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Christmas Shopping

by Veronica on December 3, 2012

in Sponsored Posts

This post is sponsored. Ebay gave me $200 to spend at Ebay on Christmas presents and I said I’d tell you about what I bought. I agreed to this because I loathe shopping in-store for things during the Christmas madness.

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I get twitchy taking Evie to shopping centres. Because of all her medical issues, we haven’t been able to vaccinate her yet and on the bad days, all I can imagine is her contracting whooping cough or something ridiculously awful and landing us back in hospital. Plus, not easily being able to get to the shops without Isaac in tow made it even harder.

So I went online and shopped from the comfort of my living room.

Look, I like Ebay. I’ve had good experiences with them, and I’m pretty loyal. I like that I can buy just about anything there that I can’t pick up elsewhere because of the International shipping. Case in point, Evie’s much loved dummies – the gumdrop kind, the only kind that she would actually take, can only be bought through Ebay if you’re an International customer.

I finished up the last of my Christmas shopping last night, through a few stores, but Ebay was nice and easy.

Among other things, I bought Evie these:

And for Amy, I got this:

Isaac missed out on the Christmas round of Ebay (I had him covered already), but his birthday is in January, so I’ll probably be back soon for him.

The images should all be links, in case you’re also interested. I did buy other things, but they’re secrets still.

It was an easy way to do everything, especially with small children in tow.

Now my only problem is that I need to get to the postman each morning before Isaac does!

If you buy now, then everything should be delivered well before Christmas. I think the press release said that the biggest day for online shopping is actually December 9, so you’ll even be beating the rush.

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I appear to have broken my filter

by Veronica on November 17, 2012

in Blogging

I spotted the Fake Mamamia hashtag on twitter this morning and wasn’t going to get involved. That is, until I saw a real MM article about some lady who got an all expenses paid trip to Tasmania – a place she thought that she hated, and bagged out plenty. But apparently in this day and age, an all expenses paid trip wins, even if you think you’ll hate the location.

She went on to be ASTOUNDED and AMAZED that she actually (wait for it) ENJOYED HERSELF.

Shock. Horror.

I was offended and said so on twitter.

Then I looked at the #FakeMamamia hashtags and I couldn’t help it anymore, I joined in, because come on, that site SO had it coming. Click baiting headlines, setting women up against each other, hating on people for making different choices, you could argue that Mamamia is all that’s wrong with women’s media at the moment.

It was HILARIOUS. I haven’t had that much fun on twitter in a very long time.

 

 

 

 

 

There were hundreds of fake headlines. It was fantastic.

As I tweeted though, enjoying every single minute of mocking that I did, I realised something: I’ve broken my filter.

I’ve spent the last 17 days writing fiction for NaNoWriMo. I’ve removed the ads from here. I’ve turned down all the sponsored posts I’ve been offered. I (mostly) stopped checking my traffic. I stopped caring.

And I haven’t regretted a single moment of it. I wasn’t tweeting this morning worrying about what people thought of me. I wasn’t crippled by angst over the unfollows I got (and trust me, I checked, I got plenty of those), or about whether I was annoying anyone.

I was having fun, saying exactly what I wanted to say. I didn’t even freak out when my tweet ended up on the SMH [who, incidentally, completely missed the satire of the whole thing, and seemed to think that one single tweet had “caused” it, rather than a buildup over god knows how long] and then syndicated through a bunch of other news sites. Eh, it could have been worse.

Fiction writing has broken my filter*. And it’s awesome.

*I should clarify that when I say my filter, I mean the filter of “oh noes, what will people THINK OF ME” filter. Not that handy one that stops me oversharing about my vagina, or telling hilariously embarassing tales about my 6yo. Also, when I talk amout MM, obviously I am grmbling about the site in general, not about the woman who runs it. No personal attacks occured during my hilarity. Calm down.

 


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Finality.

by Veronica on November 4, 2012

in Blogging, Headfuck

Nathan had surgery on Friday to fix a hydrocele. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind me talking about his testicles on my blog, but in case you’re worried, I did ask first.

While he was in there, he had a vasectomy. It was a joint decision but…

I wasn’t prepared for how sad this would make me feel.

It’s a good thing; logically I know it’s a good thing. We have three beautiful children and this is our mental, physical and financial limit. Three children and we are so so lucky.

And yet, the emotional side of my brain is still sad. No more tiny babies for me.

Frankly, I would be happy to never be pregnant again. I found pregnancy utterly miserable, but never having a newborn again?

Sad.

In any case, it was the right decision, and I will get over it.

It’s just so FINAL, you know?

In other news, NaNoWriMo is going quite well, and once I press publish on this, I’m locking my children outside* and planning on writing lots more words. For those naysayers (yes, I’ve seen you out there) – yes, it’s 50k hurried words. No, each word that falls out of my fingers is not perfect. I know that there are holes in my plot and timeline that need clearing up later.

But – it takes the pressure off. I’m not expecting myself to write fifty thousand perfect words this month. I don’t expect my end result to be an instantly publishable work, filled with great prose.

What I do expect is that at the end of November, I will have a first draft. Messy and mistake filled, it will be the bare bones of SOMETHING. It will need editing and rewriting – but don’t we expect that in any case?

The pressure of writing 50k words in 30 days stops my inner perfectionist in her tracks. It stops her shouting at me that I may as well give up now, that this is crap. Because I know it’s crap and I’m writing it anyway.

The beginning of something does not need to be perfect. It just needs to BE.

*I kid. Mostly. Unless they start fighting again. That said Amy is sulking because I growled at her and Isaac just tried to bash his two front teeth out. Blood. Everywhere. (He’s eating an ice cream now however.)

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They didn’t tell me it was going to be like this…

by Veronica on June 15, 2012

in Blogging

When you’re pregnant with your first child, you have no idea what to expect. I remember thinking about all the things I absolutely would and wouldn’t do to my child – completely forgetting that I was growing an entirely new human being here and human beings come equipped with personality, and opinions and desires of their own.

Of course, six years on, I am pregnant with our third baby and I’ve got a much better handle on reality. Pants are totally optional if we’re at home and as long as no one is bleeding or dying, then we’re doing okay.

It’s funny how your expectations change.

Of course, this has been helped along by having both children on the spectrum, Amy with auditory processing issues and Isaac with sensory issues, chewing issues, bowel issues, toilet training issues and a multitude of things I cannot control. I’m way less concerned about what the general public thinks and more concerned about being the best parent for my kids.

This is why when I was asked to contribute to the book “The Things They Didn’t Tell You About Parenting” I was very keen.

Along with another 31 of Australia’s best parenting bloggers, I have a piece in this book, which the quote above is drawn from. Profits go to benefit Foundation 18 and I encourage you to buy a copy, not just for my writing, but for the other pieces inside as well. You’ll laugh and nod along and it’s probably good preparatory reading if you’re pregnant with your first child.

You can buy a copy of the book here.

 

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I do love chocolate + giveaway

by Veronica on June 10, 2012

in Blogging

Cadbury has recently released a new range of chocolates, their “Marvellous Creations” range. I was lucky enough to be sent one of each kind to try and once I emerged from my post chocolate haze, I agreed to do a giveaway as well.

Can I just point out that pretty packaging actually makes a huge difference in how I feel about a product? I mean, I was always going to love the chocolate, but the purple tissue paper and ribbon were just that added something.

It doesn’t take much to look like you try, is what I’m saying.

The chocolate is delicious for the record. A little hard to share with children, because the pieces are larger than in a normal block, but the easy solution there is don’t share.

Because Cadbury are great to work with, they’ve offered me 10 packs of chocolate to give away. Each pack contains the three blocks of chocolate as seen above, as well as a Cadbury apron. Just in case you feel like getting really messy with your choccie.

To enter, simply comment below and let me know what flavour chocolate you would call a “Marvellous Creation”.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You MUST fill out the Rafflecopter widget in order to enter. One entry per household please and prizes can only be mailed to AUSTRALIAN POSTAL ADDRESSES, so please don’t enter if you don’t have somewhere to send it.

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I received Cadbury chocolate in return for posting about this giveaway. I think that’s a fair trade. What can I say, I like chocolate, a lot.

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