Feel Good Friday - A time for Celebration...

“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers--strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”

― Barbara Katz Rothman

Today is the third birthday of my daughter and we are celebrating in such a special way (more to come on Monday's post), I am so proud of this child I, along with her father, have created. I look at her in awe and wonder, how did I create her? As I struggle now with trying to conceive again, creating another person to complete our family, I think about what kind of mother I already am, what kind of a mother have I become and I realise that my darling LC has created the mother I am today. I had my ideas, thoughts and notions of how I would handle parenthood but really she has shaped me in to the kind of mother I want to be, taught me so much about who I am as a woman, what I can handle, where my values are and what I believe in, she has taught me strength in adversity, compassion, self belief and how to have belly laughing induced fun again, what a clever little girl she is, my shinning light, an image of her handsome father but with a delicate girly touch.

I am so proud of this girl, she drives me nuts but I wouldn't change her ever and I thank her for letting me be the best mother I can be...

Story Of Mum - An Exhibition

Today is my turn to host a Story of Mum exhibition and I'm very excited and honored to be a part of it!

  
Story of Mum: Mums making an exhibition of ourselves is a touring programme of exhibitions and events in galleries and online that aims to put mothers in the spotlight.

The exhibition celebrates motherhood, explores the impact of mothering on our identities, and encourages mums worldwide to share their stories in words, photos, collage and film.

Find out more at Story of Mum
Parallel to the real life events, a virtual exhibition is travelling round the world, stopping for mini exhibitions on blogs - like this one!

 Participants are asked to choose one item from the existing exhibition, create one item to add to the exhibition, and share their thoughts on these and their identity in motherhood.

So with out further ado here is much contribution to Story of Mum...

I curated these:

Firstly I wanted to highlight this lovely piece written by Helen who blogs at The Complaining Cow she talks about how and when she realised that her son was a Highly Sensitive Child, this subject matter is close to my heart as we have also made the same discovery about LC recently. She writes so well here about what it is like as a mother to have a HSC, how life is for the child and how others react to them and your parenting, I can relate to so many things she says, have a look at what she wrote here.

Also on the Story of Mum website there is a Mum's Poem where you can contribute a few words to what you feel a mum is, this is what other mums have written so far...

 Humble, self-examining, never give up-erer!

 Creator of beauty

 Occasional chocolate briber

 Limitless and strong (sometimes)

 Spider catcher

Overwrought, frazzled and shouty 

Twitter addicted tea drinker

Pairer of socks. Sometimes they even match...

Giver of life.

I have loved looking at all the meaningful and quirky ideas about what a mum is in other mums eyes. You can look at the ever growing poem and add to it yourself here.

Lastly I have chosen this picture from the I am a Mum and a... section from the website, this feature encourages mums to show us another side of their identity other than just being a mum. I had the pleasure of meeting this lovely lady a couple of months ago at the 2013 Britmums Live Conference. Lisa and I have shared similar struggles in the past around being a parent and I have been lucky enough to be able to talk to her about this. I can relate so much to the message in her picture as I too am still trying to find myself on this parenting journey, it can be hard sometimes but having someone else around to talk to and who I know understands, warts and all helps so much to keep pushing forward. I know that Lisa is a real champion of her destiny, she is a brilliant mum and an accomplished lady and is an inspiration to me and all women who struggle on this path called motherhood. Lisa blogs at Hollybob's and has already host a Story of Mum exhibition over there, go check it out!

I created this:

Here I am with my mum and my baby, when I'm with my mum I realise that I am not just LC's mum but I am still my mum's baby too! I am the youngest in my sib set and the only girl so I guess I will always be seen as the baby of my family, no matter who old or how married I am or even how many children I end up having!

Now that LC is getting older I find myself becoming more and more like my mum as a parent, I understand her choices and reasoning now and why she did things the way she did as a mum. She has passed on so many great things to me about being a parent and she is still always there for me to turn to when I need her, in fact when I'm really ill I still want my mum sometimes!

 

Feel Good Friday - What I'm doing more of this month...

Well June is literally round the corner and I'm thinking lots about how I can get the best out of this month, so here are some things I will be dedicating my time, energy and thoughts to and doing more of this month!

Eating Well (and for fertility)...

The weather is promising to get a little better and I am always inspired to eat more healthily through the summer months, anyone who follows me on twitter (@karenspofw) knows that I have lost some weight lately after working really hard to get rid of what I put on being pregnant for a bit at the beginning of the year.

This has really kept me going and given me something positive to focus on, my skin has improved, I feel lighter and have more energy too and it really gives a boost to my mood, my whole family has ended up improving their diet as well, we are now a family of healthy eaters, so with a sun holiday looming I am committing myself to eating well for another month

I also want to improve my diet for fertility so, I will be:

Cutting out caffeine 

Eating more Salmon

Snacking on Pumpkin seeds

Embracing full fat milk (well a small glass a day) 

If you want to find out more about eating for fertility check out this website. To keep track of what we've been eating we have been following the Weight Watchers healthy eating plan - this is the only way I can loose weight comfortably and keep it off!

What helps you to eat well and keep healthy? Any tips?

Reading this...

I was actually introduced to the blogging world through parenting blogs, although I don't consider myself a "mummy blogger" (yes, I know I do feature my family a lot!), I do love catching up with some of them and reading stuff on parenting styles, influences, trends and opinions. It's reassuring to know that other mums are going through the same ups and downs as you and I love picking up new ideas and tips when it comes to raising my baby! One of the many favourites of mine out there is Mission2Mum written by a lovely lady called Gemma, she is stylish, so friendly and really puts you at ease in her company and is doing lots of good work supporting mums through her Mission2Mum clubs, do visit her blog for more information. I'm especially looking forward to having a girly catch up with her next week!

What's your favourite parenting blog, any recommendations? 

Me time...

I am VERY excited to be having 3 whole days in London this month to myself, yes, that's right no husband or baby, just me! I'm actually going to be hanging out with a sweet lady called Lisa (check out her awesome blog Twins, Tiaras and Tantrums) while we venture in to the world of Britmums Live together on June 21st/22nd. I know, I know I've just told you I don't consider myself a parenting blogger, but so many of the bloggers out there that I admire are and I am dying to meet them, share ideas, learn tips and just hang out. There will be loads of fun and interesting things happening at Britmums Live that I know I can take in to my own blogging experience and I am just simply thrilled to be doing something for me, as Karen not as someone's mummy or wife. I'm also going to use my 3rd night to catch up with a dear old school friend which will be exciting too, I fear the alcohol levels in my body will be high over this weekend!

Are you a blogger going to Britmums Live? What are you doing this month to get some "me time"? 

Wearing these...

This summer I have become a little infatuated with Pink, I can't get enough of it in my wardrobe and have been investing in some new pieces to wear, over the Bank Holiday weekend we took a trip to Cribbs Causeway Mall in Bristol so I could raid the rails of Gap, H&M and other such stores that I don't have the pleasure of shopping in regularly because of living in the middle of no where! I happened to discover these little beauties in H&M, in the kids section, for £7.99! Perks of having small feet! (You can read more about my small feet here)

Mindfulness...

Following on from last Fridays post, Mindfulness really is a great way of tackling anxiety and depression and it's something I don't do enough to help me through the difficult days. It can be a hard concept to get your head around and takes a bit of practice but can go a long way to helping you manage your low points. Interested? I'm not going to attempt to explain how to practice mindfulness, I'll leave it to the experts, check out this great website Be Mindful and if you're a parent suffering with, stress anxiety or depression Netmums have a brilliant information on mindfulness too. You can also practice Mindfulness Yoga here with this YouTube clip and read up more about it here.

Do you find time to be mindful? I'd love to know more on your experiences of this and all the things mentioned in this post, do leave me a comment, I love reading them!