These are a few of my favourite things...

Well after what feels like an eternity I'm back, the wanderer returns! It certainly feels like I have been wandering, wandering  a long foggy, nappy, burp cloth,bottle and brownie lined path!  Enough of all that for me, the fog is lifting and this is the start of a bright new year full of possibilities. This is 2013 and that means  I am going to focus on two things. My first ever diet and getting the girls into some semblance of a routine.

First ever diet you say? liar! Well I assure you that it is the truth. Sure, I've starved myself, if I am really going to lay my cards on the table here I will confide that I even made myself sick on a few occasions when I was a teenager. Honestly folksI have never been on any formal diet in my entire life. The thing is, I just don't have the willpower, I have never really had the inclination and lastly and possibly most galling to some of you I have never really needed a diet. Even at the age of (almost)43 and 7 children later I am not much bigger than my younger self. I'm not going to give away an exact weight ( I can't as I don't own scales!) but lets just say I am not Kate Moss but neither am I Adele. Don't hate me for this or dismiss my decision to finally take this step. This is more about a lifestyle change and health than losing weight.

What has brought this about then? Well the timely opportunity given me by the very kind people at Weight Watchers. I am one of their Weight Watchers Blogger Ambassadors and as such I will be living and breathing a new approach to how I and my family eat. My teenagers love me more than normal right now might I add.

This brings me to the title of this post. Besides the fact that I own a company which makes jars full of lovely little baked goods I have a very sweet tooth surrounded by several carb teeth ( do they exist?).

In no particular order, and merely off the top of my head please find below a short list of what may cause me some small amount of problems -

I hate breakfast (unless it is eggs Benedict or real American style blueberry pancakes)

I love brownies

I love peanut butter

I love chocolate

I love peanut butter and chocolate together

I love carbs- pasta, cards bread (especially bread)

I love butter

I like grazing

I like sugar

I like a glass or two of wine

I like a beer

I like a bloody Mary ( the last three are generally on seperate ocassions unless it has been a particularly bad day)

I like real foods, not low calorie 'healthy option' versions of real food

Oh, dear, do I sound like a pig or what?

Writing the above list makes me think that this may not be as easy as I have been telling myself the last two months...I am going to have to be honest about this, no point in pretending that this is going to be a doddle. I am a self confessed bad- food- aholic. I do like fruit and veg though, just not as much as I like some of the above. 

Over the next three months I will be undertaking challenges set to me by WW and recording them here for all to see. If you have had experience with a weight loss program I would love to hear your experience.

That is enough for one day I think. Tomorrow will be challenge 2 ( I missed out on 1, bad girl.) making a weekly meal planner. I think I can do that.

X

This is Spinal Tap!

Well here they are! In all of their pink squidgy newborn glory.

Twin 1 and Twin 2- as we affectionately call them as 9 months is not nearly long enough to chose one name let alone 2- arrived slightly earlier than anticipated but healthy and with all of the main expected appendages and vocal cords intact!

I attended my last scan before the scheduled c-section feeling a bit 'odd', this in turn became a night in hospital which then became a 'well you live too far away from hospital for us to let you go home, it is only a bit earlier than planned so let go for it'. Um, OK then. 
Chaos and uber 'by the seat of our pants' planning ensued. We had made all sort of plans for the two youngest at home- the elder three being happily ensconced in summer camp- but this was throwing everything into disarray. Anyone who knows me knows I like a plan. I had no plan now so I, unlike my 3 'olds' was not a happy camper.

Family kicked in and all was well in the end despite me feeling out of control and a tiny bit helpless. None the less I was able to via the wonder that is Apple PLC deal with a teenage sim card crisis, freak out over same said teenage phone bill and read a few good books- no not that one, I said a few GOOD books.

T1 and T2 were safely delivered on Friday 24th of August and I was merrily on my way home- well via Swansea for a few days (complicated...) on Sunday. I still can't believe I went home after major surgery after only 1 real day of recovery, and with twins????
Well my freedom was short lived. I was back in Hospital but in Swansea this time on Monday. I had Spinal Tap.  Now, I had of course heard of Spinal tap, but in the context of a film about pretty rubbish rockers. I had no idea that it was an actual ailment. Well I am here to tell you that it is an ailment, and a bloody painful one. Basically it is a complication from either an epidural or spinal block, which I had. The tiny hole where the needle was placed doesn't heal properly and spinal fluid leaks into your body. This minute leakage causes an imbalance in the fluid around brain which gives you a headache which I can only describe as being the worst pain I have ever experienced- and I have had 7 kids people!   Did I mention the ringing in my ears as well? That was another little gift from the surgery fairy. I of course thought I had a blood clot so was actually relived to hear that it was only a leak  'an unfortunate and rare complication' I was totally thrilled  when I was told that it would go away- usually in about 10 days. Roll on analgesia.
I am happy to say that although the annoying ringing is still there albeit ever so faint the headache is just of the  mild 'one too many glasses of wine' variety.

Life with twins is pretty much as I expected. I live in a universe where I am ruled by wrinkly nano people who govern in a totally autocratic fashion. I do hope that they outgrow this....
Seriously, I am madly in love, I seem to be riding the crest of post baby hormones and even the one hourly night time feeds aren't getting me down. Yet.
We are off on our first road trip this weekend (Swansea doesn't count). We are off to London. Grandma and fashion beckon us!

Chores

Well here we are about 4 weeks into the summer holidays and I have finally reached the point that I can take no more. After much consideration and deliberation I have chosen to hand in my resignation as the household' s  general dogsbody,  chambermaid, chief cook , taxi driver, domestic operative and entertainments officer.  I feel it is time to pass the baton, in good old Olympic style (lets hope I am better than the men's relay team) to those who are younger, fitter and most importantly not 8 months pregnant with twins. 

Many in my life would say that historically I have placed myself  firmly in the category of martyr, that I have chosen to do everything for everyone and that I only have myself to blame when it comes to the serious lack of help around the house. I am afraid that I have to stand up and accept this title. I have suffered  for many years under the misguided conception that if you want something done properly then do it yourself. I have also suffered from immense guilt  if I asked them to do anything. The poor wikkle babies, they need to be stress and worry free children while they can, they didn't ask to be born into a world of servitude. They need to play play play to grow into well rounded human beings. Well not any more. Now I just want things done and frankly I don't care if they are done that well as long as they get done. And oh yes, the guilt is gone, or at least subsiding.  Welcome to the real world!

Today is day one of a new regime.

As I sit here enjoying the ability to actually hear tip tap of my keyboard I have 3 very unhappy teenagers being 'managed'   by two very efficient tenacious task master little brothers. The task at hand today is a thankless one, but to anyone who lives on a farm or with livestock knows is necessary- to the extreme. Ragwort picking. Ragwort is the lovely tall yellow flowers that before one lives on a farm you view as a bright fuzzy blur occasionally in a field or on the side of the road as you zing past on your way here or there. The burst of vibrant colour might make you  think to yourself, 'ah, windflowers, aren't they just the loveliest things'. Well don't. Ever. these aren't wild flowers, they are vermin. The rat of the plant world. Poisonous to the extreme to all animal life and just like the rat extremely adept at surviving and expanding in vast numbers.

I'm really happy that they are working, it is good for them  me and hopefully us as a family.  Problem one- approximately one hour into the task and each child has had about 5 breaks and or changes of clothes. I won't mention the arguing backstabbing or snitching.  
Anyway, with a bit of luck and the iron fist in a silk glove approach of Harri the Horrible and Macsen the Merciless the offending botanic demon will soon be gone from one of the fields-  until next year.  

Best friends, beaches and babies

BEST FRIENDS-

One week into the summer holidays and it so far has been fabulous. A short trip down to where we used to live to visit with old friends proved to be just the thing I needed. Despite the heat and my elephant like ankle situation I had a fabulous time catching up with two of my best friends. They made me smile, forget about my baby induced aches and pains and made me excited again about having these twins.

  

BEACHES

Whilst I was swanning around Cardiff with the afore mentioned friends my two youngest spent a wonderful day with their dad enjoying all the best of the Mumbles and the Gower. A long walk down the front, huge amounts of ice cream from Verdi's ( I am very jealous of this as I LOVE Verdi's pistachio ice cream) a paddle in the at last warm sea and a bit of a play in the park finished off a great day without mum!

**A better nights sleep was not had in recent memory by either myself of the boys after such a  lovely fun filled day so thank you Mumbles.

BABIES

I have at last been given a date for my c-section- August 28. This pregnancy has felt a bit akin to that of an elephant (roughly 2 years I believe). I'm not sure If I will actually make it to the actual day as twinges are a daily occurrence but there is something slightly reassuring about the end being so near in sight. 

The sun has got his hat on.

Well, the rain cleared and Macsen and I managed to get outside and play for a bit this afternoon- until the midges swooped in to ruin all of the fun.

Anyway, the sight of blue-sky so took me by surprise that I had to take a snap of it.

Home Sweet Home

My very first steps

This is a blog that I wrote last week as a guest blogger for the fabulous http://www.mum-of-the-mig.com/. I hope to be a regular contributor on Charlotte's site and with a bit of luck she too will be stopping by here on my blog to give her take on all things for-  mummies who need quick, easy and practical tips to stay on top of a hectic family life, whilst also looking and feeling fantastic!  My guest blog contains quite a bit about my business but please rest assured I'm not trying to tout for business, it just gives a bit of an insight into me and my life.

Organized chaos-

Organized chaos, this is my motto, my maxim, my mantra, my way of life. Whatever you want to call it, it is the best way to date that I have come up with to adequately describe how I carry on my day to day living.

I’m Ashleigh, a mother of 5 soon to be 7. If that in itself was not chaotic enough I also live on a small holding in very rural west Wales with said children PLUS  my 5 horses, one donkey, 2 sheep, 2 alpaca,2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 rabbits and 4 stick insects (I think they are in there…). I would love to be a farmer really but at the minute my ever increasing belly and steep hills just don’t get along.  One day.

In my spare time I like to try and run my online business, POB -pobshop.co.uk. I will admit that I am finding it harder and harder to find spare time yet despite this I totted it up and I actually spent 34 hours on POB last week. This is all done of course with smoke, mirrors and a whole lot of Disney Junior.

Oh yeah, and I’m American. A great big toothy hey ya’ll  to you other Americans who are loving living here in this beautiful, green, wet, diverse, wet, cosmopolitan, wet, historic, wet island.  Did I mention wet? It rains a lot here.  They say  ‘it’, the climate, is what makes the Brits who they are.  Perhaps we all should embrace and celebrate the rain and any or all other form of weather conditions. At the very least we should learn to talk about it  with a level of knowledge, conviction and superiority that we too may one day be like them.  I sure try it around here,   it’s another thing I do in my spare time. Talk about the weather.

But I digress… Back to what I was talking about, what was I talking about? Oh yes, POBshop. POB was born on New Year’s Day 2009. I had been living in Wales for about 4 years and my children were attending Welsh medium education. I loved living here and was, and remain a huge supporter of the Welsh language but, when it came to gifts and Welsh language greeting cards it seemed Wales was quite a bit behind the times, especially when it came to the cards.  

In my post baby euphoria/hormonal dump/frustration (Macsen, my 5th was born Nov 7) I decided that I was going to single handily change the Welsh language greeting card and gift market. This, in a nutshell is what I found so annoying and was determined to change

-

 A. The very limited choice of cards on offer.

 B. They were quite often stereotypical (you know, Welsh lady, dragon, rugby ball, lager)  

 C. They  were of a quality that one would find for about .75p in the post office queue.

Now, I’m not saying that there weren’t any nice cards out there, I bought them all, and I also received them all!  The same ones sent and received countless times over for the numerous birthday parties, weddings, new babies and Christmases.  

OK yes I know, these stereotypical boring .75p cards do have a place in our society but I was thinking modern, I was thinking young, I was thinking BIG. I was thinking hey, I just gave birth to my 5^th child and the anything is possible American in me found her way to the surface! I could change the world!  I was just going to start with Wales, and greeting cards. Baby steps and all that.

So there my tale begins. POB has as they say ‘come a long way baby’ since that cold January day. As I write this it happens to almost as cold but it is July but let’s not dwell on that! (See, I’m talking about the weather!)I have faced so many moments of doubt over the past 3 years. I have gone to bed ready to throw the towel in but woken up and decided to add a new range instead. I have searched for other people’s approval when really all I need is my own. Working for yourself is never easy but it does have its own rewards. I bet you never heard that before huh? Well that is just about enough about me for now but if you want to know more, like-

Will the rain fill the pond?

Have I ever know it to be so wet in July?

I am sure that September will be beautiful….

Why I decided to sell POBshop cymru…..

Then Stay right where you are Mum of the Mig followers and check out my next gripping installment, you won’t want to miss this!

Love ya’ll big time. xx