B.M.W.B # 52 - Being Uncomfortable

Wow! I can't believe 52 Becoming The Mama I Want to Be posts - of all the things I've done this year this has been the best one, the most significant and in many ways the easiest. It's actually rather easy to enjoy special time with my boys.

This week we got up with the boys (6.30am!!!!) and watched a Christmas movie together. Our boys go to bed really early so a movie after tea is not an option. So instead I got uncomfortable - I hauled myself out of bed when I could have slept in (hello holidays!) and instead of them watching it alone we watched together and then afterwards we talked about what we liked and what made us laugh.

I acted excited to get out of bed when they came in all excited and shiny eyed in the morning.... and actually I enjoyed myself! Sometimes for me the barrier is my own laziness and when I get over this I am always the better for it.

Being together on a special occasion creates such a sense of team and love. It's never a waste of time. Never.( I didn't take photos you really don't need to see me at this time of the day!)

I have so enjoyed this series this year and you have no idea how much your encouragement has meant to me. I have such a passion for people and families to love and enjoy each other and the thought that someone else might find this space helps/encourages them to do the same gives me such joy.

In 2013 I will continue this series on a Monday - including a linky so that you can help me to encourage, be encouraged and resource each other. I would love to have your input too.

And I have made a button - cue huge gasp! With help and direction and here it is :o)

So if you would like to join in with these posts anytime please grab the code on the right.

 I am making more of a conscious effort to have quality moments with my boys. B.M.W.B (becoming the mama I want to be)  is my way of recording and hopefully inspiring other mama’s too. 

 Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be.

More Adventy Goodness

The joy is still a flowing on the adventy awesomeness round these parts. :o) Today I'm letting the pictures speak for themselves....

Day Sixteen (and a gorgeous Ingrid Michelson CD which is in the car)

Day Seventeen

I'm a lucky girl right??

Day Eighteen - the boys were outside at 7.05am with their chalk pens!

Day Nineteen

If you are keen to see what I've been sending (not as exciting!) you can find some posts over here on Leonie's lovely blog :o) 

Day Twenty

Day Twenty-One

and these awesome DIY decorations that are now proudly on the tree

Day Twenty-Two (and the wisemen have arrived for our magnetic nativity)

For those heading off on Christmas travels this weekend I pray safety in the journey and joy in the reception. Merry Christmas lovely friends xxx

Just Checking

Favourite thins this week was the following conversation

Me: Have you had enough water to drink today?

Bounce: I'll just go and check (goes to the toilet for a pee)

Bounce: No I haven't (because the wee wasn't clear)

He then has some water and races back to the toilet to check, but finds he's all out of wees

Bounce: I didn't think there was any left

I think 4-year-old boys are rad.

They have also discovered the delights of sprinkler running and hose chasing over the last few days.

There is always so much to be grateful for but this week I am grateful that it is holiday time and I have my 3 favourite boys home to enjoy the festive season with.

Joining in with the ever grateful and interesting Meghan

Make My Week 51 - Face Cushions

These will be under the tree for my 2 favourite boys.

My concept was to make silhouettes (am I the only one who finds it impossible to spell that word??) of my boys faces with the things that they love surrounding them - kind of like what is inside their heads is now outside and around. One for my number lover and one for my vehicle lover.

I think they will love them - super easy to make I might do a tutorial if anyone is interested.

Joining in with this lovely new crafty linky and out creative spaces too.

Wardrobe Wednesday - On Not Taking Ourselves too Seriously

Hi Lovelies

I do love the opportunity to have a wee browse in your wardrobes each week, to see the colours you are wearing, what's inspiring you, what risks you are taking for yourselves, how you accessorise.... kinda nosey I guess but at least here you are inviting me to give you the twice over.

So I'm not always about taking myself too seriously with the way I wear my clothes... in fact I'm hardly ever about taking myself seriously. Mainly I'm about having some fun with what I wear, with enjoying the process, celebrating....

So today I'm channeling my inner sexy-librarian, office geek-chic .... not that most people in an office would wear a car dress but this is my little fantasy :o)

So I was approached recently by Firmoo and asked if I'd like to have pair of glasses. Not being a glasses wearer this was something of a novelty - so I went online and picked the loudest pair I could find, not surprisingly!! On firmoo you can log in and upload your picture and try specs on yourself (I didn't do that so these probably aren't the best shape for me). They also do sunnies and 'real glasses' (you know for people that actually need glasses) and if you are keen you can get your first pair free - you can find out more here.

I like these and they arrived fast and they came with a lovely case and they are such a fun colour - don't you think?

Do you take your wardrobe seriously?? 
Do you ever just throw and outfit together for fun? 
Would you wear fake glasses???

And very importantly - have you decided what to wear on Christmas Day yet??? I haven't!

Outfit: Total cost to me approx $7
Scarf - Melbourne Op shop
Dress - Handmade from 1950s car fabric (every mama of boys needs a car dress!)
Belt - Dotti
Shoes - handmade in NZ bought for $3 in an op-shop - they gave me blisters today but I'm sure my feet will harden up!
Glasses - c/o- firmoo
Bracelet - gift, made from a measuring tape.

Of course our next Wardrobe Wednesday is on Boxing day.... so I may or may not see you depending on how much turkey you consumed and how freely the champagne was flowing!!

In any case - my sincere Christmas Wishes to you and those you love. May you know the peace and hope of a babe born to a young poor couple, welcomed by rough shepherds and rich, foreign astronomers. May you know the love of heaven.

Merry Christmas beautiful ladies 

 Miriam xx

So what is Wardrobe Wednesday?

• It's a chance to take some time once a week to peel off the polar fleece trackies (I have a pair too!!) and put on something that gives you a chance to have a 'play' in your wardrobe, to make yourself feel pretty/ stylish/ like a woman!
•  It's a time to celebrate and hopefully to embrace your body however you find it - post baby, young or old your body is lovely and functional and precious and I want this place to be a place for you to see other women (ordinary, beautiful women) who don't live in designer homes on designer budgets with designer bodies.

How to play?

1. Link in your specific blog post not just your general blog

2. Link to a post about clothes - that's what we're here for

3. Please add a link back here so other people can come over and see people's clothing posts too - the old fashioned way or grab a button

4. Be encouraging and visit people - leave a comment now and again too everyone loves to get encouragement

Here's the button copy and paste away

<center> <a href=" http://createhopeinspire.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Wardrobe%20Wednesday"><img border="0" src="http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o516/CreateHopeInspire/WWbutton.jpg" width="160" height="160"/></a></center> Peace and Rest - xox

B.M.W.B #51 - The Words We Shall Not Speak

This week has been the worst some families will ever experience. There are families (not just in the USA but this is in my heart and tears) that have lost little ones.... ones they love like I love my boys.

I have been thinking so much about these families - the searing loss, the aching and I so recognise how easy it is to respond in fear. To worry for my children, for the people who inhabit the world they are growing into, to fear the diseases, the dangers, the predators..... but even though that might motivate me (for a time) to love and cherish my children more it is not where I want to parent from.

Fear

Obligation

Guilt

These are the words I want to banish from my parenting. These words, their feelings, the actions they motivate - these are not the mama I want to become. 

Fear, when we allow it to set up camp - controls us, it robs us, it makes us cling to children where we should be throwing them in the air, cheering at their attempts to learn new skills, it makes us hold them back from the world they need to experience (I'm not talking about unsafe risks, I'm talking about the joys - and sometimes pains - of being a child). Too many children in many places are robbed of their chance to experience childhood, skinned knees and all. I will not let my fear rob my children of their opportunity.

Obligation - along with its long-suffering companion the heavy sigh - is robbing mama's of being the mama they long to be. So busy having to do this, should be doing that, ought to have done....... maybe it's abandoning the home baking this week, or leaving the dishes in the sink or 'forgetting' homework for a night. Parenting out of obligation just leads done a very slippery slope to resentment. It does mean the physical needs are met but don't for a second be fooled that an obliged parent is giving or receiving joy from her family.

Guilt - I have made mistakes, my parents have made mistakes and their parents before them too. If I focus on these I spend so much time in 'self-improving/being trapped in a cycle of regret/ not doing it the way my parents did it' that I take my eyes off the goal - this moment, this experience, this opportunity to laugh or cry, this chance to skip down the road. Guilt traps us in the past. I want to parent right here, today, in this moment.

I love this quote - it reminds me I want people to treat my children with a fresh slate each day and I too need to start each parenting day with a fresh slate too.

Source: rolfqsamss.blogspot.com via Miriam on Pinterest

So what words shall we speak of?

Joy

Celebration

Future

It is a joy to have my boys. A joy not allowed to everyone who longs to parent. I will enjoy this moment. This mess that speaks of a home inhabited by small children. Joy in the noise that demonstrates children relaxed, children expressive, children who do not have to silence their thoughts. I will lie in bed at the end of the day and thank God with joy for the minutes, days and years I have been given with these boys so far.

Celebration - every day is a gift. I am not promised tomorrow for myself or my boys and so I will celebrate today.

Future - I will parent with the future in mind. With my hopes for men who will be filled with compassion and strength. Men who will be generous in their actions, their laughter, their friendships. Because while I choose and hope to dwell right here in this moment I am also growing men. For me this is like stopping to smell the roses - looking at the delicate buds, marveling at the flowers but remembering to water that same plant because I hope it will bloom for a good many years more.

This week I started teaching my biggest boy to sew (he made a Christmas gift for his brother) and I sat in the sandpit (in my Sunday dress and 'pearls') with my littlest boy. Because I enjoy them, because they make every day worth celebrating, because they are without a doubt the best thing I have to invest my life into for every single day we have one another.

(I realise this is like the longest post ever pretty much I've written it for me.... but I'd be stoked if it encouraged you too)

This year I am making more of a conscious effort to have quality moments with my boys. B.M.W.B (becoming the mama I want to be)  is my way of recording and hopefully inspiring other mama’s too. 

 Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be.

I'd love you to link in your parenting posts/activities this week....

Advent Openings

It's been a busy week - activities and expectations rise and suddenly I realise how mush there is still is to do that can't be done until just before....
DAY nine

But each morning we have had the delight of unwrapping. I love the concept of this swap the joy of being allowed to open something every day, of pausing to feel blessed that someone has thought of you. Of unwrapping a gift with genuinely no idea of what might be in it!!
DAY ten

I so appreciate the work Cat put in to pairing people up who suited each other
DAY eleven (the boys smelly markers had already been squirreled into bags for show and tell!)

and Leonie's thoughtful selections
DAY twelve

and her gorgeous hand-crafting
DAY thirteen (and more special characters for our magnetic nativity)

and her generosity to the boys (their gifts are disappearing into their room very quickly!)
DAY fourteen

Bounce got his crocheted bauble off the tree the other day just to show me again 'this is the one I got first Mama and it's still lasting.'
DAY fifteen (the lace is wrapped around a whole box of licorice - yum!)

10 days left until Christmas. I hope your weekend is filled with everything good.