Together Parenting...An Update

Back here I talked about how I took the plunge, put the call out for a tribe, and had my first meet up. That was almost two months ago. I cannot explain how glad I am that I had the courage to take that first step. We have met every week since then without fail. The friendships are growing firmer every week. We have cooked, baked, chatted, cleaned, and cried together (ok, so it was only me doing the crying, but they supported me through it).

It is just so lovely to have such a great group of people to meet up with on a weekly basis, and to not have to rush the visit. To have the luxury of spending at least four hours in each others company. And we have started to see each other more in addition to the regular meets.

It is perhaps a little sad that this is such a big thing, that I am so excited about spending quality time with friends... but I do think it is rare for women and children to get together in this way now. And, it is not only us women who are getting the benefit of each other's company either, the kids get to grow up regularly seeing other adults - my son sees no other adult (apart from me and DH) as often as he sees those in this group. It is delightful to see him become more and more comfortable with them. And of course, there are the other kids! Ranging from not-quite-one, to four, it is so valuable for him to have regular, extended contact with kids both younger and older than him. It is doing wonders for his ability to understand how give and take works :)

Ahhh, Thursdays :) my new favourite day of the week :)  And in case any of the girls read this - you're awesome!

Together Parenting

I recently came across this blog, and I was instantly inspired. Particularly by this post. It's all about getting yourself a tribe - a group of people with whom you can share your parenting journey. It's not about all moving in together. But it is about spending regular time with these people doing regular things. I think that's the key - it's not about racing around and cooking and cleaning in preparation for guests. It's about going on with your day to day life in the company of friends. Invite them over and cook together. Do the housework together.

The way we parent now is so alien to our species. Each woman is not meant to be in her house all day with her child(ren), with playgroup and grocery shopping as her social outlets. Women are meant to gather together and share their days. We need more interaction than what a cuppa can provide.

So, anyway...

Nervous as heck, I put out the call to some local mums that I know. A couple are pretty good friends. I've `cried on the shoulder of one. The others are lovely people I meant through various groups - ABA, Cloth Nappies, EC and so on. We have socialised before but irregularly and on a superficial - clean your house before they come and pretend everything about your parenting journey is absolutely wonderful -  level. It is scary to open yourself up and let people into your real world. I was scared no one would reply to my initial call.

But I got lots of interest. And yesterday, we had our first get-together. So two mums came over for the morning. Old habits die hard, I have to admit I felt compelled to vac before they arrived. Once they arrived we chatted, and we baked. The kids played. Fun was had by all. We have organised to meet next week too. There should be another two women (and their kids) joining us. More cooking is on the agenda. But most importantly, real friendships are being formed.

Thank you so much Cassie for giving me the courage to finally do this!

Making Life Simpler

Or the big wardrobe clean out lol

In an effort to make my life that much more simple, I am trying to declutter. A cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind, and all that... Plus the less stuff you have, the easier it is to put away and generally keep the whole house neat and tidy (and tidy and neat - any Mr Men fans lol??).

Here is what my wardrobe looked like before (and yes, I am embarressed to be posting this!):

And here is what I managed to declutter:

11 items sitting waiting by the door for someone from freecycle to come and pick them up.

That's just stage one of the cleanout...stage two happening soon.

So much to do...

I've just updated my To Do list again. It is forever growing. I am adding to my Completed list as well, but it can't keep up with the To Do list. I need more time!

My sewing room is in a bit of a mess after I switched the desks around last week. Trying to get everything in its proper place so when I do have the time to sew I can do it easily without spending half my time searching for everything. FlyLady tells me I need to spend 15 minutes a day and then my sewing room will be great, neat and functional. Once it's neat and functional I MUST spend five minutes at the end of each sewing session to put stuff away! This means no more rushed, late night sewing sessions.

At the top of my To Do listed, marked URGENT is shoes for my little boy. He's walking now, and it's coming into winter so he needs some shoes to keep his little feet nice and dry. I have a pattern (that I'm too tired to link to now) that I need to adjust down in size. I have the leather (a $5 bargain find at a local op shop). My mission for tomorrow is to resize the pattern and do a test run out of cotton. If the test run fits first go hopefully I will get the leather cut out and ready to go as well.

Before, and.... more before shots

It has been HOT here this week, far too hot to sew. But I wanted to do something. So I tried to tidy my sewing area. Here are the before shots. Warning: photos may disgust!

This is my sewing desk:




Alongside my sewing desk:



On the next wall - the wardrobe which has a lot of my fabric in it - note most of this is old clothing waiting to be remodelled.



Continuing around the room is a little bookshelf:



And last but not least, another desk - this is on the wall behind my sewing desk:



The theory is that once I have the place tidy, I will post after shots. And thereby have my motivation to keep the place tidy! It is a lot easier to sew when everything is where it should be and the desk is clear. The reason I have such trouble with this is that everything seems to be sewn in a rush. So my main goal is to not leave projects to the last minute. Everything else should fall into place. Hopefully.

I'm not exactly short on space, but I am low on organisational skills!! This was meant to be our study, but DH seems happy for me to have completely taken it over :) He seems to like how happy sewing makes me.

It is actually a little tidier, I managed to find my main desk on the hot days, using FlyLady's [www.flylady.net] 'you can do anything in 15 minute's' theory. I just haven't taken another photo yet... save that for another day