I Guess I'm Moving On...

I've been back and forward... I'm moving on from this space here. I want t keep it going for sentiments sake, but life's just too full for that. Plus I think if you're going to do something, then do it well, throw yourself in. All in. Go all in or go home. 

So my blogging efforts are moving... Calling myself something of a photographer and a new business woman. This is where it's all going to...

Charlie Farlie Photography

Please please please follow me over there! Learning Lessons in Mummyography really has been all about learning lessons. It has been an amazing creative outlet that has truly assisted me in enjoying being a Mum, expressing myself, learning a lot about blogging, writing and (obviously) photography. I could talk forever about him much I believe in blogging as essential tool in developing yourself, letting your interests thrive, solidifying your experiences and this new blog and venture is all a testament to that!

So now it's time for this... See you on the other side of that click where you'll see some of this...

And much much more! :D :D :D

xxxxxxx

MY NEW WEBSITE!!! WWW.FARLIEPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.UK IS LIVE!!!!!

Sorry for the blogging hiatus but the post title says it all... THE WEBSITE IS LIVE!!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE!!!!

I can't tell you how funny it's felt publishing it... I went from feeling so proud and confident to telling Joe (Feather's Web Design) to publish it and all of a sudden I felt so exposed and nervous and got all those twitchy scary feelings you get when you feel totally out of your depth and you worry someone popular from school might see it and think you're a total idiot. You know when things make you feel like that? Like you still might be a spotty teenager with your skirt tucked in your knickers? 

Anyway after a day or so I'm back to exciiiiiiited so here it is! And I'm still going back and forward about what to do about the blog side... So much of me wants to just transfer Mummyography over... This is what started all the photography stuff... Thoughts?! 

And to some much less than "professional" photography... Here's some of Euna in the woods with her pal Oscar... Straight off the camera just for a change... :D

Scotland Photies Part 2

Busy busy busy! Busy and having a blog wobble = not a lot of blogging!

I'm in the process of developing a website for my photography and thinking about a blog for there and the future of LLM... New blog to incorporate both? Keep separate? Take LLM over to my new website? Everytime I think about I change my mind ten times! So whilst I procrastinate what's new?

Lots! Bow's started crawling this week and I can't tell you how excited we all are. It's just magic to start to see a real brother-sister relationship start to bloom. Seeing them really play together for the first time. See how much patience they have for each other. How they watch each other. How they know they're just supposed to be together. 

I'm excited too! Feeling really ready to come out of the babe-in-arms time and have fun with a crawler! New play, new games, new phase. For the first time I'm not mourning the end of an era with one of my babies! That's new...

Some more pictures from our week in Scotland...  

Dear Scotland

If it's any consolation I'm so happy you stayed. I'm an eighth Scot. Married to a Scot. Have fond memories of visiting my Great Grandma in Scotland. More good times were had shopping in Edinburgh. And just in general when I say "I'm British" a whole part of me is referring to you. I'm not thinking economically. I'm not thinking politically. I'm not thinking historically past my own timeline. 

I'm just thinking about me. I am British. You are Britain. Therefore I am a bit of you. So thanks for staying. 

Partially, though not insignificantly, yours

Charlie :)

Rather topically, here are a few of my snaps from Loch Lomond last week... Beautiful BEAUTIFUL Scotland...

I'M ALIVE!

I think that was my biggest blogging gap ever! HELLO! HOW ARE YOU?!

Apologies for the absence, we escaped up to a Scottish Loch for a wee break and were entirely logged off for the entire time on account of it being soooo remote we didn't even have a phone signal! But I'm BACK! About 2 stone heavier from too much good eating and drinking, totally pumped about to restart work on my new photography website, inspired after reading Caitlin Moran's "How to be a Woman" and totally buzzing to blog... Maybe even thinking some bigger blog changing ideas to tie in with my new website... Thinking about a Wordpress move... Experiences? Good links with tips? Throw them at me please! :D

Be back in a day or two with a MILLION pictures of moody Lochs under cloudy skies... :) 

Butterflies...

Happy back to school everyone! Did you survive? Celebrate? Weep?

On my first trip back to preschool with Euna I passed the school and all the parents coming out from drop off. Storming out ahead were a few suited up parents, marching, smart phones in hand, checking emails, on a mission to get to work because they'd already pushed their luck to see theirs off on the first day back. Then there were the groups of work-from-home and stay-at-home and part time worker mums who had a little more time to kill at that time of the morning. Huddled in groups. Somedays they scare me, because I have a few friends who struggle with the school-mum politics and I think how much I'm not looking forward to that drama. This week though they amused me... Walking past a spectrum of conversations...

"...and he just screamed 'YOU'RE NOT CUTTING MY HAIR!!! IT'S MIIIINE!!' and I just wanted to die. He's two? Since when does he care..."

"I told him it was a waste of money. I told him even if we could fit it in, we wouldn't use it. I told him  all this and..."

"...I for one am so worried about her."

"The things that man can do with a person sat on a chair!!"

Hilarious. Happy new year pupils and educators! Enjoy some butterflies a la Jimmy's Farm on me...  

Sunday Strolling...

These are from last Sunday... Our local church allowed access to their tower. For a suggested donation of £2 you could grab a cup of tea, peruse some hand knits and climb a fairly hairy series of ladders up past the bells and on to the tower! You could see from Clacton to Mersea Island to Bradwell power station!

Funny the little gems that sit on your doorstep...

Love, Enjoyment & Appreciation

Do you know what's really hard about parenting (for me)? Specifically the part of parenting that relates to the fact that there are no part time parenting roles... What's really hard is getting love, enjoyment and appreciated jumbled up in your head. When they wee all over your new top and now you have to change yourself and them, sponge the carpet, anti-bac the changing mat and keep your s&*$ at that crucial moment when you've got all three hands full and your toddler is about to pick up their own poo out of the potty to show you they're a BIG GIRL NOW... When those things happen and it feels like the planets are aligning to destroy your plans to get to the supermarket (which you didn't even want to go to ANYWAY!) and you think "right now... I bloody hate this..." 

That is you not enjoying parenting. You're not enjoying it because it's hard and it got on top of you and maybe you wanted to be better than overwhelmed in that scenario... Because ya know... So many of us are unhealthily unrealistic in our expectations of our parenting.

What it is not? It is not you not loving your baby. And it is not you being unappreciative of the miracle that is your child. 

It's you being a human being in a rubbish situation and thinking "this is rubbish". So often I don't allow myself that logic. So often I think how I'm a terrible mother because I don't like parenting right now and maybe that's the same as me not loving them right or maybe it's the same as me not getting that I am so divinely lucky to be so blessed with two beautiful children. 

And "terrible mother"! What's the overuse of that phrase all about? I'd like a pound for every time I hear at a coffee morning. "You're going to think I'm a terrible mother when you see what snack he's got..." "I was a terrible mother the other day..." "... so I just wiped the poo with my sleeve and carried on eating, I'm such a terrible mother!" etc. Have we got so desensitised to the concept of being a "terrible mother" with all our self-preservation speak that we really are so ready to think we can be terrible mothers?

Maybe it's more second time mum confidence speaking? But I'm doing one reflecting on Bow's babyhood at the moment and I realise he's had some hard phases. Most notably the 6 week period when he was 5-6 months old where he wouldn't be put down. At all. And that was hard. It was not an enjoyable time in my parenting "career". Did I love him less? No. Not for a second. Did I appreciate my son any less? No. Not for a second.

So keep them separate. My lesson this week. Which I'll have to learn again next week...