A to-do list from the past...

It was Monday, 12th November 2007 (and I was 20 weeks pregnant with my first baby - and everything on this list was ticked off, in my diary):-

• Organise storage for baby nursery
• Make jug of de-caf green tea
• Pack away dry dishes
• Disinfect and clean nursery furniture and rest of house
• Clear out my old magazines (recycling)
• Iron x2 work shirts for hubby
• Make lunch for hubby (coming home from work for lunch)
• Pack away dry washing
• Frame painting I did for Harry & Margaret (our elderly neighbours/friends)
• Vaccum clean entire house
• Clean bedroom mirror
• Stoke fire place fire's in kitchen (wood burning stove) and lounge.
• Sweep away leaves outside (it's Autumn and we have a thick sea of gold and orange leaves, outside).
• Work on manuscript     (what is  now my 1st novel - "Scorpio Moon" http: //www.amazon.com/dp/B005L3RPE0 )
• Wrap painting gift for Harry & Margaret
• Start baby album (scan pic's)
• Check e-mails, do pregnancy research (20 weeks) on internet, check Facebook profile.
• Final baby shopping list (last few things to get)
• Catch up with diary
• Cook dinner and clean up ! 

How on earth did I complete all these tasks when I was already quiet heavily pregnant and where did I get all the time ? Time is such a  luxury now. I type this frantically as I anticipate the turning of time (it's now already 21:21 pm and I had both baby girl and toddler boy tucked up in bed at 7:13pm), I desperately need sleep and hope to be in bed before 22:30pm.

All those things on my to-do-list from the past (November 2007), that I would accomplish in one day, seem unsurmountable now. I am mother to a wonderful, wild and boisterous 3.5 year old boy and a loud, curious, energetic and gorgeous 10 month old baby girl. My whole day is consumed with forfilling their every need and maintaining seemingly rigid routines whilst squeezing housework and a few errands in-between. But it is all so worth it and I would not change it for anything in the world. My life seems so much more complete, meaningful and worthwhile now. My childless years of adulthood seem so self-indulgent and well, selfish, I suppose. You can truelly understand what Im talking about, when you take the big leap into parenthood - it is seriously life changing to say the least. In a good way, for sure.

So let me end this post with a quotable quote, one of my all time favourites:-

"The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a life-time." - Anon.

Till next time !

The luxury of nostalgia

It is astonishing how much your life changes after you've had a baby. I compare what I do now in an average week to what I use to do 4 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child and it's astounding. It's easy for me to compare as I vigilantly kept diaries for 13 years (but stopped when my frist child became a toddler). My diary would be filled with dates for birthday's of friends - mostly single and childless, dates for going out or having parties at home and all of the seemingly selfish, self-absorbed hobbies, excursions, pampering and exercise routines that childless people have the luxury of enjoying. Now, all that sort of thing seems too self-indulgent, too time consuming and well, it's just not me anymore. I thought I would share some extracts from my childless, self-indulgent past - just for fun. Nostalgia -  that is an emotion or feeling that seems to be one of my little luxuries in life these days. Luckily I got to live it up, work and play hard, before settling down to have a family. I have no regrets, I've had my fun and now, like many of you out there - I am proud and content to be a stay-at-home mother.

Sunday 18th March 2007:

To do list for the day:

• Sow seeds (in greenhouse)
• Painting
• Dust house and vacuum clean
• Scrapbooking
• Jog to farm and back (take i-pod !)
• Read novel
• Movies

Now, I ask you - how did I fit so much in one day (all on the to do list plus cooking, eating, cleaning and spending time with  husband ) ? These days I would only be able to do one or two of those things in between caring for my baby and also my boisterous toddler, the housework and doing the odd errand. That's if Im lucky and there hasn't been any curve balls thrown into the daily routine. It helps if you've had the chance to enjoy a varied, busy life before starting a family. And it also helps if you've learnt how to be adaptable and empathetic with people and lifestyles from other cultures and countries.


Here are some of the websites I enjoyed in my childless days, taken ffrom the 2007 diary:

• www.43things.com
• www.dooce.com
• www.princessmelissa.com/weblog/
• www.loobylu.com

Some quotes taken from a scrapbook I kept in my mid twenties/childless years:

• "The people I'm furious with are the women's liberationists. They keep getting up on soap boxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. It's true but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket." - Anita Loos, 1893

• "We women suffragists have a great mission - the greatest mission the world has ever known. It is to free half the human race, and through that reason to save the rest. " - Emmeline Pankhurst (1857 - 1928)

• "All women have a sacred obligation to each other. Irrespective of class or conditions of work." - Vida Goldstein

• "I dont mind being in a man's world so long as I can be a woman in it." - Marilyn Monroe

• "...each woman is far from average in the daily heroic's of her life, even though she may never receive a moment's recognition in history." - Introduction to "Women & work".

• "What is better than gold? Jasper. What is better than jasper? Wisdom. What is better than wisdom? Women. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing." - Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400)
  

Hope you are all enjoying the anticipation of the festive season and all the fun, madness and mayhem that it entails. What a year 2011 has been, but that topic is for another time... Bye for now !