pokorn and karits

My 4.5 year-old wrote me a note and told me not to open it until she was in bed. I just did. It says

‘Pleez bi pokorn and karits.’ (transation – please buy popcorn and carrots.) 

Work or Stay @ Home

Lisa Heffernan from GrownandFlown, wrote about her regrets leaving a high powered job to raise her children (link here).

Food for thought. That's all. It's bedtime for me.

Rantings About Career

I am still in career limbo – trying to keep one toe in the water whilst pondering whether to sod it all, stay at home, go back full-time or retrain and start working again once the kids are all in school.  I see women with plans and even more upsetting, women who are putting their plans into action, meeting goals and always one step closer to their goals. Ah well. Nevermind. What’s a mom to do? Sometimes I feel like moving to some obscure, cheap and beautiful part of the world where we can all live on next to nothing. I’d home school and we’d all be happy right?

Why I Hate British Airways and Why My 5 Month Old Has An Email Address

I know that it is not obvious from the title, but this is a gripe about a society that is becoming far too techy and the company culture that forces technology down our throats.

I just spent over 3,600 GBP (that’s over $6000) on flights with British Airways. And by ‘just spent’ I mean just today, a few hours ago. And I’m angry.  I think that’s a heap of money. So when I saw that my children’s flights weren’t linked to my frequent flyer number, I thought that I’d give them a ring and add my three children to my account. My thinking was that sometime in the future, I’d earn a free flight or upgrade, especially given that the children and I make this trip EVERY year.

The first problem I encountered was, I couldn’t find an appropriate number to ring. After really digging through the website, I came across one. I rang the number, a recording told me that they were very busy and tried to convince me to visit “my booking” on ba.com. I persevered through a very confusing (and unfriendly) options menu and finally spoke to a real live person, in a different country of course. Victorious I was 17 minutes later.

Why I Suck as a Mom: It All Started with a Buzzing Toothbrush

My eldest child is 4-and- a-half. Let’s call her Api (because that’s her name). She has been refusing to eat my home cooked meals. Annoying? Yes. Very. Very annoying.

About 10 days ago, she stopped using the electric ‘buzzing’ toothbrush that she had begged for and I went out of my way to find. I was irritated but passive aggressively let it go – the whole, 'not worth an argument ' argument. Fine.

Guilty About Weaning

Lucas is 5 months old and weighs about 20 pounds. I’m thinking of weaning him from the boob and introducing solids. But I feel guilty about doing it. I am not sure what to do.

Before I turn 40

I’m an ‘old’ 32-year old. That’s kind of like the opposite of “being a young 65 year-old.”

I’m obsessed with my age and always have been. I suffered from great anxiety in the months leading up to my 25^th birthday and I put alot of pressure on years 25 – 30.

At 25 I made an unrealistic (and poorly though-out) list of things to have accomplished by the age of 30 which included things like:

1.  buy a luxury car
2. having (at least) 4 children
3. establishing my career
4.  publishing a book 
5.  retiring at the age of 30

To my 20 year-old self, from me at 32.

To my 20 year-old self, from me at 32.

If I could speak to my 20 year old self, what would say? (In no specific order)

1. Speak Up

Speak up, make yourself heard and exude confidence. If you have something to say, then say it and stop making excuses. You will not regret it. But you will regret and painfully remember each and every time that you should have spoken up, no matter how little the issue was/is, like in 7^th grade when you were desperate to enter the math competition at a local high school, but too timid to tell your teacher that you really wanted to do it. Gabriela, you probably would have won it.

I'm trying to lose weight AGAIN

I have been complaining alot recently about sorting out and changing several aspects of my life. I feel miles away from where I’d like to be. But while I have spent a ton of energy complaining, I have done very little to actually bring about any change. I’ve sort of been waiting for someone or something to sort things out for me. I am actually tired of the sound of my complaining voice. If I were a friend of mine, hearing me complain all the time, I’d smack me and walk away.

Birth Story: Third Baby ; First C-Section

I really didn’t think that the birth of my third child would present any problems – sort of a ‘been there done that’ type of thing. Then I was hit with a meteor shower of “get over-yourself.”