Day 15

What are you scared of?

Long story short; I’m scared of a lot of things. Who isn’t? (Don’t answer that if you aren’t scared of anything at all).

Besides sharks, another reason I barely swim at the beach anymore is that I’m scared of touching the floor. You see I think too much sometimes. What if there are stingrays around and I accidentally step on its barb? What if Freddy Kruger is waiting to grab my foot? What if a shark thinks I look like a seal? Im not joking about the stingrays either either my beach does have them. And probably sharks too. There are signs that tell you to shuffle your feet for them.

If I do work up the courage to go for a dip and the tiniest bit of sea weed touches my leg, I’m out in less than 5 seconds. I don’t stuff around.

It’s funny to think that as a child I loved the beach and the sea. I spent hours and hours at the beach or jumping off our local wharf into the harbour on hot arvos after school. Ahh…what happened? Why did I have to become so scared of everything haha.

Day 14

A weird food that I like

Pregnancy threw all types of different cravings at me (after the 22 weeks of morning sickness). Even things I didn’t usually like eating like gerkins.

But one of the weirdest things that I craved was raw broccoli. And I still eat it.

I was just cooking dinner one night and the raw broccoli smelt so good that I had to taste it raw. Now whenever there is raw broccoli around, you’ll catch me saving a good lot to snack on while I cook or whatever.

It’s actually probably not that weird but whenever I tell people they just look at me like “what bananas have you been eating lady?”

And I do believe that what you eat during pregnancy plays a role in shaping your baby’s preferences on what they eat. I’ve read it some where before. Not entirely but a little bit.

When I was pregnant I ate a lot of bananas, chicken, cheese and greens. My toddler can be picky with what she eats. Totally normal. But if she doesn’t eat anything and I give her cheese, chicken or a little branch of COOKED broccoli, she’s all dandy. She was a big fan of bananas for a long time but nope not anymore.

I also ate lots of strawberries and melons but she’s never been a fan like ever. I think she find strawberries to be too sour.

 

Anyway, wow, that’s a good ramble.

Oh. And here are a couple of articles about what you eat during pregnancy having a effect on your baby’s food preference later on. Interesting stuff.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/08/139033757/babys-palate-and-food-memories-shaped-before-birth

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/apr/08/child-food-preferences-womb-pregnancy-foetus-taste-flavours

Twitter

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @francesmacleay. Tweet me and I’ll happily follow you back 😊

Day 13

A photo of my family

I have a lot of favourite photos but this one is high up. I took it in November last year.

This is my beautiful family. My daughter has grown sooo much (as they do) since this photo – it’s unbelievable!

 

Day 12

My pets

At the moment we live a small apartment block and we don’t have any pets. Unless we got a small fish, I would feel extremely guilty keeping a pet while living here.

Growing up I was lucky enough to have a few pets. My first dog was a Pomeranian-Jack Russell and her name was Annie. She was a tan colour and very cute. She followed me everywhere.

Then when we moved to a farm in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, there was a paddock next door with horses. I would go over to the fence and talk to them and pat them. I told my dad I wanted a pony. He bought me a pony. I named him Jockey. Jockey and Annie were my bestfriends. My Jockey was blind in one eye.

While my dad was doing things around the farm, I’d sit on Jockey and he would walk around the farm munching grass. Sometimes I’d fall asleep on Jockey and wake up in a totally different area on the farm. I miss Jockey and Annie.

Then the last pet I had was a handsome cat called Luca. He was black all over. He was cool. I miss him dearly too.

Thinking about my pets now, I don’t know if I’d be able to have another pet. I’d love to rescue one (or all of them if I could!). And as much as Id love to have a pet and their companionship I feel sad at the thought that one day they won’t be here with us. 

If you’re thinking of getting a pet I highly recommend recommend rescuing one if you can 😊

Heartbreaking tragedy

A few days ago I read a news article via my Facebook and ever since its really stuck with me. I know there are already a few news articles out there but I decided that I wanted to write this post as a bit of a tribute to this lady and her son and to raise awareness.

On Thursday night, 25year old Jasmine Riley, wrote a devastating farewell message on Facebook. Jasmine was the mother to her 2 year old son Braxon. She was also a horse trainer.

That night it was her fathers birthday and Good Friday was the day that he had passed away. She wrote a tribute to her father and her horse that had recently passed away. She also wrote about being the victim of domestic violence and continued on to say “This would come as a shock to most people because I’m always happy and smiling. It’s funny how much you can hide behind a smile”.

While she was writing that status she was sitting at the top of the cliffs at Maroubra Beach with beautiful Braxon in her arms. And only minutes after posting it she jumped off with him.

Maroubra beach isn’t far from where I live. I wish I could have sat with her to try and talk her out of it like Don ‘The Angel of the Gap’ would have. I wish her beautiful innocent son didn’t get caught up in this. I wish she hadn’t suffered with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for so long all alone. I wish that she had got the help she needed. She had suicidal thoughts that she never told anyone about. She said they were like standing in a pond of leeches “you pull one off and another 10 jump on”.

I don’t think for a second that this woman was weak. What happened was absolutely tragic. It breaks my heart. And I don’t think that Braxon deserved to have been taken away. But I think that Jasmine had fought so hard and she had sadly lost hope.

I know that this is a very sensitive topic for some and I hope not to offend anyone with my post. Its is hard for me to write about but I feel that it is important for you to know that these types of things do happen. I lost a friend to suicide a few years ago.

Domestic violence does happen. It changes people. Depression is real. PTSD is real. Mental illness is real.

Please look out for your family and friends. If you notice something, speak up for them.
If you need help right now please contact Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14.

Written in memory of Braxon, Jasmine and my girl Mel. Rest in Peace angels ~ fly high.

 

  

Day 11

Music taste

When people ask me “so what type of music do you like listening to?” I find it a pretty hard question to answer. 

One day I’ll be singing along to Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Jimmy Hendrix. Then the next day I’ll be getting all gangster with N.W.A. 

If you went through my iPod, you would find: Beyonce, Selena Gomez, UB40, Bob Marley, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The White Stripes, Kasabian, the Kaiser Chiefs, Mumford and Sons, Bring Me the Horizon, Nina Hagen, Biggie, Lauren Hill…the list goes on and on.

The music I listen to depends in what I’m doing or how I’m feeling; if I’m cleaning my place sounds like a nightclub and if I’m pissed off then its rap haha. 

Sometimes I listen to music in a totally random language and try to learn all the words.

I’m crazy. I know. 

Anyone else have a crazy music taste?

The Quiet Corner

Happy Easter lovely readers!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed yourselves this weekend. 

My family and I have certainly had a good one. We attended our local Easter Show and went for a swim at the beach after. It wasn’t too busy which was a nice change. 

You may have noticed I haven’t been around much these past few days. I don’t think my writing is interesting enough (yet?) for you to have missed but I’ve been slack and I acknowledge that.

I’m hoping to find the time to post more this week! 

Care to share what you got up to for the Easter Weekend?

Day 10

My most proud moment.

This makes me happy that I chose to do this 30 day challenge because it makes me think of things I don’t usually think about.

Every day I feel extremely proud of my daughter. She is constantly learning new things and amazes me.

Ive had many proud moments in life but I would say my most proud moment would be when I first breastfed my daughter as a newborn.

Before having my daughter I knew I wanted to breastfeed but I always thought it was going to be hard. I was told it would be hard. I didn’t know if or how long Id able to breastfeed. I didn’t do my research on breastfeeding at all during pregnancy (something I would recommend to expecting mothers if you can) and I had no idea about the 4th trimester or cluster feeding.

The first time she latched on I was over the moon. I remember looking at her and saying out loud “I love being a mum and breastfeeding”.

That is by far my proudest moment.

 

Day 8

Piercings & Tattoos

 

I had my ears pierced multiple times when I was a kid because I kept taking my earring out and losing them. Then as a teenager I re pierced them myself in class.

 

During my teenage years, I also decided it would be a great idea to go and get my tongue pierced after school one afternoon. I had an English speech later that week too so getting my tongue pierced was a really smart idea (insert sarcasm).

 

The swelling. Oh gosh. My tongue was the size of my mouth for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t talk properly. And I had to do a speech. As if I wasn’t nervous enough already! My marks weren’t too bad though lol I passed so I was happy.

During those teen years I also thought it would be a great idea to draw my own tattoo and let a friend tattoo it on my wrist. Yup. Still there today. Some days I like it and others I don’t.

I’d love a few more tattoos. And one day I will have them.