Welcome to my world! I live in beautiful Kingscliff, far northern NSW, just a stones throw from the QLD border. It's a pretty nice place to reside. Ok, it's an incredible place to live. The beach is an easy 7 minute walk from our home, which is a fairly small 3 bedroom, middle townhouse with a neat little courtyard out back. In this townhouse lives myself, one hubby, a cute bubby, two teenagers, two goldfish and two budgies. The hubby and bubby are of course mine. One teenager is mine, the other is on loan from Germany until December. The goldfish and one budgie are not mine to claim, but without my cleaning/ feeding abilities, they would have ceased existence forever ago.
So, here I am, half way to 90 by mid week. I had a horrid realisation the other day; I- Am- Middle- Aged. Uuugh! When did that happen?! Other than pondering what product works best on wrinkles, I was a tad reflective over the past. You know, regrets, triumphs, goals, dreams, that sort of stuff. A big triumph; raising two relatively sane girls mostly alone. Ok, I'm the one who turned out relatively sane. They are both gorgeous gals, all grown up at 24 and 19. One lives five minutes away and the other is still at home. Both are great daughters and even better big sisters.
Another plus was meeting an amazing, creative, gentle, loving man at art school 3 years ago. After close to a decade of being single, I had given up meeting anyone again and was set on pursuing my dreams. Now, here I am married (1 year on Sunday 17th!), with a beautiful, healthy, chubby, 15 and a bit week old bubby girl, Arabelle. *Sigh*. I am so incredibly blessed.
This blessing is also a huge challenge. I prefer to be ordered, and, I confess, dislike noise, waste and mess. The internal footprint on our home is equivalent to bigfoot staggering through a cluttered room at night after someone shone a torch in his eyes. In our home, things are forgotten, like advance notice of upcoming appointments. They eat junk food, love sugar and processed treats, and eat and keep eating, or complain about no food when clearly, there is enough to feed a small nation- you just have to *gasp* prepare it yourself! They leave lights on, cups everywhere, talk loudly through all TV shows and DVD's... insert another sigh here. I am fighting a losing battle. But since I kinda like having them around, maybe the problem may quite possibly be with me. I'll have a fresh outlook and a new perspective to go please.
As this is my blog, I'll cry if I want to. I was quite fit before falling pregnant. I assumed I would sail through the pregnancy, unlike my unfit, younger self. Wrong! It wasn't as smooth as I had hoped. I fell into letting my moods dictate my diet more than I care to mention. I couldn't exercise like I wanted, but again assumed once bubby popped out, I'd be back to my healthy, energetic self. Breastfeeding would also help me shed excess kilo's and I'd be my ideal weight in 5 minutes. Oh dear. Wrong again. Read on...
When my bubby was born, I sustained nerve damage, which I was warned could happen. Thanks, sciatic nerve. Now, my right foot is numb, feels weird, sometimes hurts, or randomly spasms at night. The other foot must be jealous because the symptoms are spreading there too. Other than being a pain in the neck (sorry hubby!), I have one. Pretty bad actually, and it often spreads down my shoulder and arm, making mothering almost unbearable at times. I can't exercise like I want, breastfeeding wasn't successful, and again, I have often been eating for convenience and emotions, not always for health. But, I've had my cry, chucked my tanty, and now, I'm ready to move on. I really can't stay in a place of pain, or dietary disappointment in my head. I would rather shift the focus to bringing healthy back.
Having a baby at this age is such an incredible privilege. I absolutely adore my little girl and can't believe how amazing it feels to be a mum again at this stage of my life. Arabelle is my inspiration for this blog, clearly. I would like the view she gets of this world to be a good one. Since my actions will shape her perception, I choose to focus on good food, sensible exercise and keeping myself grateful daily. It's time to bring back the balance, accept the new normal, focus on healthy recovery, non naggy mothering, gratitude, laughter and of course, lots of yummy recipes. My aim is to show that challenges don't have to be limitations to recovery.
Stay tuned. The next post will be quite possibly the best homemade stock ever.
So, here I am, half way to 90 by mid week. I had a horrid realisation the other day; I- Am- Middle- Aged. Uuugh! When did that happen?! Other than pondering what product works best on wrinkles, I was a tad reflective over the past. You know, regrets, triumphs, goals, dreams, that sort of stuff. A big triumph; raising two relatively sane girls mostly alone. Ok, I'm the one who turned out relatively sane. They are both gorgeous gals, all grown up at 24 and 19. One lives five minutes away and the other is still at home. Both are great daughters and even better big sisters.
Another plus was meeting an amazing, creative, gentle, loving man at art school 3 years ago. After close to a decade of being single, I had given up meeting anyone again and was set on pursuing my dreams. Now, here I am married (1 year on Sunday 17th!), with a beautiful, healthy, chubby, 15 and a bit week old bubby girl, Arabelle. *Sigh*. I am so incredibly blessed.
This blessing is also a huge challenge. I prefer to be ordered, and, I confess, dislike noise, waste and mess. The internal footprint on our home is equivalent to bigfoot staggering through a cluttered room at night after someone shone a torch in his eyes. In our home, things are forgotten, like advance notice of upcoming appointments. They eat junk food, love sugar and processed treats, and eat and keep eating, or complain about no food when clearly, there is enough to feed a small nation- you just have to *gasp* prepare it yourself! They leave lights on, cups everywhere, talk loudly through all TV shows and DVD's... insert another sigh here. I am fighting a losing battle. But since I kinda like having them around, maybe the problem may quite possibly be with me. I'll have a fresh outlook and a new perspective to go please.
As this is my blog, I'll cry if I want to. I was quite fit before falling pregnant. I assumed I would sail through the pregnancy, unlike my unfit, younger self. Wrong! It wasn't as smooth as I had hoped. I fell into letting my moods dictate my diet more than I care to mention. I couldn't exercise like I wanted, but again assumed once bubby popped out, I'd be back to my healthy, energetic self. Breastfeeding would also help me shed excess kilo's and I'd be my ideal weight in 5 minutes. Oh dear. Wrong again. Read on...
When my bubby was born, I sustained nerve damage, which I was warned could happen. Thanks, sciatic nerve. Now, my right foot is numb, feels weird, sometimes hurts, or randomly spasms at night. The other foot must be jealous because the symptoms are spreading there too. Other than being a pain in the neck (sorry hubby!), I have one. Pretty bad actually, and it often spreads down my shoulder and arm, making mothering almost unbearable at times. I can't exercise like I want, breastfeeding wasn't successful, and again, I have often been eating for convenience and emotions, not always for health. But, I've had my cry, chucked my tanty, and now, I'm ready to move on. I really can't stay in a place of pain, or dietary disappointment in my head. I would rather shift the focus to bringing healthy back.
Having a baby at this age is such an incredible privilege. I absolutely adore my little girl and can't believe how amazing it feels to be a mum again at this stage of my life. Arabelle is my inspiration for this blog, clearly. I would like the view she gets of this world to be a good one. Since my actions will shape her perception, I choose to focus on good food, sensible exercise and keeping myself grateful daily. It's time to bring back the balance, accept the new normal, focus on healthy recovery, non naggy mothering, gratitude, laughter and of course, lots of yummy recipes. My aim is to show that challenges don't have to be limitations to recovery.
Stay tuned. The next post will be quite possibly the best homemade stock ever.
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