And Though She Be But Little....

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Throughout my life, I have been labelled as " good with kids". I knew from a really young age , about 7, that I wanted to be a primary school teacher and before having my own babies, my life revolved around my job.  And being completely honest and not caring about being seen as bragging for a moment - I was a damn good teacher. I really cared about "my" kids and invested a lot of time in getting to know each and every one of them as individual, special people so that I could plan the best lessons for them and ensure that my classroom was a place that they wanted to be in and where they felt valued as learners and as people.

 It was important to me to earn the respect of everyone in my school community and I was often chosen to teach students who has been labelled as "challenging". Challenging for a variety of reasons- some with high learning needs, some with social needs and some with medical issues. I spent time learning about them and their needs and tailored my classroom as much as I could so that I was giving them every chance to be successful. 

My classroom was a place where I felt in control and somehow I came to make the link that because I was good at teaching, that I would be a great parent too. I imagined myself with my darling little children doing  fun activities, in a clean and organised home. My children would be settled and polite and well behaved. We would sit and read books together and my children would listen to me. 

And then I gave birth to Miss Muffet. 

And Shakespeare said it best - "She may be but little, but she is fierce". And my God is she fierce. From Day One Miss Muffet has known exactly what she wants to do and how she is going to do it- regardless of her physical abilities to complete her task or if what she wants to do is actually something that can be accomplished! Her determination is incredible and I often need to remind myself that this is a good thing. I want her to know her own mind and to be a strong, independent person... It's just hard to take in a nearly two year old when she is so frustrated that she can't communicate what she needs or can't complete her set task due to stupid constraints such as gravity. 

Miss Muffet is my greatest teacher. I have had to throw out every preconception I previously had and a lot of the time, I have to follow her lead. I have to step back and allow her to take risks and show me what she needs. Terrifying when this is at the playground and she wants to rock climb up a wall at 20 months, but she did it. All she needed from me was encouragement and to be there to catch her is she fell. I have learnt that I need to trust her. 

I heard somewhere that young kids can only focus on developing one area at a time- eg teething or crawling or talking. Miss Muffet has alway been a fast learner when it came to the physical side of things and was an early walker, climber, dancer, jumper. However, at the moment she is not a communicator. She has about 15 words and prefers to take you by the hand and show you what she wants or needs or is interested in. She clearly understands a lot more than she can verbalise but this gap can be the root of a huge amount of frustration for both her and me. I can see her clearly trying to tell me that she needs something and if I can't work out what that is it can lead to meltdown territory. I am talking full blown throw yourself on the ground, shaking with anger, frustration. And it breaks my heart. I try to talk to her calmly and spend a lot of time reading to her and naming items and narrating what we are doing- I just have to trust that she will talk when she is ready. 

That is all well and good when we are at home and I am calm myself and have had some uninterrupted sleep and some coffee and it is only the first meltdown of the day. The rest of the time.. I am that parent with the child who is shrieking in the cafe. Or clinging with all her strength to the damn car trolley at the end of the of the grocery trip and refusing to let go. I am the parent of the child who is face down, kicking and screaming at GymJam because it is not her turn on the roller coaster car ALL of the time. I am the parent on my hands on knees, trying to hold her and talk to her and help her ride out the frustration of whatever inequity life has thrown at her. 

I see the parents around me whose children are playing quietly and calmly and I wonder what on earth they have given their child to sedate them. I see the smug looks of "glad that's not my child" and I heard it when the man in the grocery store commented that she just needed a damn good slap. And I think back to the times when I could survey my class of 30 children, all doing what I had asked them to do. And how I had naively thought I was good with kids. 

I know it is just a stage and I catch glimpses of the strong, amazing, determined person that Miss Muffet is becoming. I have to make the decision to love the person she is and not get upset about who she is not. Because even through all of the heart wrenching, teeth gritting, frustrating melt downs- she is still my fiercely loveable little love, my greatest teacher and the person who made me a mother.

Weekly Baking

I really enjoy baking and get a lot of satisfaction from knowing I have made something from scratch. I try to fill my baking tins on a weekly basis and have a collection of tried and true recipes that I like to use, although I am always keen to try something new! 

This week, my cravings for ginger are still in full swing. It's getting a bit out of hand really! Miss Muffet and I went for a walk/ waddle up to Janus Bakkerij (amazing!) and I saw they had gingerbread men by the counter. Unfortunately Miss Muffet was not exactly in a social mood- read screaming at the top of her lungs, people turning to look at us kind of situation-  so it was a very quick in and out trip and when we got home I remembered the gingerbread men and decided to try my hand at them! 

I like to try and involve Miss Muffet in my baking so a chair is pulled up for her and she likes to mix a few ingredients in her own bowl and of course lick the beaters. I am sure licking the bowl is technically not good for her but I did it as a kid and I turned out OK.

 

She particularly liked watching the dough being rolled and of course needed her own piece to play with and nibble on 😀

I made some royal icing and had a little play around with piping when the biscuits were cooled down which I really enjoyed and wished I had more time for. 

Verdict? Pretty good! Action Dad had one for afternoon tea and was gobbled it straight up. Miss Muffet licked all the icing off and then handed a soggy biscuit back to me- toddlers!!!! 

Miss Muffet's new room

One of our first jobs when we moved into our new house was to sort out Miss Muffet's room. It originally looked like this:

This was actually one of the real estate photos so has had lots of magical trickery done to it- the room is actually much smaller than it looks here and that rather *special* colour was a shade of dark mustard. Lovely! And rather dull and dark looking too- not so nice for a nearly two year old!  

And here it is three weeks later! 

Warehouse linen,  alphabet print by Joe McMenamin, rabbit print by Olivia Bezett. Birth announcement was a gift, monogram cushion from Rixtrott

 

Bunting from Look Sharp, framed print of her baby feet, I made the hearts piece using all the lovely cards people sent us when she was born. Asta chair from Mocka 

We knew we wanted to paint her room white( Resene Black White) so that it would reflect all the light that comes in through the French doors. Poor Action Dad had to do three coats to cover that mustard yellow!We kept the curtains as they were in great condition and decided not to carpet her room, but instead add a big rug which is actually an off cut of carpet which was over locked and came from Carpet Court

Her big girl bed was a Trade Me find and the linen is all from the Warehouse. The bunting is from Look Sharp in Auckland and we bought cheap blond wood frames from Kmart for her pictures.

I would like to add some pink decals ( probably spots) and she needs a lamp for bed time stories but other than that I am really pleased with the results. Oohhh and I also have added recovering her Mocka Asta chair to my never ending wish list of creative projects ( not that I know how to recover chairs but that's what YouTube and Pintrest is for!) 

She is loving her room and we often find her in her bed during the day.  So far she is staying in bed through the night but I'm not going to saw we have won that war yet and still expect to hear her little feet visiting us at 3am most nights.  

Going Gaga for Ginger

At the moment, I am nearly 35 weeks pregnant with Miss Muffet's baby brother or sister. Throughout my previous pregnancy I really struggled with morning sickness and then all day nausea- just lovely when you have to face a classroom of 30 Year 7 and 8 tweets!  I remember having strong cravings for black liquorice, ginger beer, sparkling water, strawberries and rock melon. 

This time around, I haven't been hit quite so bad with the nausea- thank god! But when I was thinking about my weekly baking I noticed a wee trend... A theme you could say.

Oaty Ginger Crunch , Pear and Ginger cake 

Lemon, honey and Ginger Syrup

Basically, if something contains ginger, it is like catnip to me. I must have it. To me, it is the most delicious smell in the world at the moment and we are going through piles of it! I tend to keep my ginger in the freezer so that it is easier to grate straight into stir fries and baking and a finger? A bulb? A root? Whatever you call it, we are going through a hunk of it every week. 

Ginger has been known for centuries for its health benefits and properties including relief from morning sickness and nausea- I wonder if my clever body is craving ginger so that I am eating it before I get symptoms??? 

What did you crave when you were pregnant? Are you a ginger fiend and can pass on any recipes to satisfy my cravings? 

Roasted Kumara Salad with Grilled Chicken and Chipotle Aioli

Action Dad likes to limit the amount of gluten he eats as he feels much better for doing so. I do the lions share of the cooking in our household and can find it hard to cater for this as the weather gets colder and I turn to my stock standard favourites- pastas, risottos etc 

Enter Pintrest and after searching 'winter salads', I came across a tempting pin. I made a few changes and as  I do all of our meal planning on a Sunday night, dutifully added the ingredients to my shopping list and threw the salad together for dinner last night. And boy was it a winner! Action Dad devoured it and said it is his new favourite dish - winner, winner chicken dinner ( hahaha)

I 

will be adding this to our dinner rotations and will check out

www.foodfaithfitness.com for some more meal ideas

Roasted Kumara Salad with Grilled Chicken and Chipotle Aioli- serves 2 

2 kumara peeled and diced

1 tsp oil

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 T curry powder

Salt

1/4 cup cashew nuts

2 skinless chicken breasts

Baby spinach leaves- roughly 2 cups

1/4 cup coriander, roughly chopped

2 tsp mint, chopped

1 red chilli minced 

1 carrot, peeled and cut into batons 

1/2 cup mango ( I used tinned) 

Edmonds Chipotle Aioli to taste

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Mix kumara, oil, sugar and curry powder in a bowl and then transfer to a roasting pan. Salt to taste and cook in oven for 20 mins, turning half way through. Add cashew nuts to pan for a final 10 mins. Kumara should be tender. Remove pan and leave to cool until warm. 

Grill chicken breasts in a hot pan for at least 7-8 mins each side until cooked through. Remove from pan and leave to rest for 10 mins. 

In salad bowl add spinach, coriander, mint, chilli, carrot. Mix in cashews and kumara and divide between  two dinner plates. 

Slice chicken breasts and place on top of salad. Dress with chipotle aioli to taste. 

Overly Crafty Ambitions

I love craft in all its forms and have a wish list as long as my arm of projects I would like to do. Joining Pintrest was possibly the worst thing I could have ever done as there are just not enough hours in the day for my crafty ambitions. Crafting keeps me sane, feeds my need to be creative and also allows me to socialise with friends for irregular Stitch and Bitch sessions. I gain an immense sense of pride from creating beautiful objects and it also gives me something to do while I am watching the tv at night- much better than eating Tim Tams! To date, I have dabbled in: knitting, cross stitch, needle felting, card making, hand quilting and cake decorating. I won't even get started on what I would like to do!

In order to keep myself and my wallet healthy, I have imposed a strict rule on myself- I must finish one project before I am allowed to buy the materials for the next. This has been super helpful in keeping my hoard under control and also helps me to make sure I don't end up with too many un finished projects  to feel guilty about.

Which leads me to my problem- I like to take on projects of epic proportions. Here are two prime examples :


Example A: a heirloom knitted baby shawl. A friend of mine knitted one as a gift for her brother and his expecting wife and I really wanted to make one. At this stage I wasn't even pregnant and could only do basic level knitting! The shawl is knitted in 2 ply and took 17 months- I announced my pregnancy with Miss Muffet by wrapping an ultrasound picture of her in the shawl and presented it to my mum.


Example B: a Christmas stocking, completely done in cross stitch. After Miss Muffet arrived in May, I wanted to make her a Christmas stocking and took myself off to Amazon to browse. And bought this kit. Which took just over a year to complete.



I have to admit I have loved both of these projects and am thrilled with the results.  Unfortunately I am not so enamoured with my current project- a Christmas stocking for our impending arrival. I am not sure if it is because of the subject matter or that I am just needing a break from cross stitch but gah! It is taking forever! I am enforcing a new rule in which I have to complete half an hour of cross stitch four times a week, just so I can push on through.

Is anyone else is a similar predicament? How do you get over the crafty hump blues?

A Little Bit of Space

Being a Mumma to nearly 2 year old Miss Muffet often means that I have no space. Last night was a perfect examples of this- Miss Muffet is full of a cold and cutting an incisor so ended up sleeping in my bed. All night. Most of the time she was wrapped around my head like a little boa constrictor but as a new party trick, she also dabbled with tucking her lovely cold toes down the back of my P J pants. When I got up to use the bathroom, she came too and stood and watched and sniffed. So understandably I am craving some space. And knowing that we are expecting our second bubba in about six weeks, realistically I am not going to have any physical space for a good few years to come. So I have decided to carve a wee bit of Internet space- my space in which to write... Or rant depending on how much sleep I get.

Introducing Me
I am Jenn, a Mumma in her 30s who has recently moved cities, leaving behind my circle of mummy friends who have known me since Miss Muffet appeared and with whom I feel comfortable enough to to wear a bare face, slippers and mismatched clothing. I am a stay at home mum who previously taught primary aged students- I like organising, life hacks and being the boss. I am married to Action Dad and enjoy crafty goodness, crappy tv, reading and a good list.

Action Dad
Action Dad works from home and cannot sit still- hence his standing desk! He is lovely and hard working and the best sound in the world is hearing Miss Muffet and him laughing as they place chasing games. Action Dad cannot function without exercise and can usually be found  running, biking or swimming. I have been known to throw his trainers at him if he has been inside too long as he gets very grumpy and antsy!

Miss Muffet.
Miss Muffet will be two in May and is the centre of our lives. She is stubborn and strong willed and gorgeous and brave and hilarious.