The mobility of sleep #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

We have, in our family, five little people. That may be somewhat obvious by the the title of my blog. 😉

So it stands to reason that we have had five newborns, had to go through many many months of dodgy sleep patterns, some no sleep patterns and who the heck cares i just want to lie down sleep patterns.

We went for the pic’n mix approach to sleep. Broadly that meant going with whatever works, results in the greatest amount of sleep and once there was more than one little person in the house, resulted in the fewest amount of awakees.  Over the years we have probably dabbled in all the various ‘theories’ but ultimately it comes back to…a default. Go with what gives us the most sleep. Whether thats having a newborn like the princess and the pea inbetween us on our bed or having a 10 year old who has had a bad dream sleep top to toe with us for the night. It all just works out.

I know there are people who get s-t-r-u-n-g out by the thought of a disruptive night, we are a bit different, well i am anyway. Our four year old has been coming into our bed for about 18 months now, every night, without fail. Got to the point when I was almost saying ‘well done’ to her when she managed to get into our bed without waking anyone up!! I never thought i would be one of those people who could sleep inter-linked with someone else. But its amazing what you adapt to 😉

She has pretty much stopped doing it now, i knew she would eventually. There has been points recently where i have had moments where i kind of miss it just a little bit. Maybe a sign that they are growing up and cuddles in bed are becoming far too babyish. *sniff*

I think over the years i have grown less fond of sleep. I find it a bit of a drag. Like there is something else i could be doing…don’t get me wrong those few minutes before you get up are agony, clinging to the mist of dreams, beaten by forthcoming consciousness normally with the help of a baby shaped alarm clock. But there are times when although really i know that i should be asleep that im busy doing something else, robbing my body of its down time as each extra hour of being ‘up’ without the kids means i can just get one.more.thing done.

In our house at least sleep patterns have been fluid..changing with the times, the ages of the kids and the stages they are at. The ultimate goal is everyone in their own bed for the entire night. When that does happen there is a little ‘holy grail’ feeling about it.

But when it doesn’t it isnt the end of the world either.

What about you, how mobile is your sleep?

On this beautiful bank holiday monday I have yet another beautiful box of sunshine from the awesomeness that is LUSH to giveaway. Please follow the instructions on the rafflecopter and don’t forget to check out my lovely friend Pinkoddy and co-host of motivational monday as she has some giveaways going on too.

The winner of the Lego dictionary is Sally Poole. Congratulations and please contact me to claim your prize!!

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He likes to play. #motivationalmonday #springcarnival


We have a piano. Its an upright one, oldish and probably past its best but we got it from ebay for a little under one hundred pounds with the delivery included. We got one because like all parents we have that ‘idea’ that the kids need…no really need to learn how to play an instrument. 😉

I have to say that watching someone play the piano well, for me, is totally mesmerising. There is something calming and trance like about it. I so wish it was an instrument i knew how to play.

Anyway so two out of our five kids have piano lessons and initially it started as plonking on the keys without any real care you know the way that young kids do *smile in a fake manner, clap hands and go YAAAY*

BUT we have taken it all on the chin, moments when you feel like screaming SHUTTUP then you remind yourself that they have to learn, its for the best and so you get on and stuff a bit more cotton wool in your ears and pop another St.johns wort in with your Pinot. 😉

My eldest daughter has been learning since she was 5 and is now almost at grade 1 and the difference in what she can do now is quite amazing..but sometimes the getting there has been a bit fraught with tears and tantrums.

Its hard for me as i am unable to help her most of the time. I never stuck with an instrument and so my knowledge is so lacking that all of them are now beyond my abilites. Fortunately their father didnt have the same slack attitude to childhood music lessons as me and he can now help them out.

As we have gone past the single finger banging out the notes stage and progressed to playing actual songs..it can be a little bit easier on the ears. But the downside to that has been that once they have ‘got’ a tune and they can play it well, without music, they become fuelled with a passion to drill the song into the unconscious mind of the people who inhabit this house and probably the ones either side.

Often at the most stressy moments of the day, like the school run for example. I will be frantically checking for shoes, hats, bags, last minute calls for that ‘oh so important thing that I really must take to school today’ when suddenly adding to the melee like the crazy soundtrack to my life is a double fast version of the latest ‘play-a-lot’ song.

You know sometimes i resist the urge i mentioned earlier and maybe even marvel again at the incredible talent pounding the ivories and other times i fail…

miserably….

and feel like dragging our battered piano into the street, smashing it with a hammer and cursing the day we ever ‘won’ that bid on ebay. 😉

Lately my son has been teaching himself how to play this song…

Please don’t ever sing this near me anytime soon….. *stares*

This weeks giveaway is a fabulous LEGO dictionary full of super heros. For that Lego fan in your life and lets face it we all have one of them!! All you have to do is follow the rafflecopter and then check back in a few weeks to see if you are the winner..simples.

The winner of the LORAX on dvd is Angela Glynn. Please get in touch to claim your prize!

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A time for every season…#motivationalmonday #themondayclub

A couple of weeks ago I went out for afternoon tea with a lovely lady who featured in my silent sunday for that week. It was a big birthday, you know one of those that can suddenly make you look back at where you have been. Maybe looking back a little and evaluating. This lovely friend of mine has a pretty flawless positive outlook, she is all about grabbing life and running with it.

It was a delightful afternoon, we got frocked up and headed off into town. Most of the ladies who went had been students in this city we all live in and heading into town used to mean a very different thing to all of us thats for sure. It was a lovely time of laughter and connections. Remembering stories and celebrating those to come.

I am a great believer in the seasons of life. That we have times that are fit for a certain purpose and there comes a time to move on from one stage of life without clinging to whats behind. Not always the easiest thing to do it has to be said. But we have seasons in our life and its no use trying to slow them down or stop them. Just have to get in it and embrace it while you are there then bid it adieu with fondness when its your time to move on.

One season in my life i had to very much consciously move on from was baby bearing days. After my 4th baby who at the time we thought was our last baby (oops !). Alongside trying to really enjoy those little newborn days i was pretty aware that they were my last go on the merrygo round of new babyhood. Being honest i was a little sad and had a few moments when i really felt like i was loosing part of my life. But then i gave myself a little talking to.

My turn on the back of this season was over, in the same way that my student days where no more and id rather stick pins in my eyes than go and stand and stick to the sweaty floor of Rock City, listening to a band and drinking lager out of plastic pint cups!

I worked out that its okay to be nostalgic about it, you have earned the right for that in the middle of those long sleepless nights and vomit covered days staring blankly at cbeebies. Sure go ahead get out the pictures, roll down memory lane, get the bunting out and have a good old coo and ahh at your memories…but dont get sad. Its life and its a constant flow. You are never meant to stay there, like the boys from take that said ‘one day this will be someone else’s dream’ 😉

Whilst im moving into the school years and loosing years of my life to being a taxi service…there are others who are choosing Universities and trying to teach their teenagers to cook macaroni cheese!…and others who are on the first steps of parenthood discovering those two blue lines.

I loved being a mama to a new baby. Those moments, those tiny teeny moments…guarded and locked into my heart forever. But we are excitedly looking into a different season and yes crossing into a different decade, for me, may have marked that a little bit too.

Its going to be a good decade!

 

My giveaway this week is a another fabulous box from LUSH! Yay more sunshine in a box 🙂 All you have to do is follow the rafflecopter and pop back next week to see if you got lucky! Angela Glynn you were the winner of THE LORAX dvd. Please get in touch to claim your prize!

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Not as expected #motivationalmonday

I bought a teepee a little while back, i think it was last year. My intention was to use it on lovely ‘concept’ shoots the sort that i have been inspired by so many times in the past. I have used it a couple of times but more often than not its been used by the cute little folk in my house. Initially i was a bit reluctant to let them loose on it. There is always a high probability in my house that something like this will get broken or drawn on at some point and so i was a little worried about it not being ‘fit’ for the purpose i had intended.

But gradually it has become part of our furniture, propped away from time to time but out for play..and yes it has been drawn on and broken in that time too!. My oldest daughters like to ‘camp out’ in it in our living room and my smallest two play a lot of games in there, sometimes they let mama join in too, especially when you play a game of peek-a-boo through the hole at the top!

I actually dont mind that it hasn’t fulfilled its initial purpose. I was maybe a little unrealistic to be honest. Dazzled by american photographers who can rely on good weather, beautiful hazy sun flare and warmth..when realistically the soggy  summers and freezing springs we have had, haven’t actually lent themselves to extended concept shoots with little ones.

So for now, its purpose has changed but i don’t think it has less value. It is being well loved. It is part of some stories, cowboys, indians, tea parties, dolly get togethers, trips to the shops, imaginary journeys to foreign lands, and a few sibling fall outs 😉

My intentions may have been different but its purpose now brings a warmth to my soul when i hear it being bought to life.

Sometimes things just work out like that don’t they? Not always as planned but still as good.

i like that.

 

Giveaway time this week is for this super cute MINI BODEN tee for the little toddler guy or gal in your life! Just follow the rafflecopter as always. The winner of the LUSH gift box is Danielle Preira. Please contact me to get your prize! Congratulations!

 

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The day pink died #motivational monday #springcarnival

One of my favourite books when i was growing up was The Lorax, used to love the line ‘I am the Lorax and i speak for the trees’ It was one of those books that i can still remember reading as a kid. Recently the kids got the DVD version of the film that came out last year. They totally love it., it has big numbers in it and some big hollywood names voicing the characters. But what i love is that the message is still the same. Unless. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not – Dr. Seuss.

Now speaking of trees….As we live in a city sometimes trees can be a bit scarce. Well to be fair this city in itself isnt too bad. There are quite a lot of green areas. But in our own back yard its a bit different.

We don’t have a huge garden, when we moved in it had been fairly well landscaped with a family in mind and the only tree in the garden was a small, shocked, apple tree that had been hacked and trimmed within an inch of its life and its pretty much still trying to recover.

But the house that backed onto our neighbour was owned by an elderly lady and it had two beautiful, rambling and stunning pink blossom trees. Im sure there is a proper name for them but all i know that every spring we would all look forward to the bottom of the garden being accented with pink. The branches leaned over into our garden in such a generous way. Like the tree knew i would appreciate it. 🙂

I cannot count how many pictures i have of this tree. It was so pretty i used to go out and photograph it a lot….playing with settings, lenses and filters.

The girls would bounce up and down on the trampoline which was under the tree and grab the blooms, giggling and threading the pretty green leaves through their hair.

At the end of spring it would slowly loose all its blooms onto the tramp and the deck and we would have a pretty pink blanket.

Truly such a lovely tree, it bought us pleasure every year. We watched it, enjoyed it, interacted with it. It was part of our seasons.

Sadly the lady who lived in the house passed away and the house was sold and a few weeks ago we heard that high pitched squeal of a chainsaw and our beautiful neighbour tree was gone. 🙁

Just like that…

and being honest with you, and i do understand the reasons why the new owners have got rid of the tree, but i really miss it. Now its like looking at a picture and constantly wondering whats missing and then going ”oh yes…”

Even the kids have missed it. We miss our adopted pink tree. It had been largely uncared for by its owner but for years we loved it. It was part of our story and history in our garden.

thanks pink tree 🙂

Im going to finish with a clip from the movie, we all love this song. Watch out for  ‘you greedy dirtbag!’ My giveaway this week is a copy of  The Lorax on DVD. It really is a lovely family movie. So to be in with a chance head over to rafflecopter below and follow the instructions and be sure to check back next week to find out if its coming your way!!

Last weeks winner of the Captain Calamari developmental toy was Helen Dickenson Anette! Congratulations. Please get in touch to claim your prize 🙂

 

 

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