today i saw it

today i looked through the camera lens.
and i saw something i'd never seen before.
a little boy.
i didn't see a baby.
and i'm still getting used to it.
he's all growned up.
and muma's a bit sad.
happy sad.
you know what i mean.

homeschool style

a little snippet of our family life featured on the inspiring blog...

the way we shop

i've been meaning to write this post for a while now. probably as long as i've been thinking about changing the way i shop. because we have a pretty big shopping centre close to home, the convenience of two-minutes-down-the-road and i'll get those things we need for dinner (plus all those added extras that were on special or the treats my tastebuds fancied at the time) was becoming an all too common occurence. sometimes i'd be there four times a week. i was spending too much time and money there. in that energy sapping place. throw in an almost toddler who can be happy with a punnet of cherry tomatoes for about five minutes and it was fast becoming a stressful part of my week.

but there was one thing that really did it for me. it really made me change.

there i was, pushing the trolley, telling ché we wouldn't be long, when one of the surfie-lookin'-fruit-and-veg-guys said to me: "hey, you're here a lot aren't you."

the guy that stacks the apples had noticed how much i go to the grocery store.

it wasn't my little problem anymore.

other people were beginning to notice.

"Oh, it's just that i live up the road, it's just easy" - i very quickly got out of there.

but truth be told, there is absolutely nothing easy about going to a big grocery store with a toddler. nothing. apart from the cappuchino at the end, there's not much to enjoy about it either.

and then heather, the gorgeous yogini-muma who writes beauty that moves, wrote a post about groceries and how much she spends. read that post (most importantly, read the comments section) and ask yourself: "how much do i spend on food?" . i'm really inspired by the way she lives. the way she shops, cooks and feeds her family. with intention, simple organisation, and a whole lotta love.

so how have i changed the way i shop?

a beautiful friend, muma and yogini runs the most fabulous business. on a monday morning (once a fortnight) she heads down to the markets and buys a small truckload of organic fruit and vegies from local and regional farmers. she brings it all home, separates it into 40 boxes and delivers those boxes to doorsteps across the central coast. my doorstep is one of them. it's exciting to receive such fresh goodness in a box. even better that i know i'm supporting a local muma and lots of local farmers.

as for the pantry goods and dairy? I, once a week, head to the local organic store and if I need to, I'll go to the big grocery store (by myself, and I run around there, as quickly as I can - dodging the surfie-looking'-fruit-and-veg-guy).

i'm spending less time shopping, and more time making good wholesome meals from in-season fruit and veg. it tastes good and it feels good.

throw into the mix the best kale from grandad's garden, plus my own herbs and well...it works for us.


thanks for all your kind comments re. weaning ché. sage tea helped to stop the milk production and i'm feeling great. apparently ché is too - no complaining so far, anyway.

no more. all gone muma

i have been thinking about weaning ché for a while now. but as has been my experience of mothering i've always taken a long while to move onto the next stage. in retrospect each and every one of those stages has been a smooth transition. even his birth (i'm just realising while writing this that his 11 days overdue was probably just me taking my time to move into transition. ahhh, it was me holding on. ahhh, a revelation. nice). breastfeeding ché has been a wonderful experience and daniel and i have been really lucky to co-sleep with him too. but co-sleeping often means he was feeding up to four times a night. over the last few weeks i realised that in order to be an energetic, healthy and fun muma i needed to stop feeding him. I need some energy for me. he's almost two and we've been telling him for a while now that when he blows out his candles, no more milky.

and so last week i decided it was time. no more milky. the milky's gone. and over three days ché, being the adaptable little creature he is, left milky behind and embraced lullabies and bedtime stories. i thought it was going to be really hard. but it was easy. i felt like i had all the patience and the calm in the world, to stay close to him, to read and sing until he was lulled to sleep. it worked.

i'm not sad. because i really believe it was the right time for us. i feel quite free actually. and ché's face has changed. his vocabulary has expanded. he's almost two and turning quite quickly into a little boy. He's confident and gentle and sweet. and yes there have been times when I've been frustrated by the demands of feeding a little one who would be happy to be on there for an hour at a time. he understood what i was telling him and i know this because he pointed to my breasts a few days ago and said: "all gone muma, all gone" and then he trotted off to play in the garden. i feel so nourished by the fact that it was the right time and that it was smooth.

i'm off to see my naturopath next week and refuel my body with goodness. and i'm going to treat myself to a few new bras of the non-maternity kind.

funnily enough, it hasn't taken me long to feel a little clucky again.

this ad makes me smile, every time. to give the breast is to give life

bumblebee

my parents still live in the house i grew up in. the garden is brimming with vegies. it's a little higgledy-piggeldy, a bit country-cottage, it's very recycled...in the best kind-of-way. My dad is pretty lucky when it comes to finding things. side-of-the-road jewels you could say. their dream is to build and live in a mudbrick house. i have no doubt that they'll do it. ché, if he could, would spend every moment of every day in this garden. it's his paradise. happy as a bee and just as sweet as honey. what could be better than chasing chickens, collecting eggs, picking herbs and digging dirt. and then sealing the day with a roaring fire and bbq'ed chorizo. i suppose i've discovered a new-found love of this place. it's the perfect example of cycles - the chicken and the egg, the seeds and the vegetables, me and my baby. Because, as I'm reminded every time I stand back to watch, I was once the little one running 'round and 'round the garden...like a teddy bear. and now it's ché's turn.