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  • Veronica’s list of 25 bloggers you should really be reading.

    I don’t do resolutions. I never have done and honestly, I forget/fail/ignore enough things as it is without adding resolutions into the mix.

    Instead, I present, Veronica’s list of 25 blogs that you should really be reading if you aren’t already.

    1) Veronica Foale: Yes, I know this is my other blog. I’m allowed to whore it out here.

    2) Julia {here be hippogriffs}: She has twin toddlers and a 7yo. Julia makes me laugh regularly and she can write about the most mundane bits of motherhood and leave me wanting more. Sometimes, I save her posts until I have time enough to savour reading them. She’s good.

    3) The Bloggess: Do I really need to say more? Surely everyone knows who she is. Her stream of consciousness reminds me of mine. I just can’t write mine or I really would go insane. Awesome. Enough said.

    4) JoBart: Previously known as BSouth’s 365, or Barbaras blog. She had a tough year in 2009, her son was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy and now she has to carry an epipen everywhere. I thought learning to live gluten free was hard, but living nut free? So much harder. Barbara is one of those women I am proud to count as a friend.

    5) Magnetoboldtoo: Awesome. Australian. Enough said. Kelley had a shitty shitty 2009 too. A minor stroke, a torn achilles tendon and damn emos swarming all over her house. I hear that God smited her. Her son, Boo is autistic, just to throw into the mix.

    6) Anne Nahm: She has three children, regularly makes me laugh and recently posted photos of her nipple. I mean, what more could you want?

    7) Bad Mommy Moments: Need confirmation that you aren’t the only one fucking up your kids beyond repair? Look no further. I love her writing. (And she isn’t really fucking up her children. Not at all.)

    8.) Benefit Scrounging Scum: Bendy Girl also has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and it is thanks to her that I ended up diagnosed. Living with EDS in the UK and making us all laugh along the way. I’m glad I’m not the only one who vomits post-sex.

    9) Softthistle: Love Marylin. She recently started up softthistle after her husband left her, but was busily stalking her blog. She is another lady I would love to fly across the world to meet. She’s been a bad bad blogger lately. I blame her new boyfriend. She’s too busy snogging him to worry about the rest of us.

    10) Callapippertree: Ali lives in South Australia. Her twitter updates on ‘The State Of The Pelvis‘ normally leave me gasping for air. I know exactly how she feels. I’m not sure if buying your pelvis flowers helps with the pain, but it doesn’t seem like it could hurt.

    11) Frogpondsrock: I’m obliged to include her, seeing as how the woman pushed me out of her body 21 years ago with no drugs. It’s my fault that she is blogging at all, so the least I can do is link her. Hehe. No really, she takes amazing photos and I know first hand that her recipes are delicious.

    12) Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum: Karen is currently reading through an untold amount of submissions for her upcoming book Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing 2009. I submitted some pieces to her, so sorry Karen, I’m contributing to your current busyness.

    13) Everyday Stranger: You all know I’ve got a minor (major) literary crush on Shannon. I’m always thrilled when I see she’s updated her blog.

    14) Flotsam: Alexa got a book deal midway through 2009 so her posting has been a little light lately. I hear her mother has been chastising her for that so I probably don’t need to.

    15) Mogantosh: I started reading Mogantosh after she left a comment here. She makes me laugh, lots.

    16) Hyphen Mama: Recently gluten free. I vote her most likely to kill her inlaws, probably sooner rather than later. Her inlaws have some serious issues. Serious ones. She still makes me smile.

    17) Ordinary Art: Beautiful words. Another literary crush.

    18) Ruhlman.com: More famous than anyone I normally link to. I requested his Charcuterie book for Christmas and it arrived the other day. It’s still at Mum’s house, it came in the post the other day. Beautiful food and beautiful photos.

    19) The Blog of Becky: How not to live your life: I found Becky recently and devoured her archives, giggling the whole time. She lives much too far away in California. She should really move to Tasmania.

    20) Three Ring Circus: I’ve been reading Tiff  for a long long time. Her writing is fantastic and she is mother to eight children. We won’t even mention her photography. I’m a little jealous.

    21) The Tensile Times: Achelois keeps claiming that she isn’t a writer, but I always look forwards to her posts. A lot. She also has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and it helps to be able to commiserate/laugh about it with someone else.

    22) Troutie: I found her when The Bloggess linked her. I’m rather thankful for that.

    23) Whoopee: Antonia has a daughter about the same age as Amy and another on the way. Her drawings are hilarious and so is her writing.

    24) The Buffoon Blog: I only found him recently, through Kristen, but I’m glad I have.

    25) Wanderlust: Kristen. She’s collecting flags you know. Yep, you should go check her out. I think she’s got a little bit of snowfever at the moment. Better than heatstroke I suppose.

    And lastly, and unnumbered because 25 sounds better than 26, there is Xbox4NappyRash: He’s expecting his first child in February, after a long haul trying to get his Irish Catholic wife pregnant. Really, he should have just been able to look at her sideways and have her ovaries tremble, but alas, it didn’t happen like that.

    Oh crap! I forgot Brenda at MummyTime. I’m fairly sure she won’t mind not having a number. Not that the numbers mean anything. Brenda was recently pointed out as one of Bloggers ‘Blogs of Note’. Incidentally, she got a lot of spam. Brenda and Trish are the only 2 blogspot blogs who have captchas that don’t make me want to stab something because I know they’re getting spammed.

  • Cheers!

    It’s almost the New Year and the heat here today has left me all exhausted.

    So instead of a recap of 2009 (summary: insert title of popular MOMMYblogger book here) I’m just going to say:

    Here is to 2010 not sucking as bad as 2009 (I maintain that Isaac was born before the Chinese New Year, so he’s more of a 2008 baby anyway).

    I wish you a year of safely birthed babies, positive pregnancy tests for those trying and periods on time for those not. I wish you a year of chocolate with zero calories, of cold alcohol, of well behaved children. I wish you a year of happiness and health. I wish you no grief, no tears, no sadness. I wish for you job promotions and holidays on time. Sunshine and sand and shade. Warmth and hot chocolates on cold days. Cool pools and air conditioning for warm ones.

    Thankyou, everyone for reading here.

    And BRING ON 2010 ALREADY!

  • Amy is a Tiger

    Amy is a tiger. GROWL!

    Look Mummy! I am a tiger.

    Sigh. So you are.

    GROWL!

    Oh dear.

    [she examines her arms and legs]

    I think I need some more stripes. On my arms. And legs.

    Oh no you don’t!

    I have stripes. On my face and tummy!

    Yes. Yes you do.

  • Merry Christmas.

    After a long and exhausting day (but fun, very fun), my house is quiet. It’s 7.40pm and while I can hear Amy playing quietly in her bedroom, everyone else is sleeping.

    I repeat, my house is quiet. You’ve got no idea how rare this is.

    It’s probably the best Christmas present I could have gotten.

    So to all my bloggy friends who celebrate Christmas: Merry Christmas. I hope your day was full of good food, good company and good cheer.

    To everyone who reads here who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, thankyou for reading this far! I hope you have a good weekend with happy children and stress free moments.

    And to everyone, thankyou. This year has been hard, so freaking hard. I truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read, comment or email with me. From the bottom of my heart, thankyou.

    Amy moves too fast for me to take any decent photos of her:

    And Isaac, well, he is just cute:

    Tomorrow is going to be interesting as Amy and Isaac negotiate toy sharing together. Amy loves Isaac’s toys and spends a lot (A LOT) of time taking them off him and putting them up where he can’t reach them. I’m not sure how long until he gets really frustrated with her, but it’s coming. Prior to Christmas, he’s been stuck sharing Amy’s old toys (yeah, he’s a baby, he didn’t need new stuff) and getting the short end of the stick. Now, he has pretty shiny new (some of it new-to-him secondhand) toys that are HIS and Amy doesn’t like that much.

    She’s very three. Everything is hers. Apparently.

    I’ll let you know how that goes. If not here, probably twitter.

  • Twas the Night Before Christmas (With apologies*)

    Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
    a breeze was rustling, and a tiny grey mouse.
    He skittered through cupboards and under the sink,
    avoiding things that’d give him away with a clink.

    The children were tossing, hot and sweaty in bed,
    they had no idea what scurried overhead.
    Mum in her tank top and shorts pulled tight,
    she had hunted that mouse, all day and all night.

    She had chased him through rooms and over the bath
    sure that he was having a bloody good laugh.
    He seemed to twinkle and as she grew nie,
    he dashed away faster, leaving her far behind.

    Her schwacker in hand, she felt quite defeated,
    surveying his mess and all the things he had eaten.
    Until she remembered the tiny grey trap,
    set aside in a drawer and forgotten, like that.

    She dusted it off and baited it well,
    hiding it where she knew that mouse did dwell.
    She turned off the lights and made ready for bed,
    while visions of dead mice danced in her head.

    Then! Under the sink she heard a great clatter,
    Mother knew there was something the matter.
    She raced to the sink and there in her trap,
    lay the little grey mouse, squished with a splat.

    Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
    Not a creature was stirring, especially not any mouse.
    Mother had washed her hands with great glee,
    Now knowing her Christmas would be the best it could be.

    ***

    *With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore who wrote the original. You can find a copy of the original here, as well as some facts about the poet.