A Little Space for Me

these are the things I’ve been doing to try to not flop into a heap while I’m on my own with the boys:

1. get up and dressed by 10am at the latest (bearing in mind the boys often don’t wake til after 9am)
2. get out of the house for a walk every day
3. keep on top of the housework so it doesn’t get too much
4. call my mum
5. try to get them both down for a nap at the same time
6. blog my heart out (that can only really be done if/when o 5 happens)
7. try to eat properly and drink plenty of fluids - I get sooo grumpy if I miss out on a meal or get too thirsty
8. listen to music and have a sing and a dance
9. play “tickles on the bed” with Zack - that giggling is infectious
10. make sure both boys are somewhere safe and shut myself in the bedroom listening to a song or two on my iPod full blast.
11. call a friend, or see if someone can come over - if I need help I try to ask for it, otherwise no one knows I need it!
12. give Zack a huuuuuuge hug and tell him I love him - usually follows with “I luff you too mummy”…hearts? melting? yup!
13. and of course the thing that makes everything better, at least for a while… CHOCOLATE!

wow I can’t believe I actually managed to come up with 13! lol

…about stationery. Strange yes, but for some reason it popped into my head while I was staying at my parents. Ok it was because my dad gave me a shiny new pen to write with, not just a cheap biro but a proper metal (not a clue what kind!) blue shiny pen.

I know I know… I’m a geek/dork/nerd whatever you want to call it. I love stationery. I can’t be the only one can I? Ever since I started school I’ve always loved having matching pens, pencil, and notebooks. When I had a new set of coloured pencils they always had to be sharpened to the finest point, and I certainly couldn’t have pens that didn’t match together in the same case!

I remember when I was about 11 saving up for a beautiful fountain pen that I had coveted for months. When I finally got it I was so happy. It had colourful designs on it of a rain forest theme. The best thing of all though was that it “wrote well”. It had a great flow to it and just skimmed across the pages when I used it. I kept it up until I was at uni, where it fell out of my bag at some point and I was never to see it again. I almost cried when I realised – pretty silly huh?

I love going into WH Smith to look at the beautiful notebooks, even though I know it’s unlikely I’ll use them for much, I was never really able to resist buying them, even though I knew I’d never really use them. There’s just something about opening a fresh notebook and staring at that fresh page. So much can be achieved in those pages… it’s just waiting to be started.

Now I tend to look but restrain myself from buying them. Back in the days when I was a student, I always had the great excuse that I would use it at some point. Now I have so many left over I really can’t warrant buying any more, however much I’d like to! I could write in them, but then I’d want to transfer it onto the PC/laptop/blog or whatever, so why waste the little extra time I have on writing when I have these new and easier ways to put down my thoughts and ideas - and still be able to read it after it’s been written!

Maybe in a few years when I don’t have to worry about a little one getting his hands on my precious pens and books, maybe then I’ll see if I can be bothered writing properly again. Maybe I’ll take some calligraphy lessons (I sure could use that – my handwriting is a scrawl!) and I’d be able to use all my pretty notebooks to practice… hmm. We shall see.

edited to correct stationary to stationery… thanks Veronica

Ten things I’d buy if I had a million dollars
There’s no getting by easy on this one like saying “giving it to charity” or “saving it for my kids’ college”. You’ve got a million dollars, and you’ve got to spend it on yourself. Your list can add up to a million dollars, or each of the items on your list could be huge million dollar splurges. Your choice! Be greedy, spoil yourself!

1. A new house, nothing too big, but something in the nice end of town, with at least 2 bathrooms and a decent size of garden for the boys to play in and me to lounge around in ‘watching’ the boys
2. A shiny new car, not sure what but something… oh, and the driving lessons to go with it >_<
3. New furniture and white goods for the shiny new house.
4. Mac pro and a Macbook pro… full specs and all. Oh I wish!
5. a shiny pretty DSLR camera, not got my eye on any in particular atm, probably something mid-range since I’m more of a beginner.
6. cleaner for our house
7. nursery places for the boys, mon, wed and fri until each starts school (trust me that is for me even though it sounds like it’s not!!)
8. Holidays in various places including Australia (Tasmania particularly of course!) Florida (Sea World, Tampa Bay and Disney Land please!!) and Canada (got family in British Columbia… never met them but gives me an excuse to go there!).
9. a nanny to get up with Max while I get sleep
10. hmm, can’t think of anything huge for this one so… an ice cream cone.

woot that one was easy! lol

What would you spend on yourself if you had a million dollars?

and I had to share them…

First of all, a week ago I got this lovely award from Sandy over at Momisodes. I was having such a bad day you have no idea, but seeing that someone was thinking of me really helped to calm me down, so thanks so much Sandy, you don’t know how much that meant to me last week!

I also got this award again yesterday from Veronica over at Sleepless Nights - twice in one week! yay for me huh! Ronni you’re a star, thanks for putting up with me

I’d like to give this award to Kendra over at A Thousand Words. She’s such a sweety and is starting out her own photography business so get on over there and check her out if you haven’t already! Also to Rachael at Antithete, I love reading her posts, go give her some hugs cause she’s not been well recently!

On friday I got a gorgeous lil badge from Faye over at Just a Mom. Such a lovely lady, go check out the gorgeous quilt she’s made - gorgeous doesn’t even come close!
I’d like to pass this award on to Jenty over at Jenty’s Ramblings, I always love reading her blog and her pictures are absolutely beautiful, and she kept commenting even though my silly spam filter kept picking them up as spam - thanks so much honey, I think that problem’s sorted now… maybe?!

So today was good, I didn’t lose my rag, we went out for a walk and the house didn’t burn down or anything, and I bumped into a friend of ours who came back to the flat for a while which was great really enjoyed seeing her again.

I’ve been finding it more and more difficult to actually catch up with all the blogs I like to read, along with replying to comments and attempting to blog every day… so apologies if I don’t seem quite as active over the next lil while.
As most of you know it’s been a really difficult couple of weeks for me (if you don’t know what I’m talking about you can catch up here), so thank you so much for all the support, both through comments and msn, emails etc. You really have helped me keep my head above water, and now I’m feeling like I’m starting to turn a corner - it’s amazing what having some help with the boys and a weekend of proper sleep can do!

I <3 sleep.  Really I do! You wanna know how much sleep I had in the past 36 hrs? EIGHTEEN!!!! I love sleep very very much and my parents for putting up with me, and J for letting me go… but most of all - I LOVE SLEEP.

On friday I went to bed at 9.30pm cause I was shattered…. next thing I know it’s 7.57am - BLISS.
On saturday night I  was up til about midnight but then I slept til almost 9am - ALL UNINTERRUPTED.  Did I mention I love sleep? Hey, don’t hate me - I don’t usually get any sleep!

I thought I’d forgotten to pack my camera, or I’d have taken some pictures of the area to show you.  I went to unpack my bag as I got back and guess what was in a corner of it…? Yup - the camera! But you know what? I don’t care cuz I’ve had 18 hrs of sleep!!!!!

In conclusion for this weekend - SLEEP IS GOOD!