Well, that's what a new baby will do to you -I almost forgot I'd started this blog and that was only a few days ago. I shouldn't say he's a new baby, because he is 9 months old this month, but for the fact that I've probably slept a total of 2 weeks since he was born, we can say he's new, right?
I thought I would start by sharing some recent inspiration of mine for homemaking and parenting, things I've found online as well as books that I'm reading.
My bible as a new mother second time around is definitely Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall. I am currently re-reading the solids section to see which foods my baby can now eat, and I love that she has such a structured approach to parenting, eating and sleeping. With my daughter we were ANYTHING BUT structured, co-sleeping and demand feeding. I was an absolute wreck. This time I'm wreck-like but I have my baby on a sleeping schedule (he's recently began going to sleep on the floor wherever he is so he's surely in his own routine now, lol), an eating schedule and milk schedule. My daughter, on the other hand, barely ate a grain of rice before she was 1 year old. She must have tried more than that but it just seemed like she was forever on the boob and when we took her overseas to her father's family they were shoving rice and meat down her throat and I was in shock -Don't worry, she eats properly now. At least as well as a 4 year old who seems to think everything with colour is poisonous does.
I am a devout de-clutterer and my favourite thing is to read about de-cluttering, see before and after pictures of de-luttering, see makeovers of rooms and storage areas, and basically live vicariously through other people and their re-organising challenges meanwhile pumping up my own desire to re-organise and de-clutter further in my own home. Sometimes I think I want to buy all new furniture and re-vamp my life that way, but you'd be surprised at how much a little tweaking of what you've already got can change your home. We had one wall of our loungeroom that held a useless hall table (obvsiouly, our loungeroom is not a hallway) that was just taking up space and a surplus of my daughter's toys. We bought the baby a colourful rubber playmat (no, not this one, but I die to dream that I would spend $199 on a playmat and feel ok about it -it's squishy and delicious to walk on, let me tell you) and a playpen and have transformed that side of the room into a colourful baby heaven. I was so happy to put the hall table in the kitchen (I know, still no hallway) and see such a change to the room. It made my life.
My decluttering, tidying, re-organising and homemaking inspiration and readings are as follows:
Cut The Clutter, by Cynthia Townley Ewer -I've had this book for years and love just melting into the de-cluttering advice, as well as the meal-planning and sheet-folding bliss. I'm not so psycho as to actually meal plan. I do plan meals, but not with such fervour as Cynthia.
Home Rules, by Nate Berkus -Ok, so I want to marry him, and the loungeroom he made over on pages 52-53 makes me want to marry him just that little bit more. I may not always love his colour schemes (I am very much into the quiet elegance that is the (apparently) many varying shades of white and grey, I love decorating with silver next crystal pieces, and I love only pops of light green or pink), but his placement and scale of furniture is something legends are made of.
womenlivingwell.org, by Courtney
This is defintely a blog that I am IN LOVE with. Plus she has amazing youtube videos about homemaking and being a good wife. She is everything my mother (who thinks she was part of the women's movement) would cringe at but she is everything I want to be. She is just so chirpy and happy and bubbly. I can't get enough!!!
organizedlikejen is a Youtube channel that I adore. This girl seriously has some organising love, although without kids sometimes I judge her and I wonder WHY THE HELL DOESN'T SHE HAVE SOME KIDS!! -maybe she's trying to, and if so I'm sorry. But if you get into her videos you'll see what I mean. She has made organising a house into some sort of art form. She has seasonal decorations (!! I can't even get the basic decorations right sometimes) and she has really, REALLY thought about her house. And I wish it was mine, let's be honest.
yourwishcake.com
This is a blog I have loved for a few years now. She is a new mum, and a keen home organiser with a talent for decorating. To be honest, if I had half her know-how of decorating I'd be doing well. I laugh often at her posts, especially this one
Candidmommy is a vlog I love on Youtube.
Shaytards are a family with a daily vlog that make family life fun. They go shopping in their vlogs too, which I LOVE.
Organized Mummy vlog /Malitose79 is a vlog that I adore and find laughs in. She has a crazy, happy personality, is very good with organising the kids' stuff and her house is the cutest!! See here.
I also read a bunch of blogs at the moment which are mostly found through Womenlivingwell.org
A couple of e-books I just downloaded are also a-mayzing. I recommend both and please note they are in the Christian Homemaking genre:
31 Days to Clean
The Challenges of a Homemaker
I hope you can find some fun inspiration in these places as I do.
Happy Easter Sunday :)
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