Michelle Tant

I felt inspired (thanks @BabyMakingMama )to blog about this today. You may or may not know that I have three children. Two boys and a girl, 5, 3 and 6 months respectively. With my eldest son, Jayden, I followed the traditional method of weaning onto solids religiously. I bought a couple of puree books, I recommend Annabel Karmel as her recipes taste delicious if you are going down that route incidentally, and set about introducing my son to the delights of non-mummy-milk foods. I started with baby rice which is pretty tasteless really, mixed up with breastmilk; just an introduction to new texture I suppose. Then on to a new taste every few days, eg a few days of pureed carrots, then apple, then parsnip/squashes, then apple AND carrot, then mashed potato... gradually increasing the lumpiness until FINALLY I dared to give him a piece of food to hold himself. And the fear in the room was palpable. I was literally terrified that he would choke, but he didnt and we all lived to tell the tal...

My 5 year old is almost speechless with excitement about the possibility of snow. Naturally to him, all the snow means to him is making snowmen, snowball fights and a day off school. To say that the UK is ill-equipped to deal with snow is somewhat of an understatement. The country ground to a halt earlier this year when the snow came. The shops ran out of milk and loads of schools closed, including my sons. I'm fortunate in that I can work from home if necessary but my husband can't as he's a driving instructor. It's one thing to expose your pupils to a wide range of driving conditions, but its quite another to expose himself to mortal danger of being driven in dangerous conditions by an exuberant teenager who really wants to jump out of the car and throw snowballs at passing cars (apologies for the sweeping judgements in evidence here...). So tonight I am waiting with baited breath to see if there's an email from school entitled 'snow day' because ...

It says on BBC news website today that our dear Prime Minister wants to know how happy we all are. My first instinct to that was to question whether he cares at all, then I thought I'd read it to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps his election promises stood for something after all. Perhaps he really does care about the state of the family. He starts well... "He said the government's "most urgent priority is to get the economy moving, to create jobs, to spread opportunity for everyone". "Without a job that pays a decent wage it is hard for people to look after their families in the way that they want, whether that's taking the children on holiday or making your home a more comfortable place. "Without money in your pocket it is difficult to do so many of the things that we enjoy." But he said the government also had to focus on the long-term and he said "the country would be better off if we thought about well-being as...

Background... I saw an article today in a newspaper about a hospital trust which has been forced to take down a picture of a little girl pretending to breastfeed her dolly. There were complaints along the lines that the poster is inappropriate, crude and disgusting. The hospital responded by saying that the poster was part of a wider campaign to promote breastfeeding and specifically to say that its normal, and that children will ultimately copy their parents, so its part of trying to help create a 'normalized' breastfeeding culture. A 39 year old grandmother asked for it to be removed, saying that its not normal and that little girls shouldn't be breastfeeding their dolls. So theres the context of this blog. Breastfeeding is a highly emotive subject. Statistics show that most women who give up breastfeeding for one reason and another, wish they had carried on for longer. Wrapped up in there is a whole raft of emotions and so it is easy to see why when it co...

Naturally for starters there's my 3 heart wrenchingly precious children and wonderful husband but sometimes it helps me to remember that I like things, and that those things make me happy. Some of them are fairly standard and I would defy any warm blooded woman to say the first one doesn't ring a bell. -chocolate -being warm -savoury and sweet together like cheese and grapes -people who wear their hearts in their sleeves -rainbows -freshly changed bed linen -my animals -driving big cars -driving my 1967 VW Beetle -hugs -where the light refracts and makes speckly pattern on the floor/walls, we call them fairies here hmmm, well as I'm falling asleep in my phone I suspect now im not really fit for anything but sleeibgImm. I shall continue this tomorrow! Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

I have so much to be thankful for. My loving husband, 3 beautiful crazy children, a family that cares for me, a roof over my head and beliefs, activities, interests and hobbies that fulfil me. I've travelled quite a bit and in 2002 spent some time in Belo Hotizante, Brazil. Kev and I did some street work, taking food and other stuff to dome families living under the arches of a bridge. We met a woman living there and she wasn't well. Her floor was mud, her walls were packing crates. We knocked on her door and spent some time with her. We asked her if there was anything else we could do for her to help. She replied "I might not have much that you can see, but I've got a big heart and that's all that matters". This lady was a mother and grandmother. Her 'under bridge' community doted on her. She loved and was certain of their love. She was the most thankful woman I've ever met and I still feel humbled now thinking about her. I'm thankfu...

The UK doesn't know how to deal with snow. And its here already. Not in my neck of the woods thankfully, especially as with hubby being a driving instructor, but in the UK. Global warming as we speak. Do I rush out now and get snow chains? Will I look back and see this post and wish I had? No doubt more on this when we get snowed in. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Today was probably the worst shopping experience I have ever had with my children in tow. I do tend to avoid it as it really is no fun for them, whether its food supermarket shopping or town shopping. As a child I hated it... following my mum in and out of shops on a Saturday morning was as far from my idea of fun as possible. So that's why I avoid it but of course sometimes its a necessary evil. I need to have the Christmas shopping done by the 1st December due to changing my mortgage provider I'm paying double that date then back to normal from 1st Jan. So December is going to be a bit of a squeeze. Thankfully I've been saving for Christmas but even so, it makes sense to know exactly where we'll be. I digress... So this morning I decided to take 6 month old baby Daisy and Reuben my 3 year old with me into town. I had my list. I knew what to get. I knew where to go. I had an 'in/out' extraction planned with military precision. I had snacks and drinks, hea...

I looked on BBC news website today for inspiration to blog. The two headlines this evening are the North and South Korea conflict and the Will and Kate marriage plans. One of them scares me half to death and the other gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and it didn't take a genius to work out which. One of them causes me to worry about a future tainted by nuclear arms. The other causes me to think about a young happy couple embarking on their future together. I did actually start to write about how I feel about the Korea situation but it degenerated fairly quickly into morbid speculation which to be honest is not my usual style and so is a bit indicative of my feelings on the subject. Perhaps I need to leave that where it is for the time being. I feel quite positive about the upcoming Royal nuptials. Friday 29th April 2011. Apparently the nation gets an extra bank holiday, though when I mentioned going to London that day, hubby looked at me like I'd just spontaneously gr...

I don't want to appear too simplistic about this but I do believe that for the vast majority of normal people, health is as much a state of mind as body. The difference between men and women when they get a cold is a case in point. We playfully suggest that he has 'man-flu' and no I'm not about to go on an anti-male diatribe, but seriously guys... man up! LOL Of course when I say normal people, I mean people with normal health. I don't mean people with physical illnesses which need medical treatment etc. For goodness sake if you are sick, get help. I am a normal (and thankful daily) healthy person. Buy at times, like these days, I feel unhealthy. my new daughter is 6 months old, I have a 5 and 3 year old and I need to be functioning at a higher level than I am currently in order to enjoy life more. My bones ache, I feel lethargic and I'm tired and cranky. But I barely exercise (discounting. the schoolrun) I eat rubbish (not literally LOL) and on top ...

I was interested today to read about the furore surrounding the Popes comments on the use of condoms - from interviews being collated into a book and released this Tuesday. The media have latched onto it as a sort of 'comedown' from a known 'truth' that we all know that the Catholics don't do contraceptives. A little extra digging on t'internet reveals that its not really anything of the sort. What they're actually saying is that in the case of AIDS, its more about the preservation of life rather than the prevention of it. The Catholics say that only God has the authority to say if a baby should be conceived it not and it is this standpoint that the no condoms thing comes from. The church has been condemned in the past (and present) for being archaic and out of touch - after all, who is interested in a life of abstinence? I remember reading something a few years ago where the church said that abstinence was the only sure fire way of preventing the spre...

Customer consultation, rug searching, eldest child gymnastics class, food shopping, middle childs friends birthday party, house tidying, friends for coffee, kids to bed, settle baby. THEN IKEA... Long day... Aaaand bed... Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

A short bloggle today as I'm attached to the TV watching the lovely Terry Wogan. What a legend! The first total was nearly £5million so a good start. These things used to irritate me as a teen though. It wad incomprehensible to me that they'd 'only' raise 14/15million when there was 55million people living in the UK. I'd think surely if every person gave a quid or even better a fiver, then wouldn't that be amazing. So all I'd be is infuriated by the whole thing. As I've gotten older I guess I've mellowed out a bit. Something is after all better than nothing and to boot, the profiles of some amazing charities are raised. There are some incredibly generous people out there with big hearts. The stories of the things that some children live with are extraordinarily touching. I so hope that every penny reaches the organisations making a difference to children's lives. As a little bonus too, there's the celebrities making general idi...

It really was. I just wanted to rewind and start over! Every now and then you get these days when everything you do and say is not right in the eyes of a cranky 5 year old. The fact that he was in bed by 7pm is neither here nor there because he then chose to stay awake reading and drawing without my knowledge until I went upstairs at 8pm, checked in on them and saw the glimmering torchlight under his duvet. So back to this morning and it took nearly an hour to get him in his school uniform, then when I made it into a race and his 3 year old brother consequently got dressed before him, he had an absolute fit saying that wasn't fair as I'd helped him. Pointing out that his brother is actually not capable of dressing himself and needs help and what a big boy you are because you can do it yourself... didn't work. Still one stressed out 5 year old, though at least he's not still running round in his underwear. Being woken at 5.30am don't get us off to the best sta...

I love the term Mumpreneur. It's so expressive and makes me feel like I am part of some exclusive club. It says that not only are you living the frantic life that is motherhood, but you're running your own business to boot. My observation of a lot of Mumpreneurs is that the businesses are generally to do with some aspect of family life. My own business is no exception. I provide pet services and invariably my customers are or have children. Of course in this business I'm not going to light any financial fires, become a self made millionaire etc, but it does help with the extra things we'd like, whereas my paid job (yes I have one of those too) pays for the things we need, the mortgage for example! We are tremendously lucky as women to be living in this time in history. Women have opportunities that our own mothers simply didn't have. We can choose to run our own businesses, and you know what? We'll raise our kids at the same time. It doesn't have to be...

I've long been a bit of a Royalist. I love Englands Royal family. For all that they are supposed to be the upper of the upper class, I think that on the inside they are just a family like the rest of us. Trials and tribulations to rival a few soap operas but that's life isn't it. Unfortunately Prince William has had a more dramatic upbringing than most. Who doesn't remember where they were when the news broke of Princess Dianas death...? He and his brother lost their mother and they essentially had to grieve in the public domain. In lots of ways Prince William has had a bizarre life but somehow he's managed to turn out a seemingly nice well adjusted man. I'm happy (in a kind of abstract 'oooh, love the Royals' happy) for Prince William and his lovely Kate. By all accounts she's a very down to earth person. Let's face it though, they already have a better chance of a successful marriage than Charles and Di seeing as there's no-one...

Im going to be brave and stand up here and say I am a Christian (that's not the brave bit) and I believe there it only one way to God (that was the brave bit). Strangely though I do still have an enormous amount of respect for others spiritual beliefs. Although I do categorically believe my above statement, I also believe that true believers of any faith must believe the same (obviously only counting here the faiths that have a God). I've been giving it thought today and remember a couple of conversations in the past where people have become very upset that I have that belief. Faith is about the heart belief. My faith is in my heart, at the centre of my being. It is part of how I define myself, how I see myself in the context of the world. How I see meaning in the world and in my existence. My God is a jealous God. He wants my undivided attention in respect to who I worship. That's the God I see consistently throughout the Bible. I also see a God who loves me a...

Trying to remember what I wanted to be as a child when I grew up should be easier than this I suspect. Surely its one of those red letter memories, the ones we whip out when it comes up as a theme for a new years party (last year) or at a Mr & Mrs party (a few months ago). I do remember the profession that I gave serious thought to though, although I don't think that's the one I'm grasping for as far as memories go. I wanted to be a vet. It seemed a no brainer really, loved animals, wasn't squeamish, watched 'All Creatures Great and Small' religiously, mum was a riding instructor and I was getting the grades needed. When it came to it though, and I was picking my A-levels, I realised I was more interested in human behaviour than animal and I chose Psychology, Sociology.... and Art... My need to express myself in some medium was always there, I guess now its just developed into the written word. So I rather lamely abandoned James Herriott with no de...

Songs. Music. If anything is guaranteed to propel me back in time to a place or person... its music. Gabrielle, 'Dreams' was the anthem of my early teens when I had a mad crush on a boy in the year above me at school. He seemed so sophisticated and worldly, popular with everyone but did I detect a note of wistfullness about him that made him different from the other spotty obnoxious oiks his age? Of course I did, I was 13 years old, romantic to the core and sure that he was different. And naturally that we'd live happily ever after surviving on nothing but love and the fat of the land presumably. Bless her cotton socks, Gabrielle was there at the very birth of my idealism. Of course by the time I got into Pulp and the album 'freaks' I was a tortured little soul. I was 15 and had just grasped that Jarvis was being ironic when he said 'anorexic beauty, featherweight perfection' and I just knew that Jarvis would 'get me' if we were ever to meet...

My middle is 3 today. This time 3 years ago I was watching in astonishment as my husband was given tea and toast 'to keep his energy up' and thinking 'never mind me what about meeeeee?' LOL Roo was born at 11.21am, a successful VBAC and I was beyond proud. He is a delight to me despite his communication 'issues' and one smile from him and people are at his mercy. Having said that he's talking so much more now and I think signing has loads to do with that. It's given him confidence to realise that people can understand him and not just stare at hum blankly when he 'talks'. A few times I've seen him give up when he was trying to tell us something and simply couldn't make himself understood. It was heartbreaking and I could have cried there and then. And then his health stuff. We want the very best for our kids. We have to believe as parents that they will be healthy. Can't go through life falling over the what ifs of childhood ...

A blog a day keeps the stalemate away. That's what I'm hoping anyway. Suspect that while I'm trying to capture inspiration, the best thing to do is keep writing. So what today? Saw a friends newly decorated lounge: very stylish. Took the kids to the park: freezing. Currently cooking pizza for them: unimaginative. So my accumulated adjectives for the day are stylish, freezing and unimaginative. Now use them in a sentence. Lordy. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

A problem with learning to listen is the realisation that not everyone listens. They often make the right noises but they see just waiting for the opportunity to speak. Learning to listen means meeting up with people who really do listen. It's a privilege. Lately I've had something significant to worry about. The non-listeners dismiss my worries and say it'll be ok because they care about me and don't like to see me in pain. But I feel dismissed. A listener hears that I am worried, 'allows' me to be worried and stays with me while I find my way to a place of peace. I feel cared for. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Just an observation really but I've watched a couple of these programs with my husband and Ive been thinking. Is it acceptable that Ricky Gervaise and his irritating sidekick get to reproduce their judgements and preconceptions through this 'idiot' legitimately? He (the idiot) seems to have no check on the words that come out of his mouth. Some might say that's refreshing in this politicallly correct mad world, but that political correctness has been born out of some necessity. A conversation I had with my relatives neighbour recently is an example of this. She daughter that she always pick up her milk from the 'paki' shop. As you'd imagine, I fairly recoiled in horror and mildly corrected her saying something like 'you mean the corner shop' (which it is) and she got irritated with me, saying that in 'her day' that's what they were called, they didn't mind and everybody called them that. Of course there was little point in at...

When I started as a student breast feeding counsellor, I got the distinct impression that my faith was a hurdle to be gotten over, not imagining for a moment that the two could be compatible even. The point being that you can't distinguish either as separate. The core conditions, the centre of the counselor need to be present to me and to the observer all the time. A part of me. The same can be said about my Christian walk. Unconditional positive regard.... congruence.... These are the core conditions, and I believe that Jesus demonstrated them and they were him and He was them. Turns out it wasn't such a leap afterall. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9