SSS

Ah, Stash Shot Sunday. The only time my slings are neatly in order for a few minutes...

Top to bottom:
Olives and Applesauce Pow!
Opitai Mei Tai
Yaro Four Winds Stonegray (s3)
Yaro Ivy Balck&White (s4)
Danu Sky Songs Midnight (s5)
Pollora Jolly Van (s6)
Yaro Pomegranate Cassis (s6)
Natibaby Oxytocin Neptune (s7)

Missing from this is My Natibaby Kraken Carbo, who is on holidays.
I've been grateful for Pomegranate in the cold weather, I'm only upset it took me so long to find the woolly love!

Happy babywearing!

Back to the drawing board

In three days I've gone from delight to despair, all thanks to one man and his greed.
On Monday I got the call we'd been waiting for. My solicitors office rang and said the contract was finally there, waiting to be signed.
We made an appointment for Tuesday.
When we got there, the amount on the contract was wrong. By half.
Now, the vendor had asked me about this before and I'd told him I had no interest in his way of dealing with things. I just wanted to buy our home and live in there happily ever after, safely and untouched by someone else's stupid decisions.

He obviously had not actually been asking, but merely telling me how he was going to deal with things. Hubby went to the auctioneer and told him we wanted the right contracts and to be done with this, after the four month wait. That evening the vendor rang Hubby and told him it was either his way or no way. I went into shock. My mother-in-law rang Hubby to celebrate and ended up hearing very different news instead. They instantly arrived to talk to us and help us make sense of the situation. This was the first time I let my defenses down in front of them. I just cried and cried. I cried for myself for losing out on the quite possibly last change to be able to buy a home for my family. I cried for Hubby, who had been already working on fixing our home in his mind. I cried for our kids, who lost out on having a better life, where paying for a five-euro art class isn't under question and food budget is more than 40 euro a week. I cried for my mom, who wanted nothing more than to see me settled and never got the chance to help out like she had planned. I cried out of anger for the fat cats' greed that leaves young families unable to buy a home, even when they have worked hard and saved the money to buy something outright. The corruption, dishonesty and unfairness of it all, all came pouring out.

I woke up with a throat that is barely open enough for breathing.
Got back on property search sites.
Tried all day to stay cheerful for Captain's sake.
Helped Mr. Buttons with homework.
And crashed when feeding Captain to sleep.
Had a nap and woke up few hours later to guests having a jam in the kitchen.
I just can't face anyone right now.

On Friday we view yet another house.

How many times can I start all over again?

The life of an addict

You get a nice Christmas present...

It takes over your whole kitchen for two days

(and you need to have a take away ;) )

Because it takes so long to dry, you resort to taking lots of close-ups as you wait (impatiently)

The linen blend has the decency to dry relatively quickly, you iron it and have toddler up in a ruck in record time.

I love my presents!

How many 'L's in happiness?

Today has been a good day.

I booked tickets for the LLL conference for myself and a friend. It's the first one for both of us and I'm already beyond excited. Last year I missed it, because I hadn't been to any meetings and thought you had to be a member to go. This year I just had to book early, it being so highly recommended by everyone and a big 50th anniversary year at that!

I'm not able to decide what I'm most looking forward to, but highlights for me are hearing Marian Tompson, the founding mother of LLL speak, attending Dr. Nils Bergman's talk about kangaroo care and hopefully squeezing in the 'Breastfeeding while pregnant' workshop. One of the biggest things for me is the lovely atmosphere that I know the weekend will have. It's going to be fantastic being surrounded by likeminded families, spending time with friends and meeting new ones.

Also, the sling spotting will be epic...

Roll on March!
Who else is going, and what are you most looking forward to?

Happy Monday

The Captain is asleep, Mr. Buttons is having a sleepover at his friends house and Hubby is out playing.

That means I sit by the fire, play silly games and send love to breastfeeding mamas on online support groups. I had Channel 4's 'Rich Kids Go Shopping' playing on the background, but got way too puzzled by the bling and strange spending habits. My happiness was quickly restored by the mute button and some Pearl Jam.

One of my dearest friends came back home after a trip to see her family. We met up for a coffee and she gave me a bag full of spices and tea she brought back. Then we went to the local Asian/African/Arabic food store and she had a look for some things they needed for dinner. I walked around entertaining the kids, finding new tastes and just enjoying the companionship.

Myself and Captain met the menfolk for lunch. I made a fantastic vegan chilli for dinner. Kids built a sofa cushion fort/slide/climbing frame and were happy. We got them to clean up before they headed off to the sleepover location, which didn't make them happy. I'm going to have some peace and quiet, with a side of noodles and yummy cardamom tea.

This to me is happiness. Nothing shiny, nothing expensive, but the simplest of things.

I hope your week started nicely too!

SSS

Just the wraps, from top to bottom:

Opitai mei tai (Pollora Hedgehogs)

Yaro Ivy Black&White (4)

Danu Sky Songs Midnight (5)

Natibaby Kraken Carbo (5)

Pollora Jolly Van (6)

Natibaby Oxytocin Neptune (7)

Boob gate

This picture popped up on my newsfeed earlier and I got angry very quickly.
I had not heard of Teri Niitti before, nor do I know the mama in the picture, but I had to stick my oar in.

Mr. Niitti used his chance of a first impression to get firmly into my bad books, when he decided to secretly take and post a picture of a mom feeding her baby on a flight. This was posted with negative comments about covering up, and this delightful chappie even used #decency on his post.

Now, to me decency is something you have, when you don't post pictures of other people and their babies online without permission.
When you sit down on your first class seat and enjoy the ride instead of trying to find something that doesn't fit into your narrow view of life, so you have a reason to moan.
When you don't publicly shame a mother for doing the most natural thing they could possibly be doing for their baby.

To the lovely mama I would like to give a big hug and thank her for nursing in public. I hope you keep doing what you're doing, and feel pride in having done so much for normalising breastfeeding. Let's hope our kids won't need to fight late night Twitter wars to defend the norm.

Keep on boobing!
(With covers, without, on a plane, standing on your head - It's all good, it's all normal!)