Stay At Home Mumming and Postnatal Depression

strangely enough, I have all of these things too.

Okay- lets talk turkey. Tidy houses, cute angelic children and happy marriages aside.

I've been encouraged to think about Postnatal Depression of late. I'm not sure why- I'm totally all over this stay at home mum shiz (eehum, kinda). 

 It would seem that finding parenting a challenge is cause for concern. I'm no counsellor (although I do see one) so I don't really know what defines Postnatal Depression. A quick google search suggests that

• Low self-esteem and lack of confidence
• Feelings of inadequacy and guilt
• Negative thoughts
• Feeling unable to cope
• Tearfulness and irritability
• Difficulty sleeping or changes in sleeping patterns
• Low sex drive
• Anxiety, panic attacks or heart palpitations
• Loss of appetite
• Difficulty concentrating or remembering things. (source)
• 
  

are indicators. I don't know about you, but I could tick a few of those boxes. Some days I do a great job of being a stay at home mum while other days I find doing endless loads of washing rather unfulfilling. For me, it's a day by day thing. Some days I cope, others I don't. Some days there is a hot dinner and a clean house, others there's not. 

Today is one of the 'other' days. No hot dinner, no happy children, not even any clean washing. But there have been tears and tantrums a plenty. 

So I find myself sitting here thinking 'do I?, don't I?' - and I conclude... nothing. I'll just get on with it - see how I go. See if a good routine and a change of season makes a difference. 

Being a mother is totally awesome. I love it and I love my kids more than I can express, as I'm sure you do. The only problem is that I'm still me. I still exist as an individual (who knew) and I'll tell ya, I'm bloody high maintenance.

I'll fill you in on the sleep saga and tell you about our new routine later in the week.

 For now- sheaf stout.

She Played The Uke

While The Young Man slept, the Lady Baby and I did what ladies should do. Hung about on the bed and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our faces. She played the uke, I listened adoringly.

Go on...

... go and have a visit with these peeps in their super stylin' home....

                                                                                                              you won't regret it....

you might, however, regret not having booked Tim yet... better do that now.

enough about Tim already?

 okay okay- but i can't help it.

All In 37 Seconds Work

I am always amazed by how productive a toddler can be.

  

Give mine half a minute and he will get stuff done. 

Almost A Thrifty Find

... but more like a family heirloom... or something.

I have been wanting to redecorate the study/office/junk room for a while now. The intensity of this desire was heightened when I saw a spotted office chair in the new Freedom catalogue. I swiftly bought that sucker and began my search for the perfect desk.

After many fruitless ebay and op shop searches I resorted to the dingy storage space beneath my parents house. Oh, Hello old high school desk covered in graffiti and angsty adolescence prose, it's nice to see you again. kinda. But you are free, and that is in keeping with my budget.

Yesterday, young man and I sanded it back and put a quick undercoat on.

 Soon enough it'll be glossy white and i'll show you my completed office. 

See other thrifty finds here

On Being A T.V-less Wanker

Photo by Tim Coulson

A few posts ago I mentioned my love affair with the block. I also mentioned that we don't have a t.v in our house, that instead we watch iview or dvds. A few of you asked how I could claim to be t.v less if we watch t.v online. Fair question.

When I said that we were a t.v less house, what I meant was that we don't actually have a t.v. That's not to say that I have not watched the 'Sex and The City' series in its entirety. Or that I don't let the young man watch 2 hours of Play School so I can sit on my fat butt and look at your blog. Because I have, and I do.

So please, don't think that I'm a trite wanker (or do).

Some of you also expressed an interest in why we choose not to have a television. For most of out married life, Dave and I have not had a T.V. It started when we bought our first apartment (read about that in my story), it was old and we thought the aerial connection thingie was broken. Because we are stingy we never tried to get it fixed. Eventually a neighbour came over and simply tuned it in- Yeah, we are not techno savvy.

There began my television commitment.

I needed to be home to watch my favourite shows. all the time. I didn't want to miss an episode. It was a pretty full on relationship, unrequited love I tell you. That t.v never did anything for me except rot my brain and waste my time.

When we moved into this house we decided to kick it to the curb in the hope that we might be more motivated and creative without it. We had one tiny little mac laptop and a whole bunch of books, pencils, paper and board games. It was good.

These days an assortment of desktops, lap tops and iphones compete for our attention. Maybe it's time to cull of few of those too?

do you have a tv? do you watch it? 

are you in a committed relationship with it?

From Bad to Worse

So this little situation resulted in the below. It was bound to happen, right?

It's okay- I made The Young Man sweep it up.

Couples

The couples in our family.

I love them all!

To see more of this family day go here and check out the master photographer here.

 Also, Thanks to each and every one of you who offered advice about these sleep issues. Last night we were only up once. Despite my baggy eyes and washed out complexion- i feel pretty bloody attractive sitting here in my pj's. Nothing like a bit of sleep, I'll tell you all about it later.

Linking up with PaisleyJade

Gaggin'

My postie delivered the disk of images from the other day. 261 awesome shots of our amazing extended family.

 I'll spread them over a few posts... it might bore you, but not me.

oh, its okay of you think Dave's brother is hot. We all do. Thats why we call him Orlando.

More to come later today. Right now, the kids are asleep, the house smells of fresh freesias and i have 729 loads of washing to do.