Ten on Tuesday

I started composing this 'ten' three weeks ago, and am determined that today is the day it will make it into the land of blog....


1.  I have become very sensitive to what I watch recently, I cannot bear tension, murder, pain of any type, anything which involves children suffering or anything too real life which makes me cry. So my viewing interests have narrowed somewhat, this has meant I have developed quite a fondness for nature programmes 'Africa' on BBC is brilliant, and slightly more concerningly a love of 'room 101', I haven't missed one this series.......it's quite good you know ! Listening to Paloma faith argue with Deborah Meedam about the ugliness of UGG boots was quite entertaining don't you know :)

2. I read this interesting article via a blog about a lady who has decided not to spend any money on her child this year....interesting. Though provoking, but also made me wonder what she usually bought him ?! Check it out here mumofone, or for the full article here

3. I have had two short trips to the shops in the last few weeks, shops I can see from my sitting room window, but still have to get a taxi to get to !  One such trip was to next, I realised LT has no clothes for springtime, so decided to pick her up a few bits while I had my head in gear and wasn't totally dazed by the newborn haze. I have found if I buy a few things at the same time, at the start of a season, and think what she needs, rather than a few bits here, and a few bits there, I spend less, and she looks better ! 
It was however a little odd to buy spring attire a few days before it snowed. A friend was exclaiming to me how ridiculous it is that all the shops have spring stock but it's still January and who on earth would buy that kind of thing now.......?.....ahem.......*raises hand like an embarrassed school girl*....meeeeeeee.....!

Thankfully next has lots of chairs I could sit on, and I took various drinks for our little pit stops around the shop....no one wants a collapsing pregnant lady in their shop, so we went for the 'slow and steady' approach to our brief shopping trip.

4. I have started reading the book ' A year of biblical womanhood' by Rachel Held Evans. I read her blog and have been wanting to buy it for a while. It's an interesting and amusing look into what the bible says and doesn't say about Women, how we should dress, how we should mother, how we should or shouldn't speak in church, or be a wife. It's a refreshing read. Has bits of theology in it, and lots of humour as the author guides us through her attempts at putting into practise - quite literally at times, what the Bible says women should 'do/be'. Many of these issues I have spent the past ten or so years pondering, so lots of it isn't really 'new' to me, but it has definitely stirred my thoughts once more, and set me thinking about my life as a Christian woman and how I invest my time and conduct myself. My friend over at 'In the Land of the Living ' is also reading it, she shares some of her thoughts on it beautifully.

5. Willow has started saying .... 'I'm bored mummy'...'lets do something else now' 

So then we do things like this

and this

GIVE ME STRENGTH !

6. *****NEWS FLASH****** We.......have........ got.........a..........tumble. dryer.......oh yes we have. 
It is both an evil overindulgence and a beautiful machine. I have a love hate relationship with it, as for me, along with our dishwasher it signifies so much which is wrong with our western culture and how the divide between my household and most other households in the world is growing. And yet, my friends, I can sit on a chair and receive into my newly purchased washing basket ( see point 10 ) dry clean clothes, with just a bit of folding, they look ironed and everything. 

No hanging required. 

It's a modern day miracle.


7. I love snow and love being outside, so the past ten days have felt a little annoying that I've had to sit like an oversized tired buddah in the house while Husbando and Little tyke have sledged, built snowmen and the like. Maybe next year......... 


8. Like most parents, when you approach the end stages of pregnancy, the issue of finalising a name comes about..........we kind of decided, then we weren't sure, then I changed my mind, then Husbando suddenly decided that there was only one name we had discussed that he liked. So in a bid for some fresh inspiration incase there is a name lurking somewhere we haven't thought of, I have been looking at some interesting websites about baby names. I found it fascinating to see the 'regional top ten' rather than the national top 100 names, they vary so much....

for example........ 

In some parts of London 'Barbara' is in the top ten for a girl, but not even in the top 100 anywhere else in the UK

'Mason' is top 10 in some parts of the north west but much further down nationwide, some places don't even have Harry or Joshua in their regional top ten, but nationally they are top 5........

I'm not sure if this is even interesting, but in my head it was, for a few minutes anyway ?!


9. Last week I was moaning to husbando about the recent acquisition of two new stretch marks across my once flat and unmarked tummy......bless him, how is a man meant to respond to such a thing ?  His reply was ......

'well love, I think you've done really well only to get two new ones ! ' 

Bless. God loves a try-er !

Although the other evening he didn't do quite so well, when I exclaimed in a ball of emotion, how I am always in bed exhausted and we rarely get to go out together or have much fun cos i'm just sitting around or sleeping. 
I said.....

' it will be ok wont' it love ? We're not going to look at each other in three years time and get divorced because it's all gone wrong are we ?'

his reply was simply, with a big tired sigh...........

' oh no, that would mean I'd have to start all over again, far too much hard work ' !!

He's a tactful guy :)

But we laughed, and laughter is good medicine.


10.  I feel like I have spent more money recently than I ever have.......on stuff like a shoe rack, two new washing baskets, a laundry bin, new pegs and storage boxes.......I think I may have become a little obsessed with our 'household systems' running smoothly. Usually we are very much kind of 'make do with what we have'  kind of people, for example we have used a random £2 plastic bin as a nappy bin for two years, and LT has had a very odd shaped and insufficiently small basket I found somewhere as a dirty clothes basket. We have one proper washing basket, so invariably are left with piles of washing kind of strewn on the stairs in no vessel at all. Husbando pinched the shoe rack to create a computer stand with a few months ago, so our hallway is just a pile of shoes. However, with the imminent arrival of another human into our house, I felt it was time we joined convention and got relevant receptacles for the smooth running of family Deane. Boring and dull, but essential I think..........?!

( we will have finally arrived into some kind of domestic nirvana when we purchase a bread bin......no we don't have one, yes we do need one, but neither of us ever seem to want to spend limited funds on such an item ......one day, my friends, one day )