MUMTALK

Overactive Mummy Problem!!

2010-02-04T01:25:00.000-08:00

What a busy few weeks I've had!! I barely had time to brush my teeth. My overactive thyroid was overacting again. If only I could relax. When the doctor told me I had an overactive thyroid but wouldnt need medication unless it was disrupting my life I said, "No, I don't need any meds, I'm fine thanks" but boy was I wrong. Having two toddlers, pregnant with number 3 and holding down a job is quiet eventfull in itself but I still have to do more and just can't stand doing nothing for a minute. So I have taken on 2 courses which take up alot of my time, weekends, study etc. Am I gone totally mad?? I used to believe it was just the type of person I was and at one stage put it down to creativity and saw it as a positive thing but I think it is time to rethink and cop on!!

So after the baby arrives I have decided to do more about it and deal with this overactive thyroid problem. So maybe then I will be able to sit down and watch telly for more than five minutes or master the act of meditation. But for now, it is me and my toe tapping, finger snapping hormones.....it's funny how I'm still too tired to get all that housework done though!!

Favourite photos meme!

2010-01-15T06:21:00.000-08:00

A big thank you to FoodieMummy for this meme! It is a very hard task as I just LOVE taking photos. I started a photography course a few months ago, only to discover that my finals would be on when I would be on my back in the labour room in May! But my time will come again (even if it is 10 years time). So I settled for a really snazzy camera for my Christmas present. Now I haven't grasped the whole aperture thing and everything that goes with it, but some day I will read 'Photography for Dummies' and become a bit more capable of taking photos.
But for now I am left with a zillion photos of my children and trees (don't ask me why.....tree hugger in my previous life maybe!) so my favourite (apart from my kids) is this lovely whale we saw doing tricks in France last year on holidays. What you can't see is my two childrens faces as they saw the show....priceless! Sometimes a photo can tell so many stories even if they are moments of joy behind the lens! I would like to nominate the following five for this meme

1.Anke Morgenroth
2.Fashionable Mama
3.Dublin Mama
4.Imen McDonnell
5.Sian Maloney

Cabin Fever!!!

2010-01-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

Oh Lordie Me!!! I officially need help......cabin fever has set in. Now I don't know if it is an annual thing with me, maybe I suffer with S.A.D.- note to self- Must get one of those sunlamp thingies!   But we are stranded in our house, food is running out, kids gone wild and hubby not in the best of form (actually like a angry bear) because he has to repair pipes all over the place. I lived in hope yesterday that schools would re-open and I could get to the shops, but no, another day of cabin fever.

So, since I am 5 months pregnant. So I decided to sort out the pink clothes from blue clothes and dump the yellows as it is our last and we have a girl and a boy already! What a disaster. I never found the courage to dump all the lovely baby clothes as they were done with, so I literally had 30 big bin liners full of bibs, bally jumpers and vomit stained dressses all thrown in one room.   O.k. maybe I am a bit of a hoarder too, lesson learned!

Then I decided to go shopping online!! Ouch! I had a chat to myself beforehand and decided that I had enough clothes for the little one already so all I really needed was reusable nappies (am I mad!) and a nappy bag.   2 hours later and 1500 euro in debt I finished. All I ordered was clothes, no nappies, no bag and a battered credit card. It will be a quiet year for me ....again!

Now, as part of my New Year Resolutions for 2010 I decided to be alot more positive, so when I saw rain instead of snow this morning, dare I say it....it lifted my day! Snow is thawing and we might be able to eat more than frozen pizza tomorrow, we live in hope!

So, I think we are coming to the end to the Big Freeze, will it be missed, definately not. Skiing holidays don't seem as exciting anymore and we can once more look forward to the basic and simple things in life.   Like food and sanity!

Mumtalk's 5 Highlights of 2009!!

2010-01-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

A big thank you to foodiemummy for nominating me for a 'high five' meme.   Hopefully I won't find it too hard to say what the highlights for 2009 were but here goes nothing....

Mumtalk's 5 highlights for 2009
1. Love and happiness in the house. Yes o.k. I know it sounds totally soppy and I'm not a very soppy person but without it I wouldn't last the day.   The hubby isn't the best communicator in the world, which is often the topic of arguments between us, but I have come to realise that men are wired totally differently from us. When I want to talk (non-stop) about the day and all he wants to do is ....nothing I have learned to accept it and pick up the phone or get blogging.. Which leads me on to no.2

2. Blogging. Since starting to blog in December of 2009, I have found it a great escape or shall I say, release, from daily life.   This I find is essential to my wellbeing and thank you all for being there to be blogged to. May 2010 be full of bloggers with blogs galore!!

3. Time Out. I know it might sound negative but it really isn't in my world.   I have two children aged 2 and 3 and only for my time out step I really don't know how I would cope.   It disciplines the kids and gets us all back to an even keel without any blood being shed! Saying that hopefully 2010 will see the diminishing appearance of my fond friend.

4. Yoga. I love and adore yoga.   Now, whether or not I can call myself a yogi I don't know.   I do try and live my life as yogic as possible and even if I do practice my asana/postures daily, do I practice the way of life??? It has given me great tools to live with and helped me through 2009 greatly. Namaste.

5. Last but not least, my two adorable but crazy children.   They have taught me so many lessons in 2009. About life and about myself. Some I really have to work on e.g. counting to ten would be one and others were a nice surprise e.g. multi-tasking...what a skill! So thank you guys for the person you have made me today.

So there you have it my 5 highlights of 2009.   They might sound very dull or mundane to some but to me, they have brought me into 2010 a better person than I was entering 2009....what more could I ask for.

I would like to nominate the following five for a high-five meme.
1.seeking serenity
2.dublin mama
3.celtic mama chatter
4.lepetitecoquin
5.northsidemama

Mumtalks Yoga Tree

2010-01-07T04:27:00.001-08:00

This is my yoga tree which I practise to every morning and helps me with the day ahead.

2010-01-07T04:23:00.000-08:00

It is 2010 and Happy New Year to everybody. To be totally honest I am glad to see the back of 2009. It brought up alot of issues in my house but to look on the positive side we are all alot closer and stronger heading into 2010. Yesterday, I managed to take down the tree, which was practically on the floor anyway and packed all the santas and tinsel into boxes. This didn't bother me in the slightest but OMG the dust! The house was like a desert for most of the day. I felt like roadrunner running from room to room with my polish and wipes. Being 5 months pregnant I ended up on the floor at the end of the day with swollen feet and ankles, merry little Christmas to me. So heading into 2010 I am full of excitement as baby no. 3 is due in May and I am feeling the excitement (finding out the sex tomorrow!!!) Being married to a farmer we have had two babies since the 1st of January (calves of course) so it is an extremely busy time for him but we planned this baby with great detail not like our last, who was planned, but not really thought out. He was born in January during calving season so I was on my own with a 15 month old and a newborn with colic and me suffering from post natal depression and with no family around so I learned my lesson.
This year I plan on being gentle with myself. Yes, while everyone else has goals and are being very ambitious, I plan on being a bit on the lazy side. So if that extra 2 stone piles on me, I shall look upon it like a comfort blanket and if the house starts looking shabby, I shall remind myself that I always loved that antique look anyway and if I start losing clients at my workplace, well, that will make alot more time for me to blog. So here is to a happy and healthy 2010. It's a fabulous world, so lets put the troubles of 2009 behind us and move forward in unison. Just remember ....
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with your girl(blog)friends.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

2009-12-18T01:21:00.000-08:00

I am off on my Christmas holidays and would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you to all of those who have visited my blog lately and I will be back in January with plenty of tales to tell. Love to all. Mumtalk.

Mumtalk presents.......Mummy Moments!!

2009-12-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

Thank God for Mummy Moments!! I know I am lucky to be able to spend so much time with my lovelies but after having children you have to give up that selfish part of yourself (oh how I miss her sometimes!) and though I dread admitting it, lose yourself a bit! Time plays a big factor of course, just getting the time to go out and do all those lovely things that used to be done before and were all taken for granted, like spontaneous pubbing, clubbing, lunching, napping and just being able to do absolutely nothing.   Now I realise that this type of life can be quite shallow if lived day in day out, but every now and again would be nice, wouldn't it ?

So over the last year, I realised that there wasn't a balance in my life. O.K. to be honest I don't miss the pubs and clubs or the spontaneous lunches out with hubby or friends that much, but I was still 'missing' something in my life, I was missing part of the 'real' me.   Trying not to be too selfish, I realised that this void in my life wasn't only affecting me but my family too as they weren't getting me as a whole, only half the package, half the happiness, so I decided to do something about it and here I am.

Six years of marriage and two children later I did so many 'me' things this year that were fulfilling in so many ways.   I started a Yoga Teacher Training Course, which I will admit is so intense and I never realised how difficult it really is but yet, it has given me so many tools for daily living and I truly believe has made me into a better person. I signed up to pottery nightclasses and loved every minute of it.  Yes, I was total crap at it and everything I made ended up looking like a deformed part of a mans body, but it was something I really wanted to do and it made me so happy.   Doing these things, made me remember who I really was and what I am interested in.   I am a mother and count my blessing every day but I strongly believe holding onto the person you are inside, or finding her again, not only makes you happy but also makes all those who love to see you smiling, happy too.

So, whether it's a bar of your favourite chocolate, been eaten in the wardrobe trying to get a Mummy Moment, lets not forget, we all deserve happiness and deserve to be ourselves!

Here is to lots of Mummy Moments for 2010!!!

The Innocence of Christmas

2009-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

Having two children aged two and three and being a big child myself, I am really loving the return of Santa and all the lovely and magical things that go with it i.e. Jingle Bells being sang out of key a thousand times a day, Santa Claus the Movie, the squeal of delight from the children whenever they see a man with a white beard and I must admit,much to my astonishment, sobriety and lack of a Sunday morning hangover is quiet enjoyable!

I am in a way using my children to relive my own childhood, but I like to look upon it as the perks of the job! I'm the one dragging them to the decoration counter in the local supermarket the day after Halloween, o.k. Santa Claus at the age of 6 months was quite scary but after attaching ten Santa teddies to her cot, she soon came round to the idea!

I know the world has changed in many ways and Christmases now are different to those of the past, but after bringing my children to see Santa in his 'grotto'/shopping centre I wasn't so sure. When Santa asked with his 18 year old Irish accent what she would like for Christmas, she replied, much to my surprise and embarrassment "A yoyo please Santa". Santa then looked at me and my husband with pity and handed her two presents instead of one. Thinking about this on the way home afterwards, I thought about the innocence of it all and how long it would last? Was it us as parents turning our children into spoilt little rascals by bombarding them with toys that they will have no mass on after Christmas dinner just so that we can feel all magical and Christmassy? Maybe, I don't really know. I hope I can say that I will spend in moderation, being a recession I don't have a choice. But one thing I have realised is that it isn't about the toys or the Santa's, it's all about the innocence of children and how they light up our Christmas and our lives, I think they could teach us a thing or two, it's just a matter of sitting back and being in the moment I guess. Then again, am I the naive one in all this, my three year old asked me a question today that could also lead me to thinking she isn't that innocent after all.... "Mummy, because we have two chimney's will we be getting two Santa's?" I rest my case.

Trials and Tribulations of Motherhood

2009-12-08T02:27:00.001-08:00

Now don't get me wrong, I love my children and am eternally grateful for them but I'm not going to deny the fact that it is so bloody hard. After having my first daughter I was still able to get to town to mingle with the homies, but my world was turned upside down. When people asked me how everything was I would be brutally honest and instead of answering them with a big smile and a "Fabulous, it is like she has always been here" I would look at them with my big bloodshot eyes and say with fatigued breath "It is so hard, I just need to sleep". People loved meeting me, it made the 40 year old childless woman feel so much better and it also gave the average mother (who wasn't coping but not admitting it) satisfaction that she wasn't on her own and probably doing a better job than me anyhow.
Then along came number two...SMACK, POW, BANG....as batman might say!! What a shock to the system, o.k. there was only seventeen months between them but if I thought having one was hard having two was like having twenty. People used to say 'If your having one you might as well have more, it's all the same' Why, oh why, did I think they were truthful, at thirty I thought I wasn't as naive as I was at 20 but I think I am actually worse. With two under two, there was no mingling in town or chatting about how hard it all was on street corners, there was just, well, home. It was like a military operation if I tried to move outside the house so why bother. Now on number three I am ready for the hardship, after not being out with two years I just listen to that little voice in my head, and yes I will admit,I have answered it back on occasion, but at least it is honest and doesn't lie......what else does a woman want (that it can't be married to I suppose!)