Single Parents Are Amazing

[ source ]

Luke & I moved back to Newcastle from the Central Coast two weeks ago, & for the majority of that time Luke has still been staying at the Coast finishing up at his old work. I've mentioned before that our move was sudden because finding a house was quite difficult at this time of year because there are lots of people relocating for school & work, so the rental market gets quite competitive. So we didn't have a moving date set in stone for Luke to give his notice, so he handed it in when we moved and agreed to stay an extra week so the head chef could take his holidays. Which was nice for his head chef, but extremely annoying for me! I wasn't too worried about being by myself for two weeks with Romy, I spend the majority of my time with her alone while Luke is at work anyway. However, Luke does the morning bath routine while I get ready for the day, & then in the afternoons I get an hour to catch up on some stuff during his afternoon break. Which make my days run smoothly, and now that our routine has changed significantly and I am doing everything by myself, it is dawning on me just how amazing single parents are!

I don't want to offend anyone reading this and compare our situations, because they are completely different, but this time by myself has been an inspiring, personal challenge. Those single parents that do this day in and day out are just amazing! It can be extremely challenging raising a baby on the best of days, even when I have Luke to come home and relieve me of my parental responsibilities so I can run some errands in the afternoon. But to not have that, & then to be solely responsible 100% of the time for your child's every waking need, making meals, looking after yourself and maintaining a household - I don't know how you guys do it! I am normally a bit of a night owl & use my evenings to do things like drawing, making things, blogging, reading & watching box sets, but the past week or so I've been calling it a day not long after Romy goes to sleep. Aside from my week in hospital last year, I can't even remember a time where I consecutively went to bed earlier than 9 pm. 

I really shouldn't complain too much though, because while this time alone has been a challenge, & it has also been a much needed personal challenge. Before we moved I rarely made meals because I'm not too sharp in the kitchen & Luke is a chef, so if I wanted to try something Luke would happily make it for me. This was something I wanted to work on post-move & I definitely have made a start on my culinary skills & feel confident to try our new things with an open mind rather than chalking it down to 'I can't cook!'. On Luke's rostered days off he has been coming to Newcastle & this week I even made him dinner for a change without any of his help & it felt really good to be able to put together a proper meal that I used a recipe for. A couple of years ago I read somewhere that you should always try & take something from each situation you find yourself in, & I definitely feel that these past couple of weeks have been a reminder that I need to stop relying on other people so much & work on becoming more independent. 

A Little Blogging Rant

When I first started this blog over two years ago, I blogged to an audience of under ten for the first six or so months. As defeating as it was at first, those initial months writing and sharing my daily adventures on this space were really fun. At that point I only really followed a couple of blogs myself and didn't realise that there was such a thing as 'professional' or 'life style' bloggers. Let alone bloggers that made money off of their personal blogs, and for some was a full time job. It was an oddly enticing little universe to become a part of. My first few readers were people I knew personally, and a couple of random lurkers, I didn't know how to get my blog out there or really how to find blogs. The first blog I came across was Sometimes Sweet while I was googling tattoo ideas in an image search. After months of reading it I started my first blog, that has since been deleted, & started to add more blogs to my bookmarks menu. The following year I started Tastes Like Love as a way to motivate myself into being more creative. I wanted a space I could share my illustrations and little bits and pieces of my everyday life and interests on and blogging was the perfect method in which to do so. 

It took me a while to hop on the button swap wagon, and when I did that was when I started to have friendly interaction with other bloggers over this weird little hobby. I also found so many new and exciting blogs to read, and they really inspired my own blogging style and content. It was a whole other different kind of internet universe. Some people find it odd to read about other peoples lives that you have never met or been a part of personally, but it has never struck me as odd and I think that is why I find blogging fun & interesting. I like to read little updates on peoples lives, and see the different styles of fashion in different parts of the world rather than seeing the glazed over, air brushed ad campaign version in a magazine. I have discovered a lot of really neat tv series, movies, bands, online stores and meal ideas through reading blogs. 

There has been days that I've woken up in a really uninspired mood where I struggle to achieve anything productive, and have had a complete turn around after reading how much some bloggers fit into their days. At first blogging was a hobby to motivate me, but overtime has become a part of my day to day life. I've been reading some of your blogs for a couple of years now that I get excited to read updates about Felicity's new blog design business & her latest designs, or read about Peta's new addition to her family. My reading blog list has dwindled over the last couple of months (along with my spare time), as my interests have changed. I used to read all kinds of blogs from all different ages but now that I have Romy, I try to make the very little guilt free spare time I have to read blogs count by sticking to blogs I can most relate to. Fashion based blogs are no longer relevant to me as I would much prefer to read about the trials and tribulations of a first time 'mummy blogger' or indie business bloggers.

I have definitely had days where I have wanted to delete this blog and find something else to occupy my time with, but I am glad that I have kept up this hobby as I have a catalogue of memories to look back through if I choose to.