The unlikely art of hospitality

A while ago my husband and I were discussing what gifts we would like God to help us grow in and we both said hospitality. Back then I think I imagined this would look something like me learning to cook like Mary Berry and host elegant dinner parties with wine and beautiful homemade desserts in my spotless home. Oh, how wrong I was!! So, from what I've learned so far, what does good hospitality look like?

- it's being willing to be vulnerable and invite people round even though my house isn't perfect/I haven't cooked from scratch/I don't know them that well.

- it's deliberately not cleaning my house before my friends with kids come round cos I don't want them to feel like they're the only mama who can't keep their house spotless while looking after kids.

- it's having friends round to drink wine out of disposable cups in our pajamas cos I'm too tired to do much (even wash wine glasses) but don't want to miss the opportunity to connect with friends.

- it's not letting the fact we don't have enough chairs or cutlery or space prevent me from inviting friends to come for a very loud, very simple meal with kids all over the place.

- it's inviting the people that need it most instead of the people I like most or get along with easiest or are most like me.

Ultimately, good hospitality is about being willing to share our homes and lives with people and to be vulnerable enough to show them the real me, not a persona I put on especially for guests.

God has also shown me the power of receiving hospitality but I'll save that story for another day!

Today's little treasures

I'll be honest, I've been slightly dreading the school holidays. I love my kids but the thought of seven whole weeks with nothing planned seemed a bit daunting. Usually our days are pretty mapped out for us; baby group on Monday morning, preschool Tuesday through Thursday mornings, mommas bible study on Wednesday mornings, baby group Friday morning, another baby group on Saturday morning and church on Sunday. So you can see why to me the holidays seemed like a big gaping chasm!

Well, we're only on day one so I don't want to get too cocky too soon but I am already starting to realise it's maybe not so bad. I'm discovering that little J has an amazing imagination and when I give him space without any plans he comes up with some great ideas for how to spend our days. I'm also realising how easy it is to let days pass by and not notice or appreciate the little treasures in each day. So here I am going to catalogue some of the treasures I'm grateful for today:

1. Days when the kids make all the plans. Today little J took me for a walk to the local pet shop and then to the park. His little sister loved the animals (and loved trying to eat sand at the park). On the way home he pretended to be an explorer in the jungle and then that we were being chased by elephants and had to run home. (Prizes for guessing which episode of charlie and Lola inspired him ha ha.)

2. Reduced price food. We stopped by Asda garage on the way home to get naan bread and instead found reduced price flatbreads and reduced cake too! 23p angel cake is hard to say no to ;)

3. Boston tea party. This great cafe chain has just opened up near our house and we went for a quick drink. I've been missing grandmas lemonade since getting back from America so was excited to see they sell lemonade and ice tea, not to mention the cheapest cream tea in town.

4. Tiger. No, not the animal, a new shop that has opened in the mall. It's full of all kinds of bizarre things, many of which will provide hours of fun over the holidays. Today I got a kite for little J and a ball for little miss A that is full of glitter that moves around as you roll it. I've also got my eye on their paper dolls with stickers for a later date. Go check it out and if you're a child of the 80's like me you may discover some of your teenage years hiding in there!

What are you thankful for today?

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1

Mama's Diary - 20th September

Well I'm finally on maternity leave and let me tell you, it's no where near as much fun second time around. I don't think I really appreciated how much I was able to just lie on the sofa and watch TV last time. This time around I have a toddler to chase! My days are spent at parent and toddler groups, reading stories and playing with play dough and the only TV I get to sit and watch is Peppa Pig!!

I am very blessed that hubby usually doesn't work in the day time so I do have plenty of help but this past week he's been doing overtime leaving me home alone with little J for 5 whole days!! I've been dreading it to be honest but it's not been too bad. Lunchtime naps have helped me stay sane and one day when I was struggling little J was good enough to let me lie on the sofa and watch Aladdin (yep, there goes all my good intentions about not letting the kid watch too much TV). It's been hard not being able to take little J out much when the weather is so nice but baby is so low down I can barely walk to the end of the street without needing the bathroom again so trips to the park are a no go. One great way of getting him some exercise is bubbles - mummy lies on the sofa blowing bubbles and little J runs around like a crazy thing chasing them - everyone is a winner!

My sister is pregnant with her first child and is due 6 months after me and I was just thinking about how different things are the second time around. Just like us first time around, she's already pretty well prepared and got the nursery ready despite barely being in her second trimester.

Compare that to us this time around - I'm 37 and 1/2 weeks pregnant, baby could show up anytime and we're anything but organised. I only just packed my hospital bag 2 days ago, spent most of last night helping hubby build flat pack furniture, have baby clothes drying all round the house as I only just washed them and we haven't even talked about names yet, let alone picked one!

Little J is starting to have more understanding of what is going on and likes to point at things around the house and tell me they are for baby. He also likes to try to involve baby in his games sometimes - like squirting baby with his bath toys or 'showing' baby what he's playing with (he doesn't quite understand that baby can't actually see through my belly). The other day I had to tell him off for pinching baby really hard - hopefully not a sign of things to come when baby arrives!!

I am personally very ready for pregnancy to be over. Trying to sleep at night is near impossible and my bladder is taking a real beating. Come on little one - hurry up and come on out to meet us!!

Mamas Diary - 31st July

Today is another typical Thursday - come home from work to find a sleeping child and the house littered with toys and clothes. Quickly say hello to hubby before he rushes out to work. We have the usual brief handover talk (what's the kid eaten/how many episodes of peppa pig has he watched/is there anything you promised him he could have or do when mummy gets home?). Attempt to pick up a little but my protruding baby bump gets in the way and I give up.

As little J naps I put my feet up and eat lunch while writing next weeks dinner menu and shopping list. This is one of the rare times in the week when it's just me with no one else around to distract me or demand things from me. Every week I think to myself I should take this time to relax, to read, to pray and to just "be" in God's presence and every week it turns into time to catch up on chores. Grrr, really need to change that habit but this darn nesting instinct that comes with the third trimester is difficult to shake off.

When little J wakes up it takes a grand total of 30 seconds before he starts asking to watch peppa pig. So we curl up on the sofa with a snack and a drink and watch a couple of episodes about birthdays and treasure hunts.

As usual I'm having bathroom breaks at a rate of 2 or three an hour and this time I emerge from the bathroom to find little J sporting my reading glasses. They actually fit him quite well! (I have to buy my glasses from the kids section.)

Little J has a thing for pouring stuff at the minute (mostly pouring mummys drink into daddys drink or pouring his drink into his dinner) so I came up with the idea of doing some water play with different size cups. My plan for some educational water play teaching him about things like volume and floating didn't quite go to plan. Little J decides instead to (over) water my plants, water my legs and then pour water all over the floor to make puddles to splash in.

We take a break for more snacks (I swear this kid has hollow legs), clean nappy and dry trousers but have a granola related spillage and little J insists we immediately hoover it up. Not sure where he got this cleaning addiction from but it certainly wasn't me. So we hoover up the granola - well, I say we, I try to help but little J keeps taking the hoover off me so I end up putting my feet up and watching him do it. I end up having to wrestle the hoover from him to put it away which results in some tears.

Little J heads to the kitchen to replace his split granola and emerges with a pear in one hand and a plum in the other. Though I don't want him to get into the habit of constantly snacking all day, who can say no to a child who asks for more fruit?

We head back out to the garden and this time bear comes too. Bear seems to be getting roped into quite a lot of activities recently and today is no exception. Before I can say anything little J  has bear splashing in muddy puddles. I make the mistake of saying 'bear needs a bath now' and little J proceeds to bath bear in the water table. I decide to give up and play along and offer to get bear a towel. I return with a tea towel and little J uses it to wrap bear up and cuddle him dry just like we do when when get little J out of the bath. Looks like this kid is gonna be a pretty great big brother to his sibling (just hope he doesn't put baby in any muddy puddles!).

After some more running around the house and some fun playing with little J's farm it's finally time for dinner. As usual, he's too impatient to wait for dinner to be warmed up and helps himself to an oat cracker while he waits. Dinner time involves the usual negotiations to get little mr "attention span of a fish" to stay at the table for the entire meal but he does eventually eat all his pasta and then starts trying to raid the cupboard for more food after!

Next comes family bathtime and daddy is home just in time. Little J excitedly heads for the bathroom and starts pointing at the bubble bath. Some nights we manage to all get in the bath together which gives me and hubby chance to chat and catch up before dinner. But when hubby sees little J toss a very muddy bear in to the bath he has second thoughts about joining us and instead opts for a quick bit of playstation time (the first in months).

So little J, muddy bear and I enjoy a fun half hour playing with bubbles, squirting water and occasionally even washing ourselves. Next comes the nightly ritual of chasing little J around the house to get his PJ's on. Thankfully daddy is on hand to help with this as little J runs a lot faster than my pregnant frame can waddle.

Next it's time for prayer and story time. Which story tonight? The bad tempered ladybird of course because no day would be complete without having to read it at least once. After kisses and cuddles we head to bed where daddy has already placed a nice dry "spare bear" (buying two identical ones was the best idea ever) ready for sleep.

As I head back to the lounge I can hear a happy little boy chatting and singing over the baby monitor. Hubby has dinner about ready (he's so good to me) and it's finally time to relax and take the weight off my aching hips and pelvis. After a long afternoon with my favourite little boy it's now time to enjoy time with my favourite man. Roll on a movie night and plenty of pie and squirty cream - mmmmm mmmmmm. Life is good.

Mamas Diary - Day 1

I was just reading a great article about journaling as a spiritual discipline and was particularly struck by these words:

"Keeping a journal can be greatly beneficial in ripening our joy along the journey. There is always more going on in us and around than we can appreciate at the time. Journaling is a way of slowing life down for just a few moments, and trying to process at least a sliver of it for the glory of God, our own growth and development, and our enjoyment of the details."

Let's be honest, I'm not massively enjoying pregnancy second time around and there are days where parenting feels like an endurance test rather than a joy. As a mama, often running around like a headless chicken and trying to do several things at once, it's hard to make time for yourself and time to reflect but I know I'll be better for it (and a better mama to my kids) if I make that time. I don't want these precious moments with my kids to pass by and be forgotten, I want to make time to enjoy the details.

So here goes....what details have I enjoyed the last few days?

At first thought it's easier to think of what I haven't enjoyed! I didn't enjoy endless hours of waddling around chasing a toddler at our friends wedding while hubby was on best man duties. I didn't enjoy that every conversation I tried to have was interrupted by the need to chase after little J. I didn't enjoy being 6 months pregnant in a stuffy building during a heatwave. And I really didn't enjoy the shouts of 'mama, mama, mama, mama, mama' over and over again on the car drive home.

But I did enjoy the silly things little J does when he's tired. Like on the way home, each time he yawned he'd then start repeating "no, no.no" while shaking his head and pulling a face like he was entering a gurning competition. Hubby and I were in stitches watching him in the rear view mirror!

I enjoyed seeing how our fun loving laid back little boy got along so well with everyone he met. I enjoyed hearing people say how sweet and cheerful and helpful he is. I enjoyed doing colouring together between courses at the wedding dinner and watching him use the gravel in the car park to create his own rockery in the flowerbeds outside the church (yeah, sorry, that was our kid!). I enjoy that now no trip is complete without the boy bringing home at least one rock (even if it does drive me nuts keep finding them around the house!).

I enjoyed watching him dancing at the evening party - especially when hubby tried to join in and little J kept forcibly moving him out of the way cos he didn't want daddy stealing his limelight haha.

I enjoyed our trip to the park while hubby played football and seeing him push his boundaries and grow in skill and confidence. Quick funny story from the park: so it's almost time to go and little J asks to go on the climbing frame again but, knowing I may never reach to get him off again, I tell him no. Instead he asks to go on the roundabout and I agree telling him he can have a quick go and then it's time to leave. So on the roundabout he jumps and then beacons me to join him. On I jumped and then......little J jumped off and started pushing me. At first I thought "how sweet" - until the little monkey ran off towards the climbing frame leaving me still spinning and unable to immediately chase him! Not even 2 years old yet and already a little con artist! 

Six on Sunday - traditions

This weeks "Six on Sunday" is all about family traditions. As little J grows up and becomes more aware of the world around him, its got me asking myself what values do I want to teach him and what do I want for him to look back and remember as the core values of our family. So this week I've been gaining inspiration from other families and introducing some new traditions of our own.

1. One thing I'd really like to cultivate in our family is an attitude of thankfulness and an awareness of God's intervention in our lives. What better way than Family Day once a year?! A Christian charity I used to work for have a celebration day like this each year. Everyone from around the UK would get together at HQ for a massive BBQ, fun inflatables, silly games and most important of all to sit and hear stories of all God had done in the past and how we had got to where we were.

2. I'm all for healthy eating and try to feed my boys plenty of home cooked goodness - no microwave dinners in our house. However, I don't wanna be one of those parents who never lets their kid have sugar and then the kid secretly gorges themselves on "forbidden" food when they're out of the house. It's all about teaching moderation and allowing treats sometimes. So on Saturday mornings we put the Weetabix and porridge to one side and make way for "Pancake Saturday".

It's taken me several weeks to find a recipe I like but I've finally mastered the art of making American style blueberry pancakes. I've got a stash of frozen fruit in the freezer ready to serve up with fresh pancakes and sliced bananas (and lashings of syrup for mummy cos mummy's need treats too).

Check out this breakfast jam playlist I found to create a little atmosphere on a Saturday morning. Little J is a complete music addict and loves to shake his booty so I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks of it.

3. One thing I remember most about my family growing up is that we always ate together around the table. To me it was the norm and I never knew any different until I grew up. Usually in our household, little J eats dinner on his own around 5:30pm and hubby and I have ours after he's settled in bed around 7pm. However, on Sunday nights, hubby heads out to church just before 6:30pm to help with the student group so on Sunday's we've begun all having dinner together just before 6pm.

Tonight we even ate by candlelight for extra fun. Little J loved the pretty lights and enjoyed blowing them out at the end and I enjoyed having quality time chatting to hubby before he went out for the night. Also, I stumbled across this book about making family dinner time fun and it's got me excited to come up with some of my own fun ideas when little J is a bit older.

4. I know it's a little early to be thinking about Christmas yet, but I found this great list of ideas for Christmas traditions to introduce. (Take them swimming to wear them out so they're too tired to wait up for Santa?! Pure genius!) One tradition I'd really like to introduce is to replace the usual chocolate filled Advent calendar with a countdown of festive things to do throughout December.

5. Central to our parenting of our kids is our desire for them to grow to know and trust Jesus. At this young age it's hard to know where to start so we've just started small with a quick bit of Bible reading over breakfast. Already little J is getting quite into this tradition and has begun asking for Bible readings at other meal times. For ideas for family worship time check out my board on Pinterest.

As a slight aside, if you are looking for some help revitalising/refocusing your own personal Bible/study time how about giving this idea a go?

6. And finally, for a list of suggestions collated from other families click here.

I would love to hear about some of the traditions you have in your family too. Please share your stories in the comments section.

Love Stacey x

Six on Sunday

As I sit here listening to the sound of little J snoring over the baby monitor, I'm enjoying a rare moment of peace and chance to reflect on things that have inspired me or made me smile this week. In honour of my friend Lizzie's 5 on Friday, here's my 6 on Sunday:

1. We've just started getting into Geocaching. Armed with a hand-held GPS and a bunch of clues we went off in search of hidden treasure. It made our trip to the local park more exciting and it was great finding things we must have walked past many times without realising.

2. We've finally started doing family Bible time and it's going pretty well. We've been using some great material written by a friend of ours that you can get free online here (or even better buy a copy and support our dear friend, Glen). It's short enough to fit in before I rush off to work but it's meatier than most and very Christ focused.

3. Thanks to my new chores rota, I've actually found a better balance in life and had chance to sit and read articles and play on pinterest. I just found this great article that beautifully describes what it's like to be a stay at home parent, as well as giving tips on how to make more meaningful connections with our loved ones.

4. Even on the rainy days we've tried to get little J out of the house. Earlier this week we only made it as far as the cafe at the end of the street but what a great place! Comfy sofas, long communal tables that force us to be un-British and talk to strangers and the cheapest pot of Earl Grey in town. Add to that daily specials, friendly service, books/newspapers to read and cute little touches like jars of sugar cubes with mini tongs and you've got a winner of a place to while away a rainy afternoon.

5. There are many things I hope to teach my son and values I hope to instil. One is the importance of helping others. I'd really love to get our family involved in volunteering and doing regular mission trips abroad (any suggestions?). I just got an email about one of Save the Children's latest campaigns. Could you spare some time to read to a child who is struggling in school?

6. And finally, if you're struggling for ideas of what to do at home with the kids, pop on over to Nurture store and sign up for their free weekly emails packed with fun and educational ideas.

Saturday morning at our place

I'm definitely a better mama and better version of me when I'm focused and have a clear vision of how I want life to be. It's so easy to drift along and let life happen to us but that is when I struggle to get out of bed and take part in life. Being a wife and mother is not something that just happened to me, it is a God given calling that I need to grab hold of with both hands. Over the New Year holiday period I found myself asking questions about what kind of mama I want to be, what kind of home I want to run, what kind of atmosphere I want to create in my home and so on and so forth.

Thanks to our recent family time of reflection and refocussing, this Saturday there was a whole different atmosphere in the house.

Previously, Saturday mornings in the Gallagher household were very lazy and mostly involved mummy trying to stay in bed as long as possible while little J persistently poked her in the face and repeated the baby sign for "eat".

By 11am we had eaten breakfast, had family Bible study, unloaded the dishwasher, done laundry, made BBQ pulled pork, booked swimming lessons, rotated little J's toys, fixed the broken hoover, played with blocks, built a den and still found time to sit and read the paper while listening to classical music!

New Year, New start

As a new year dawned I stumbled across these two articles about reflecting on the old year and refocussing at the start of the new year.

I suggested to hubby that we sit down and consider some of the questions posed in the articles and we had a great time chatting about our highs and lows over the last year and our hopes for the new year. We made some promises to God and each other and came away with a renewed sense of vision.

There are several good habits I've been wanting to cultivate in my life. One is trying to find a balance with housework - a balance between making sure the house is clean but not spending so long cleaning that I don't get time to enjoy my family.  I'm going to try doing just one quick job each day and have written myself a wipe clean tick list for each month (I'm very much a lists kinda person and love the sense of achievement when I can tick things off). I've stocked up on cleaning supplies and created myself a handy little portable cleaning tool kit. For tips on getting organised, recipes for homemade cleaning products and a whole host of free printable organisational tools, check out cleanmama.

Another good habit I want to develop is making time in our day for family Bible study. Not easy with a little one but I knew I needed to stop making excuses and get on with it - what can possibly be more important that feeding my soul?! I've gotten so lazy in the mornings over the winter months that I've been skipping breakfast and getting ready in a rush just so I could stay under the duvet longer. Now we've made a pact to get up earlier to do Bible study and eat breakfast together. We've got some Bible study notes, set the alarm clock and even bought a big wall clock so I can see when I'm running late.

Other changes we've vowed to make include:
- Finding a new home group so we can grow together in Christ with others
- Making time to share our life with friends. We both miss our regular meals with our good friend Mike and hope to have friends round for dinner once a fortnight at least. So friends, please do invite yourselves round to our place for dinner! Also, we would love to go for more walks with friends so if anyone else is up for a good bit of fresh air, let us know.

You know you're a momma when...

During a rare moment of peace, I was browsing the net and found this fun little article about motherhood. It made me giggle so thought I'd share it with you all and share my thoughts on a few points too. So here goes:

7. FREEDOM! As a mum, any time to yourself is bliss, even if it's doing something as dull as shopping.

10. Momma's have an in built baby sensor that detects the slightest sound/movement of any child. For this reason I make hubby sleep with the baby monitor next to his head. He can sleep through anything, while I hear as soon as the boy makes a sound. When he was still sleeping in our room I woke whenever he rolled over!

12. Sad but true - sleep is what momma's crave most, even more than sex. Pre-baby our evenings went along the lines of put dinner on, do chores while it cooks, eat dinner in front of the TV, go to bed and enjoy naked time with hubby. Now, by the time we get to bed I'm shattered and often fall asleep before I've even got my clothes off. Began to realise we needed to come up with creative new tactics to fit our new lifestyle. Most recent tactic is to plan evening meals where you shove everything in a pan and throw in the oven for half hour. We put the boy to bed, one of us preps dinner while the other does chores, and then while dinner is cooking........ ;)

13. Same goes for a bath without rubber ducks/boats/other bath toys or a small child trying to push your head under the water when you try to wash your hair.

14. Yeah and if you thought pooing while someone is chatting to you is bad, try pooing when a small child is trying to shove your bum off the seat so they can look behind you and see what's going on!

15. And use wet wipes to wash on mornings when it all goes to pieces and you don't get time for a shower.

18. YES!!! I understand the boy is just discovering food and keen to try new things but I just want to be able to eat something, anything, without having to share it with him!

21. I'm working on it

24. Yep. In those first few weeks I dread to think how rarely I showered/brushed my teeth!

So if you want to bless us momma's, give us some child free time to lock ourselves in the bathroom, take a long soak in the tub and eat chocolate to our hearts content.

Autumn days when the grass is jewelled and the........

Autumn is officially here and winter is hot on its heels. Weather like this always puts me in the mood for pyjama days, baking, home made soup and mulled beverages. Thanks to hubby taking little J to Who let the dad's out this morning, I had plenty of free time for baking. I finally got round to making the cheese and ham muffins I mentioned the other week and can report they were a success.


I did however learn that forgetting to grease the muffin tin is a major error as they are now glued to the cake cases!

Way more exciting than the muffins is the very autumnal apple cake that I made. I thought I would share the recipe with you all, so here it is:

Apple Cake

125ml vegetable oil (original recipe says double that but I found it way too much and experimented a little)
2 medium eggs
200g caster sugar (original recipe says 250g but I found it too sweet. Extra sugar gives it a nice crust though)
275g plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
500g apple (peeled, cored and diced)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Mix the oil and eggs until they go white and foamy
3. Add the sugar, flour, bicarbonate, cinnamon, vanilla essence and salt and mix it really well. You'll end up  with a super thick sticky mixture.
4. Fold in the diced apple. (Might be a bit of a challenge cos the mixture is so thick - certainly will work those arm muscles!)
5. Put it in a 20cm x 30cm tin that has been greased and floured. I didn't have one that size so used a 10 inch round tin instead and it turned out just fine.
6. Put it in the oven for about 40 mins and go put your feet up with a cuppa tea.
7. Check it's cooked through and then leave it in the tin for 10 mins before you take it out. (Just enough time to make another brew ready to enjoy with a nice warm slice of fresh cake!)

For other great baking ideas, check out my beer bread recipe or Christmas cookies recipe.

Happy baking

The things we do for our kids?!

I think if people fully knew what parenthood involved ahead of time no one would ever have kids. There are certain things that you find yourself doing as a parent that are just gross. For example:

1. Clearing up sick.  Went down to get little bear up from his nap the other day and found him totally covered in sick. He was sat chatting to his bear with sick all down the side of his face, all down his front, all over his sheets and his poor bear was drowning in it! Yuck. I think I handled it pretty well - stripped the boy's clothes off, lifted him out of bed, bundled it all in a heap inside his bedsheet so I wouldn't have to look at it and shoved it in the washing machine. Phew, done!

2. Clearing up poo. Changing nappies is pretty gross but you kind of get used to it. Poo floating in the bath though, that's another story. I'm not so bothered if it's just him in the bath but we often have family bathtime where we all jump in together and splash around. The other day the bath was full of bubbles, we were all having fun. Then the boy started squatting and pulling 'that face'. By the time we realised it was too late, the damage was done. Trouble was there were so many bubbles we couldn't even see for sure what he'd done. You knew it was there but couldn't tell exactly where. Was that a rubber duck that just touched my foot or was it.......the POO!?! Hubby jumped out of the bath lightning fast and I wasn't far behind him.

3. Touching/eating gross stuff. Little J loves his food and loves to try new things - especially things on other people's plates. Recently he realised that sharing is a two way thing and that he can let other people eat his food too. He's started offering us fistfuls of his food every now and then - a half eaten rice cake, a cheerio that's been on the floor, some pasta that's been in his mouth and been spat out again. As a parent this leaves me with a dilemma. I really want to encourage this new found desire to share with others......but I really don't want to eat that stuff. In the end I decided to just grit my teeth, smile and say 'thank you hunny' as he shoves his slimy little handful of food in my mouth. Yuck!

So why do we have kids?! It's not all bad. In fact, there are some great moments. Play time with little J is amazing. His laughter is addictive. Today he discovered how fun slides are and squealed with enjoyment every time he hit the crash mat at the bottom. He even discovered how to go down on his own on his belly. From now on trips to the park will involve something more than him insisting on playing on the swing for the entire time - hooray! 

Playing hide and seek with a one year old is also awesome. J thought he was so clever hiding under a blanket while I pretended to not see him and look everywhere else in the room. He couldn't even contain his excitement at how clever he was. As I pretended to look behind the coffee table he giggled with glee thinking "silly mummy can't find me". So Cute!!!

Through the eyes of a child

As an adult I don't find shopping all that exciting. Once upon a time I used to shop for fun but now I try to avoid it as much as possible. I think there are probably a lot of other things in life that I used to find fun as a child but now as a grumpy, cynical, eternally busy grown up I rarely take time to see the fun and the beauty in simple everyday things.

Today I went shopping with my 11 month old son. We spent an hour in one department store and bought nothing but we had a great time. While hubby browsed the coffee machines and kitchen gadgets, we smelt lots of different scented candles and talked about their colours. Next we headed for the furniture section where J had great fun banging on a big metal coffee table that looked  like a giant steel drum. We tested out sofas and pulled funny faces in mirrors and opened drawers to see what was inside. While hubby and I looked at towels and bedding, J crawled around and tried to get under the beds. At one point he crawled into a gap under a couple of display tables and started using it as a den!

J sat in a rocking chair for the first time and grinned and giggled as he rocked back and forth. Then he climbed down and crawled off into the soft furnishings section where he found lots of cushions with different textures to feel. From his point of view the store was like a giant sensory adventure playground. Thinking about it now it probably was a really good learning experience - chance to use his different senses, develop his spacial awareness and grow in confidence as he explores new surroundings.

Why not try taking some time out today to do something just for fun and try to see life through the eyes of your childish self again?

2ft 3inches of pure chaos!

When your little one learns to move around the difference to your life is HUGE. Suddenly our baby bear is into everything - nothing is safe from his chubby little hands and he leaves chaos in his wake wherever he goes. One minute he's scattering our DVD collection across the floor and the next minute I'm telling him to STOP LICKING THE TELEVISION! 

This morning after he'd finished having his morning feed in our bed he just climbed down out of our bed all on his own and started exploring our room. When he was done it  looked like a bomb had hit it with papers and clothes and shoes and books strewn all across the floor.

We can't put drinks down any more cos he just picks them up and helps himself. I'm not sure whether to be proud he's learnt to drink out of a proper cup or annoyed that he keeps drinking my drinks! He also loves to help himself to other people's food. The other day I was having sausage and chips for lunch. Once Josiah had spotted the food it took him only a matter of seconds to climb up on the sofa, lean over and swipe my sausage and then climb back down and start eating it. 

Last week we were at a party with lots of nice food. The lady next to Josiah had a yummy looking fruit salad so he leaned over and helped himself to a handful despite having never met her before! He's lucky he's cute enough to get away with it!

Yesterday we were in town and decided to let Josiah go for a little crawl while we browsed Next cos he was getting a bit fed up in the buggy. He quickly spotted another little boy crawling around the store and began chasing him. He kept stroking the kids hair, patting his face, climbing on him and generally terrorising the poor kid. Thankfully the boy's parents found it highly amusing.

Josiah's Diary - August 1st

This afternoon was fun. I went into town with mummy and daddy and went to play in the new play area in the shopping centre. There is funny fake grass and footballs and building blocks. I tried to play with the blocks but Daddy kept taking them so he could build a tower so I decided to go exploring. I spotted Costa Coffee and started crawling that way but mummy grabbed me and told me I'm too young to go for coffee. I seem to be too young for all the good stuff.

Mummy said I'm not allowed to go off on my own in the shopping centre but she let me hold her hands and go for a walk together. I love being able to move around and go where I want. I'm so glad I made the effort to learn to crawl. This week I learnt to climb the stairs too and as mummy and I were walking around I saw the coolest thing - moving stairs!! As soon as I saw them I headed straight for them, dragging mummy behind me. Some people were laughing at me and I didn't understand why. Mummy explained it was because I was trying to run up the 'down' stairs whatever that means. Mummy picked me up and carried me up the correct stairs instead. When we got to the top mummy put me down so I could walk again so where do you think I went? - straight towards the other moving stairs. Mummy still wouldn't let me ride the stairs alone. She says I'm not allowed until I'm big enough to hold the rail. What if I never grow that big?! But it was still fun riding down as mummy carried me. When we got to the bottom I tried to run up the other moving stairs again but mummy said that was quite enough of that game so we went to play in the toy section in Mothercare instead.

Josiah's Diary - 24th July 2013

Today is mummy's birthday. She's really old - so old she forgot it was even her birthday. I helped her open her presents and had great fun playing with the wrapping paper and bubble wrap. She got some pretty cool stuff including some funny tea bag things. I'm not sure what they do but they smell good and the packet is fun to shake about. I tried to take some of her chocolates as she seemed to have plenty and I didn't think she would miss one little packet. I was wrong - mummy is pretty smart.

After work mummy dragged us into town to go spend some vouchers she was given. After a couple of minutes clothes shopping with mummy, daddy and I decided to bail and head for a bookshop instead. I found a great book on basic English grammar but mummy said I couldn't have it as I'm not old enough yet. I think she underestimates me.

After the book shop we headed for coffee and milkshakes at a new place mummy wanted to try. I love when we go to new places and meet new people. I instantly hit it off with a man sitting at the table next to us and we had great fun pulling faces at each other. Then I discovered the coolest thing ever - if you blow raspberries on the leather chairs it makes a farting noise!! Everyone thought I was hilarious so I kept doing it for ages to make them laugh.

Daddy ordered a massive milkshake that looked really good so I decided to crawl to the bar and get myself one too but I couldn't seem to get the barman's attention. I decided to give up and share daddy's instead but when I got back to our table he had drunk it all already!

A day in the life of a working momma

6:30am - I hear the boy stirring over the baby monitor. Hubby climbs out of bed and goes to get him and brings him into our bed. Sleepily attach kid to boob and try to fall back to sleep but fail cos he keeps kneeing me in the belly.

After milk, sit the boy between me and hubby, hand him one of his favourite books, roll over and try to fall back to sleep again while he uses my face as a book rest. The book keeps him amused for all of 5 mins. Boy begins patting my face, pulling my hair and climbing on me to try to reach things on my bed side table. Have to repeatedly prevent child from diving head first off the bed.

7:45am - alarm goes off and I drag myself out of bed. Make a cup of tea and jump in the shower. Hubby appears in the bathroom a few minutes later and puts the boy in his walker while he goes to make breakfast. Spend most of my shower playing peekaboo round the shower screen. Chat to the boy while I get dressed and he excitedly honks the horn on his walker.

We all head to the lounge where hubby feeds the boy his porridge and I run around finding my socks, packing lunch and putting on jewellery. Eat my breakfast in a rush and manage to down half my lukewarm cup of tea before running to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Say a hurried goodbye to my two boys before running out the door with no make up on and having done nothing to my hair.

8:30am - Time to start work. Make the teas for everyone to get the day off to a good start. Then it's head down and work like crazy until 2pm comes round.

2:05pm - Run out of the office and head home to finally get lunch. Fold laundry while hubby does dishes then help him to finish making food.

2:30pm - Finally sit down to eat lunch while checking emails and writing our food menu for the next week.

2:45pm - Boy wakes from his nap and wants to play. Spend time being climbed on, reading books and holding the boy's hands while he practises walking round the house. Feed him some milk then a quick nappy change before heading into town to pick up a few things. It's a nasty one - pretty obvious he had chilli for dinner last night! The boy doesn't want his nappy changed and so keeps trying to roll over and crawl away resulting in poo being spread all up his legs. Lovely!

4:30pm - Get home from town, rush in the house to put things away, then head to the park. Hot weather and no shade hinders our plan to go on the swings so instead we go sit under a big tree. The boy isn't happy with sitting - he wants to be moving. After a little crawling practice he grabs my hands, pulls himself up and begins walking away. I have little choice but to follow as he charges around the park chasing pigeons. One male pigeon is trying to get his game on with a girl pigeon and the boy totally ruins the mood by rushing at them both.

5:15pm - get home from the park, heat up some homemade pasta sauce and make spaghetti. While hubby feeds the boy his spaghetti and sauce I make a batch of baby carbonara to put in the freezer. After dinner there's time for a little more play before.....

6:00pm - family bathtime. We all pile in together and have fun splashing and playing with stacking cups and rubber ducks. While hubby gets the boy dressed I shave my legs for the first time in a week.

After bath time we pray together and say goodnight to daddy. I get the boy in his sleeping bag, read him a story and feed him some more milk. Then I put him in his cot with his bear, say good night and head upstairs to see how hubby is doing with making dinner. Tidy up a little and do some online banking while baby bear chatters contentedly over the baby monitor.

Hubby serves up a lovely dinner and we sit and eat while watching West Wing which is interrupted every 10 mins by one or the other of us going down to check the boy isn't trying to climb out of his cot or anything silly. He finally falls asleep just after 8pm - phew! Time for a quick bit of gardening followed by a cup of tea and some leftover Christening cake while we look at flights to the USA to see the in laws.

Finally about 9pm we settle down for some proper 'mummy daddy time' by which time I'm shattered!

I remember when....

I remember when morning snuggle time was peaceful and relaxing. The boy would wake between 6am and 7am and I'd bring him into bed with us where I'd lie there and feed him and doze a little as we snuggled peacefully. After he'd had his milk I'd lie him in between hubby and me and give him a toy or a book and he would happily amuse himself while I snoozed for another 20 mins or so.

Oh how things have changed!

This morning started out much the same as it always used to - boy woke at 6:30am and came into our bed to have some milk. As I lay there trying to doze as he fed, he fidgeted and kicked me in the leg repeatedly. Once he was done I put him between hubby and me and handed him a couple of toys. He waved his teething ring in the air as if flying a spaceship and then decided to 'land' it on my head. He noticed I had my eyes shut so decided to pat my face repeatedly to make sure I was paying attention to him. Then he decided to amuse himself for a while by pinging my bra strap - thanks kiddo!

He soon got bored of me and decided he wanted daddy to play so leaned over and patted daddy's face. He then grabbed daddy's hair too for good measure. This resulted in grunts from the husband as he flung a pillow over his face to shield himself from the boy's advances. School boy error - a few weeks ago this would have worked but now that Josiah has learnt the concept of "hide and seek" it only served to make things into a game.  He giggled as he pulled the pillow from daddy's face and grinned as he patted daddy's face some more.

Something tells me that it could be a very very very long time before hubby and I get another lie in!

Isn't it funny that when our little ones are tiny and unable to move around we find ourselves wishing they were more active and could 'do more fun stuff'. But once they can move we find ourselves wishing they couldn't!

I do love watching Josiah exploring the world now though and love helping him to learn about his environment. I've been pinning all kinds of ideas on Pinterest for creative play but here's a quick one I stumbled across when trying to amuse a grumpy boy one morning.

I had my sewing box out looking for something and Josiah was fussing and grumpy. I noticed a bag of ribbons and said to hubby 'they might be fun to play with later'. Sure enough, I come home later to find hubby had given Josiah the ribbons to play with and he loved it. So many different colours and textures to play with and it's a nice calm activity (as opposed to banging stuff together and making lots of noise like the boy does with most other things).

Sleep is for the weak!

Sigh....it's been another one of those weeks.

Nap transition + sleep regression + growth spurt + learning to crawl + obsession with his door bouncer + a whole lot of chattiness = very little sleep in the Gallagher house hold!

The 8 month sleep regression is the WORST. Just when it felt like things were going well - BAM!! And it's not like a growth spurt that lasts just a few days. It's been over a month now of wondering if the boy will ever sleep again. I am now realising how much I took for granted Josiah's good sleep habits. I'm finding it really hard to go from having a kid who keeps to a pretty similar routine each day to not having a clue when he might sleep, how long for, or if I'll ever make it out of my pyjamas again let alone the house! Also, I'd got used to getting up once a night to feed him, being back in bed 10 mins later and then not hearing from him again until 7am. Now he's waking at least once before we've even gone to bed and is feeding 2 or 3 times a night. It feels like we've taken huge steps backwards and is frankly depressing.

Last night I found myself googling "8 month sleep problems" - not to find advice but simply to read about parents having an even worse time of it than us so as to cheer myself up!

As I sat bleary eyed scouring Google for signs of hope, I came across a couple of great websites that helped me to see the funny side of things. I thought I would share with you my favourite articles and hope they make you smile too.

Baby no sleeping
The Cult of Motherhood
Good times, bad times

"You are my sunshine...."

I'm sat looking out of the window at a gloriously sunny evening and wishing so much that I could go outside (but I'm guessing leaving an 8 month old in bed home alone while I catch some sun would be considered bad parenting). I LOVE sunshine and this past week has been like a breath of fresh air to me. It's amazing how much difference a little sun can make. Instead of staying in my pyjamas as long as possible and avoiding going out of the house I've been dying to get outside at any and every opportunity. As a result I've made so much more out of my week than usual.

As well as the sunshine, there has also been much more sleep this week. Josiah is finally taking good daytime naps which has helped my stress levels no end. He is such a joy to be around when he's happy and well rested. It's insane how grown up he's getting - he's a proper little boy now and his personality is really coming out. He plays games, laughs at jokes, reaches out to be picked up, initiates kisses, asks for juice (by reaching for his cup) or more food (by yelling and pulling a grumpy face), tries to make conversation, talks in his sleep, tries to 'read' things, reaches out for things in shops (note to self: beware accidental shoplifting!) and chats to anyone who will listen.

I feel I have so much to be thankful for this week so I'm going to take this opportunity to praise God for:

• Catching up with friends I've not seen in a while
• Trips to the park
• Family walk in the sunshine before bedtime
• Sleep!
• My wonderfully supportive husband
• A child free morning and coffee with a friend while Josh and Josiah went to 'Who let the dad's out?'
• Singing worship songs while Josh played guitar and Josiah sat transfixed
• Sunny afternoons spent on the roof terrace
• Improptu meet ups with friends
• Time to relax and enjoy my husband in the evenings instead of him being out lots
• Watching Jesus Story Book Bible DVD together as a family and discovering new insights 
• Tea and toast time - sitting round the table together and taking a break before bedtime routine begins
• Lots of smiles and laughter - seeing our boy happy and healthy

What about you? What are you thankful for this week?