Down to Earth

I ordered this book a few weeks ago after I had seen it popping up all over the place. Tom always gives me a hard time when I buy books like this and says something like "Oh great, you spend money on a book about not spending money" and while I often laugh in agreement (there is something funny about buying things to tell you how to have less things) I don't regret the money I spent on this book for a second.

I am halfway through reading it and I don't want to put it down. It is full of ideas about how to live a more simple life and become more dependant on yourself and your own skills rather than living a life filled with more things. It's not a new concept and certainly one that I know a lot of people strive towards but what I really like about this book is how it makes the kind of life that I dream of living seem so achievable.
It's also not a preachy book, she says very honestly that if you are working full time or have young children then making your own soap, keeping chickens and growing all your own produce may not be a realistic goal.. and that's okay. You do what you can at the moment and work towards those goals in the future.

This book inspires a life where days are spent living simply.. growing veggies, sewing clothes, making delicious nourishing food from scratch, knitting and turning your home into a place that nurtures everyone in it.. whether they live there or have just popped in for a cup of tea.

I really recommend reading it if you can get your hands on a copy. Now all I need is an actual house!
(You may remember that we are staying with Tom's parents while I am on bed rest. Our whole life has been in storage since we moved to Perth last year and my gosh, I can not wait for the day that we get our own place. But.. one thing at a time I guess!)

'Down to Earth' by Rhonda Hetzel available at Booktopia.

Rhonda also has a blog by the same name.

35!

Lyon 2008.

On Thursday it was Tom's 35th birthday.
Here is a little video I took of Tom and Sophie in Lyon in 2008.
(I would have posted it a few days ago but computer said no).

Happy birthday old man!

A bump called boy..

I can not really believe that we are having a boy, it just seemed so.. well, genetically unlikely!
And I can not really believe that I shared our news with the world. When I found out with Sophie and Grace we only told our close family and kept it a secret from everyone else until the end. I just assumed that we would do the same this time but I guess I was just too excited to keep it a secret.

It's funny because after Grace died I only wanted to have another girl. I thought that if we had a boy I would always think about how there was a 2nd little girl missing from our family, but after it took me so long to fall pregnant I stopped wanting another girl and just wanted another baby.. boy or girl I didn't care anymore.

Then a few months ago I started actually thinking that it would be so nice to have a little boy running around. Of course, we would have both been beside ourselves with happiness no matter what gender this little bub was, but we are really excited to have a little boy. I have to admit that I have already had several online shopping sprees of various blue themed goods.

My mum said she was so glad I was having a boy because now we have one of each we don't have to have any more. I said "No, I think we will still have more" and her reaction was something like "What the hell? Why on earth would you go through this again?!?" ('This' meaning the stitch and bed rest).
I guess because at the end of the day we get the best reward ever.

*Photo of me on my way back from the bathroom (as that is the only time I am allowed out of bed) looking pretty hot in my pyjamas, un-showered with hair that has just turned into a giant knot because I have not washed or even brushed it in over a week. But who cares.. look at that belly!

It's a...

Well there is no denying it.. it's definitely a little boy in my tummy!
We are sooo excited!

Halfway there..

In exactly 24 hours I will be sitting in a waiting room filled with other women with lovely pregnant bellies, reading magazines that are years old and patiently waiting our turn. I will be holding Tom's hand, I'll be nervous and I'll be taking deep breaths to try and stop my heart from beating so fast. I'll be excited and scared shitless at the same time.

Tomorrow I have my 19 week ultrasound and there are two things that I can not wait to find out..
Is my cervix still long and closed? (Like it should be.. let's bloody hope so!) and will Sophie have a baby brother or sister?

I love the idea of waiting but I just can't do it.. I am dying to find out. If it is a boy it will be the first boy born in this family in 35 years. (Tom has 5 younger sisters, one of his sisters had a little girl and we have had two girls.. Tom and his dad are really outnumbered!)

So what do you think? Boy or girl?


*This is a photo of my belly a few weeks ago. Don't you think that my belly looks lopsided? I swear there was a little foot or a bum or a head poking out the side there..

Jiggity jig

Sometimes when Tom is at work I send him a message in the afternoon that just says "Jiggity?" and he replies with the time that he thinks he will be home from work that day. It started because I used to write "home again, home again, Jiggity Jig?" and somehow over the years it has just become "Jiggity?"

Anyways, we are now home again (home again, jiggity jig). We had a wonderful week up at the farm.
I was happy to be lying in a different bed for a week and Tom and Sophie had a ball getting up every morning to feed the horses and pottering about the farm during the day.

(Tom has a couple of weeks off work at the moment as he has just resigned and is starting a new job at the beginning of next month. It was a very difficult decision for him to make but we are hoping that it will turn out to be the right one.)

I spend the majority of my week at the farm with a crochet hook in my hand and had finished two baby blankets by the end of the week. I have really fallen in love with crochet.. I think because I find it soo much easier than knitting and so much quicker to produce something that is finished, although finishing something quickly is not really a priority for me at the moment! I do have quite a bit of time on my hands after all!

Hello?

I am still here, still alive and baby (in tummy) is all good.
(Sorry if I made you worry).

We ended up heading up to the farm for a week for some much needed relaxation, and we figured that if we went through the effort of driving up here (with me lying flat in the car) we may as well stay for a week or so..
Only problem is that there is no Internet up here, which is nice for us but means no blogging until we get home again.

Hope you all had a lovely Easter and I'll be back soon..

Xx

Kinfolk.

Look at what arrived on my doorstep yesterday.

Have you read Kinfolk? I do believe it has just become my favourite magazine. (Do you call it a magazine? It does not really feel right, it feels like a book that you will keep forever. One that you will put on the bookshelf so you can see it everyday and be careful not to bend the corners when you pick it up to read.. or is that just me?)

Did you know it is also available on iPad? (But it really is much nicer holding it in your hands and turning those smooth matt pages while sipping tea. Earl grey I think.)

Mummy. In bed.

Sophie drew me this picture yesterday. It's me at home in bed. Of course!

Someone asked yesterday what 'bed rest' actually means. My Obstetrician likes to call it "Full bed rest with toilet and shower privileges". It means that I have to spend every second in bed but I am allowed to get up to go to the toilet and have one short shower per day. (In hospital I was on bed rest with no toilet or shower privileges.. Oh boy, I don't want to see another bed pan as long as I live!)

When I am in bed I have to be lying down flat. For me, sitting up is just as bad as standing up.
The reason is because they think I have a condition called 'Incompetent Cervix' and they believe that it is the weight of the baby pressing down on your cervix that causes it to open prematurely. So the rationale is that if you have no weight on your cervix (by not standing or sitting up) then the cervix will stay closed until full term. That along with the cervical stitch is what will hopefully keep me pregnant for another 20 weeks or so.

I've been in bed for 34 days now. I have to admit that I am feeling much better than I was a few weeks ago. I guess I have just settled into the routine and accepted the fact that I need someone to help me do everything (bring me every meal etc.) I am enjoying the cool change here in Perth and it is nice to have the endless time to read and knit and do all those things that a busy life does not usually allow for.

I do miss going outside. Terribly. Sophie learnt to ride a bike on the weekend and she was so upset that I could not come to the park and see her ride. My body is getting sore and I feel like I could run a marathon because my legs are so restless. My muscles will deteriorate over the next few months and I have been told that even walking around the block will be a challenge for me once the baby is born (due to lost heart and lung capacity).

But, I have survived the first month and only five more to go. I know that it will be worth every second at the end and I'm trying to remind myself that one day I will be getting up all night with a newborn and  will wish that I could do nothing but lie in bed all day.. may as well enjoy it while I can!

Someday.

I read so many stories of women who have discovered their creative side after having kids, almost like motherhood re-wired their brains in some way. This was defiantly me.
While I had an appreciation for art and design before having Sophie, I was far from considering myself a creative person. It was only after Sophie was born that I realised that I could actually make things -myself.

I learnt how to sew and knit and embroider and I fell in love with the incredible satisfaction that comes with making something yourself. And I would feel such a sense of pride when people would ask where I got the pretty top that Sophie was wearing and I could say "I made it myself".

I knew as soon as I started sewing that I would love to be able to start a little business one day selling the things I make at the local markets. The desire was not to make money or share my talents (at this stage I could barely sew a straight line) but I just loved the idea of having my own little shop market stall full of things that I had made. There was no rush, obviously I had to get much better at sewing first, but the idea was never far from my mind.

Life, of course, had other plans and over the next few years I spent all my energy trying to fall pregnant and then trying to stay pregnant, trying to fall pregnant, trying to stay pregnant. Again and again.
After Grace died and I was having trouble falling pregnant again I needed something to take my mind of things. (There was no use going back to work because we kept thinking that I would be pregnant again soon and we knew that I would be on bed rest). Sophie had started pre-school 2 days a week and I told myself that I needed those 2 days to myself to nurture myself (so to speak) and take the time to heal and work through the grief.

I would spend my days at home, taking myself out for coffee or spending a large percentage of my husband's wage at the local fabric store. I told myself that it was good for me to have some time-out but in reality, those two days without Sophie were an excuse for me to wallow.

So, I decided that something had to be done. I could not sit around any longer just waiting to fall pregnant with my life on hold until I did. (I remember when we moved to Perth and I made an appointment to see an obstetrician that deals with high risk pregnancy and the receptionist told me that the next appointment was in 4 months time. I called Tom and told him about the wait and he said "Well that's okay.. you will be pregnant by then". That was more than a year ago.)

I put a small amount of money aside for my little business and set to work.. researching fabric suppliers,   making samples, getting labels made etc. Again, I had no plans to make money or have a proper business, it was just an excuse for me to spend all my spare time sewing and to make kids clothes that I liked. I was getting very excited at the end of last year to see it all starting to come together when..
I fell pregnant. (Of course!)

Last month I packed away all the fabric, patterns, clothes and labels. Packed away my sewing machine and overlocker and shelved that dream for 'someday'.


*Of course, I am not upset that this plan is on hold at all.. I will get to it one day and in the meantime I am very busy doing much more important things.. growing a baby!

Granny square

Well, it took me a few goes (you should have seen my first attempt.. it was hilarious, it was more like a 'granny hexagon') but I got there in the end.

Tom set up a little kettle next to the bed and the weather in Perth has finally dropped below 30 degrees, so I am enjoying lying here, drinking tea and attempting to figure out what a half-treble is.

Little old lady

My husband hates confrontation. He is one of those people who like to go around causing as little trouble as possible and in the 5 years we have been together I don't think I have seen him get angry or raise his voice once.

So I was particularly proud of him when he came home from work a few days ago and told me this story..

Tom arrived at the bus stop on his way to work only to find his bus just pulling away. He sat down and pulled out his book when the little old lady next to him started chatting. She was polite and asked him if he could check what time the bank opens "on his computer" and pointed to his phone.

He looked up the bank times and told her, then as he opened his book to continue reading another woman (in her 40's) arrived at the bus stop. 

The little old lady started chatting to the younger woman and for 20 minutes Tom sat there listening to a very disturbing conversation. The dear old lay turned out to be a complete raving racist and Tom could not believe the things that were coming out of her mouth. He felt the urge to pipe up and set her straight on quite a few issues that she clearly had missed the facts on, but he reminded himself that it would not benefit anyones day to cause an argument at the bus stop with a little old lady, even if she was a narrow minded looney.

Finally Tom's bus arrived and as he stood up the old lady said "There you go young man, you have had a lesson" Tom looked at her and said "what?" and she replied "You have had a good lesson" and just as Tom stepped onto the bus he turned and said "What? In Bigotry?"

Apparently as the bus was pulling away she shouted out "I'm not a bigot, you little bastard"

I imagined her walking around for the rest of the day saying (insert your best old granny voice here) "you will not believe what a young man called me at the bus stop this morning.. those young people of today have no respect.."

Indeed.


/Photo of Tom and Sophie in Sydney a few years ago/