Lately my special interest has been personal finance. This has been sparked by going from ‘just getting by’, to having a reasonable household income. My aims are 1) to get rid of toxic beliefs and heal my relationship with money and 2) to manage our money responsibly so we are working towards achieving our financial…
My breastfeeding journey started when I was a child. When I was four, my mother gave birth to my younger sister, and breastfed her until she was one. My mother has always been an advocate for breastfeeding, and was never shy about breastfeeding in front of anyone, in any setting. My first memory of seeing…
“Adulting is hard,” Matt sighed as we whizzed through the Wednesday evening jobs. Wednesday nights are always busy, with a daycare bag to unpack and repack as well as the usual evening jobs, but every second Wednesday we also have to tidy up for the cleaner to come on Thursday morning(1). It’s true, adulting is…
I have been having a hard time lately, struggling to cope with the everyday demands of my life. I haven’t felt like myself, as a person or as a mother. I have been snapping at my husband and son. That’s not who I am. I resolved to enjoy Finley more, to take time to have special…
Meg Berryman on moving beyond wellness, on The Slow Home Podcast. “What’s right about you? What’s working well? Where are you whole? What does feel good? Let’s start to amplify that rather than marketing to your pain points.” This is a podcast episode about the relationship between looking after yourself and doing good in the…
Happy World Breastfeeding Week everyone! To celebrate, here are some knowledge nuggets about breastmilk. 1. The milk is not just the milk. Back when Finley was tiny, I spent almost as much time telling people about breastfeeding as I did actually breastfeeding. Being an Aspie mum, I didn’t always read the room. One time I told…
(Written in March, when Finley was 12 months old – before sleep training) The gap between awake and asleep is at once so tiny and yet so huge, I think, as I rock my child to sleep. He is a baby (baby?) who fights sleep Maybe it is because he is enjoying our close…
Spoiler warning: Outlander (the first book). Content warning: discussion of rape, including marital rape. “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.” – The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde People keep talking about how good the Outlander novels are, and it just makes me bristle. I just want…
Since becoming a mother I care a lot about the rights of mothers*. I have had an amazing breastfeeding journey** and I want every mother to have the resources to meet her breastfeeding goals. I am very keen to delve into this at some point in the future. I don’t like the pressure that is…
[Content warning: profane language] I recently read Rob Bell’s 2007 book, Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality. I did it as part of my research for a small group course on Sexuality and Relationships for young people that I am writing. I had read on Dianna Anderson’s blog that this book was…
When Matt is away, I feel a little unmoored, adrift. I have rules for when Matt is away. I am not allowed to bake bread. This is because even though it’s not technically difficult or super time-consuming, it’s just one more job to do, when I have enough on my plate keeping Finley alive and…
When Finley started smiling, at about six weeks old, I was overwhelmed. He would fix his eyes on me and burst forth in the most exquisitive pleasure at the sight of me. Like I was the most amazing human being in the world. I found it intimidating. I worried that with such high hopes for…
