stressed yet... yep totally

I am feeling very stressed at the moment, we have wee N's baptism this weekend coming, so the pressure is on to make sure that everything is organised, the house is tidy, the kids clothes are organised, there is enough food, and then there are the relatives who are coming, its the first family event since Bens parents separated and we are not 100% sure how things will work.... so I am stressed about that too....

We have also organised a 30th birthday dinner for my sister this weekend too..... I am just over analysising everything, and I am sure it will be fine, but I tend to stress a lot when we have these sort of events in our lives. The actual baptism is sorted, its just the getting to Sunday that will stress me further, I might have to schedule some me time in the next couple of days so that I cope, to add to the anxiety our car needs registered and warranted tomorrow or Wednesday so that its legal to use... so more money to be spent.

mmm oh well, maybe I will just go to bed soon and it will feel better after some sleep.

love D

Hoping it doesnt rain

We have had a couple of weeks of gross weather, the sort that makes getting washing dry outside pretty impossible, so I am fighting a pile of washing that is getting out of control, I have managed to get some out on the line today and am really hoping that it doesn't rain. We use to have a nice covered in area at our old house which meant I could hang out washing when ever I wanted but I do not have that here.... I am contemplating building a covered in area so that we can get washing dry outside.

I am also contemplating buying a clothes dryer as our one died last year, its becoming a necessity with 6 of us in the family.

D

new look

I have to admit that I read Widges blog today and shes updated her look.... so I decided that I was actually sick of my look too so here is my new look

brief hiatus from the pc

I have had a two day self imposed hiatus from this computer/internet thing.... I just needed a small break and I am feeling much better for it. So back to the blogging etc,

I have made two slings this week which is great, one for a young mum here in town and one for the Lactation consultant at the hospital. I have also picked up my sewing machine from getting serviced and its just beautiful to sew with, it was strange I started sewing with it and immediately thought of Mum, it was really neat. The sewing machine is identical to Mums, so I was really comfortable with using it as I have used Mums many times.

D

6 months old today

Miss N is 6 months old today, shes amazing and has been a huge blessing in our lives, I wasn't sure when I got pregnant that I was ready for another baby but I feel like she was meant to be, and has helped bring us back together as a family after living apart for 12 months when I was unwell.

Shes just amazing, really relaxed and easy to look after, I really do feel lucky to have her in our lives.

Our other three children are amazing too, I really am blessed that I have four amazing children, they are all healthy, intelligent, beautiful caring children, which is all that I could ask for as a parent.

facebook page

I have made a Facebook page for my business, please go "like" it, I have also started a shop at felt, which will be up and running in a few days time, I am looking at Etsy too as another option, but I am also thinking about getting a friend to design a site for me too. I have made up some flyers which I will print later today, and I have got my business cards now too....

D

Sling sales/marketing

OK, I need some help people... I have made a flyer which I am going to distribute around town, but I need some other ideas on how to launch this wee business of mine. I have tried Trademe with little success, I have wondered about using Felt

Any ideas would be much appreciated....
love D

our carbon footprint

we just worked out our families carbon footprint, its 4700kg CO2-e for our whole family, (according to the landcare calculator) the average per person in NZ is 7300kg CO2-e ( according to wikipedia), it seems that ours is very low, possibly due to us only having one car and Ben using his bike to get to work. We recycle, we only use electricity for heating and have a very efficient heat pump, some of it may also be that we do not travel very far at the moment either.

So now that we have worked that out our next goal is to reduce our carbon footprint by 10% for the coming year.... I am thinking about how we can do that, using our car less will help, as would getting is serviced and possibly a tune up to make it more efficient in its petrol consumption. Ben will need to keep biking to work, and the kids and I might need to start walking to more places that we visit.

Its cool though to see what we use and how we can make a change.

D

Environmental Film Festival Gala

It was amazing, they showed bits of some of the films that are going to be shown, it was amazing and made me think about what I could do to help climate change. Robyn Malcolm was the MC and she was hilarious, made jokes about being Gerry Brownlee in Disguise trying to win back votes and made poignant comments about some of the films.

Here is something simple that any one can do too.... sign up to 10:10global and reduce your own carbon emissions by 10% this year.

It was awesome to have a night out without our children and it was nice to see how people are taking things into their own hands to improve our environment.

The Black Seeds played and they are very cool, a mix of all sorts of music and based in Wellington, I would definitely recommend getting hold of some of their music to listen too.

There were a couple of films that I would really like to see but at $12 -14 a session I might not get to many, one was about The Kakapo, another was about the tuatara at Invercargill museum, one that looked really good was called "A simple question" about how a simple question about endangered species led to an environmental movement that had included over 20000 students and 700 teachers in America.

It was very cool and was really nice to go on a date with my gorgeous husband.

D

noise is making me insane

I don't know why but the noise of these kids is really getting to me, might be because its just me at home, but I think its because they are just being really really loud, and fighting with each other..... I was hoping for a slightly relaxing day getting stuff done around here instead I am playing constant referee amongst these kids or telling them to stop doing things etc.

We are going out tonight so I was hoping to get some time to do some work on myself... just basics like having a shower without being interrupted and making sure that my hair doesn't look like I have been dragged through a gorse bush backwards, instead I have to play referee. I still need to express some more milk too, have done around 100mls but I don't think that will be enough so after her next feed I will try to express some more for her as I don't want her to be hungry if she wakes while we are out.

D

blogging daily

I actually started my budget blog yesterday afternoon, and thought I would finish it last night an publish it, instead I fell asleep around 7pm with my miss N while I fed her. I feel better today for having had a good sleep though so that is good.

love d

government budget... big fail

I will admit before you read any further that I am a Labour party member so I am not likely to be unbiased in my reaction to the budget.

To put it bluntly we will probably be worse off from it, as per usual with a Tory government middle income earners with children will not be any better off, we nay be getting a tax cut, but G.S.T is going up and there is a big cut to early childhood funding, and to health care as well.... its more of the same, more money for the rich and life gets harder for average kiwis trying to get ahead.

I am not going to be able to sit quietly and watch Early childhood education decrease for those children that need it, I am not going to sit quietly and watch health outcomes decrease for those that need it, Children have the least voice politically yet they will be one of the biggest groups impacted by this budget.

For those without children in ECE then the tax cuts will possibly help them, but I wait to see how it can help us if we have to pay more for our children to attend our local kindy. ECE is not a luxury item... it is something that leads to better children in our classes, it is important for our kids and to have a high standard through having well trained teachers is necessary. The centres that have been hit the hardest through the budget are those that have 80-100% fully qualified teachers, the better level of educated staff, the ones we should be promoting as doing a great job for the kids they look after, instead they are going to lose at least 60cents per hour funding per child, and those costs will need to be passed on to the parents.

To Mr English I give your budget a big huge F....

Cross country and a general update

miss K had her cross country at school this morning, she was a respectable 28 out of about 50 girls, so I am pretty happy for her, not first and not last.

Unfortunately this being Palmerston North it decided to start drizzling after her group came in so the next groups of kids all ran in the drizzle, we decided to come home to our nice warm house instead. The kindy kids came over and watched too, its really awesome that school and kindy share these events, the kindy kids become spectators and see what things are happening at school, and see their bigger friends doing things, and the school kids have their wee siblings there to cheer for them.

L starts smart start on the 21st of June, its a program that school runs where those kids that are due to start school in the next term go to school on a Monday afternoon to see how things are done and get used to time there, this is as well as the school visits that they do too. I think its a great idea and will be good for the transition from kindy to school. K didn't do it as we were still in Oamaru when she was ready to do school visits,

Its neat watching L become more confident and ready to start school, wow in a couple of months I will have 2 children at school.

Miss K is doing great at school too, shes really blossoming this year, her teacher is very caring which I think helps too, K did an awesome job at her school assembly last week and I was very proud of how well she spoke and how clear and articulate she was.

Our two littlies are doing great too, Mr O is nearly fully toilet trained which is awesome and saving some $$ with only night time nappies, hes started talking a lot more lately too which is nice. Miss N is 6 months next week, shes started sitting by herself for short periods which is cool, shes very awesome and I am still really enjoying having her in our family

love D

new machine

yippy, I am getting a new to me sewing machine... its a Pfaff creative 1471, identical to my Mum's, its very exciting, and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. Its got some neat features like dual feed which means that both the top and bottom layers of fabric thread through at the same pace, so no more puckered seams, yippy.

Its also got needle down which will be useful for sewing long seams and corners as I will not have to manually put the needle into the fabric to pivot for corners. I am really excited about having a computerised machine too, it will be neat to challenge my skills a bit more.

so yay for new machines and yay to lovely parents who are helping me to purchase it.

D

I didnt forget....

I just wasn't in the mood to blog, I didn't feel like I had anything worth saying so I didn't say anything at all, and maybe it was also that I felt disheartened when I looked at my blog pages and never see any comments, yeah there are some occasionally but I felt a bit sad that there often are not...

Anyway I am back... and I am typing away about nothing in particular, I went to Breastfeeding support group today, its awesome, its neat to feel like I can help other mums to do something that was so difficult for me when I had K, it was a bit easier with L, and with O and N, its been a breeze. Its also become a baby wearing group, we play with slings and how to wear them etc, tomorrow I am going to make some wrap slings, they are great for carrying little babies or for when bubs isn't being too interested in the world, most of the time though I prefer my ring sling.

Its nice to go to a group where there is no competition that "my baby can do this" sort of thing that I have hated about other groups, our babies are different ages but we are all there because we breastfeed and like the support we get. One of the lactation consultants from the hospital also comes which is awesome, we can ask all kinds of questions and get lots of help. She was a huge help to me with K when I was terrified of feeding because of the pain etc.

love D

Going out

Next Saturday night (the 22nd) we are going out on a date, wow a real date... like adults do who do not have 4 kids..... we have a babysitter, I am going to leave some milk in the fridge for Miss N and we are going out.

Ben has bought tickets to the Gala night for the Environmental film festival, its going to be really nice and I am quite excited about it, so then my thoughts have turned to what to wear lol.

I have a nice dress that I made when I was pregnant with Linnea, its black with a sparkly pattern, very cute but a bit big, so Alana and I are going to take it in a bit, and I am going to buy a funky belt to wear with it,

I have also decided to be adventurous and wear heels... I normally cope with a small one but have decided that I want to wear something a bit higher, this could end up badly but I am going to go shopping this afternoon and see what I can find.

D

a proper post today

my last two posts have been little and not very substantial, so this morning I will endeavor to write something a bit better.

I am thinking about my sling business, I am not very sure what to do next, I am having issues with my sewing machine and will need to upgrade but at what cost, do I buy a machine that will be ok, but is second hand or do I get a brand new one that will last for ages? its also a question of cost, I might be able to get something secondhand but most of the good ones I have seen are still 10years or older and over $1000, or do I get a new one at a cost of $2-3000 that will last me for a good 20 years if I look after it. It is falling into the too hard basket at the moment though.

I have sent the four I made to Nelson to Ecomoon and am looking forward to seeing how they go. I am wondering about either selling some through Felt, as I have found Trademe is not as successful for it as I would have liked.

I am quite nervous about the whole thing, its a bit like having a baby you start something and you do not really know where it will take you, I am enjoying the adventure though and the thought of being able to do this and still be at home with my children.

D

its the middle of the night

and baby girl woke up, i thought she wanted a feed so offered one, but no.. she screamed instead, she did this last night too so back to bed shes gone, not impressed at all.

So I have to teach her now to just go back to sleep.... and I need to do the same but her crying doesn't not make that easy, she is asleep now so off I go.

finished

the slings are done, I just have to iron them and make the instruction sheets, yippy.

I remembered 5 minutes ago that I had not blogged today so thought I had better do it before bed... so yay have done it, am worn out, I have sewn 4 slings in 3 days so I need to sleep. night all

making like mad



I have spent the last two days sewing.... and the end is in sight, I have three slings nearly completed with a fourth not much behind it.... yay.

I am really nervous about it and hope that I have chosen nice colour combination's. I have added a pic above so any comments would be great. All four slings are made from easy wearing fabrics, they are all either cotton or linen mixes. The first one is orange stripe lining and a retro floral and spot cotton, the second is navy spot with magenta ribbon and rings with a denim coloured lining, the third is blue linen and a contrasting stripe lining with grey ribbon, and the fourth is green and cream linen stripe with a chocolate lining and green ribbon

love D

Black Bow design is off the ground

I have launched myself into a new world.... I have created a facebook page for my business..... and its all go, I am also making slings to be stocked at Ecomoon in Nelson.

wow, its all exciting and very new to me, but I am doing it yay

sleep in...... gone

I am grumpy its just after 8am and I am up, I do not want to be up, I want to be curled up asleep in my nice warm bed, but when four kids are in it being noisy its not peaceful at all, so I got up and am sitting in front of the computer instead.

Saturday is my sleep in morning, Ben has been working Sundays on his Phd so I figure that I am allowed a small luxury of a bit of sleep on a Saturday, well its not happening this morning is it.

O is mucking around near me now, and the girls and Ben are still cuddled up in our bed, yep I am grumpy, maybe I will crawl into one of the kids beds for a while and have a bit more of a snooze, but now I am up I suppose I might as well stay up, we are out of milk so one of us will have to go get that too..... probably me.

A blog a day

I have set myself a small challenge of blogging everyday till Queens birthday weekend. It will hopefully help me get through the next wee while with some sanity (I hope).

I am not at all sure what I will write about but I am going to do it.... So today is day 4 of the blogging daily, so far so good. I am planning on doing some sewing today, I want to finish making a sleeping bag for miss N and I want to start another sling.........

D

birth options

I like reading about birth, about other countries maternity systems, I find it all very interesting, I read this blog today and was interested in the controversial way it was written ....

As women we sometimes lose sight of what our bodies are capable of doing, and we make excuses to use interventions to make it all right.... anyway read the link and see what you think....

my response is here too...

wow, that is so true for so many woman I know, I did birth naturally for all my 4 babies, I had gas for the last one as she was facing the wrong way and needed to turn to come out the right way, posterior I think is the word.

I had awesome labours no longer than 3 hours yet I have been made to feel guilty that my body was able to do it…. that guilt stuck around for a while, now I embrace it that I can birth babies…. people only think of the birth, yeah my births were great, the pph after my first daughter, the retained placenta, the trip to theatre, the iugr baby, the neonates experience, the mastitis at day 7 aren't thought about by others cos I have ” easy” births…… I hate the competition, I hate the lack of trust by so many that they cant do it…..

D

International Midwife Day

I have been lucky to have had one particularly awesome midwife for my last baby, she was fantastic and I am really pleased that I had her. My other midwives were pretty fantastic too.... the system here although it has some flaws allows for woman to choose who their main carer is during their pregnancy and for the first 5 weeks after the birth.

Our midwives that we had were all amazing, we had great births and great care from there. So today I just want to say a huge thank you to these woman who went above and beyond for us when we needed them.....

Midwives rock

a most awesome may the 4th be with you day


I have had the most awesome day, I have been spoiled by my family and friends and that has made it my best birthday in a long time. I have for the past few years hated my birthday, its 6 years today since my Grandma died so its been tinged with sadness, but today I celebrated and loved my day.

My fabulous children and their Nanny threw me a party this afternoon, it was a kids party complete with cake, balloons, streamers, presents, jelly, lollies (sweets) chips etc, even cheerio sausages..... I loved it, the kids were buzzing all day and they made me go out for an hour so that they could do this for me.

Miss K has learned the German birthday song and she sung it with her Papa this morning, it was so very cool, the first time she has sung in German. Mr O has been walking around singing "to you, to you, to mama, to you" which is just as cute.

I got some lovely presents, ( the necklace I am wearing in the photo was one of them) flowers from good friends, and have been out to our fave cafe for tea. The kids gave me a European Charm bracelet and Ben has bought us tickets to the opening night Gala for the upcoming environmental film festival, so I am feeling totally loved and absolutely spoiled this year.

So May the Fourth be with you all too......

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