88% woman

I found a link for gender analysis of blogs... apparently I am 88% likely to be a woman writer.

Ethical question.......

A fertility clinic in London is holding a raffle of donor eggs for older women who want to be mums... the winner will go to the USA for treatment to try to get pregnant.

The furore seems to be over whether women should be allowed to sell their eggs. Egg donation is not easy, its painful and time consuming, so should there be a financial gain for the woman doing it?

I have thought about egg donation now that my family is finished, I don't need the ones I have left, so if I could help someone else I possibly would, to me its just genetic material, its not a baby, its the possibility of a baby.

Which leads to the question though, is it OK to sell your eggs? Or would it lead to a black market for eggs? As infertility levels rise could this be an option for increasing egg donation, or would it lead to less scrupulous woman doing it just for the money.

I would love to know what others think about this.

D

Silent house

this rather strange phenomena is happening at the moment, I actually sometimes have a silent house, the kids are either sleeping or doing various activities and I get silent time, its amazing, and I think will become something that I treasure amongst the chaos that is having 4 kids under 7.

So instead of sitting here I am going to use my current quiet time to do some sewing, I have a couple of merino dresses that I want to get made up, the weather here is getting cooler so I want to be prepared for it.

D

looking good, feeling great

I am feeling good, I have lost 3kg since the start of the year, and am very proud of myself, I am now at the lightest I have been since the around 2000. I am also feeling happy with life which is great.

finding friends again

During my last pregnancy I retreated into a shell, and did not make a lot of effort with my friends and I regret that, so I have decided that I am going to make time for friendships and the people that I care about, I am going to enjoy my life and our friends and the warmth that that brings with it. I have been spending more time with some of my female friends and its been so nice, I am definitely going to make more time for them and stop getting so caught up with me....

I am also hoping to have a weekend away doing political stuff, I just have to organise some help for Benjamin that weekend so he can still go to work one of the days. I will take miss N with me, shes a great wee baby so shouldn't be too much of a problem.

So too all my friends who put up with me last year, I am thankful that you stuck around. love D

International Womens Day

Just wanted to say thank you to all the fabulous women in my life, esp my Mum and sister, you are two of my rocks who help me through life, I love you both.

managing on my own

I am having to learn some new skills at the moment which are testing my patience at times, its called being happy with parenting alone in the weekends....

This may seem rather random, but I am finding it is getting easier each day that I do it, its not as scary as it once was, I think some of it is just getting on with life and realising that the PhD needs finished and until it is I have to just get on with parenting alone most weekends.

I am actually quite pleased with how I went today, I managed to cook a nice meal, have the kids all in bed by 8pm, do some washing, go for a walk, do a triathlon (albeit a very small one), so yes I am feeling good about this so far. Just to keep being OK with it I think will be my main goal, and to know that yes I can do this and I am a good mum who can cope.

It also gives me more respect for Mums who do this all the time, I am lucky I have a nanny (for a few more weeks) and a Husband who helps raise our four children

down under feminist carnival

the 22nd carnival is up, and I have my political involvement piece in it, yay for me click here to go to the carnival and read all kinds of writing by feminists.

political inactivity

As a Sahm with four children I am finding it hard to be as politically active as I once was, I wonder if some of this is because of the way political parties are geared more towards people who work or if its just that having children means that they are my priority?

I am finding it strange being this uninvolved with political happenings that used to be hugely important to me, I am disconnected from most of the Labour party because I arent attending meeting and are not really using the social network for keeping in the loop... it made me start wondering about political organisation and women in general.

Women are not well represented in most elected positions in our country, some of this is that they are not shoulder tapped and asked to stand and parts of it are that they just dont have the time because they are doing everything else.

I managed to stay active when I had my first baby, with number 2 I was still in the loop as well, but with 3 and 4 I have drifted further from it, some of it is to do with meeting times and some because I am too busy keeping our house running....

It saddens me that I am so distant from something that is still a huge passion for me, and that the opportunities to interact are limited in some ways....

I think I need to find new ways to keep my political involvement in the Labour party and in society in general. I wonder if Mums voices are heard very often at all? Probably not because we don't always have time or we feel that we are not listened too or valued as part of society, I would love to know what other people think about this.

D

Absentee blogger

Hi all, I have got my parents here at the moment so barely get to come and blog. Its been a year now since we had our pregnancy loss... and heaps has happened since then, the week of the year anniversary was really hard, I found myself thinking about it all a lot, I am ok with it but it was hard.

I also realise that it was meant to be, and that N was to be our 4th child, shes absolutely awesome, shes three months this week and is a huge delight to us all.

We have been busy doing kids triathlons, the two big girls are doing really well and have had their photos in the local papers 3 times because of it. I managed to do a small triathlon on Valentines day which was a huge thing for me, I haven't done a tri since early last year because of pregnancy etc so it was neat to achieve something like that again.

Its great having Mum and Dad up for a while, they were here for a week, then did car rallies then came back to us for this week, the kids think its great and they are loving having the summer car here too.

so thats pretty much all thats going on at the moment, I will try to become a more regular writer again soon.

D