Sew ready for Spring

So I have well and truly got the sewing bug back!

I attended a brilliant sewing workshop ran by my uber talented friend Mieke Hartland last week and I finally learned how to sew a zipper cushion cover. Now for the more competent seamstress, this may not seem like the biggest achievement in the world, but to me it was a vast improvement from my previous unsupervised efforts. I have made several cushion covers in recent years but they have always ended up sewn in rendering them pretty unwashable, and highly unsuitable to a house filled with boisterous boys with sticky fingers!

We had the option to sew bunting or sew a zipper cushion, and in anticipation of the spring I decided to update my soft furnishings with some new scatter cushions. I must say, the zip was far easier to insert than I thought it would be, and under the watchful eye of Mieke I had it sewn in place within minutes. The second cushion which I completed at home went equally as smooth, despite me having a muddle with my zipper foot for a short while!

The only thing I struggle with in regards to sewing is TIME. Now any mom or working woman will probably be able to relate to that, regardless of how 'quick' I think my sewing task should be I frequently find that I need at least a good two hours solid sat at my machine to set it up, thread it, wind the bobbin if necessary, select materials and that's even before I have sewn one little stitch. This means that invariably I am never going to get any sewing done during the week days, especially when the boys are awake, and even if they are being angelic then I wouldn't want to risk unattended needles becoming a health hazard.

On the flip side of that, I think this is why I love sewing so much, because when I do get to do it, it is purely for me, concentrated uninterrupted me time. And when this is accompanied by good friend and good wine that you know you are on to a winner! My offerings may not make waves on the Great British Sewing Bee, but they certainly look pretty on my sofa :)

Roll on next month's workshop!

R x

New Season, New Blog!

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I like to talk. And write. A lot.

This powerful combination of talents God has blessed me with has led me to share my heart and soul on a blog which has proved both therapeutic and challenging at times. Through the amazing blogging community I have 'met' many wonderful people from all walks of life and have learned more about myself than I could ever have thought possible. Sharing life with others is GOOD. God intended us to live in company and spend time with people, and I for one highly value the blogosphere and the knowledge and support gained from it a I have navigated raising two boys, dealing with post natal depression and launching my own writing business.

I believe that there are seasons in life, and sometimes things change or stop when they have run their course, and I have felt personally challenged to change the direction of my blog so that it is more focused on me as a woman and a mother rather than my children. This is partly due to being horribly conscious that my boys are discussed or displayed on the internet and my desire to protect them, but also due to our exciting plans in the coming year.

As a family we have always wanted to adopt and we are super excited to be  initiating the process later this year. This will of course have implications for my blog as if we are successful I may be unable to discuss my adopted child much less display their picture for their own safety, so I want to start reducing my boys presence in my blog now so that I might treat them all the same right from the off.

I still plan to discuss parenting issues that we face, as well as dilemmas dealt with by working moms peppered with video links to my new songs that I am writing (new season for me here too!) and also a sprinkling of sewing projects for your enjoyment, hence the new name: Sing Sew Write! Those who have followed me for a while may recognise the name as it was my first blog name so I am returning to my roots!

I hope you continue to enjoy reading my blog as much as I do writing it.

Love R xx

What would you have me do today?

Lord what would you have me do today?

This is one question that I must confess I rarely ask. Not being a morning person by nature, the start of my day is usually signalled by a gentle melodious iPhone alarm or a child, whichever shouts louder at the time. After hitting snooze one too many times or fobbing off said child with promise of breakfast 'in a minute', I finally prize myself from my pit, and pad downstairs to start warming some milk and pouring cereals.

As a mom of two boisterous fun loving boys, my days are anything but quiet, from the loud appeals for breakfast to the shouts of 'where is my tie? where is my book bag?' as I try to herd two people out of the door at twenty five minutes past eight. I do however get some calm following school drop off, providing I can persuade my 22 month old to stay in the pushchair so mommy can have five minutes prayer without fielding a wayward child from the roadside.

But my prayers can sometimes be very one way. God can you please sort out this situation for me? Lord please will you heal my friend? Jesus please can you help my boys make good choices? Can you provide that house? that job? I know that God is a loving God, the ultimate parent who wants to please us, but he also wants to have a RELATIONSHIP with us, which means that prayer needs to be a two way street. Yes, he hears my arrow prayers, and answers them regularly, but I feel that as soon as he is about to return my prayers with conversation in my spirit, I turn my attention to the housework/laptop/next appointment/next errand to run.

I know that this will take practice on my part, and being a busy social butterfly who never sits still, being still before God and waiting on him is not an easy thing for me. However I know that waiting on him, seeking his counsel, his guidance, his rest will set me up for the day, no matter what I am facing or experiencing.

Its time to take control of my faith and my walk with God, and go deeper than ever before because I sense that he has an awful lot to say to me and do through me. God knows what is going on around me and what is set before me, I need to find out what HE wants me to do today and not just follow blindly down my own path.

Lord, I am here, I am ready and I am listening.

What can I do to make you love me?

There are days when parenting seems like the hardest, most thankless job in the  world.

Today is one of them. From breakfast battles to dressing dilemmas, the school run yet again ended in tears (mine). 

I can cope with cheekiness, even tantrums, but I cannot cope with an attitude that would give a hormonal teenager a run for their money. My disastrous morning recipe was as follows; one grumpy boy seemingly intent on doing anything but what I asked, no matter how nicely, liberally peppered with mean and downright rude words intended to incite a reaction in me, a handful of time outs and a sprinkling (or rather waterfall) of tears.

I must stress that this is not how my mornings usually start, but when this is the case it turns my world upside down, gives me more tension in my shoulders than weight lifting and causes my heart to ache as I try to rationalise in my head what I could possibly have done to make my son hate me so much. 

Of course, I know he doesn't hate me (even though when he screams it from the time out mat at the top of his lungs it sure feels like it). The anger and frustration I feel soon gives way to concern and worry as I wonder how I can make him 'love me' and what I can do to help ensure our time before and after school are fun filled hours where we both feel happy in each other's company. 

When I feel a little calmer and look a little closer I don't see an angry naughty boy hell bent on ruining my day. Instead I see a little boy who is bright and articulate, desperate for my attention away from chores/work/phone, who maybe, just maybe needs me even more than I realise right now. His demands and protests could be due to changes at school, uncertainty as mom goes back to work and tiredness as we progress theough the first term of the year.

Maybe, just maybe, God is teaching me more about grace, forgiveness and unconditional love through my son than I could ever learn by reading a book. So today I spent the afternoon building my sons police Lego set ready for us to play with after school. (No mean feat I can tell you!) 

Time to get back to basics, the dust on the shelves and debris on my floor can wait, my children need me today.

Soul searching and song writing

When I was a little girl I loved to write.

Whether it was a story, a poem or a song, I loved nothing more then getting my thoughts on to paper, and I would spend hours writing on reams of paper. I especially loved songwriting and was bought my first guitar around the age of 11. I never had official lessons, but taught myself general chords and was soon strumming away to my very own songs. 

My memories of writing music are all centred around my nan. It was my nan who bought my first guitar and it was in my bedroom in her house where I would sit cross legged on my bed, pen in mouth playing with chords whilst watching the birds hopping around in the trees outside my window. My nan was a big fan of country music and my sister and I would spend many happy hours playing her Dolly Parton vinyls, making up our own dance routines and putting on a show for our long suffering family members. 

When my nan died, so did a big part of me. I was incredibly close to her, and as a 14 year old girl I wasn't ready to handle impending adulthood without her and consequently lost my way a little shortly after. Music remained dear to me, so much so that my guitar joined me on my journeys to university and then on to my adventures in London as a trainee veterinary nurse. However, I somehow forgot to take it away with me when I finally left London, and with it I left my dreams of writing music and expressing my emotions through song. 

I later rediscovered this love when I became a Christian and first experienced worship music. The ability to express my love for a God that so loved me opened my eyes to a whole new level of singing and songwriting, and I eventually joined the worship band in my church.

I have toyed with the idea of getting another guitar many many times, but had recently stepped down from worship to concentrate on pastoral care in our church so it has gone off the radar. Then I discovered Nashville season 1 on SkyGo TV Boxsets and reignited my passion to get a guitar and get writing.

Do I think I will play my songs for others? Probably not. Yes, I can sing but a lot of the songs that I wrote were personal and I have always considered them to be more of a therapy for me than a performance for others. That said, if God wanted to use me or them for His glory who am I to argue? So I am officially looking for a new set of strings to get me back into the swing of singing again, and I am so looking forward to rediscovering myself and getting even closer to God in the process. 

R x

Multitasking Mommy

Any one who has ever stood in the playground having a conversation with a fellow parent whilst keeping a keen eye on two children knows the importance of multitasking.

In fact, without this skill, I would go as far as to say that parenting would be nigh on impossible unless you are a hermit who is happy to live a solitary lifestyle for the next 18 years. Mom's, I have discovered, seem to have this skill finely tuned by the time their child reaches 18 months, and certainly it is honed to perfection when a second, third (or fourth!) sibling comes along. 

It is quite amazing how much you can achieve with a baby in your arms or a toddler on your hip. I have been known to cook dinners, wash floors, make phone calls and do multiple grocery shops in this exact position, and when you are sans child your productivity goes into overdrive. Who knew you could prepare the evening dinner, answer emails, write blogs, hoover carpets AND paint your nails in that two hour window? 

I don't think that multitasking is something that is a natural gift bestowed only to women (contrary to popular opinion), however I do think that we have to use it far more often than our male counterparts, and as the saying goes, practice makes perfect! Women are expected to be an awful lot of things, I can switch hats six times a day between wife/mother/writer/friend/daughter/pastor and although I cherish each and every role that I have been entrusted with, I often have to stop and think when do I get to put the 'me' hat on? So this evening, when my boys are in bed and my chores are done, I will be curling up on the sofa with a good book and a hot chocolate to indulge in some much needed me-time. Why don't you join me?

R x

It's you or the house....

Does anyone else feel like managing a family and running a household is an impossible task?

From day to day, I seem to run from one thing to another, with precious little 'me-time', all while trying to maintain the air of coolness and sophistication that accompanies the carefree lifestyle of those who don't have to hunt for lost shoes/dummies/book bags each morning. 

Today's schedule looked like this: get woken up, before my alarm by my eldest, feed the boys, grab cuppa, dress boys and myself, apply bb cream and lippy in half light of dawn, walk to school, walk back, put on laundry load, sweep up breakfast crumbs while playing hide and seek with my toddler, chase said toddler around local toddler group, come home to feed toddler, put him down for a nap, switch on laptop and catch up on emails and articles in between mouthfuls of a hastily made salad, wake toddler, put laundry out to dry, walk to school to collect 5yo, walk home, begin process of entertaining and feeding boys whilst cooking dinner and washing up breakfast dishes before hubby comes home. Upon his arrival, bath kids before dinner, put them to bed, eat dinner, drive to grocery store for weekly food shop, drive home to unpack grocery bags, write menu for the following week, check school bag and change bag and fill water bottles and depleted items, check on boys and iron uniform for next day, finally lock up and check cats are fed and watered with clean litter tray. 

I am exhausted!! In amongst all these chores I desperately want my house to remain clean to the high standard it was pre-children, and I want to maintain a half decent appearance so that my husband will recognise the wife of his youth and not be faced with a dishevelled, tired looking stranger when he walks through the door. More importantly I want to enjoy some quality time with my husband, talking, playing games, watching movies not to mention being close to one another physically.

But how on earth do people find the time to be the perfect wife/girlfriend/mother/friend/cook/housewife?

My hubby is amazing and helps no end in the house and especially with the boys, but I do find myself regularly thinking I just cannot keep up with everything and there is always something that suffers from my multitasking mayhem. I can be the perfect sex kitten wife with happy kids and a trashed house or a house proud stepford wife with immaculate floors, bored kids and a frustrated husband. And that's not even talking into account my working hours!

So my darling boys (big and small), I feel I must say that my attention can only be split so many ways during the day, so you just choose - it's you or the house! ;)

R x