Welcome to the July Carnival of Natural Parenting: Let’s Talk About Food
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about their struggles and successes with healthy eating. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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It’s always been an issue in my life. It’s not that I eat too much of it – on the contrary, I sometimes don’t enough – or at least, don’t eat often enough. As a working woman, I often didn’t eat anything all day, until home time when I would pass the snack bar and perhaps grab a bag of crisps.
As a mother, I’m sorry to say, these habits have only marginally improved.
But as my daughter Kyra has begun weaning, and we have chosen baby-led weaning to do so, we have certainly made attempts at improving the way we eat. We are not the ‘drastic change’ type of people. Emptying the cupboard of anything remotely unhealthy is more likely to steer us towards a shopping trip than a healthy lifestyle, so we’ve had to make small steps. So far, we’ve made three.
Continue reading Food, Glorious Food!
We have had another fantastic week of travel and visitors. We have been so blessed, and my Dad, Mom and Brother deserve a huge thank you for making all this possible for us. We could not have managed this holiday for ourselves at this time, much less given my gran such an amazing time. My gran has been on my ‘best friend’ list since I was a child. She’s never been one of those cuddly, spoiling us kind of grans, but she has always been fair and just and she’s always been there for me, been my advocate and really ‘seen’ me.
There are so many ways where we are so different, but I’ve always felt like I could go to her with anything I needed to. Having this time to share with her, and seeing her bond with my daughter and being able to show her the land her own grandmother walked on, the town she lived and so on has meant more to me than I can ever relay in words. Thank you Mom, Dad & Ziech for making this possible.
Continue reading 365-175 to 365-181 A Week in Pictures
Dear Kyra
I was just reading through the letter I wrote you last month and it feels like just last week I wrote it, but reading it back now, it seems like you were a small baby then.
I don’t really know where to start with this month. Your great-granny from South Africa came to visit with your uncle from Australia. You smiled at them, but preferred to be with me, at first. It only took a few days, though, and you were as much at ease with them as with Daddy and me. You and Granny got on really well. She whispered to you and you listened closely. She pretended to be the wind and you giggled. She rubbed noses with you and you squealed with glee.
Continue reading Letter to a Nine Month Old
Welcome to the June Carnival of Natural Parenting: Outdoor fun
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared their stories and tips for playing outside with kids. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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With a baby just eight months old who has never seen a summer, and living in the United Kingdom where summer tends to only last a few days each year, ‘outdoor fun’ is often very limited for those who don’t like being cold and or wet.
This is something Martin, my husband, and I really struggle with as we both grew up in South Africa where life included hikes, camping, beaches and other outdoor pursuits nine months of the year. Leaving the house when the weather is by our definition miserable is a constant act of will.
Continue reading What We Do
I never thought I’d say it, but here it is: we had a great day out at Legoland Windsor. I was expecting a relentlessly garish onslaught of consumerism in the baking sun surrounded by mobs of tired parents worn out by sugar-possessed children. I was anticipating loud showground-style thumping, pumping music, and dreading the inevitable money haemorrhaging that occurs on such occasions. In the end, I was shocked to find Legoland is not like that at all.
Continue reading The Magic of Legoland, Windsor
Welcome to the May Carnival of Natural Parenting: Role model
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have waxed poetic about how their parenting has inspired others, or how others have inspired them. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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I often think of salmon, swimming upstream. I think of how hard it must be to swim against the current all the time. How tiring. I guess if it were one single fishy, swimming up river, it would be an impossible task, but for a school of them, swimming together, fighting the current as one, the tired riding in the slipstream of the strong, it’s a different story.
I never intended to be an activist on anything, least of all things relating to children.
Continue reading Upstream Parenting
We have had a great week here. It started with a flight to Norway, and although constantly aware of volcanic activity we had a great, and largely unaffected time. My sister met us at the airport and treated us all the way around Oslo and beyond.
Continue reading 365-105 to 365-111 A Week in Pictures
I was accused recently in an article I wont give credence by linking to, of being ‘gag worthy’ for a post I wrote when my daughter was four weeks old, in which I took a humorous look at the things that have changed in my life since becoming a mother.
This person went further and said that I ‘perpetuated the myth’ of all the tough times being worth it, and that I was toeing the party line.
Continue reading I’m a Gaga Mama
We had a slightly busier week, although illness is still firmly imprinted on our household. Nonetheless, a visit to the in-laws in Somerset, a quick stop-in at a local art gallery, a trial day in cloth nappies and a product launch for shoes to make you skinny while eating cupcakes made it all pass really quckly.
Continue reading 365-77 to 365-83 A Week in Pictures
Susie Q is the owner of the lighthearted and funny blog Out of the Ordinary. She bravely agreed to swap blogs with me for one day, as we explore each other’s lives. We couldn’t be more different: Single, no children and employed vs married, a baby and a stay at home mom, Susie and I take a look at family life and single life from opposite sides of the aisle. After reading Susie’s thoughts here, stop by her blog to read mine and for a good laugh, take a look at some of her other posts too!
Continue reading Susie Q’s Thoughts on Motherhood
