Walking country lanes

The other evening we had the most wonderful walk along the country roads near my parents' home. We found the first of this year's juicy blackberries in the hedgerows, and I swear that Leela must have eaten around 30 of them. She loved them. She even picked some of her own! We met sheep, tractors, curious horses, farm cats (too nervous to say hello to the strangers on their hunting grounds), pigeons that flapped noisily from hidden treetops... And the sun... oh the sun. How haunting it was through dark alleyways of trees and gushing from behind mountains of clouds. I felt so honoured to share these moments with Leela. The sun, the sheep, the shadows and the peace. I felt like the first person to be there on those quiet roads, no cars, no haste... just me, my little girl and handfuls of blackberries. Perfection.

Moments

Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment,

I know this is a wonderful moment.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Recently...

... I made this quiche

{Served with fresh toms and cucumber from the garden, jacket spud and butter and mango chutney. YUM}

{PS - this is the first time I attempted making a quiche as it always looked pretty, well, technical. I'll be doing this again. A lot.}

... I've also been comforting a babe with rubella (German Measles). It turned out that it wasn't just teething that was bothering her! As with most things, she has sailed through. It was a pretty much non-event actually. I kept her at home though, to avoid spreading it further (especially to pregnant mums-to-be). It lasted just a few days. 

After Leela was 9 months old, I chose to stop vaccinating her, so she hasn't had an MMR vaccine.I'm still happy with my decision. I will write more about this another day.

... and with a bit more money in my pocket now, I'm planning a big budget overhaul. I've been very inspired by blogs where frugality is at the core. On the amazing down---to---earth blog, Rhonda has some pretty good advice on budgeting, especially this post and this one, which I might just use in my planning too. I'll keep posting about my progress here.

And if I could, I would definitely buy some of these to help inspire me!!

Moments

Silences and some new teeth on the way...

I've been a little quiet lately. I've found myself away from reading through my favorite blogs and not by the computer screen for days at a time. I put it down to having a little one who is having a tough time getting some new canine teeth, who, despite her obvious discomfort, has been a delight (but a constant companion!). I've made more cups of tea and meals with her on my hip in the last few days than ever. The washing has been hung out with her watching from her sling and we've had many walks together watching the sun set. She stayed in my arms though, reluctant to stray far. I love these times, but they can be tiring. I try to remember the blessings of motherhood that I have and am thankful that I am able to be with her all the time.

I've also been pondering whether to start some themes for this blog, such as can be seen on many of my favorites. It may help me to have a regular structure to things as with life as it is, with so many changes, it could help to have some continuity in there. So, in honour of this, I would like to start with a simple post which I'll call 'Moments', which will show some simple pictures from our week, with no words, just showing memorable moments, captured on the camera. I'll have a think about what other regular themes I can create too.

For now, though, here are a few pics of the last week we've had together.

Jasmine's 18th Birthday

Ducks!!

My favorite childhood place to play

Beach love

Toes in the sand

A sunset walk

Comfort

Perfect end to the day

Celebrating World Breastfeeding Week

This week is World Breastfeeding week (August 1-7th). I saw this post on So Fawned and was inspired to write a little here too. In fact, I had a similar incident happen just this week, so I thought I would share it.

I ride a lot on buses these days, not only because I have no other mode of transport and because it's much better for the environment, but also because I really enjoy it. But Leela has always had the interesting habit of wanting to nurse whenever we are in any moving vehicle and buses are no exception. As soon as we sit down, she asks for 'baboo!' and simply insists on it!

I normally don't mind breastfeeding in public at all, except sometimes I can feel a tad self-conscious - ESPECIALLY when I've had to take a sideways facing seat at the front of the bus with the entire bus passenger audience in full view! I've never had comments before, but it does make me wonder if it's making people uncomfortable, or curious even. This is more so now that Leela is a toddler as it is pretty unheard of around these parts to breastfeed beyond maybe a few months (if at all).

So the other day, off we went on the bus to Narberth and quickly got many admiring looks and friendly chats to Leela from some dear ladies who were sitting opposite us. Sure enough, maybe 10 minutes after we left town, the cries for 'baboo! baboo! BABOO!' started, with Leela gazing up at my hopefully. The usual chuckles from co-passengers ensued as they thought she was just being cute and had no idea what a baboo was. At first, I blushed and tried to show her things out of the window or some other distraction. In the end I gave in and discretly allowed Leela access to her baboo.

I waited, wondering if the ladies would go quiet or mutter something to each other.

And they did, but audibly.

One said to the other 'oh, she wants to breastfeed! Isn't that lovely. It's so natural. That's wonderful.'

After Leela finished, the lady leaned over towards me and said 'it's so lovely to see you breastfeeding, really!'. I was so touched and felt proud, as I always try to, of the choice I made to breastfeed.

It's not always fantastic though, as over thepast couple of days Leela has been teething and so has been nursing for comfort a HECK of a lot. My nipples feel pretty sore at times like these, when I feel like there's more time on the nipple than off! I remind myself that it will pass and the soreness will go as it always does. But even in that pain, there is something wonderful. I'm so happy that I can sooth my daughter so easily, so effectively when she is in considerable discomfort. It's amazing. I can't imagine my life without a mothering 'tool' that is so simple yet 100% guaranteed to ease even the worst suffering. I can manage the occasional discomfort if it allows me to have such a wonderful bond with my child. Isn't she worth that?

So finally, here's a list of a few more breastfeeding highs I've had since Leela arrived. There are so many moments, but here are a few:

• My first moment after Leela was born, when the midwife complimented her as a 'natural'. YES! Well done Leela (big proud mama moment!)
• The first time my great friend Moishe saw Leela when she was a few days old - I was nursing her - to which she exclaimed - 'Wow! That's a good latch!'. That made me smile and feel super confident!
• When Leela first gave her Teddy baboo! In fact, now she does is pretty regularly with any toy she loves. She started doing it with a car recently and then asked her Nanna to give the car baboo, to which she laughed 'what, you think there's petrol in there?!'
• Whenever Leela refers to her own 'baboos', she says 'baboo' (points to one nipple), 'baboo' (points to the other nipple) and 'baboo' and points to her belly button. Very cute.

I'll finish by just adding that breastfeeding has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. It has given me enormous satisfaction knowing that I'm giving my daughter the very, very best start in life. It's such a gift. I'm a firm believer that nearly every single woman out there is capable of successful breastfeeding, given the right support and environment for it. These things are crucial. I also had the added incentive of doing it for my travels to India as I couldn't imagine trying to bottle feed in such conditions. I had to succeed, so I made every effort to. It can take a LOT of effort, but believe me, it's worth EVERYTHING. Yes, it's tough at times (it was especially for me at the beginning), but given time, support and encouragment (plus a constant internal reminder that what you're doing is great and best for baby in every way) it's possible. And it could be the most amazing thing you've ever done. Period.

That's all for now. Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

Today...tomorrow

This morning I felt like getting outside. It has been raining so much lately, and even though I'm not normally one to stay inside in dodgy weather, I'm pretty ill-equipped at present to take Leela on such outings. Heck, we're used to Indian weather (mmm...) and it's a tad different here in South West Wales. We get the brunt of the weather systems coming in from the atlantic here, so it's so wet and cool for much of the year (which gives this part of the UK it's lovely green scenery that I so love!).

Today, the clouds lightened and the air settled down, so we headed out to the salt marsh beach. We are staying with my parents on a stunningly beautiful estuary. I spent a few teenage years living here too. When I think of a place where I feel relaxed and contemplative, it's here. I love the open-ness and the glass-like quality of the water as it slides over the mud flats.

Here are a few pictures from our walk.

Leela had a nap when we got home and was delighted to be met from it by her cousins Harrison and Trinity. What a lovely way to wake up, with a tiny baby in bed with you and a six year old 'big girl' to play with! You can see how utterly delighted she is.

Today's walk was a lovely opportunity to reflect upon things. I've been a little withdrawn lately as I work through my thoughts on what my next step should be. Where to go... what to do... and how to do it. Seems simple put like that but it's achingly difficult. I feel like I'm getting somewhere, but I don't quite know where 'it' is yet.

Tomorrow I'm going to Narberth in Pembrokeshire. I don't know why but I feel quite drawn to this small market town. There is a local Steiner school there and it has a fine community feel to it, with many independent shops and restaurants. I feel like I want to build a relationship with this place, get to know it better. Find out just what it is that pulls me there.

We're also going to my niece Jasmine's 18th birthday party in the evening (also in Narberth). I don't think I've seen her in maybe six or seven years. It will be a special opportunity to reconnect.

I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow...

Childhood magic update...

I was so sad the other day when I received a blog update from one of my favorite writers. Ariella at Childhood Magic (see previous post, the link from which will now not work) has decided to finish her blog and has taken down nearly all of her tutorials :( I was really stunned and saddened by the sudden disappearance... but understand that it's for her to spend more time with her family, which, of course, is wonderful... It's strange, though, that even though I don't know her, I already feel like I do. I'll miss her blog very much.

However, today I found another lovely tutorial for handmade books on another blog I follow. Read about it here on the Border Stories blog. These are so sweet!