New Blog Posts - 16th to 22nd October

[ScatCatShoo]

I am taking advantage of being 7 hours behind GMT to start this week's new blog posts :)

Starting with my comforting, yet decadent Chunky Vegetable Chili with Dark Chocolate

Perfect for a chilly autum evening meal and it was a huge hit with both the adults and the kid in my house. I hope you all enjoy it as well.

Looking forward to your blog posts everyone!

[BsDad]

My early advantage is that my children have no concept of a Sunday lie in! This week I am sharing a letter I wrote in application for a blue badge...

autisticson.wordpress.com/

[GraceWhoIsTired]

Will have to try that chilli... though am munching on my bran flakes just now. And great that you got the blue badge. I've known others people with less obviously mobility-limiting disabilities have to really fight for theirs...

I've been blogging about tiredness, and the new obesity strategy Don't seem to be getting many hits at all just now, but suppose it's just the starting out.

I'm @bloggingtired on twitter though now...

[MmeGuillotine]

Oh excellent - I'm always looking for new chilli recipes as we seem to eat it a lot here. It's an easy vegan fall back. :)

Today's blog post is a short story about the execution of Marie Antoinette, which happened on this day in 1793. Er, enjoy..?

[MonkeyMc]

This week Baby Lucie has been rocking some Autumn looks and getting snuggly with chunky knits... thebabywearsprada.blogspot.com/ we do a post almost every day, although today could be a 'day off' been as we are both still in our pajamas!

Liz x
@babywearsprada

P.S That chilli sounds yum! Great news re the blue badge and I'm feeling surprisingly chipper today even with the extreme tiredness that comes with a teething baby... yawn (def staying in pjs...) x

[PetiteRaleuse]

Marking my place for later.

[MmeGuillotine]

And finally for today, a post about my huge love for Oscar Wilde.

[FlamingoBingo]

Free Your Parenting's hand-picked parenting links from the blogosphere this week :)

[PetiteRaleuse]

MmeG Reading stuff on M-A (now you've got me hooked) makes me want to go back to Versailles - I lived there (not in the palace of course but nearby) for 2 years many years ago, and, can you believe it, although I went running in the grounds regularly, only visited the palace once (and only one wing as I couldn't afford the full ticket!) It's a great town to live in though

MonkeyMc cute pictures and you're putting me and DD to shame - she spends most of her life in PJs

ScatCat that looks yum. I'm getting so many ideas from the food blogs on here.

[DeliriousTante]

Marking place

[Amodmillymum]

Women drivers crusing out of control

[CoffeeMummy]

Hello folks - new blog post after a week away in England visiting my new niece!

It's here - www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8907236714157731475#editor/target=post;postID=1333234885589681485

[MmeGuillotine]

I love Versailles. I try to spend as much time as possible in the town when I go - it's really lovely. :)

[Amodmillymum]

PS: tomorrow In The Powder Room I am about to declare that I like to have sex with men who are well hung. #to post here or not to post here - that is the question?

[SallyDon]

Just posted a letter to my 16 year old self, as inspired by the article in yesterday's Observer magazine.

www.sallydonovan.net/2011/10/16/a-letter-to-my?-year-old-self

[SallyDon]

Got the link wrong

www.sallydonovan.net/2011/10/16/a-letter-to-my-16-year-old-self/

I eat lots of quinoa and have never met anyone else who has tried it, am I not a total food loser then? I shall certainly be reading those lovely sounding recipes, especially as I am quite cross with Hugh FW 'ooh I'm going on the most amazing adventure, I'm not going to be eating anything other than vegetables for, well, quite a long time blah blah'. It's not an 'adventure' Hugh, some of us actually live like that, like all the time.

Possible future posting subject?

[Kittylenz]

Latest post from..And PND Makes Three

pndandme-notsoyummymummy.blogspot.com/


Raisins Can Talk

The key to mental well being is the top secret fact that raisins squeak when you squeeze them. Try it. Perform this operation in public for maximum effect: Take a raisin and place it veeerrrry close to your ear. Squeeze it veeerrrry gently between your fingers.....Listen veeerrry carefully......Did you hear it?....Try it again.....Hear it this time?.....You did, didn?t you? That little dried morsel whispered a teeny tiny squeak at you, didn?t he? Now, chuckle smugly to yourself as you observe ignorant onlookers gaze in awe and confusion. Welcome thee to a brand new era, for your life has irrevocably altered.

That?ll be £350, please.

Let me explain. I?ve been reminded of this allegedly revelatory information by recent events. We?ve just got back from a much-needed mini-break and yet I'm still feeling stupidly low. We stayed in a hotel which was extremely child friendly - they COOK for your child and provide everything from BIBS to VALIUM (ahem) and they CLEAN UP and they don?t give you evils when your child banshee-screams the elegant period house down over not being able to skin the resident dog. It should?ve been perfect and superficially it was. We merry three laughed a lot. We cuddled a lot. We put our son in the creche a lot. We had family time without having to constantly forward think or plan what to do next or cook next etc. etc. I actually didn?t once gaze yearningly at the clock begging it to go bloody faster when 6 o?clock zimmer-framed its way towards us. BUT, in my twisted world, holidays are just another good excuse to roll around in a muddy puddle of guilt....did I enjoy the holiday enough; did I properly feel it; was I properly there; did I really absorb every minute? I have this real problem with living ?in the moment? - I seem to float above what?s happening. I can?t stop my brain worrying or being distracted or just feeling absent. I spend most of my time angsting about how soon the holiday will be OVER...even on the first day.

Anyway, I know this lack of engagement or present-tensedness can be a symptom of depression and have tried various methods from yoga to meditation to try to tether my floating thoughts. After a couple of classes contemplating how distressingly close to the floor my stomach was hanging during the Downward Dog or repeating ?bored, bored, bored, bored...shit, focus.....bored, bored,bored...I?m SHIT at this? to myself, I?d sheepishly sneak off never to darken the doors of enlightenment again. Deciding that my main issue was lack of commitment, I invested THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS in a ?mindfulness? course. It taught a method called Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which uses a mixture of active and not so active meditations and CBT. To cut a long, frustrating story short, I missed most of the classes because either my son was ill, I was ill, my husband-to-be was working late, or I was too depressed....oh...and because I turn into a belligerent, giggly teenager in the presence of any form of authority or any school-like context. Basically, my conclusion was that I?d benefit more from sleep than trying to meditate any day. During the few classes I did manage to attend, however, I learnt that Cockoomba is an often sadly neglected alternative pronunciation for Cucumber (according to our unidentifiably-accented teacher) and the aforementioned fascinating raisin fact. (The raisin lesson came when we were trying to learn to focus on our senses again, rather than just ruminating continuously.)

I was also recommended a very useful book, The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness. Despite its annoyingly hippy-shit title, it?s about mindfulness techniques based on solid scientific research. Some of them can prove pretty handy. I think they?re useful if you?re at the stage where you?ve pulled yourself up from the floor onto your knees, but if you?re still entirely horizontal, you may find it hard to find the mental strength to be bothered. I might go into more details of useful mindful stuff in later posts if I can find a way to make it sound less annoyingly preachy and nobby. But, for now...In short, raisins can talk. That is all.

[SaltAndCaramelMmeLindor]

Marking place for tomorrow.

Reading marathon needed I think.

[PetiteRaleuse]

Sorry to all if this offends but I've been holding it in for ages.

[PetiteRaleuse]

MmeG I loved Versailles too - it's the best place to live and the market rocks. It's the only thing I miss about the whole Paris region.

If I ever return to work in Paris it is tehre I will live.

[MmeGuillotine]

It is lovely. I'm going to be spending a few days there in the new year as part of my 'research' and am looking forward to it very much! :)

[FlamingoBingo]

How it can feel to lose faith in your milk supply

Petite - ashamed to say I never knew about him, myself, but haven't been any more interested in Job's death either so...

[PetiteRaleuse]

MmeG just before I left they opened up the old stables in front of the palace and they do some great shows and you can tour the stables. I don't know if they still do it but if you get the opportunity you might enjoy it.

FB I hadn't heard of him either until he was mentioned on a science documentary this weekend. No need to feel ashamed that's not why I wrote the piece...

That's a really good post you just wrote by the way. It's so sad to hear the words 'failure' and 'guilt' so often, even on the MN boards. People feelingthey have failed at feeding, failed at childbirth for having pain relief or a CS, failure at conception, guilt at miscarriages. It's really sad that society makes women feel this way.

[butterflyexperience]

My mumsnet Interview is live!

thebutterflyexperience.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/mumsnet-interview-is-live/

[mummybiz]

fivekidsandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/10/even-god-hates-wall-street.html explain corporate greed to a five year old !! latest post - some vlogging on blog too :)