Irritated!

I am irritated this week.

I am struggling to shake it off, I have no idea why am I irritated but everything and everyone is irritating me.

I could do with hiding in 5 star hotel somewhere with only room service for company but as I have a husband and two little girls to look after that isn't an option, so I shall just moan to myself on here.

If you see me in the street or in Asda I would recommend avoiding eye contact, just pretend you haven't seen me and as the song goes just walk on by...

I am sure my mood will lift soon but for today and quite possibly tomorrow I am best to be approached with caution.

Know It All Parents, back off!!

Update:

I have decided not to reply to any more responses on this blog because I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall!

I do want to make clear:

I respect women that breast feed

I respect women that don't

I respect parents who co sleep

I respect parents that don't

I respect all sorts of parents and I have NEVER said anything different

I have also never said that my way is the right way to parent

What I don't respect is rude, ignorant people who have no respect for other peoples choices

Please feel free to still leave your thoughts, I will read them and no doubt mutter under my breath.

In the words of Ringo Starr...

Peace & Love, Peace & Love

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Ok, ok, ok I clearly did not express myself right and people took what I was saying too literally so I have amended the post.

But what I do want to point out is that this is MY blog, with MY opinions and MY experiences so if you don't like what I have to say then don't read it, it's that simple.

I will not be bullied into changing my opinions because people do not like what I have to say.

Since I have had my children I have found myself being judged, berated and ignored by certain parents who are so adamant that their way of parenting is THE only way of parenting.

For example

I have never been judged for formula feeding my babies by another formula feeding parent

I have never been judged for using controlled crying by a parent who also uses controlled crying

I have never been judged for giving my baby a jar of baby food by a parent who uses jarred baby food

I HAVE been judged and berated by parents who breast feed, do not let their babies cry and who only serve their babies home cooked food. I can provide examples...

The vast majority of parents do not judge regardless of their parenting styles and this rant is not about or to you. This rant is to all those "Know it all" parents who try to bully or be little me into their way is the right way.

It's a tough job being a parent and the last thing you need is other people and the press telling you your doing a crap job or you are harming your baby by formula feeding or letting them cry occasionally.

I didn't breastfeed my two girls through a mixture of choice and circumstances.

I do not regret that decision.

If anyone dares to tell me I haven't bonded completely or that I have not given my girls the best start in life, then I suggest that you come and see for yourself my two wonderfully healthy, happy little girls. We absolutely and totally adore each other.

Ok I.....

I formula fed my babies

I used controlled crying when necessary to get my babies to sleep through the night. They are now 3 and 17 months and they sleep 7pm to 7am most nights

I discipline my children

They occasionally have sweets and chocolate

I use disposable nappies

I sometimes used baby food in a jar

Does this make me a bad mother? Well in the eyes of some people yes it does!

My response to that is we are happy!! My girls are well adjusted, they know their mummy loves them more than anything else in the world and they are HAPPY!

I don't care how other mothers parent their babies, I don't care if you breastfeed or not, whether you co sleep, whether you put your new born its own room from day 1, whether you attachment parent, whether you Gina Ford, whether you carry your babies everywhere in a sling, if you use cloth nappies or disposable or none at all, I don't care!! If you ask me my opinion I will give it, if you take my advice then that is up to you, I don't care!! As long as your baby is well looked after, not abused or neglected then it's nothing what so ever to do with me and I wouldn't dream of telling you that your way is wrong and my way is right.... Personal choice is well personal... I DO NOT JUDGE!!

So this is a message for all those who look down their noses and can't keep their opinions to themselves... Keep your nose out, concentrate on your own family, stop telling everyone else how to parent and mind your own bloody business!

I'm a lazy blogger...

Thats not an euphemism.. or maybe it is... anyway, when I sign into Blogger I get the list of blogs that I follow and it always surprises me how much some people blog, they blog loads! Most blog almost everyday, some blog two or three times a day whilst I blog.. occasionally, when I can be bothered, when I can find the time. It has taken me 25 minutes to write these piddling few lines, in between wiping noses, stopping my 3 year old running over her sister in a motorised car, going to look at snails, getting juice, wiping more noses... you get the picture it is never ending looking after toddlers and working from home and trying to blog but I am going to try harder because as they say practise makes perfect and lets face it I need the bloody practise!

Today I can't cope!

Well I can cope but everything seems 1000 times harder today than it did yesterday.

Why is it some days you feel like Superwoman! Whatever life throws at you POW! Kids play up POW! House needs cleaning POW POW POW!  and then other days (today) you couldn't give a flying fuck, kids play up - shout at them / ignore them / hide from them. House needs cleaning, bollocks to it. Shit thrown at you.. Oh look I'm splattered in shit...

I hate these days, they make me feel like a failure, I shout at the kids too much, I moan too much, I am too tired to do anything, its just SHIT!

I know the reason I feel like this today, I have a stupid cough that has kept me up for the last three nights, Baba also has a bad cough and my 3 year old has suddenly decided the last two nights at about 3am that she would like milk!! 

So I am tired, I am ill and tired or should that be sick and tired? Whatever... I aim to be on sparkling form soon, either that or I may go find the nearest (furthest away) circus!

Thank You God of Weather

Dear God of Weather

In all honesty I did not expect you to listen to me last week when I asked for some good weather but it appears that you did and not in a bad way! I was half expecting hail stones and lightening just to prove a point but the weather wasn't bad at all so thank you for keeping the rain away and helping to make my princesses day special.

If you could now put in a word with the lottery gods then that would be great!

Yours

A Very Relived Mummy

Happy Birthday Millipede!

My baby turned 3 on Saturday. 

3!!!!! where did that go?? it only seems like yesterday I did that pregnancy test, jumped for joy, panicked, jumped for joy, panicked... you get the  picture. 

My little bundle of joy arrived on Thursday 19th May 2009 at 10.35am weighing in at a respectable 7lb 04oz and I have never looked back since. She is the light of my life, I never imagined the overwhelming unconditional love you could feel for another person until she came into my world.

Gentle, sweet, funny Amelia Grace I love you more than all the stars in the sky! 

Happy Birthday my beautiful little Princess!!

Whilst I am writing to gods...

Dear Lottery God

Please can you fix it for me to win the lottery, as I like nice things but I don't want to go back to work and working from home is a real pain sometimes.

Thank you kindly

Mrs Waiting In Anticipation

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Dear Cleaning Up Fairies

Erm... have you forgotten where I live?

Love from

Mrs Living In Squalor

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Dear Gods who put petrol in my car

It seems that you no longer like to put petrol in for me, if there is anything I can do to rectify this? Please let me know as I do not like going to petrol stations, especially when its cold.

Yours lazily

Mrs I'm too good to put my own petrol in

Dear God of Weather

Dear God of all things weather related

I do not ask for much and very rarely (if ever) pray but it’s my eldest daughters 3rd birthday on Saturday and we have gotten her all out door toys. I don't want for her to have to look at her new trampoline, playhouse and sandpit through the living window because it is raining. She is also having a party on Sunday with a bouncy castle and lots of her little friends are coming so if you could see to it that it’s not raining I would be very grateful.  

I will even let it slide that you pelted me with hail stones yesterday!

Yours sincerely

a worried mummy who loves the sun

P.S. If you could also arrange for me to never get struck by lightning that would also be fab!

Toothbrushes

I hate toothbrushes... Well not the actual toothbrushes themselves but their ability to never be in the bathroom cupboard when it's time to brush the girls teeth, only to found under beds, in dolls houses, any where but where they should be. I even have extra tooth brushes for this very reason but it just means that I have more tooth brushes to try and find!

I would like to blame it on an extra competitive tooth fairy who is going the extra mile to get kids teeth to fall out but I suspect the culprits are a little closer to home!

Other Oddidties

Apart from the church thing, apparently (according to my husband) I have a "few unusual quirks" I think he is just rude but let’s put them out there..

1. I cannot sit with a dirty plate anywhere near me for more than a couple of minutes, when I've finished eating the plate has to be put in the dishwasher.

2. When buttering bread or toast the buttering has to be done on a plate, otherwise it’s just "bread crumbs city"

3. Washing cannot be left in the tumble dryer under any circumstance - ever!

4. Beds HAVE to be made pretty much as soon as you get up

5. I can only drink out of certain cups otherwise it makes me feel sick

6. All cutlery has to be facing the same way 

7. I never have ice in drinks (apart from when pregnant and then I always have ice in drinks) and I never ever drink from a can

8. I don't like ice cream

9. Ladybirds & Butterflies are the devil! 

10. Baths should be that hot that you nearly faint, if you have to lie down after your bath then you know it was hot enough.

11. I don’t really like people talking to me unless I want to interact, it makes me itchy if someone is talking to me when I don’t want to be sociable.

Now I am sure there are lots more but I don't want to appear strange....

I go to church but I don't believe in God?

Religion, Church, God, the whole malarkey is a bit of a strange one for me. I occasionally go to church and my girls are christened but I don't necessarily believe in "God" my husband thinks it’s a bit strange and he thinks that something seems to draw me in. Which got me thinking what is it that I like about going to church?? In short I don't really know. I like beautiful things so it could be a beautiful church, a choir that makes my hair stand on end but I do think it’s more than that.

A few years ago we went to Paris and visited the Notre Dame, I could have spent hours in there just listening to the Priest (even though he was speaking French) and listening to the choir, it was beautiful, peaceful, resting and it touched my soul BUT I think because I couldn't understand the Priest is one of the reasons why I loved it so much.

Our local church is not beautiful, it doesn't really have a choir, it has a rocking out sort of band with drums and guitars which amuses me greatly and it has a great sense of community. 

I think religion sets good values for children but is this the reason I take my girls to church? I hopefully install good values at home so am I just looking for an excuse to take them?

The thing that puts me off church... It’s the God part, which is kind of a biggie!! I don't like the whole we shall kneel at his feet, we are not worthy, chant, chant, chant... it reminds me of a cult, which I suppose churches are... a really big cult! It makes me uncomfortable. When I was getting married we had to attend church twelve times before our Vicar would marry us, on the seventh occasion I was a bit fed up of going so I told him we had been twelve times, my husband was mortified that I lied to a Vicar. I on the other hand didn't really care, even if there is a god, I know he didn't come up with that stupid rule!

I have read about many religions and none seem to hit the right note with me, I like elements of the nature loving Pagans, the serenity of the Buddhists, the beauty of the Hindus, the power, wealth and history of the Catholic Church and of course Madonna with Kabbalah.

Don't get me wrong it’s not that I am dismissive and a complete non believer but until I know one way or the other I am on the fence, keeping my options open... Because how do we know? No one knows for certain.

If Jesus were to walk the earth today he would be locked up for being a nut job - Fact!

David Icke could be Jesus incarnated... He could.. How do we know he isn't? We don't but he is branded a nut job. Admittedly I haven’t seen him perform any miracles but you get my point.

So where do I go from here? Do I stop going to Church? 

Am I searching for enlightenment? If I am, I hope he's got a big bloody torch because I am more confused than ever!

#blogging4madeleine

When I was asked to do this blog as part of the campaign #blogging4madeleine I was initially delighted to be able to do something to help, then I was completely over whelmed by the task. The enormity of the interest that surrounds this story is daunting to say the least, but regardless of everything else, finding Madeleine is the only thing that really matters. What we hope to achieve today through the #blogging4madeleine campaign is to make people aware of the ongoing find Madeleine campaign and to circulate the new age progression image, as most people still associate Madeleine McCann with the picture of a 3 year old child and today she is 9 years old.

I read Kate’s book at the beginning of the year and it was heart breaking, regardless of people's views, opinions, theories on the McCann’s, the facts are that a 3 year old girl was taken from her bed and she is still missing and I hope that today we help a little in the search for her and for the truth.

Whilst Madeleine is still missing, it is incomprehendable to me, that we should stop looking for her. If anything were to happen to one of my beautiful daughters I would expect that “no stone would be left unturned” in the search for her and whoever committed this dreadful crime would be brought to justice.

My little girl is 3 on the 19th May and her whole world revolves around Mummy, Daddy, baby sister and cuddle blanket, the thought of her being snatched away from us is unthinkable. 

What is even more unthinkable is that people would give up on her.

We should not give up on this little girl and even though she is the most recognisable missing person face in the UK this does not mean that the rest of The World know her face as well as we do.

If you know where Madeleine is now or who was involved in her abduction, or if you were in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s abduction (3rd May 2007) and have not spoken to anyone in the police, please contact Operation Grange or Crimestoppers using the contact details below.

It's never too late to do the right thing! 

Today is Madeleine’s birthday and she is 9 years old

Madeleine has been missing for 5 years

Madeleine was taken whilst on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday 3rd May 2007

Below is information on the find Madeleine campaign and information on how you can help.

·         Contact information to report any sightings or information

o   Your local police force immediately, AND

o   Operation Grange
0207 321 9251 (in the UK)
+44 207 321 9251 (non-UK)

o   Or Operation.Grange@met.pnn.police.uk

o   OR Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555111 or www.crimestoppers-uk.org

·         The Find Madeleine official website www.findmadeleine.com

·         http://www.findmadeleine.com/support/ways-you-can-help.html

A big thanks to lead organisers:

Caroline – http://amummysview.wordpress.com

KellyAnn – http://teaandbiscotti.com/

Why bother cleaning..

My names Julie and I am addicted to cleaning...

Fast forward 3 years and it now reads…

My names Julie and I would love to be addicted to cleaning but I run round all frickin day picking up toys, wiping snotty noses and my house still looks like a TIP!

After a conversation with a friend where I just constantly moaned about my untidy children and that all I do all day is tidy up after them she said, why bother? why not just leave it and do it when they have gone to bed?  

Which got me thinking why do I bother cleaning up after them all the time? Is it because I hate mess? Or because an untidy house really stresses me out? Or is it because they can make a room look like a tornado has been through it in two minute flat or is it more than that..

I have always said that you can judge my state of mind by the state of my house, if it’s a mess then so am I and if its clean and tidy then all is well in Julie land but should I just leave it??

I am considering not doing any tidying for a few days by choice and not because I am scraping myself off the floor but I’m just not sure I can do it. I love, love, love a clean tidy house and what sort of message does it send to my girls if mummy thinks its ok to live in shit hole. My helpful thought provoking friend lives in a constant state of mess, her daughter is not allowed to bring friends home from school because of the state of her house and in her children’s bedrooms you can't see the floor for clothes, toys etc so they are heading in the same messy direction. Now I will point out if she was happy living in mess then I would say power to her, horses for courses but she isn't she hates it, not enough to change her ways but if it was easy to change their lifestyle I think she would. 

I like the fact that we live in a nice tidy house, so I may just skip the not cleaning but I may have to learn to crouch rather than crawl about picking toys up, I keep wearing out the knees in my fecking jeans!

Happy cleaning! 

My child doesn't know her name????

After all my protests at children going to school and not knowing their names it dawned on me that my youngest probably doesn't know hers..

Ok she is only 17 months but we call her Baba and I can't see it changing, when anyone asks my 2 year old what her sisters name is she always says Baba. 

So I am one of  those people where her child doesn't know her friggin name!!!!

1st of the month is photo day

Once upon a time a long long time ago I used to dream of becoming a photographer, I did a little photography course and for a while took a few pictures but as is always the way it got pushed to the sidelines and I haven’t really took any photographs for ages apart from the ones on my phone.  

So I decided that I am going to start taking a photo of the girls on the 1st of each month to capture them growing up and also to keep my hand in BUT the 1st of the month is tomorrow and I am in no way prepared for this, I did think of putting it off until next month but then next month will turn into the month after and then it will be next year and I won’t have taken any frigging photos!

I figure if I publish this now then it will make me follow through with the actual action of taking the sodding photographs.

Heres hoping anyway…

Mummy Guilt

Today I am feeling enormous amounts of mummy guilt for no apparent reason apart from my children are getting on my bloody nerves! They are extra loud, extra messy and extra moany which in turns means I am extra shouty (even though I don’t actually shout at my kids) and I seem to be  constantly saying, in a minute, just give me a minute or ignoring them... which then makes me feel like shit! 

So I am praying to the god of children today... Please make my children behave this afternoon and then I won't feel guilty about being a shit nagging mother with a short fuse

A Family Bucket List...

I don't really like the term "Bucket List" especially when it’s to do with my girls but I want to do a worldwide adventures "Bucket List"

On the list already:

Places to visit

Disney World Florida (we have done this already last year but I want to do again when they are old enough to remember)

Lapland to see Santa

Disneyland Paris at Christmas

Rome

Venice

Pyramids

Loch Ness

Seal Island in Scotland

Loch Ness

Seal Island in Scotland

Giant’s Causeway

Yellowstone Park

The Great Barrier Reef

Paris

Easy Stuff

Roll down a really big hill

Camp out & build a den

Run around in the rain

Go sledging

Eat blackberries growing in the wild

Watch the sun go up

Do a family tree

Glastonberry

Not so easy stuff

See Dolphins/Whales in the wild

Visit an active volcano

Climb Snowdon

See the Northern Lights

A follow up on Children who don't know their own names.

Whilst I was sat in the doctors yesterday I remembered a story about a 3 year old girl who died of neglect in Liverpool and the news could not show a picture of her as she had never had a photograph taken of her... Ever!


If her parents could not be bothered to feed her or let her out of her bedroom then it is not inconceivable that this little girl didn't know what her name was, maybe it's not so unbelievable after all.

Madeleine McCann

A lot is in the press today re the search for little Madeleine McCann and I know people are entitled to their opinions but certain comments I have read today just make me angry.


Whatever peoples opinions are of her parents and I know a lot of them are bad, this should not distract from the fact that this little girl is missing, whether presumed dead or not it doesn't matter.


As parents we all do things that leave our children open to the hands of predators, whether it being letting them play in our gardens, leaving them in the car whilst we go into the petrol station/shop... whatever, we all do things that in the wrong place or time could lead to devastating results.


God forbid should anything happen to one of my girls I would hope and pray that the authorites or the people of this country wouldn't just "give up" looking for her because I wasn't likeable! 


**Update** 
I want to clarify what my intention of this blog was:
It wasn't anything to do with the McCanns being right or wrong, whether they were involved or not 
It was not to say that others cannot have a view on the situation.


What upset me the most was seeing comments like "Well she's dead, so why bother" "LMAO Madeleine McCanns dead"


In my personal opinion we seem to have forgotten its about a little girl and we should be trying to find out the truth. What if she is still alive, do we just forget about her? And if she was killed, do we let her murderers walk free?


For me its about the truth.

Children who don't know their own name?

I saw this on Twitter yesterday and in all honesty I didn't believe it, how on earth can a child not know its name???


Even if they don't know their last name surely they know their own Christian name? 


Well according to press apparently its a growing problem amongst deprived children that their parents spend too much time watching TV or on the internet to talk to their children and to call them by their name.  


http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9550000/9550285.stm


I do believe that far too many children cannot write their own name or may not even know their full name by the time they start school but if its true that their parents never say that child's name then I find this very sad, even though I am dubious of how widespread this is.


My 2 year old knows her own name in full and sometimes she likes to add Princess to the beginning, she also knows her baby sisters full name and she knows mummy and daddy's names as well. Its handy if she ever gets lost in the supermarket but we've primarily done it because its good fun for her, one of her favourite games is "what's your name mummy?" and in return I ask her what her name is, what's her daddy's name, Baba's name etc.. She loves it. We are well on the way for her learning to write her name, she recognises it when she see's it wrote anywhere and she can also identify the words Mummy, Daddy & Isobel


If this is what is happening to our children in society then it just makes me feel very sad and not just because of the lack of knowledge/pre school education for a child but for the lack of parental love/family time that that child must have missed out on.