Mother's Day inspirations

Things I love about being a Mum:

• The feeling of pride as my son surprises me with a new thought or learning.
• The warmth of his cuddles as he squeezes me.
• The joy I feel when planning special games or activities to share with him that I know we'll both enjoy.
• Having him sit o the counter while we bake together.
• Hearing the stories from his day.
• Knowing I've done something right when I might be feeling upset or stressed and he spontaneously cuddles me and lightly pats me on the back. 
• The look of absolute love he gives me. 

I don't think I can write down all the joys of being a Mother. I know I can complain about the hardness at times, but I would go through it again in an instant knowing there are so many amazing moments of joy that come with parenthood. I have changed more than I expected since becoming a Mummy. I may have lost personal time and irresponsibility, but I have gained strength, wisdom, courage and a love which cannot be explained or described.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums out there. Enjoy the beautiful day you deserve!

Early morning rise

This morning I woke up at 4.30am when my son called out from his room. I was daft and checked the time before I went in, which meant as soon as I got back to bed, I knew it was almost time to get up and my head didn't let me go back to sleep. I started thinking about all the meetings I have on today, then about some of the projects I have at work, then about what we're doing for Mother's Day, then I checked Facebook and Instagram (surprisingly not many updates from last night). Then I started asking myself if I should just get up and if I did get up, what I could do... This all feels less crazy when I'm lying there in these moments than it does writing it out now. Anyway, I remembered a recipe I found the other week for a sticky bun. It takes about 20 minutes prep time, an hour to rise and then about 30 minutes to bake. I didn't have the time last week, however being awake so early this morning and knowing I'm leaving for work a bit later today, I thought "why not get up now and make that bun!". So, I did. And here it is in it's gooey, warm, goodness! YUM. Hope your breakfast was as delicious ;-).

Something sweet to celebrate Mum

Last weekend, I asked Mum what she wanted for Mother's Day. As always, her response was "Don't buy me anything." We all know that you MUST get something though, and why shouldn't you. Being a Mum myself now, I can understand all the stress and craziness Mums go through and they deserve a day to be celebrated. So, with that in mind I wanted to make something special for my Mum.

We've put Mum through a lot over the years. I don't think you could call us bad kids, we just knew how to "work" Mum and played her... shortcomings. She's the smallest in our family but she moves fast. I like to think she shuffles around the house because she walks fast and does everything quickly. She's also the most prone to stress, so we've used that to our advantage. I remember we'd all gang up on her at the dinner table most nights and tease her so much that you could see the stress starting to build. Then there were the teenage years, which are awful for all parents. I remember having huge fights with Mum, probably over something extremely trivial, and sulking in my room. The sucker my Mum is would always come up to apologise. I'd ignore her and be awful until she felt so bad that she generally back-flipped on whatever we were fighting about.

My Mum is an amazing women. Along with my Dad, she raised 3 children while working full time, getting to the top of her field and being completely respected (and I hear from some people, feared) by her colleagues. My Mum is my role model. Thanks for everything Mum, enjoy the tart!