marks
4. **That I have an excuse for the grey hairs I have
5. **That I have an excuse not to go out to boring events (because one of the kids has suddenly come down with a phantom illness)
6. **That I have an excuse for the messy house...... well kids are my excuse and I'm sticking to it
7. **That I get to escape from 9 to 5 work (even though sometimes being a mother is harder)
8. **That I get to watch kids movies and pretend its just because the kids want to even though I really love them
9. **That I often have a trip down memory lane through my own childhood when discovering things with my kids
10. **Watching my hubby with the kids (Its a bonus if he's actually taking some initiative to clean up spuke or a dirty diaper) but I love seeing them enjoy each others company

I love sleep.....

I never ever ever get enough sleep....... Poor bubba last night kept me awake from 2am until 6.30... He didn't want boob, he just wanted to chat, sook, have cuddles and play...... I was starting to get so frustrated with him when I looked in his mouth.....

OH MY GOD!!!! The poor little man... his top gums are SO SWOLLEN.... I felt so bad for him I even gave him nurofen. I am normally one of those devil mothers who will let my kids sweat it out..... I don't believe in pumping my kids full of drugs, pain killers, antibiotics, whatever, I think most children these days are way overdosed with all sorts of things, so mine, well generally live with a little pain and a little temp....

But last night I just had to ease his pain the poor man..... Brings back memories of cutting my wisdom teeth, and you know he is SUCH a happy little guy, I can't explain it, but he is an absolute dream baby.... he's exhausted with aching gums, top teeth about to explode through, hungry but not wanting to eat....... and do you know what he does????

SMILES!!!! A lesson for us all :)

YES I AM INTERESTING....!!!!

In a frenzy of blog reading I stumbled upon a great blog The Twinkies. I was really enthused by her Blog Entry.

I am often so focused on Mother Guilt that I fail to realise that I really am an interesting person, and I should be loud and proud of that.

I think often as mothers we feel insignificant or less important than others when it comes to our contribution to society.... Well enough is enough..... Mother's ensure this world has a future and we work our damned hardest to try and raise good people with good values, what job could be more important or interesting than that!!!

CFF - Child Free Friends!!! Making Guilt Worse!!!

"Oh I can't wait to see you all...... I miss the kids so much...... you can relax a little, I will help with the kids, it will be fun....."

All the things my girlfriends said to me BEFORE we made an 8 hour family trek to catch up with them.....

To be honest, I was really looking forward to the time..... hubby isn't known as the best child care assistant when we are out and about in a group of people, so having girlfriends who know this and make a little effort to ease your load is so overwhelmingly welcome!!!!

The fascination lasted a whole couple of hours and then I just felt like my kids were an invasion of their relaxation time!!!

Not sure if it's my own self induced Mother Guilt coming to haunt me, but I really feel inadequate when I am around childless friends.... You can see them judging you, your children and every wrong move that is made.......!!!!!

Kids are kids in my opinion.... mine aren't perfect, and I am not the perfect mother, but I really don't expect my girlfriends, ESPECIALLY ones without children to point such details out to me!!!!

Smoke Signals!!!!

Sorry for the bore with the previous post........ Just a way to jog my memory about the many things I want to scream about!!!! Our muddy, middle of nowhere trip to visit friends was NOTHING on the trip to visit hubby's grandparents!!

Picture this: Small living room, All windows closed because its cold outside and a chain smoking grandma sitting in a lounge chair in the middle of the room...... This is the environment I have to take my children to each time they visit their great grandma!!!

IT STINKS
IT is SUFFOCATING not to mention
CANCEROUS!!!!!

Needless to say we don't stay there long..... It's impossible to really, it starts to make you feel sick just being stuck in the house........

Mr 4 politely told his great grandma that smoking is for bad people and its yucky and would kill her!!!! And believe me I didn't correct him. Fine she's old school and all but who could possibly miss all of the "SMOKE KILLS" ads on tv in newspapers, plastered everywhere.... yet when we visit she still sits and smokes around the children!!!!

The mother in me can't stand it, I didn't bring children into the world to have them subjected to harmful smoke by their own great grandma... not that this woman is particularly the maternal type and I guess that shows............

And we brought the rain!!!!

So it continues..... No rain in Moree for 3 months and of course it follows us there.... Bad thing for us, Great news for the town and their farm crops.... But call me selfish, what a wonderful start to our trip....NOT!!!

Don't get me wrong, I had been dying to see my friend who moved away a few months ago but 3 kids trapped in a house for 2 days and having your car literally "skate and slide" up the driveway to get to the house with a huge risk of getting stuck is a real test of my dedication :) Thank god hubby is a great driver on dirt roads because if it was me, we'd been bogged and trapped in knee deep mud within minutes!!!

We stayed for 2 days, on the second day the kids were released into the mud pit!! Miss 2 found great joy getting "stuck in muddy puddles".... This was after they were dressed to head into town to go to dinner mind you!!!

Its amazing when you are living out of a suitcase and you have dressed the kids in their only set of decent clothes that are clean and CLEARLY said to hubby "make sure they don't get dirty, we are leaving to go to dinner soon" and he replies, "yep ok" that he later tells you "You never told me that!!!" - Men and selective hearing!!!

That night we tackled the driveway again to head into dinner at one of the local pubs... Of course this was the idea of my childless friends. Travelling with children and visiting friends without them sometimes has many interesting insights...... We all ordered good hearty meals and even Mr 4 ate some of his dinner, which for him is a huge deal.

I thought they were really well behaved. Mr 5 months sat in a highchair and had a great time sucking on a potato chip..... Even though Mr 4 and Ms 2 kept themselves fairly well entertained without destroying anything I could still feel the disapproval of the childless parties at the table..... I am definately going to chat about this topic soon, its a really hard one to deal with sometimes!!!

Another trip up the driveway after dinner and we headed home..... Another problem with my kids is that they are night owls, they stay up often until after 10pm, and I am yet to find a way to alter their behaviour... This is fine at home where we do our own thing, but put them in a house with other adults who need to "get sleep" to go to work and fly home the next day and I start to feel Motherhood guilt again about raising obviously feral children whom I appear to have very little control over!!!!!

Thats exactly what happened straight after dinner when we got home, and it had happened the night before. I love my girlfriends, but I was just longing to be at home where ferals can be ferals (even though in my opinion they were doing really well considering they were locked inside a strange house and hadn't yet broken anything) and I can relax.......

After a big tidy up the next morning we left back down the muddy driveway along and even worse dirt road that took 40 minutes to drive along onto our next adventure to see hubby's grandparents!!!!!!

A travelling we will go......

Oh my god have we done some serious travelling in the last week!!!! I have no idea how many kilometres/miles we have travelled but I must say its ALOT!!! We left our lovely seaside paradise and headed off to Moree. We travelled at night which definately makes for easier travelling with 3 kiddies. The trip took around 7 hours and we were driving in the middle of NOWHERE..... No roadside lighting and very little other traffic. It was a shame we couldn't see more of the scenery on the way out there, but we did get to see it all on the way back.... Think little tiny country towns and lots of farmland!!!!

TBC...... Gotta go.... still to come... Armidale, Tamworth, Gunnedah and the joys of staying with friends who dont have children, and as an extra bonus, the joys of staying in a motel room and having a vomiting child!!

Breastfeeding .... The Great Debate...

It seems to me that one of the biggest causes of Mother Guilt, debate and anger amongst women is breastfeeding!!!

I have been browsing many blogs and come across this subject over and over again. It seems that there is a big shift across many countries to limit advertising and samples for formula, in the attempt to "de-normalise" bottle feeding.

Personally I think it is a good move. I don't believe that bottle feeding is the first thing that mothers having difficulty breastfeeding should be offered. At the same time, I do believe that bottle feeding is a necessary choice for many women.

Interesting points of view have been given by many women over at Mom's Daily Dose I feel the most important thing is that women don't attack each other for the choices they make. If mother's and women are going to attack each other then who is going to support us???

More on my opinions later......

See what I mean??

I am so sure it's not just me who does this:

We are travelling to see some friends this evening, and yet again, I have been putting off buying anything for myself.. I mean, why spend money on me when there's SO many other things that it could be spent on right??!!!???? aaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!! Damn Mother guilt!!!!!

So off I went... its not like I wanted to buy the latest Armani suit or anything, nope, simply just wanted some track pants a new t-shirt and sweater......... Oh crap!! Why are all clothes priced over $20 an item :( Don't the store owners know that I must locate all pieces of clothing for $5 or less or for some reason it seems I would rather walk around in rags... I mean come-on!!!! Motherhood guilt at its best right??!!!!

Well I eventually persuaded myself to buy a pair of track pants and t-shirt, spending exactly $22 in total.... still no sweater in sight that I could bring myself to purchase, "oh damn" I remembered that dear husband of mine has a rodeo gig on this weekend and to complete his outfit I really wanted to buy him a nice new "cowboy" shirt...... So off I march and instantly find a $25 shirt that will look great, pick it up and off to the counter!!!

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME!!!! I am so happy to spend money on hubby, who by the way has spent over $1500 on his new hobby of rodeo lately yet I am more than content to feed the hobby by spending MORE money on him......!!!!! Do I not DESERVE to keep warm and look a little decent when we visit friends???!!!!!!?????

And to make it worse I KNOW its not logical behaviour, otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it here would I!!!! I honestly think it comes down to needing to be sure that everyone else (mainly the kids but yep even hubby) has everything they need. And what if we had an emergency while we are away and need extra cash??!!!!?? And hubby can spend thousands on things he wants to do, so someone has to be the responsible party in this family don't they????!!????

All the reasoning in the world doesn't make my behaviour right, but still there's no way on earth I will be buying a sweater before we leave, I might just borrow one of hubby's I'm sure he has one lurking in his overflowing closet somewhere........................................

Wordless Wednesday Blogroll

Mother GUILT!!!! What is it???

I really think the term "mother guilt" should be added to the dictionary.....

I used to think it was just me as a parent who felt ridiculously guilty over every decision or action I made relating to my children!!!

Who knew that such a strong emotion was about to take over my world the moment I gave birth???!!??? Not me thats for sure..... and perhaps nobody told me because nobody else knew either..... perhaps it is a figment of our own generation, something that didn't exist in the past???

Or perhaps it did exist and just as it is now, nobody talked about it much???!!!!

SO WHAT IS IT??? Making us all feel so guilty.....????My definition:

Mother guilt: An overwhelming feeling of guilt, normally derived from the belief that every parenting action or decision you make about your child is ruining their life and will cause them to spend thousands of dollars on therapy as an adult to recover from the mental and emotional scars caused by your lack of effective parenting skills!!!!!

That is the best definition I could create, but for me, that describes perfectly how I feel at least once a day!!!!

The funny thing is that I used to think it was just me, and I felt that way because I actually was a bad parent..... It didn't take long after chatting to a couple of other mums (while sitting at the computer thereby making my children "cyber orphans" of course) to realise that perhaps I am not the worlds worst mother, nor am I the only one feeling unecessary guilt for the way I cope with parenting!!!

Mind you I am writing this as Ms 2 sits on my lap watching a dvd while I am typing away.... and the local time here is....... 12.50am and she has preschool in the morning!!!!............ oh dear!!!

Blogger Chicks Blogroll

Embarassing....

Don't you just love how candid children can be!!!!

Sitting in the doctors surgery,
Ms 2 gripped as tightly as possible without leaving obvious marks so she doesn't jump off my lap to break something else....... when.........

Ms 2: "Mum have you done a poo"
Me: "No? Have you?"
Ms 2: "No I haven't mum, you did a fart then stinky bum."

Oh My God... Is this girl really out to destroy me totally? I slink into my chair and try to hide behind the baby's pram while everyone else in the waiting room not so quietly chuckles to themselves!!!!

Personalities

Babies have personalities from the moment they are born......

I remember noticing with my 3 babies not long after they were born, certain character traits I am sure they will all carry with them further into life. I look at my kids and their personalities often. So similar and yet so different. My little girl is strong, she is tough both mentally and physically... Her older brother, strong but soft at the same time, and the little baby man, well he's just content, happy and relaxed. It will be interesting to see if he stays that way as he grows up.

MR 4:
A fairly laid back baby, always on the go, and always wanting some sort of attention. Intelligent and happy. He's a soft soul...... loves affection.... He's small in build, with a big heart... He can be a lazy kid. If there's something he can get you to do for him instead of doing it himself he will!!!

MISS 2:
A challenge from the start. She is such a beautiful little girl, the only way I have described her personality from when she was quite young is "quirky". She is quirky there's no other way to describe her. She has this cheeky attitude that flows from her without effort. She's tough, she's demanding, she's energetic and an absolute handful. Strong willed yet so innocently adorable all at the same time.

MR 5 Months:
Laid back, happy and content. He is a dream baby. There's nothing more to say. If I could be sure I would have more like him I would have more children... but of course there's no guarantees, and to be honest, 3 really does keep you on your toes anyway!!!

So How Busy AM I???

Welcome to my blog and welcome to my life.....

To give you a quick background I have 3 children aged 4 years, 2 years and 5 months, so life around our home is what you would call chaotic... really chaotic.....

I am not a super mother, I am not a great housewife...... Walk into my house at any time and you will more often then not see a huge chaotic mess.... :)

I love my kids.... I am hoping to raise them to be good people, teach them manners, and like most parents shelter them from the most dangerous horrible parts of the world at least for a little while. This being said you can almost guarantee I:

Let them watch too much TV
Give in too often and don't follow through on discipline
Let them stay up too late
Bribe them with lollies and chocolate at any given time to make my own life easier
Sometimes break down and cry because being a mother just does that to you sometimes.

I really love my life, I really love my kids. I love the chaos, I love being surrounded with them every day, I am frustrated at my own lack of housekeeping skills, but I would rather have happy kids than a clean house, and most of all, I know that all too soon they will be grown up and there are so many things to learn, experience and do together along the way that I cherish each and every moment.