Going Dairy-Free (DF) – Part Two:My Dairy-free Journey

Going Dairy-Free (DF) – Part Two: My Dairy-free Journey

The day my fourth child was born, I took a long swig of my milky tea, swirled it around in my mouth, savored it and then tipped the rest out. Three of my four children had so far been intolerant to dairy and it was a fair bet that my new daughter would be too.

All the Stories Matter: Eyes Wide Open

Eyes Wide Open

Inspiration:

http://storybird.com/iluv/artwork/12-oclock/

 

Mummy:

The sunlight tiptoed through the cracks in the blinds and across the floor into the bedroom, where it gently shook the sleeping mother awake. Her eyes fluttered slowly, taking in her surroundings. She pulled the plump freshly laundered duvet up around her ears for one last goodbye snuggle before sitting up. Reaching over to her husband’s side and grasping empty bed, she instead pinched his pillow. It was quickly folded and shoved behind to prop herself up.

Five-minute Friday - Together

  

I'm joining up with a writing group over at Lisa- Jo Baker's called Five-Minute Friday where the idea is to write for five minutes flat on a prompt posted on her blog.

  

It’s time to silence the inner critic.

It’s time to hush the voice that whines on and on about how you’re no good.

It’s time to cram out the distractions and excuses and take pen to paper, keyboard to screen and write.

This week’s prompt is “Together”

Start

I can see it beginning already. There is a fiery independence in her eyes, in the way she looks at me with just a touch of disdain when my request takes her away from that all too important task she is undertaking. 

Our Together is not forever. 

She is going to move out some day. Sure, her bags are long from packed; she still needs me to help tie her shoes, but our Together is all too limited.  She is beginning to want to find her own way in the world. She doesn’t want Together with me right now. She wants to spend time with her friends, instead of her mother. She is trying out new found powers of negotiation, and beginning to see how her words can control and influence, uplift and encourage. I reach out and find myself rebuffed; a year ago that never would have happened. 

But for now we are Together, albeit a brief moment in time, in those precious moments before bed when she is tucked up safely, protected from wearies of life and love and expectations. In those precious moments, where she again reaches for me and my loving arms. Each day more and more, I need to grab Together with both hands and clasp it tightly. Together is a precious, non-renewable resource and each drop must be savored, appreciated and drained completely.

Stop

All the Stories Matter: Illumination

Illumination

 Inspiration:

"Proud to Be" By Marias Ideas

Mummy: 

Click, click, click. “Over here sir” The photographers just couldn’t get enough of him. Since the surprise success of his first movie, he had been reveling in the attention that sudden fame had brought with it. They slowly walked the plush red carpet, stopping to pose every few paces. With every step his shoulders pulled back a little further, his head a little higher. He was positively strutting.  The grey streaks in his hair gleamed silver in the flashes and his normally green eyes were oily deep black pools, matching his black tails. The cobalt blue velvet of his vest seemed like downy feathers and she could barely restrain herself from reaching out and touching it in amazement. So unlike anything he would have worn previously. He looked radiant in his finery, his proud headdress fittingly exotic for a masquerade ball. He raised his feathered mask to his face, and she no longer recognized him. 

Going Dairy-Free (DF) – Part One: The Essentials

Going Dairy-Free (DF) – Part One: The Essentials

If you are at your wits end with a breastfed baby that is uncomfortable and gassy, fussy, has reflux or spills excessively, there is a good chance that cutting dairy from your diet may help reduce your baby’s discomfort.  Does the thought frighten you? I want to let you know that going dairy-free can actually be quite simple, you don’t need to miss out on the food comforts you rely on, and that the improvements may very well be worth the effort.

Five-minute Friday - Laundry

  

Today I'm joining up with a writing group over at Lisa- Jo Baker's called Five-Minute Friday where the idea is to write for five minutes flat on a prompt posted on her blog.

  

It’s time to silence the inner critic.

It’s time to hush the voice that whines on and on about how you’re no good.

It’s time to cram out the distractions and excuses and take pen to paper, keyboard to screen and write.

This week’s prompt is “Laundry.”

Start

Today I should be doing laundry. I should be feeding the ravenous metal monster that is never satisfied. I should be controlling that mutating, growing pile in the corner. I should also be cleaning the dishes that have accumulated in my much less than immaculate kitchen. I should have been doing 101 other things that will still be there tomorrow whether I do them today or not.

Belief (#captureyourgrief)

The CAPTURE YOUR GRIEF Photographic Challenge from CarlyMarie Project Heal is part of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month – October 2013 and I am making it more personal for me by taking a photo and then using it to create a short story. - See more at: http://www.thisisawand.com/search/label/%23captureyourgrief#sthash.MAmYkr59.dpuf

The CAPTURE YOUR GRIEF Photographic Challenge from CarlyMarie Project Heal is part of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month – October 2013 and I am making it more personal for me by taking a photo and then using it to create a short story. - See more at: http://www.thisisawand.com/search/label/%23captureyourgrief#sthash.MAmYkr59.dpuf

Belief

The little fairy figurine sat pride of place in the shop window, amongst cheap molded plastic and soft toys that had seen better days. The harsh fluorescent lights did her no favors, hiding her true beauty under a white unforgiving glare, but if you looked closely you could still see she was a treasure. The fine porcelain had a luminescent quality, no matter the light source and the deftly sculpted features were delicate and ethereal. This led weight to the belief that the fairy had not been fashioned by hurried hands in substandard buildings in far off lands, but instead born from a marriage of cautiously measured exotic ingredients and whispered words of power.  When seen from the corner of an eye, the delicate wings seemed to flitter for a moment. The miniature wand was large with untapped promise, of wishes and spells asking to be fulfilled if only someone would believe enough. The fairy’s dress was the exactitude of a white calla lily, so vital and alive until you reached to caress it only to find it hard and cold. Whatever force was keeping her so imprisoned was unseen, and at any moment it seemed as though the spell could break and she would leave, flying out the door to wherever she was needed most. In plain sight of the girls and boys that ran past each day busy with important tasks such as spending their last two dollars on lollies or buying a card for their mother’s birthday, the fairy waited.