a few more thoughts on motherhood.

I have been told that motherhood looks natural on me.

And I have mentioned before that I feel like I have found my life’s calling.

I truly do love being a mom, I love my moments with Isla, I love the big ones, the beautiful ones, I can (usually later) cherish even difficult ones.

I have found motherhood to be more of a natural and organic venture.

I read books on sleep training and feeding cycles and no crying while I was pregnant, but for the most part, since having Isla, I have left those to the wayside.

I never was one to stick to a strict schedule with Isla. It was more along the lines of she ate when she was hungry and slept when she was tired.

She developed her own cycles, and she started to sleep through the night on her own at a fairly young age. Sometimes I feel guilty about this, like moms need another thing to feel guilty about!

I’m not saying that we don’t deal with any kind of parenting problem around here, we are currently dealing with a very early riser, this has been a little more difficult to deal with.

cloth diapers while camping!

I have dealt with the ups and downs of cloth diapering, and I LOVE cloth diapering, but it definitely has its downs (mostly ups!) but definitely some downs.

I started cloth diapering when Isla was 6 months, we do it almost full time, but it has been a bit more difficult due to bum rashes and daycare.

I also try my best to use organic products for her, but right now, it is certainly not the most cost effective, and if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. And we can’t always.

My family consists of myself, my husband Thom, and wee Isla.

We currently call our friends’ basement ‘home’.

We have our own bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a living room, but we share the kitchen and most of the living space on the main floor.

We have been learning what it means to live in community and be in each other’s spaces and faces every day.

We are Christians who are walking out our faith daily, and learning to show Isla what it means to love Jesus and to show others his love.

We are just beginning to navigate the world of full-time daycare, with me back at work full-time, which has been a transition, especially since my husband and I would both rather I could be at home with Isla in a greater capacity. But it has been a fairly peaceful process, going back to that whole Jesus and faith business.

We are living in the now, learning to appreciate every day, and every moment, and each other, and teaching it to Isla at the same time.

You can find three of my favourite posts

here-finding peace in stressful times

here-thoughts on motherhood and going back to work and mommy-friends

and here-my original disappointment with cloth diapering

I have written this post to enter into Today's Parent's search for some new Canadian blogging parents.

Day 30: three wonderful things that happened this month

#1

Isla girl turned 1!
one whole year has gone by since that we girl came into our lives.
this was a momentous occasion!

don't judge me because my daughter is eating a giant cupcake.

#2

i went back to work and it's been pretty great actually.

Isla transitioned amazingly, i transitioned mostly amazingly
-with a little tiredness thrown in, and of course, missing out on chilling with Isla all day.

#3

i discovered that i can indeed keep blogging while being back at work full time!

if i can keep up doing a blog post every day (i wasn't even late once!),

i can certainly go back to doing a few posts a week :)

Day 29: some place i'd like to visit

the place i'd like to visit is not a city or country (though you can find it in a big city)

the place that i'd like to visit is Purl Soho.

I have been a reader of the Purl Bee for a long time, but somehow i failed to realize that they had an actual store until they moved from their 2 locations (fabric and wool) into their new big location.  

i love going into fabricland and the various quilt stores we have in Ottawa, but Purl Soho seems absolutely swoon-worthy!

Purl Soho is located in the Big Apple.

Which just so happens to be where Blogher'12 is happening next summer.

funny enough, today when i checked Desiree's blog, 

the Fawn behind this whole 30 days hath November,

she has New York as her place that she would like to go.

she plans on heading to New York in the summer for Blogher :)

i would love to head to Blogher myself, but i think we may have a few things going on next summer.

what looks amazing about Purl Soho to me:
all the colours, and all the textures, just all that plain old happiness.
sigh.

Day 28: a skill i'd like to learn

i've been seeing a lot of this around the blog world lately:

source

source

source

source

i did some screen printing in high school, but that does seem like a long time ago!

it seemed like it would be impossible to have all the necessities to actually do this again;

we had a big machine that put the vellum on the screen and lots of space and ink and the necessary tools.

the 're-love affair' with printing started with this lady holding a fabric swap.
here are some of her prints:

i discovered that a lot of them have been done by stamping ink on fabric.

i have (incidentally) also done some stamp carving (also in high school)

and i think that i could do that again and make some of my own prints for things.

fun, no?

ps. miss Leslie Keating is a Canadian gal living in Australia 

(i'm starting to think that maybe i am drawn to Canadian bloggers 

the same way that i am drawn mysteriously to Canadian authors)

Day 27: myself, one year ago

here i am a year ago.

a very unedited photo, you know, so you can see real life

note on the armrest of the couch:

phone for updating family, nipple cream, pen and journal for recording feeding and pees and poops, remote for watching many seasons of How I Met Your Mother, and the Itzbeen.

we also still had sir Charles *sniff*

i still miss him.

miss Isla was only 25 days old.

wow.

Day 26: something i'm looking forward to

no surprise here!

i'm totally looking forward to Christmas.

i love Christmas

i love:

lights
music
decorations

carols
trees

gingerbread
paper snowflakes

candy canes

hot chocolate

egg nog

presents (giving and a little receiving)

some snow

family
friends
and i especially love that it is the time of year that i get to hear music about Jesus everywhere i go :)

does anybody else love Christmas as much as i do?
is anyone else sad that in 30 days it will be boxing day?




(click on the images for sources)

Day 25: the contents of my purse

small style #25

25! can you even believe!  that's almost half a year!

here is miss Isla rockin' some new boots

that girl loves her remotes!

Thom made a joke the other day that we don't gender stereotype,
since then we have realized Isla-girl wear A LOT of pink!

just lovin' the pink i guess :)

long sleeve top: Joe Fresh, consigned

pink t-shirt: Joe Fresh, consigned

onesie: Carter's, consigned

leggings: Carter's, consigned

socks: Old Navy

Boots: Robeez (gift card from Grandma Val!)

and you will most likely find some other cute wee ladies in pink here:

Day 24: something that means a lot to me

my lovely momma gave me this snow globe about 3 years ago.

it means a lot to me partly because i love how simply and beautifully it depicts the manger scene

and partly because this is a special gift from her to me.

my mom doesn't have entirely the same beliefs as i do,

she was raised Catholic but is fairly non-practicing,

but ever since i became a Christian she has truly been there for me.

God has used her to bless me and protect me and guide me.*

i love my little Joseph, Mary and Jesus snow globe,

and it always makes me so happy to put it out for Christmas.

thanks mom!

*a good example of this is when i first moved to Ottawa for school,

about 2 months in i became very homesick and was thinking it was a bad idea to be here,

upon telling this to my mom, she promptly replied: "you need to find some Christian friends on campus, go find that Christian group" (she meant intervarsity)

so off i went and met my now long-time friend Noah,

who was in his fourth year of nursing school (i was in first year)

and he brought me to my first meeting with the Church body that i still call my family :)

my mom is lovely. 

-she is also something that means a lot to me ;)-

Day 23: eight things you didn't know about me

i found this to  be a fairly random list since i am usually pretty open and honest.

i don't have a lot of secrets.

but, without further ado, here is the list:

1. i have a blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden.  basically it means that my blood can forget to stop clotting once it has started.  so after having Isla, i had to give myself injections of Fragmin in my stomach. not fun.
2. i secretly love 'Keeping up with the Kardashians'.  this is a terrible indulgence of mine.  i used to love 'The Hills' when it was still on tv.  i must have a need to have a really over the top, ridiculous reality show in my life at all times.
3. while i was pregnant i didn't have a lot of cravings, but i did weirdly crave pop music.  i rarely listen to the radio in the car, but while i was prego i pretty much was hitting the scan button just hoping to hear some Ke$ha, or Britney or Lady Gaga (and may i point out that i never listened to these ladies before!)
4. i pierced my own nose. twice.  yup, one summer at camp i decided i wanted a pierced nose and i found a cork and a needle and away i went.  then i took it out and apparently the next summer wanted one again, so another needle into the nose it was.
5. in grade 12 i shaved my head.  it was something i always wanted to do. my youth pastor Rob did it. i loved it so much and kept it shorn for about 8 months, but my mom said that she would not pay for my Grad dress if i kept it shaved. (seems weird that a girl with a shaved head would care, but oh how i loved my grad dress!!)
6. i do not have a strong desire to travel the world. it always seems to me that most people want to travel all over the place, but i have always felt like i would like to see a bit more of Canada or the some parts of the UK, but other than that... meh.  even in high school i didn't have the travel Europe bug or anything.
7. i used to be a journaling fiend.  I have milk crates filled with journals from grade 11 to about 3rd year university. i'm not sure how or when i stopped journaling regularly, but for some reason it seemed to slow down. i still have a journal that i take notes in on Sunday morning, or write some prayers or scriptures in, but not my day to day business.
8. i have a guitar that i don't really know how to play. i got it for Christmas in grade 10 and i never had any lessons. i taught myself a few songs, but never really stuck with it. but it still goes with me every time i move!

Day 22: some place i've traveled

i haven't traveled a lot.

but for our honeymoon, Thom and I went the Dominican Republic.

we went the all inclusive route,

and after all the wedding prep it was an awesomely relaxing treat!

 

Day 21: something i could never tire of

something that i could never get tired of is creating.

i love quilting, scrapbooking, sewing, knitting, card-making 

and pretty much anything else that requires using my hands and creativity.

i once wove a basket out of willow branches.

more recently my friend Julie invited a few of us to a wreath making party.  

and i don't mean that we just decorated the wreaths,

we actually started with wire frames and stapled in the greenery and then added on the decor.

(the staple machine was very cool and old-fashioned seeming with a foot press-i loved it!)