not doing hair

too tired, off to bed instead.

feeling better... mostly election stuff free day

I didnt do much today, hung out with L, did kindy and got my friend to defuzz my eyebrows, so a fairly uneventful day, had tea with Renee which was nice, we havent seen much of her lately so was nice to chill out.

I only did one election related thing and that was dropping off a couple of bundles of letters to people, so very little and very no taxing,

We are going to dye Bens hair tonight so I had better go do it.

I did take a funny little quiz though which was quite cool....
i got 83% compatibility with labour....

D

I am sick... bad timing

I was up really early this morning to go campaigning but by 7:30am was heading back to bed with a sore tummy and back, after spending most the day in bed I went to drs and got some antibiotics etc....

I so dont need to be sick at the moment, i dont have time for this, why do we get sick at the worst moments lol... K is sick too, shes got a throat infection, but if shes not 100% its not a huge deal for her.

so am drinking lots and trying to rest and hopefully will be back to 100% very soon.

christmas

we are having christmas at home this year, my parents are coming up which will be really nice, and last night we found out that Bens dad is going to spend christmas with us which is really exciting, the kids have never had two lots of grandparents together for christmas so it will be really neat.

so had better get some stuff organised around here so that we can have an awesome time

survival.....

I did it, Ben was away from friday morning till late last night and I survived being home with the kids. I am quite proud of myself, its the first time I have been home alone here in palmy since K was little.

We had a nice weekend, spent time with friends, did some sewing (two funky new bags), and K had her first girls brigade church parade which was nice. I am a parttime/oncall leader with her company so was nice to see her as part of it now. She looked very cute in her wee pinafore and red sweatshirt.

we also helped Iain campaigning at the market, the girls were so funny, I had a couple of small hoardings to hold and let K have it for a while, then they started fighting over them so they ended up holding one each. k knows they say tick labour tick lees-galloway.... and knows that Helen clark is pm and belongs to labour. shes very proud that she can read the signs now.

So will say I am indoctrinating them, and maybe I am, but we all are indoctrinated in some way as children, for example to think that teachers are good, that god made everything, that drs will fix what is wrong. I have yet to decide how we will explain more about the election but as I have three weeks I had better get on to it.

D

I have friends lol

I have had a lovely week, I have spent a couple of days with a new friend of mine and her two wee kiddies, its been really nice having someone to talk to who is similar, and has kiddies the same age as my two youngest. so thanks Clare you are so lovely... I feel similar about another friend who I feel i have connected more with lately.

I have also made a couple of pieces of clothing and yesterday made baby slings for O and Clares wee fella, Nice red ones with black with white dots on the reverse, they are so funky....

I have also dropped my meds dosage to just a holding dose of 20mg, which is really nice, my anxiety is up a wee bit but I am working on lowering that.

And shock horror I have tidied my two living areas this morning and vaccuumed... so am feeling pretty good, next up is attacking the pile of washing.

Ben is away for the weekend doing a landmark forum. I dont know what I think of it, but it means I am home alone till monday morning which will be a huge test for me on how I cope with the kids etc. i also have planned to help with campaigning tomorrow morning, and have girls brigade parade at church for K on sunday morning, so enough to keep us busy.

D

universal student allowances

yay, after 10 years or more of lobbying we are being promised universal student allowances....

to all my friends who have worked hard for this small victory congrats.... we have finally done it.a

I have been a student, I have over $35000 of student debt.... thanks to Labour it hasn't actually gotten any bigger for a while, but when I first took my loan out it was earning interest faster than I was borrowing it.

It always seemed unfair to me that if i did nothing I would get the dole but if I tried to improve myself I had to borrow money to live. and to just clarify in case people think i am just a middle class person, when I was studying my mum was too, and my wee sister was at school, so dads income supported us all.....

I read a response to a blog on this and they said it was just helping out middle income earners, but why should you be dependent on your parents income till 25... and why as a parent should they have to support us financially till that age if we are studying, always seemed a bit loopy to me.

I am also pleased about it because it will mean a better start for my three children, b and i really value education be it university polytech or trade, therefore we will want our children to have the opportunities that we had. I don't want to see my children with the level of debt that B and I started out with, over $60000 between us was not good. I especially don't want my girls to have the debt I have as it does impact more on women than on men, due to higher wage earnings of men, and to women taking time out to be caregivers to family.

So bravo to labour for annoucing this policy.... makes me even more determined to help return a labour led government.

more sewing finished

I have very few RED clothes so needed something to wear this morning campaigning with Iain, so last night I found some red linen in my fabric box and made a very simple red dress, which is going to be great for summer too....

today I made two wee dresses for the girls, they are blue with butterflies and white poplin underskirts with lace around the hems, they look so cute on them.

I havent decided what to make next but am considering some tops for Ben or some wee shorts for O. And possibly some wee dresses for school and kindy for the girls

Its nice to actually be making clothes and for once I arent making mistakes with them, yay.

polls looking good

I have to be honest that I was quite unhappy about the prospect of a national led government, but the two latest polls have given me a boost so I am back out campaigning to help labour stay in and to get Iain Lees Galloway elected as Palmy's next mp.

I went to the market this morning with him and the responses were really positive towards labour, it was really heartening as I was feeling like we were in a sinking boat.

We have also had a hoarding erected in our front yard. We have never done this before so it was quite exciting.
I am enjoying campaigning again, its great, after 4 elections I was feeling really jaded but now I am bouncing again.

I went to a quiz night last night which was really cool too, the team I was in got third out of five teams so not to bad really.

heather mills makes me feel sick

ok, to clarify this, I have been reading on stuff http://www.stuff.co.nz/4720210a1860.html

She thinks we should make Ice cream out of human breast milk, would love to know how they are going to source enough to do that, producing breast milk is hard enough without try to make extra for ice cream.

And shes vegan so I would think she doesnt drink milk or eat dairy products so she should just butt out.....

For K I didnt have enough milk at times and had weaned her by 10 months because of it, with L I had enough but expressing is tiring enough for any of us, with O I have had an excess amount but that still wont convince me to sell my milk.

so grrr to heather mills, you are a strange woman

ok, lets try this

hopefully this will work, but if it doesnt its a pic of me in my new skirt I made this evening, a top I got from clothes swap and a cool jet necklace I also got from clothes swap.

more finished, more to do

I got one skirt nearly completed when I realised its a bit small, so made a different one out of the same fabric for me, Rebecca inherits the one I have nearly finished.

I also got some red poplin to put under a black floral skirt I am making and some white poplin and broderie anglasie lace for some wee dresses I am going to finish for miss 3 and miss 5, so tonight I am going to do a quick tidy of the mess I have made so far and then continue being creative.

3 garments completed

yay, I have finished a dress for me, and some shorts for the girls, yippy. I had dramas last week with my sewing machine so didnt manage to get anything done, but I got my old machine out and yesterday set about finishing my dress and the shorts I had started.

Today I am going to make a skirt I have cut out, and finish the neckline on a tshirt I have re cut to make look better on me and my bust lol. So more sewing of pink... then I am planning making two wee dresses for the girls, then some shorts for the wee fella, I also want to make a couple of shrug tops for summer and some for the girls too to wear over dresses etc. not for warmth more to give some protection from the sun if it ever shine decently.

so yay for actually finishing something. D

the business of being born

I went with a friend to see this documentary today it was put on by the homebirth association and the nz college of midwives, omg it was amazing

Its done by rikki lake after she was unhappy with her birth experience the first time, it followed a couple of women and their births and talked to many sides of the birth process in the usa. only 8% of women there have a midwife, and under 1% have homebirths, I personally arent able to have homebirths but think they are great for those who choose to do that.

The us stats were scary, in some hospitals nearly 45% of births are c sections, here its around 24% which is still quite high, infant mortality is the 2nd highest in developed countries in the US as well... so does more technology lead to better births.... some ob gyn's interivewed thought it was great others were more for moving back to a midwife lead model.

Nz doesnt have a perfect system of maternity care but I sure am glad that I have had my babies here and had pretty much the births that I wanted

self help

I went to the library today, was really good, got some books on depression and how to overcome it, am hoping to read and find some other ways to cope with it. there were some interesting reference books on womens mental health too, which were good to look at, especially the stuff dealing with meds and lactation.

my first encounters with a psychiatrist were interesting he was of the belief that there were no actual benefits to breastfeeding. he and i didnt agree on this. I have found breastfeeding to be a good way to ensure that I have bonded with my babies, I think it would have been too easy to just leave them to ben if I had bottle fed them, by breastfeeding them I feel responsible and connected to them, even at 3 in the morning.

O is still breastfeed, hes nearly 11 months, so will soon be my longest go at doing this. I love feeding him though its really nice and makes life easier when you are out and about etc.

So am going to read some books to help myself understand a few things, and am looking to the future with my beautiful family and hubby.

I got a lovely parcel of books in the post today too, one is an autobiography by Lauren roche, its quite interesting so far, so thanks GG for sending them.

D

creativity escaped....

had a really tiring day with the kids so havent done any sewing at all, a bit disappointed really but theres not much I could do about it really, lil man has both ears infected so is on antibiotics, and both the girls have colds so it really shouldnt surprise me that I didnt achieve anything at all.

I am hoping that I will get some time to do something tomorrow morning if ben takes the girls to the market to get veges etc, I really want to get something finished, but have been hindered too by the fact I have lost my pink thread that I need, I bought some more yesterday then stupidly left it on my machine when I took it to get fixed. So will change to blue lol, have got a t hsirt that needs its neckline redone, and two wee dresses for the girls to sew.

Have been reading kiwi craft blogs which are really neat, give good ideas for making things, like doilly t shirts and funky tea towel bags etc... there is so much happening out there its really cool to see.

D

feeling creative

I have been sewing... yay, I love the feeling of creating something for the kids or I to wear. I bought some fabric yesterday at spotlight and arthur toyes and some patterns.

Today I cut some out, bike pants for the girls, and a skirt for me, I also have a dress on the go and another skirt I want to make.

I have been using the clothes swap, and reading some of the members blogs, some of their craft work is awesome which inspired me to get moving again and do some sewing. but my sewing machine died this afternoon, not a huge electrical death or anything, it jammed when I was trying to sew some elastic into a skirt, so its off being fixed, thankfully we never got rid of our old one so its back out for use tomorrow.

I find when my mood is down that my creativity escapes, thankfully at the moment, I am in a good frame of mind so sewing is working :).

A friend is going to lend me denise lestrange corbetts biography to read, will be cool to see how her depression interacts with her creativity.

anyway sitting here typing isnt getting anything productive done, I need to sleep too cos the wee fella is sick and between the three kids we were woken 5 times last night.

ahh the joys of parenting, but its worth it when they smile.