Hello there poppets! / L Plate Mama

Hello fellow travellers. Now you may remember I took up study at the beginning of the year. Part time work, part time study, part time mum?!? By the end of April I decided to take a unit off uni. There was a lot going on, Chops needed a bit more time and attention, so a bit of break sounded like a good plan. And it was.  But I didn't factor how hard it would be to start again. 8 weeks off, and those 6am starts just didn't happen. The bed was too warm, the house too cold and my mojo had mo-gone. It took a week to get back in to good habits, but my god this unit was heavy going and I was behind. Any dreams (wow what wild crazy dreams i have) of catching up soon faded. Chops got chickenpox, and I lost my mid week study day. Chops apart from being a bit itchy was in great form, so we did some pokemon bike rides, moving too fast to infect anyone. I did manage to get a couple hours of study in, but not enough. My stress levels were rising daily. It felt like every minute n...

There was a time when I had to take a banana with me to feed my hungry creatures as soon as I picked them up from childcare. There was a time when Moo would scream the entirety of the 6 minute walk to school, about different things each day, yelling and squirming and attracting the attention of people in the next suburb. There was a time when Chops wouldn’t eat apple, grapes, carrot… There was a time that Moo needed me to lie with him until he went to sleep. There was a time that Chops claimed he didn’t like chocolate, but made the exception of when it coated ice-cream. There was a long long time, that Moo would cry and have to pulled off me at each and every drop off at childcare. 2 whole years. 3 days a week. Leaving for my working day to the sound of my littlest one crying for me. I know he stopped soonish after I’d gone. I know he went on, especially in the last year, to have a really good day; but it was tough on him and me, this tearful parting. And then he ...

As the joke goes, how can you tell if someone is a vegan? Don't worry, they will tell you. Hello I'm a vegan. But my children and husband are not.  In my head there are four basic types of people in the world (go with me on this one) 1) people who think this is perfectly reasonable and a good compromise 2) people who hate vegans 3) vegans that think I'm a terrible person, allowing my children to take part in awful animal cruelty 4) people who do not give a rats either way. Most days I sit in category 1.  The first year of your child's life puts immense pressure on your relationship with your significant other. When that relationship has been built on a solid foundation of a mutual love of cheese, going vegan in the midst of the sleep deprivation and sensory overload is not the recipe for happiness. I went vegan when Moo was 6 months. My SO didn't cook a meal for a year. A YEAR. He thought I was judging him, and you know what, maybe I was. Wou...

I've been here 10 years.  Here in the land of green and gold. Yesterday my brother finished up his trip here.  One month of coffee and food adventures and tickles and cuddles. Moo woke up this morning and asked "why has uncledan gone home?" Any answer given was responded to with  "but why?" My brother has been here twice.  It's a long long way and it's expensive to journey all the way over here from over there. Now he's winging his way back to London and there a sadness in my bones.  I don't know when I'll see him again. My boys call my brothers uncle, they have five lovely uncles and aunts here . But their custom doesn't include being called aunt or uncle, which I completely get. But I want my boys to know my brothers are someone special in their lives.  Fierce. Loyal. Fun. I don't know when I'll see him again.  And as the tiny splinters of my heart regroup  my kids keep going. "But why?"

For a long time I felt a bit low and a bit lost. Some where between trying to be everything I felt very much like not-much at-all, and I realised I wasn't able to share this bit of my mama journey, the will to write shrivelled and vanished . But now I'm not so lost and not so low, so....Hello!  So, part of not being lost is having a plan. And the plan involves many years of study! I started in January. It's all online -  so I can run back and forth between my seminar/class and demanding my sproglets eat their dinner; I can read in the morning before they are needing breakfast and lunches made. I can study on the weekend when the other half is around.  I am stretched, I am challenged and I feel sooooo much better for it. But it comes at a sacrifice. A sacrifice for me, for the other half, for our family income and for Chops and Moo.  I'm working less, I'm earning less. I'm losing a weekend day of my family. My time away from my family is filled, the protests and ...