Posts I liked (last week really...!)

http://theartofsimple.net/young-gray-hair/

I don't think I've got much/any grey hair just yet but I love this refreshing approach to greying. I've never coloured my hair and enjoy the fact that, for free, I get highlights in the summer and a darker head of hair in the winter. I intend to continue to let my hair go as nature intended as I age and embrace grey hair when it happens to me!

http://www.elle.com/fashion/celebrity-style/g27990/kate-middleton-style-formula/

I've been realising my winter breastfeeding mum uniform is a nursing vest, blouse on top and skinny coloured trousers. It's so nice to not really think about my clothes and I'm gradually reducing my wardrobe, keep the odd outlier but sticking to my style formula. This article has a great pictorial description of the Duchess of Cambridge's style formula. Her particular style isn't practical for me but I aim to get my wardrobe based around categories like this too! 

The 'mum uniform'

http://proverbs31.org/devotions/devo/planning-funerals-that-wont-happen-today-2/ 

This article is fantastic. I have continued to hold worries deep in my heart particularly in relation to Daniel. I also fear my own premature death, not for my loss but for my boys. As Paul says in Philippians it is better to die and be with Christ but he sees the value in staying to teach the growing church. On a much lesser stage I feel such a strong need to be here for Daniel in particular and am so terrified of him/me dying. Yet by worrying I can add not one day to either of our lives. God already knows their number and I have felt a burden lift from my heart as I finished this article and realised He is in control and I cannot prolong any of our lives by worrying. 

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/5704/a-personal-statement-from-the-archbishop-of-canterbury 

I actually collated these links last weekend and never got round to writing a little paragraph for each link until now and already it's been days since I've seen anything about this in the news. A fascinating story, such wonderful grace and humility in the response of both the ABC and his mother, and fantastic acceptance among the public. No calls for resignation or nonsense from legalistic Christians that sometimes pops up with stories like this. I love the ABC and thank God for his witness and wonderful faith. 

Links I've liked this week

While I try to get myself back into writing regularly and getting my blog properly up and running, I've decided to do a weekly 'links I've enjoyed' type post. The subject matters will likely be fairly wide-Christianity, baby names, organisation, politics...

I follow some blogs that have such weekly link based posts and am always interested in why they posted them, so will try and explain each of mine too. I'll also post my photo of the week just so the post doesn't get lost in text! 

http://www.bustle.com/articles/123548-i-let-my-grandma-dress-me-for-a-week-this-is-what-happened

This is a lighthearted one to start off. I don't have any living grandparents but love the idea of having a regular FaceTime date with an elder relative. I also think it's lovely to see this Grandma's style and creativity. I suspect she enjoyed being able to select outfits for her granddaughter who can wear them. Maybe Grandma feels at her age she can't wear them even though she likes these outfits herself. She has more style than I do!

http://halelrod.com/6-minute-miracle-morning/

So, I've recently started bullet journaling (my next post will likely be all about this!) and I've discovered Hal is a bit of a legend for some dedicated bujo people. Hal's book 'The Miracle Morning', suggests a simple routine to do first thing in the morning called 'SAVERS'. It uses 6 practices - silence, affirmations, visualisation, exercise, reading and scribing - and Hal swears this will help you get the best out of your day. Thing is, each practice only takes a minute, so it really is easily implemented. I haven't yet tried it but, you know, I've read it which is as good as my intentions get these days! 

http://www.swistle.com/babynames/2016/03/21/baby-naming-issue-three-pregnant-sisters-all-want-to-use-the-same-name/

Told you baby names would get in here! Love this post and love the outcome, which I won't spoil here. I was convinced they'd all have boys but thankfully not! As someone who is really into names I tend to think first one there gets to use a name, but you can't really lay claim to a name anyway so nothing is really stopping someone coming after you using it. It does depend on the rarity of the name though. I mean, if a close friend or family member wanted to use a name we had used but it was number 3 in the country (as Daniel was in 2012 when we named him) then it's hardly something we can say no to. If it had been something unusual though, I guess it would feel like 'ours'. Anyway, a fun story to read!

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/absurd-legalism-gender-roles-submission-piper

I'm a big Rachel Held Evans fan. I grew up with plenty of Christian friends and read lots and lots of books and went to as many conferences as I could in my teens and early twenties and would say I formed a fairly conservative theology in some areas. Anyway, Rachel's blog got me thinking about some of my opinions and whether they stood up to how my faith and understanding of the Bible has grown. This post discusses the complimentarian approach to male-female roles. Our approach to parenthood has been direct, equal and it works. I'm realising more and more (after 8 years of marriage!) that men prefer direct communication and if I continue to be indirect about matters of faith or finances or whatever to ensure Colin remains the 'leader' of the relationship then I do us both a disservice, and I believe our relationship is better off when we are equals who work together to lead our family. 

Photo of the week is the fun of an Easter Egg hunt for a child who can't read-my fabulously talented sister in law drew clues for Daniel to follow to find the next egg and he loved it. As did my family (we didn't do egg hunts growing up!) who followed him around excitedly taking photos! He hasn't eaten any of the eggs, in fact I'm not sure he knows what they are but he enjoyed the afternoon's fun in the garden! 

Screen free February

I've been screen free this month. Well, I was screen free for a week. It turns out my husband and I had different ideas about what we'd agreed to. I thought it was no social media, no internet usage and no games on the iPhone or iPad (I'm a big fan of playing Settlers or doing sporcle quizzes when nursing). We had already agreed that to find out a piece of information, the example discussed was a restaurant telephone number, you could google it rather than trying to locate yellow pages etc. Then I discovered half way through the first week that my husband thought BBC news was ok, and he wanted special dispensation to go on Twitter and read up on a legal trial he's been following in the U.S. I continued to be screen free aside from texts and emails and found I was sorting photos and reading books more, particularly when feeding Rory. 

But then I had to find out some pieces of information (time and location of a meeting I'd to go to was only on Facebook), opening times for a gym I was taking the boys to, and I started to notice I was picking my phone up more. I was reading emails, then clicking through to websites if I wanted to see the advertised offers and realised I was starting to lose control of this month's  project. I also realised Pinterest didn't  fall into a banned category and now I finally get the people who say it's an addition! I do have considerably more ideas for our bedroom redecoration though. So I decided after a few days of loosening the parameters to go back to my understanding of the original boundaries. No browsing the internet even if it was a project like doing holiday research. I think my husband is using the wider definitions but it's amazing what it has lead me to do:

- I went to a fabric store to get samples of material I'm considering for curtains for our bedroom;

- I wandered around a few furniture shops to look for a slim TV unit to fit in a recess. I can't find one! Perils of having a small TV in this 50" world we live in;

- in the afternoon after Daniel's nap time we went to IKEA and went for a walk and got an icecream. Normally in the afternoons I tend to sit on my phone for a while while the boys play so I can have a mental break;

- I went to a few local shops to try and source furniture for Daniel's dolls house. (unfortunately one only did pink furniture and the other had two wildly overpriced sets that I couldn't justify buying)

I love to support local shops and although the choice is more limited and it's not always affordable I should rely less on the Internet, even at the research stage of big purchases. 

I also noticed I have been spending better quality time playing with the boys as I'm not compulsively checking Twitter or googling non-urgent queries such as 'how long to cook a pork chop?' or 'when do baby's top teeth come in?'. 

It's also allowed me to be less distracted when decluttering as I'm out of the way of picking my phone up every 10 minutes to do a Facebook/Twitter/general browse cycle. The progress in the house has been amazing! 

Towels have been sorted! 

I'm writing this as I feed Rory, the one time I've really struggled not to use my phone. He feeds most evenings for about 1.5 hours and I'm stuck with little to do if I'm trying to keep light levels low as I can't use my kindle or read a book. So during nursing sessions when Daniel isn't around I'm allowing myself a bit more leeway-there's the time for my holiday research! There definitely is a time and place for idle browsing but I can already see how this month is helping me find the balance. I'm not even particularly interested in going back to Facebook or Twitter. Success!

Really, 6 months?

I can't quite believe it's been 6 months since I started, and then dropped, my new blog. It turns out babies are fairly easy the first month (I missed most of Daniel's as he was in hospital still) and once your husband goes back to work, life with two gets a little bit crazy. 

My decluttering has been sporadic but when it occurs is much quicker than in the past and I've cleared out many items I'd previously kept after decluttering sessions which is very satisfying. More posts to come on this topic, don't worry!

A decluttered drawer!

I decided to do a word resolution for 2016. I went with 'control' - the house probably being the key area but each month would focus on something different. I also have picked a classic children's book to re read each month too. 

January's control subject was sugar, and the aim was to be sugar free all month. Less than 48 hours into my cold turkey approach and I had to reach for the sugar I was feeling so ill. It turns out I had a bad bout of sinusitis and then an ear infection. Cold turkey was also a silly approach on reflection. I initially only took small amounts of sugar each day and was aiming to reduce gradually and try two weeks sugar free instead. However, when I got to the 15th January (my new sugar free date) I think I decided it hadn't worked so far so I might as well give up completely! First month = FAIL! 

February is screen free month to get control over my phone usage and general internet addiction. I've been reading many things about how significant a problem this is and know my phone is never far from my hand. I spend hours each day browsing the Internet, scrolling mindlessly through Facebook and impulse buying things from promotional  emails. I can't wait to see how this goes! 

See you in March!