The Aspirations Of A Stay-At-Home-Parent

31 May, 2013 4 interesting opinions, add yours.
London Eye

A few weeks ago, or a few months ago (I can't remember exactly when,) some of my girl friends and I were having a lovely time together. We were sitting leisurely over beautiful food and talking about anything and everything. None of us had to rush off to pick up a child from ballet or football. We could just enjoy each other. It was during this rare, wonderful time together that one of my friends said something that I have had trouble forgetting. I haven't written about it until now because I wanted to mull it over and I didn't want to write a defensive, reactionary reply. To be perfectly honest, I wanted to try to forget it. We were all gabbing away about the trials and tribulations of parenting our various offspring. There was a lot of sighing and head nodding, dotted with laughter ... [Click Here to Continue Reading]

Broken Mama: Eating Alone In My Car And Praying

23 February, 2013 Leave a comment, you know you want to!
Broken-Mama

The door slammed behind me and I breathed in a wave of cold air. The shock of it felt good. Walking out felt good. I got in the car, put my belt on and put the keys in the ignition. Then I stopped. My hands gripped the steering wheel and I let my head drop to my chest. I knew that if I rested my head on the wheel like I wanted to, I'd break down in tears; but I also knew that I couldn't drive off yet. Although I was in a completely emotional whirlwind, and my adrenalin was still pumping, thankfully I had enough presence of mind to know that I needed to calm down a little before driving. (Plus, if I cried, they would win. I didn't want them to break me, I wasn't giving in.) I took a few deep breaths. My heart was still racing but I was a little calmer. I turned the ... [Click Here to Continue Reading]

Broken Mama: Today I Walked Out On My Family

22 February, 2013 Leave a comment, you know you want to!
Broken-Mama

Today my heart hurts. I am exhausted. Today... I am broken. It has probably been one of my worst parenting days. Ever. And it started out with such promise too... This week is half-term break for many of the schools in the UK. At the beginning of the year Chris and I had talked about making more of an effort to go out and do activities, even if we couldn't go away anywhere. It was starting to feel like we were letting life run away from us. I am not going to lie, times are tough around here and the budget is tighter than tight. But we realised that if we let that rule us, our family life would pass us by and we would have few, if any, special memories to look back on. So, today was *supposed* to be a family day out at a wonderful world heritage sight, which is set up as a ... [Click Here to Continue Reading]

A Fun Way to Set Goals With Your Kids at New Year’s

21 January, 2013 Leave a comment, you know you want to!
Kids-New-Years-Printable

Hi everyone, Happy 2013! (Yes, I know we are three weeks into January, but better late than never!) ;) I wanted to share a quick post with you about a fun thing we did with the girls this year. A lot of us like to set resolutions for the New Year and I'm definitely one of 'those' people. The girls have obviously noticed this about me- (Mummy and her lists, to-do boards etc...) Luckily for me, they are interested in trying it out themselves and I found a cute way to do this with them. Based on some inspiration I found in my travels around the blogosphere, I designed my own version of a New Year's Goals Sheet for the girls. I love that this goal-setting activity teaches the kids some amazing life skills, but even better than that- if you save them over the years and put them into a ... [Click Here to Continue Reading]

How Do You Remember?

11 September, 2012 Leave a comment, you know you want to!
Candles_web

This morning on my way home from the school run, I had the radio on. Regularly they have a spot where a person of faith comes on air and gives a short inspirational message. Today it was a Rabbi from the Jewish faith. She was talking about the ritual of visiting loved ones' graves during the High Holidays (the period between Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement and Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year). She told of how it is customary for Jewish people to leave pebbles on the graves when they visit instead of flowers and how the pebbles seem like little calling-cards, saying you've been there. I thought it was a lovely visual. It touched me too, because it reminded me of my grandmother who passed on three years ago in America. One of the hardest parts of living abroad is being away from ... [Click Here to Continue Reading]