Tuesday 25 October 2011

Banana muffins

I had a lot of banana's in my fruit bowl that were in danger of self imploding.  I always get so excited about buying fruit in the hope that my son will eat it.  I still cling to that hope!!   One day i guess.  So considering that banana's are so expensive i was not going to let them go to waste so i made some muffins.  Here is the recipe, and it truly was so simple so i hope that you make them and enjoy them as much as we did  xx

Banana muffins

You will need: 125g butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1 egg, 2 bananas, 1 1/2 cups self raising 



flour, 1/4 cup milk, 100g blueberries

-Melt butter sugar and vanilla essence together

- Add mashed bananas and stir until it's just blended

- Add egg and mix well

...- Stir in the flour, then milk. Mix

Spoon into muffin tin

Bake for approx 20 minutes at 180 degrees

Sunday 23 October 2011

J

J is the bomb diggity

Something funny...hmmmm....

I spoke to a friend the other day.  Yes, believe it or not, i do have a friend!!  She told me that she had read my blog, but that she more or less found it depressing.  Well i think the words she used were that she found it sad, but its more or less saying they are depressing.
So i re-read them, and i have just re-read them again.   I dont think that they are that sad.  Not really.  I have essentially introduced myself and my unusual relationship with the tv show 'the big bang theory', i have whinged about being fat, and i have explained a bit about how much i love my children.  Oh and that i do.

I did explain to my friend, we shall name her J, that a blog is what you choose it to be.  I guess as i grow, so will my blog.  I told her that i am using it as a bit of a healing process, as you see, i am getting over a tough time in my life.
Having just had my second child, thinking i had it all together and then PND sneaking in and pulling the rug from right out under me.  I also got diagnosed with PNA...anxiety.  I feel now that i am over the worst of it, but i wont lie, it has been a hard road.  Im going to whinge again, as its been a hard road, and although i have informed friends and family of my plight, i have battled it alone.   I battled it and i have managed to somehow come out the other side with minimal damage!!

So there we have it....that taboo subject.  Post Natal Depression.  I have never had a problem discussing it, or even telling people that i have or am now suffering from it.  Other people have a problem with it.

So i hope now, that if you read my blog, i hope you dont think that i am depressing.  I see this as a place to come and let the world know exactly how i feel with a false sense of anonymity.  I do know that people read this that i know, but isnt it great to have people know how you really feel?

So i shall say to you now that i am in a good place now, i wasnt, but i am now.  I am loving life with my two beautiful sons.  I feel completely ripped off that it took me 5 months to finally enjoy K and now i am going back to work where i will have to fit a whole week of time and love into the two days of the weekend.   I hope though as my children play with the latest toys and gadgets, as they go to school with clothes on their backs and food in their bags, as they play sport, as they go to the movies with friends and then girlfriends, that one day they could possibly understand what their father and i sacrificed so that they could have the very best.

For now though, i shall enjoy being out of the shadows.  I shall enjoy the here and now.  I dont promise to lament on what has been and i make no promises to worry about what shall be.

Knock Knock

Who's there?

You

You who?

I'm right here


xx    

Sunday 16 October 2011

In a blink

So im just going to do a quick little blog tonight.  I wasnt going to do one, but i have read a couple of blogs tonight that happen to have been done by friends of mine.  
So i read them, which got me thinking and then i got up to go wash some bottles for my baby so that i have enough bottles with water in them for tonight and most of tomorrow, where once again at about the same time i shall wash them and refill them with clean boiled water.  And so the process goes each night.

As i was going through this nightly ritual, i wont lie...i do not like doing it.  Then i got to thinking about my eldest son.  C is 2 now.  I most likely started thinking about him as some of the bottles i was washing had his name on them from when he was a baby.

There it is.  Those few key words in the above paragraph.  WHEN. HE. WAS. A. BABY.  Because he isnt a baby anymore.   So then the train of thoughts just gets going.
Today was a really hot day.  36 degrees or something stupid like that.  I hate hot weather so i could have been on the surface of the sun, makes no difference.  I sweat at the thought of heat.  I digress, today was a really hot day.  A first for my youngest son K.
Today was the first day in his whole life that he had experienced such a hot day.  The FIRST.   Isnt it sad that our daily lives are so focused on the goal that we miss so much with our babies.  C is 2 and its now i realise that a lot of his first's are over, and i probably missed them all.  Not to say that i wasnt there for them all, but did i pay any attention?

I often think as i sit there with K on my knee and he wraps his chubby little fingers around my finger, i always marvel at the feel of his skin.  How soft it is.  The skin on his entire body is only 5 months old.
C's skin is now 2 and although it is so much softer than mine, its not as soft as K's.
Am i thinking this because the time for me to go back to work is lurking just around the corner?  Am i willingly handing over K's first's aswell?

So in a blink of an eye, C has gone from being a baby to a little boy.  Gosh how fast did it go by?  I now look at K and even though he is still a baby i now have the experience of knowing that it is but a moment in his life. One that i know i dont want to let go of.  Because these moments turn into memories and then in 2 years time, what they are both like now will be just that.  A memory.  And i will be standing there thinking that it was over in the blink of an eye.

Both my babies are sleeping right now as i sit here almost in tears.  All i want to do is go in and hold them to me.  Never let go.  I wish that they could understand the magnitude of love i have for them.  That i wish to keep my eyes open.....

Saturday 15 October 2011

I used to be....

I used to be skinny.  Like really skinny.  I used to be fit.  Like really fit.  I used to be a lot of things i guess.  I sit here now and i try to find the common denominator that has made those statements 'used to'.
Most people who know me, but dont really know me, well they will say one of two things in reply to those statements.
1.  You had kids
2.  You're getting old.
I can sit here and accept those reasons, but they arent reasons...they are a cop out.  I didnt get fat because i had kids.  And i didnt get unfit because i had kids.  I was both of those before kids, and being old is just a lame excuse.
The common tie is my job.   Again, this is another used to.  I used to like my job.  But i cant lie, my job has made me fat and unfit.  You would think that being  a member of the defence force that i would be the complete opposite.  I should be super fit and skinny, a smoking hot bod and an attitude to match!!  Bom bom!!

You see those ads on tv advertising the defence and wow...they make me want to sign up.  What was the number again?!!  The reality is much different let me assure you.  I spend my job sitting at a desk.  Eating and googling and watching the clock.  Way to defend the country.
Oh but i shouldnt complain right?  What a job, you do nothing.  Yea its ok for the first couple of days, but you end up running out of things to google.

When i first joined the defence, yup i had a smoking hot bod and an attitude to match.  I even shaved all my hair off like Demi Moore in G.I Jane!! (it wasnt really consented to, i didnt think i had a choice!!).  I remember training so hard to get into recruit school....i worked in a very physical job to start with but each night after work i would go for a super long run along the river along with crunches and pushups.
Recruit school wasnt as tough or physical as i was expecting.  The hard part is being away from family.

As a result, when i graduated the first words out of my mum's mouth when she saw me - "Geez Belinda, you got fat".  Cheers mum.
The rest is history.   I basically sat on my ever expanding arse and ate and drank the days away.  I could have got off it and been proactive.  I wasnt.
Even going out and working on a ship, my job still required me to sit on my arse.

So I used to be skinny.....I have even been one of those lame people who have clung onto a pair of jeans that i will one day fit back in to.  Deep down i know that i wont.

Maybe its time to stop whinging about it and lamenting on the 'used to'......

Thursday 13 October 2011

The Beginning....

So here we are.   At the beginning.  Every story needs a beginning right?  Well this is my first blog.  Never done it before but i have always enjoyed reading other people's blogs.  I kind of liken it to an open diary i guess.  Writing down all our thoughts and feelings but this time we know its getting read, so it makes me wonder then, how much of what people write in blogs really is their true feelings?   Dont think it matters really.

Well as you may have already guessed, my 'name' is Belle.  Im a mother of 2 boys, ages 2 and 5mths.  My partner is in a job that requires him to work away.  4 weeks on/4 weeks off.  The weeks on drag by and as you may have guessed, the weeks that he is home go by in the blink of an eye.
Raising 2 boys on my own for 6 months of the year.  Tough gig.  To make it tougher, we are in this on our own.  I mean we have family but none in the immediate vicinity.  All of my family live on the other side of the country and all of his family, well they dont even live in the country!!  He is from the UK.  So essentially we are on our own.  Although we do have some wonderful friends who are the next best thing.

I have so much to 'blog' about, but for now i want to just keep it simple.  Use the first one as a means of introducing myself i guess.  Let you know a little bit about me.
I do have every intention of making this a regular thing.  I always like to whinge, or tell stories, or laugh about things and being on my own for a lot of the time, i like to talk.  But i never have anyone to talk to.  Like now.  I am sitting on the couch with both boys in bed and noone to talk to.  I want to talk about how i dont really like the show 'The big bang theory' yet i always find myself watching it...and if im totally honest, most of the times i actually enjoy it but for some reason i still dont like the show.  How i wonder what else is on the tv tonight.  What am i going to do tomorrow, or not what am i going to do, but what order am i going to do the list of things i have to do?!!

Anyway, now i am just being silly so i guess it is time for me to say adios.  My first blog complete.  The beginning to my story, journey, life, masterpiece.
Thanks for strapping in and coming along  xx