The F word ... Forgivness

Forgiveness, lets face it we all struggle with it! Why? Because forgiveness is a tricky thing, something I refer to as the other F word,.. why.... because it's so damn hard to do...most of the time. I find forgiving things I see as smaller injustices or offences so much easier to forgive then ones that I see as bigger.

The act of forgiveness has gotten so messed up though. Most people think forgiveness is about excusing the behaviour of the person who wronged you, letting them off the hook for the hurt they have caused... that's how I viewed forgiveness for a long time anyway. I refused to forgive people..why should they be able to get away with the horrible things they have said and done? Why should I forgive them and let them feel better when I feel so much pain? Forgiveness and my lack of being able to do so really messed me up for a long time. I harboured vengeful thoughts towards those who had wronged me and was often consumed with anger, hurt and even hate towards people. Unforgiveness created a darkness in me...now I realise that may sound strange but that is the only way I can describe it. When I thought of a particular person or event that had caused considerable pain or damage to me I felt all these negative emotions welling up inside of me, taking over any good or positive feeling I was having at the time. My heart grew hard and I wished that who ever had hurt or offended me would experience the same pain... justice I would defend these thoughts with!

It wasn't until a couple of years ago I really grasped just how freeing forgiveness can be. I knew that as a Christian it (The F word) was something I was expected to do,something God does everyday and something I should be willing to offer to others the same way he does. However I am NOT God and I lack his compassion and understanding so forgiveness even though I was and am a Christian continued to be a struggle. It wasn't until talking some of these emotions out with a trusted advisor and really feeling the need to get rid of these dark and revenge filled thoughts that the forgiveness picture began to become clearer.

Forgiveness isn't about the other person, letting them off the hook, forgiveness is about ME!!! Letting myself off the hook. Being able to let go of all the anger, hurt and mis-trust I was holding against people for offences that had happened so long ago. Offences that they have probably not even given a second thought to. Those actions were eating ME up not them and so I had to let go. Letting go and forgiving was not an easy thing to do and sometimes the process of forgiveness had to be done over and over till I really began to feel a change in my heart. It took a long time to work through lots of pain that I had been carrying around. And even now forgiveness is not something that comes naturally to me, however I know how much better I feel when I have forgiven someone so it is something I continue to work on, wanting to get better at it.

I have learnt that it is not my place to deal out the justice ( a very long and difficult journey to get to that point mind you) Forgiveness for me has become so freeing, I no longer have to carry the weight of pain and anger towards people, I am free. Forgiving doesn't always mean forgetting, or allowing the same person to continue to hurt me, boundaries have been put in place in certain circumstances and some people although forgiven are no longer part of my life. Forgiving doesn't mean excusing what the person/s did wrong but it is allowing myself to acknowledge the hurt and hand it on to God to deal with (I believe he will do a far better job with the dealing of justice then I could ever do) Sometimes I don't want to forgive I want to feel angry and annoyed about a situation or person and every now and then I do find myself plotting scenarios in my head on things that could happen in return for my pain, (muwhahahaha Dr Evil laugh) but in the end I know that this is wrong. It's really not the type of woman I want to be. I want to be free of anger and hate as much as I possibly can be, I don't want to be weighed down by the burden of unforgiveness. No this does not give people permission to treat me like a door mat and whilst I will forgive you for your actions if they continue I will not allow you to be a part of my life, because I deserve better. However I know that I can walk away from the relationship without holding onto pain and hate because I choose to hand these over.

So big shocker I am not perfect, yes I still struggle to forgive, even more of a struggle is asking to be forgiven when I know I have stuffed up (but that's a whole different post) The forgiveness process is sometimes a daily process for me, but it is something I want to continue to work on, so I can continue to grow and be the woman I was meant to be, free of hate and anger a strong woman with a soft heart!

Vagina Verses Vulva

So this post may be a little confronting for some of you and you may want to walk away, but given the title of this post I am guessing you already know it has to do with vagina's and the various names we refer to them as.

As a mum of two daughters I recently decided to teach my daughters (more so my almost 2 year old) the proper name for her body parts,especially her genitalia. I have a varied circle of friends all who use various names in reference to their female "bits" and I had heard one friend in particular who is the mum of 2 young girls teaching her daughters to refer to their personal female parts as a vulva... now this was really confronting to me, I had not readily heard this female body part refered to as a vulva, usually woman including myself call it a vagina. The word vulva seem so foreign to me and to be honest a little bizarre, to hear this 3 year girl mention she had wiped her vulva after going to the toilet was totally odd to my way of thinking. "why on earth is she calling her vagina a vulva?" I asked my friend...as is always the case with this particular friend I got the most simple and straight forward answer "uummm cause that's what it is".... I went home a little mystified, why a vulva why not call it a vagina.. well the more I thought on it the more it made sense to me.

I want my kids to be able to correctly identify their body parts and the vagina is the inside part of the female gentiles, the vulva is the outside. I want my kids to be able to tell me if they have a particular pain where it is, and to just say my vagina hurts isn't good enough. Also especially as my eldest daughter is growing into a young lady now heading towards turning 12 years old next year, I don't want her using these cutsie name like foo foo or daisy, or names that objectifies or sexualise her body parts, yes the vagina is used for sex but it is also that amazing delivery channel that babies are birthed through and I don't want for our girls to grow up thinking that their vagina's are only there for sex, because of the sexual names society gives them.... am I over thinking this,... well you may think so but for me I think it is really important for my daughters and myself to know our bodies and the correct terms and usage for our various parts.

Intergrating the word vulva into our vocabulary has been interesting, we get some strange looks from people who might be about during a nappy change of our daughter and no doubt some of you reading this are probably thinking this woman is a nutcase (and that's OK I am a nutcase who knows I have a vulva and a vagina lol)we have started teaching Miss O with each nappy change where her vulva is and she now very proudly points to it and says "bulva" (she will be 2 in March next year so we think bulva is a pretty good pronunciation at this point)once her baby powder is sprinkled on she also announces "bulva..nice" hehehe which I think is her way of saying she likes to have the powder put on each nappy change.

So in the debate (and when I say debate please don't take that to mean I sit around discussing vagina's and vulva's cause I don't I simply mean a discussion I have had with my husband and with myself on how important is this particular thing) of referring to our girls private body part as vulva or vagina, vulva wins, it's the proper name for that part and to quote my friend..."uummmm cause that's what it is", simple and straightforward. Of course what you call your own body is your choice so go ahead and use whatever name makes you comfortable but for the females in this house, we choose to use the word vulva.

I Don't like it, my opinion on FB and the I like it status updates

I have had enough, and I just have to have my say here, cause every time I get on Facebook it annoys me to be bombarded with stupid status updates, yes this is another blog post to add to the many out there on breast cancer and the I like it status updates on Facebook.
I don't know who's idea it was to start the whole "I like it" thing on Facebook, but gee it is getting really annoying to everyday see people put up I like it on the kitchen bench, I like it on the table etc etc.... Can someone please explain to me how saying where we like to put our handbag, under the guise of how we like our sexual positions helps raises awareness about breast cancer...ummmm these status updates don't even mention the words breast or cancer?????

Please tell me how sexualising someones handbag spot has anything to do with breast cancer? I don't get it? What am I missing here? Also why do we have to make it about sex anyways ohhh it's so funny woman like to have sex giggle giggle giggle...grow up it's not funny and doesn't raise any awareness about the terrible killer that is breast cancer.

As a woman who has been through 2 surgeries to have 4 lumps cut out of her breasts, I find it insulting! I have twice now had to go through the process of mammograms, needle biopsy's and then the waiting on results to find out if I have cancer or not.. I have been blessed twice to have negative results however the lumps I had still had to be removed, they were still dangerous as they were growing throughout my breast tissue, the surgery's were scary and painful and both my breasts are left scared. My dear Aunty Val passed away a few years ago after having both her breasts as well as lymph nodes removed, she beat the first lot of cancer after her surgery and suffering through terrible chemo, but was tragically struck with a secondary cancer and passed away. The whole handbag /sex position, I feel cheapens her memory and I don't like it at all.

So before you tell me again that you disagree with me and that telling the whole of Facebook land where you like to leave your handbag as a sexual position really does raise breast cancer awareness I think you should consider some alternatives...if you really want people to be aware of breast cancer or you want to actually do something proactive to support the cause then please host a girls night in for breast cancer research...get together with some of your girlfriends and put the money you would of spent on a night out towards cancer research. Make a personal donation, go spend time in a cancer ward, tell a woman who is going through chemo or surgeries how stunningly beautiful she truly is, how brave and strong she is,tell her what an inspiration she is!!!!!
As a society can't we PLEASE just stop making everything about sex, frankly it makes me sick to see something as serious as breast cancer being cheapened in such a gratuitous unnecessary way. I love my Aunty Val. I miss her everyday and I would much rather do something important and hold my head high knowing I am contributing to helping find a cure then splashing stupid status updates on Facebook.I think this would make her proud.

On October the 29th I am holding a girls night in, all money raised will be going to the breast cancer research foundation, if your interested in coming along for a great night or want to make a personal donation,contact me on this blog or my Facebook page, together lets get proactive and actually do something towards fighting the fight and raising some real awareness!

Real men do ballet.....rant of an angry mummy

So usually I am a calm blogger who thinks through carefully about what I am going to say/write because I like to express myself in a certain way but right now I am SO FRIGGING ANGRY I just have to blog and get this out of my system before my head explodes with annoyance and with the feelings of total gender injustice!!!

So as most of you know my gorgeous son Peter who is 5 has started ballet lessons, in fact he had his first lesson yesterday and if I do say so myself looked incredibly sweet in his dance pants and ballet shoes I was so proud of him. He has been asking/begging for dance lessons periodically for about 6 months and at first I resisted thinking he would grow out of it to quickly changing his mind the way he changes his undies and if I am being honest I would say I also resisted because I was afraid of what people would say about him having the lessons, but the more he asked for them the more I began to see that ballet was something he was very passionate about and when my eldest brother Adam (who is very much a mans man football player soccor coach etc etc) said to me "if he wants to dance let him dance who the hell cares as long as his happy, I will come and watch him dance" I felt it a turning point in my attitude he was right the most important thing was that Peter was/is happy and if dancing makes him happy so be it. We looked around and with the input of Aunty Lanii (the dance queen) have found a local place that is really good with a great reputation. Peter was incredibly excited about his lesson yesterday and for a boy who can be a bit shy when trying new things he took to it with ease and had a ball. I am so happy that HE is happy...

Well I was happy until I told my mother about his lessons and that we had gone ahead with them for him she laughed and in a somewhat sarcastic tone informed me that it was "no surprise" that Peter would be dancing, then I got told that "he isn't really a sporty person and he will probably change his mind anyway, maybe he will do tennis since he will never play football" OH MY GOD!!!!! I was SO angry!!!!

And maybe it seems like I am airing "family dirty laundry" but ya know what this is my blog and I am annoyed and I gotta say what I feel. YES Peter is a sensitive and feminine boy YES he cries easily and NO he doesn't like football or rough play He would prefer to do craft then kick a ball or wrestle this doesn't make him any less of a boy, for frig sake we are talking about a 5 year old here I really don't think that ballet dancing is going to "turn" him gay, if he is gay he is gay dancing won't make or change that and that is something we will have to work through and process with him when he is older but for now how about we just let the little guy be happy and frigging DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If he is teased at school by other boys or bully's he will have the confidence and conviction to stand up for himself knowing that it is HIS choice to dance and that he is allowed to be who he is and he has the right to do what makes him happy (as long as he isn't hurting anyone or himself) and not be some created image of what society thinks a man is supposed to be, here's a heads up men can cry and still be men, men can dance and still be men and men can treat woman with kindness and respect and still be men. I am raising little men not sheep!!! I am proud of my boy and his choice and am happy he is off the couch getting some healthy exercise and most importantly he is having FUN doing what makes him happy and as a parent how can I want anything less for him..Thus end the rant!!!!

We are weaners!!! End of the breastfeeding journey.

So as most of you who follow along here on my little blog know I have been a breastfeeding mum for over a year now (go me!!)You all know the internal battle I experienced to get to a place where I was comfortable and confident enough to actually even try breastfeeding with Olivia. It had been a bit of a battle but I am so proud of myself as I worked very hard on getting through my emotional reservations and issues with breastfeeding.

Olivia and I have enjoyed a fabulous time boobing away for the first 14 months of her life, however a month ago I started feeling the desire to reclaim my body, after two pregnancies very close together (and I DO mean very close there is only 4 months between my pregnancy with Mikey and my pregnancy with Olivia)and breastfeeding for 14 months I really felt like I was loosing myself a bit and wanted to reclaim my body..including my boobies.

I have had a wonderful and loving experience breastfeeding Livvy-bug and although it was originally my plan to feed her until she was 2 years old physically and emotionally I have gotten to a place where I feel I am done. Olivia was no longer at a stage of having a breastfeed for a meal, as a newborn would be solely dependant on milk for there food requirements Olivia eats a massive range of foods and was only having a big drink at night and popping on and off the boob during the day for quick drinks, it became (if I am being honest) a bit frustrating for me to literally have her attach for 35 seconds so after discussion with my amazingly supportive hubby we decided to end our breast feeding relationship. Extremely happy in the knowledge that I have given her a wonderful and healthy natural start during the past month we have transitioned or weaned off the breast and onto a bottle for night time and a sippy cup for during the day.
Olivia has taken to it with gusto and enthusiasm which has made the whole process very easy. Her big sister Malinda has enjoy being able to share cuddles and give Livvy her night time bottle sometimes this is such a lovely sight for us as their parents to see.

Olivia and I would like to thank everyone who has supported encouraged and given us advice and help during our breastfeeding relationship, especially Meegs Beer, Sarah Mac, Sazz Langford and my hubby, Liv's Daddy David who has been amazingly supportive as he and I both did the learning and journey of feeding our daughter together.

Busy blogger returns with a new address!

so I have been insanely busy the past couple of months and as such my beloved blog has become very neglected, to be honest I have really struggled to find the time to just sit and write... and even as I am typing this post I am attempting to keep one eye on Mr Mikey who is currently trying to help himself to the pantry.

So the big news for team Tredinnick and probably the biggest thing that has kept me away from blogging is real estate. We decided to sell our home and upgrade to a bigger house as our family of 6 had really begun to out grow our 4 bedroom house with no back yard that the kids could play in. I had been feeling guilty for some time that the children didn't have a safe area to play outside as the retainer walls had fallen down in our backyard and with a quote of $30,000 to fix them (something we just didn't have at the time) they were left all over the yard and the children have been forced to only play indoors unless visiting a park. Then a couple of months ago hubby completely shocked me by suggesting we get an agent round to value the house and get it on the selling market,... to be honest I was really surprised by this seemingly out of the blue suggestion as hubby is not known for his spontaneous decisions and usually most things require months of thought and planning if he is going to make a change (I was to later find out he had been thinking about selling the house on and off for almost 2 yrs, so this explained so called spontaneity hee hee) after meeting with a couple of agents we decided on one and got to the business of making the house tidy and presentable for sale...no small feat given 4 children who liked to undo all the cleaning almost as soon as it was done. The day came when we have the photo's done and put on the net and the house went on the market on a Sunday night, on Monday morning we had an agent ringing asking if they could bring someone through that afternoon, sure no prob thinking I could whisk the kids down to the park for a bit while the agent was there 45 Min's later another phone call from another agent saying they also had a client wanting to look at the house, ok so I am thinking maybe I will take the kids to Macca's. It now appeared I was going to be out of the house all afternoon, I was also wondering how I was going to deal with having to take the kids out in the cold all the time when people wanted to look through and even more worrying was how was I going to attempt to keep the house clean with the kids at home. That afternoon when hubby came to pick us up from Macca's we had a phone call from one of the agents saying that the person they had taken to see the house wanted to buy it!!!!! We were totally flabbergasted to say the least we went down to the agent saw the offer that was submitted and decided it was to good to pass up and we signed contracts that night! Yes we sold our home in 24 HOURS!! So that solved the issue of how was I going to maintain the spotlessness with 4 children.

We needed to find a new home a lot faster then we thought, opting for a 90 day settlement gave us a bit more time to search for our new home, which we found 2 weeks later. Our dream house as I call it is amazing: 5 bedrooms big big big lounge room/family room/kids play area lots of bench space in the kitchen plus a "good" room which is really a parents only lounge room YAY!! but the best thing is a beautiful big backyard with an undercover area for the kids to play in summer or winter, there is room for our trampoline, basketball hoop and some play equipment. We have indulged in some new furniture to help fill some of the space in the new house including new chaise lounge suite, complete new bedroom suite for Malinda and also new dresser and beside tables for us and a bookshelf for the lounge room. I feel so at ease here and the family all adjusted to the move really easily including the 2 babies who settled in with no fuss at all.

Although this move has been a blessing all the paper work, time spent waiting on approval for this or that and dealing with conveyances who are rude and don't return phone calls had made me realise I don't want to move again anytime soon, which is a good thing because we all love our new home so much I cant imagine moving out of here for a loooonng time yet! I have so enjoyed the past two days with the little bit on sunshine we have had here in cold cold Melbourne as I have been able to spend time with the 2 littlest Tredinnicks outside playing in our new backyard whilst the older 2 Tredinnick children have been at school. I can't wait for summer to hit so we can enjoy BBQ's,entertaining and most of all enjoy hearing the sound of children laughing as they play together outside in the sunshine.

Olivia turns one!

 Okay so I have been totally run off my feet with school holidays and 4 children so have had no chance to blog about recent events including Livvy's 1st birthday party, Easter and school holiday madness and since Meegs has been sooking about my lack of blogging I thought I would try to do a couple of posts over the next day or so.

 I will start with Olivia's birthday and her party.

We had an amazing day despite my stress a couple days before that no one would show up for her party. We were blessed by Kintara and Adam who gave us pretty much all our party's supply of plates, cups, napkins and bowls thanks again guys it was a huge help. The plates were in the shape of Ladybugs and the cups and smaller plates had pictures of ladybugs on them they were awesome and of course if you haven't picked up on the theme we had a ladybug party as this is one of Livvy's nicknames. Red and black balloons floated around the house as we organised the backyard and lounge rooms ready for the party.

 I had made Olivia a red tutu and sewn on black spots. I also made her a headband with antena on them to

complete her outfit... it turned out great if I do say so myself hee hee. Some of the party guests also dressed up as ladybugs or other types of bugs or beetles. There was Drew who looked awesome in his bumble bee costume (and is now forever nicknamed Mr

Drew-bee), Peter was a silvery dragonfly, as well as that there were some other ladybugs, butterflies and a very cute centepede. The effort everyone went to was awesome and all the kids looked great.

 We had our very special friend Lanii come and take some beautiful photos on her big expensive camera which was very generous of her and the photos look great - thank you Lanii for do that for us oxox. 

My mum made the birthday cake...which was a point of many conversations/arguments of differing artistc opinions but in the end we settled on a  design and she did an absolutely fantastic job, the cake made me cry and I could not bring myself to cut the ladybug part as I thought it to pretty. A fantastic result Thanks mum.

 Livvy-bug received some very beautiful presents for her birthday from all her guests but one that is very very special was handmade by her Godmother Megan for her. It is a beautiful blanket with brightly coloured patch work squares. Livvy managed to christen it in the first week of having it by doing a poop on it...it had since been washed and she cuddles up with it at night. A gorgeous present from a gorgeous lady.

 The party went off without a hitch lots of food and fun, pass the parcel and pin the tale on the donkey, free play and music. We all had an awesome day and want to say a massive thank you to all who came and celebrated Olivia's special day with us....I still cannot believe my baby is one time sure moves on.