Project 354 - Week 8

February 21 Waiting for blood tests at the hospital



February 22 Antibiotics for a house full of sick people (3 kids - 3 ear infections - 1 mum - 1 throat infection)



February 23 Cousin Love



February 24 Playing the laptop while off school sick



February 25 A not so nice make over



February 26 Getting ready to start laying flooring



February 27 A sunny day means out to play and getting down and dirty .

February 27

A sunny day means out to play and getting down and dirty .

Expressions

HA i only had one child in mind for this blog post - Eilidh is the most expressive kid i know and is always cracking us up . Nothing this kid does is subtle and in that way she has not changed from birth . Here is just a few of her day to day expressions

Project 354 - Week 7

February 14 New Octonauts tops for all



February 15 Fun with friends (and yes they are wearing the Octonauts tops again)



February 16 More fun at my sisters (come on you can only laugh at the mess lol , my neice had two friends over and the three of them distroyed the previsously clean bedroom and yes with the tops again  ) 



February 17 The boy who dislikes bananas eating a banana (and looking as if he hated every bit)



February 18 Back to nursery for Eilidh



February 19 Anniversary flowers



February 20 New flooring for the living room

Silent Sunday - Me + Camera + Boredom

6 Years

6 Years ago i became Mrs McIntyre.

In a day filled with sunshine, love and happiness i became a wife . I married with love in my heart and 6 years later love my husband even more. He is not perfect (but then again neither am i) but he is my Mr Perfect and i look forward to the next 6 years...and the many years that will fall after it .












(Although looking back i wish i went for a more fitting dress, i was pregnant and pretty big but i just look fat . Wish i had went for something that flattered my bump a little more)

The Journey

I am counting down the days to i begin my course . In just over 2 months i will be a doula (in training ) . From that day onwards i will no longer be Laura - stay at home mum i will be Laura - stay at home mum and Doula .

I am terrified of what comes next -will anything come of it ? Will it be a few hundred pounds wasted ? Will i be able to handle the responsibility ? Will anyone like me enough to hire me ? What happens if alot of people want to hire me ?

I am clueless and a little lost but at the same time very excited .

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I have thought about doing a Doula course for a few years now , after much thought and reading i realised i was only covering for what i really wanted to do and that was midwifery. I was happy , i was content with that journey so i excitedly signed up on an access to midwifery course and got applying for university . Sadly over time i started to understand how difficult this was to be.

Midwifery is a tough course , you surrender 3 years of your life and while i know many who think it is worth it i am not sure if i feel it would of been - i am a wife and mother more than anything - could i really spend so much time away from my babies ?
It is also very , very difficult to get into and many University's have only a few places for each of the hundreds of applicants.
Then if you do manage to make it through the 3 years jobs are hard to come by - i believe there is nothing in Scotland at all.

These 3 things alone were not enough to change my mind , after all i like a challenge and i was confident i would be able to spend time with my family still .

But the more i read about the course , the more i talked to people studying it and even the more i watched births i started to realise i don't want that . I don't want to be stuck in a hospital following strict guidelines , i don't want to be over stretched and not really able to help . I want home births , i want natural births , i want babies at breasts and plenty of cuddles.

This was enough to bring me full circle and i finally understood i was not settling for being a Doula - it was to me the perfect profession .

This clarity was amazing , i was able to stop the access course i was doing (which frankly was very expensive and difficult to get through) and instead pick up some courses i enjoyed doing (Both an Open University course and a Mother Supporter one with the Association of breastfeeding mothers) . I spent time researching different organisations i could do the training with -in the end Nurturing Birth seemed to call to me - the training course sounded perfect and it was registered with Doula UK and provided plenty of support during and after . The biggest problem was no courses in my area but i could wait...and wait i did . When they announced a course in Glasgow for April i was over joyed but soon deflated when i realised we could not afford it . My lovely sister took it into her own hands though and mentioned this to my parents and my dad was more than happy to pay for it - i will be forever grateful to all of them .

So now i am waiting , i am doing my pre course modules and working on my Open University work. I am reading and hoping to be accepted to become a breastfeeding councillor . I am most of all excited - this is the first time in many years i am doing something just for me and it makes me smile just thinking about it

(Honestly though i am not 100% sure i am done with Midwifery , i would love to become an Independent Midwife but would still have to get in and do the 3 years training first . I am planning more Open University modules to give me the necessary qualifications to get in and i may apply once they are done. If the Doula business takes off i may not feel the need but for the moment i am keeping my options open)

Togetherness

There is 17 months between my girls , not a huge age gap of course but i know plenty with much smaller ones . I have always felt it is wonderful to have two so close in age. They are bonded in a way only siblings can be , they fight - the play - they love each other . They are best friends and i think they are both so lucky to have each other .



Sometimes i forget they are not the same age - they are the same height ,weight - take the same size shoe and clothes . They have similar likes and dislikes and there has never been much between them development wise .There also so different and both unique in there own ways .

I love my girls (and my boy of course) and they all love each other - as a mother i cannot ask for more .

Project 365 - Week 6

I cannot believe we are on week 6 . I am really enjoying doing Project365 and find myself taken lots of extra pictures of the kiddies.

February 7 Fancy a little kiss?



February 8 Special treat after doing excellent at speech therapy



February 9 Snuggles as they sleep (although you don't see how it was 5 minutes later when Becca woke and freaking because "she does not like Eilidh" and they went back to sleeping at diffrent sides.



February 10My faviroute time of day - bed and book time



February 11Could i really cope with two of her?



February 12Art and craft time



February 13 Shopping for wall paints - how boring when you are two

Sparkle This Valentine’s Day

Want to enjoy a bottle of bubbly this Valentine’s Day but still have a clear head for work the next day? Then why not try a bottle of Shloer’s delicious Rosé flavour. Created from a blend of red and white grapes, Shloer Rosé is the perfect non-alcoholic sparkling drink to enjoy with the one you love.

It’s not just the fact that this year’s annual celebration of romance falls on a ‘school night’ that’s got us thinking about staying in, the fact that restaurants will be bursting at the seams, not to mention over-priced is making us dream up some romantic dining-in delights.

If like us you’re going to enjoy Valentine’s in your own home Shloer’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/shloer will help you conjure something up in the kitchen. There’s a selection of mouth-watering recipes to pick from, such as Spaghetti with crab, lemon, chilli and parsley or Lemon and Oregano Lamb Kebabs.

I reviewed Shloer at Christmas time (post found here ) and loved the stuff so was more than happy to say yes when asked to post about them again. I got the yummy white grape again and the very delicious White Grape, Raspberry & Cranberry. These drinks are tasty , refreshing and feel grown up . Shloer website also have a lovely list of cocktails to make with the drink and i am saving the White grape to make a few at the weekend - i think this Tropical Shloer Cooler sounds amazing . 

Oh Baby

There comes a time , i imagine when most couple have the discussion - the discussion of "should we have another baby" . In our house it is more a case of me going "lets have a baby" and my husband going "um..no" .

My husband pointed out his reasons and they all make sense but that does not take the wanting away. Cost is a big worry of his - not really for now ( the extra child benefit would more than cover the cost of another child for a few years at least) - but for then.
We want to be able to go holidays overseas , we want to be able to buy the children whatever the want or need (with in reason). I don't want my children the only ones not having the "cool" toy of the "right" shoes . I want kids to have time with mummy and daddy and not be pushed out. We also, as my husband pointed out "don't want to be 50 and have little ones running around" .

We have agreed to leave the talking for now and discuss it again when the timing is right . As much as i would love it now our home is just to small , almost 1.5 years it has been on the market and i am not holding out for it to sell soon. The biggest worry comes from hubby being less than a year away from completing his PhD - we don't know what will happen after that, jobs are so hard to come by and we are terrified he will not get something . It is another reason why i would love to out this place and not have a mortgage hanging over our heads .

I know why we are not doing it now , i know why we should not do it later . I also know that i will never stop wanting another child and looking forward to the day i get my husband to agree :)

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Yesterday i was talking to a friend who said she was 4 weeks pregnant with number 5 . I guess this brought out my green eyed monster - they are in a much worse finical position than us , she does not work and her husband does...sometimes (he seems to quit a job as quick as he gets it) . They refuse to claim benefits so mostly live of nothing . She admits that she almost never eats , normally just finishes of the kids foods because she cannot afford to . She says she wants dozen of kids and will keep having them even though they have no way to support them .
I am not wanting to appear mean here , after all she is a lovely person and her kids are adorable - she is an awesome mum and they are lucky to have her . I just feel she does not look ahead . She thinks of the now , not how it will be when they have 5 (+?) teenagers all wanting fed and clothed .

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Do you think it is important when planning your family to think about the future ? Or did you choose not to worry about it and just enjoy the experience ?

The Gallery - 24 Hours

I LOVED this weeks gallery prompt . asking for basically pictures of your 24 hours . I wanted it to be an honest post , i did not want to just capture the "good" parts so i kept my phone with me for a period of 12 hours (i know it asks for 24 - but honestly once the kids are sleeping it is tea/bath/bed/sleep and no one needs to see that lol ) . I set my alarm to go off every hour and snapped a quick picture of where i was and what we were doing - the result is a mini snapshot of our day - not complete of course (for a start it looks like as if i don't feed the kids ) . Some of the pictures are terrible but you still get the basic idea . I am not including explanations with the pictures it just seems more fun that way .

And again i LOVED doing this.

7am - 8am



9am - 10am



11am - Noon



1pm - 2pm



3pm - 4pm



5pm - 6pm- 7pm