When I started blogging in January 2006, I had 4 kids and I was juggling all the demands of being a mum with the need to find something just for me. Blogging helped to fill that gap, it gave me a creative outlet, a place to get things off my chest, a place to archive my many interests and a community of like minded women to bounce ideas off and to share the highs and lows of being a parent with.  I never imagined when I started out that 5 years later I would be juggling much much more than I could ever have imagined.

In the 5 years since A Juggling Mum was launched, my partner and I have had a 5th child, our eldest daughter Chloe has been diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes and Coeliac Disease and our youngest daughter Sophie has been recently diagnosed with Autism. Just when I think I have this whole parenting thing down, I’m thrown for a loop with something else to learn about and deal with, but nobody said being a parent would be easy

I have found myself once again in need of a place to get my ideas down, a place to keep all our resources in one place and a place to document our achievements. So I am bringing A Juggling Mum out of retirement.

I have to say that I have missed the Mummy bloggers community and I am really excited to get back into the community again.

If you are a Mummy Blogger with a child with Autism, Diabetes or Coeliac Disease leave me a comment and don’t forget to leave your url so I can pop by for a visit

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Our annual Family Christmas Party was held on Sunday and it was so much fun! Now that we are all getting older, getting married, having families and adding partners to the group, it is getting harder and harder to come together on Christmas Day. So we organise a day before Christmas to all get together, have Christmas lunch and exchange presents and of course dress up. We keep our dress ups a secret until the day to make it more interesting!

This year Rob, the kids and I dress up as a Nativity Scene. I was Mary (of course…lol) Rob was Joseph, Chloe, Riley and Clare were the 3 Wise Men, Sophie was Baby Jesus and Caitlin was the angel. Here’s a photo:

Other family members came dressed as Christmas trees, presents, Santa, a candle, a Christmas shopper, and the Little Drummer Boy!

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with something new and different each year, so I’m going to have to put my thinking cap on now in preparation for next Christmas

No where really exciting to be honest! Sorry, did you think this post was going to be exciting???? hehehehe!

I can’t believe that I have neglected my poor little blog and my beloved readers for so long, I’m sorry! The truth is that I have been busy, busy preparing for Christmas, busy trying to stay on top of all the household things and busy planning meals and making things from scratch to save us some money.

I can’t believe that Christmas is almost here. I know I say it every year, but I’m sure the year is getting shorter and shorter. I really wanted to have all my presents bought and wrapped by the 1st of December but it didn’t happen. I do have most of them, and the ones I have are wrapped, but I’m not finished just yet. I’m hoping to have everything bought by this Friday though.

I have also been making some things which I will be giving to some members of my family. I can’t really talk about it yet though because many of them read my blog.

Each year my Mum’s side of the family get together just before Christmas to have our Christmas celebration and last year I started the tradition of getting everyone to dress up as something festive. We had a Plum Pudding, candy cane, a santa sack, angels, elves and Christmas Fairies, so the pressure is on this year to come up with something new. I know what Rob and I and each of the kids are going to dress as, but now I just have to get and make the costumes. Thankfully Rob has agreed to help me and has even offered to sew some costumes. Apparently he is able to use a sewing machine, this is something that in the 12 years we have been together I have never found out about. I will be sure to add some photos to my blog after the big event for you all to see, sorry I have to be secretive but those nosey family members may read this and copy my ideas……. ahahahahahahaa

Before I go, I want to give a shout out to Jill (Hi Jill who sent me an email a little while ago, telling me that she had been reading my blog for a while and discovered that her daughter goes to preschool with Riley when her daughter recognised him in one of my photo’s. (It’s such a small world!) Anyway, I finally got to say hello to her today face to face. I’m looking forward to chatting to you more at the Preschool functions

In a week and a half we are leaving the home that we have lived in for the last 10 years and we will be moving into a different house. I mentioned a few weeks back that our landlord was selling the house that we are renting. Luckily we will be moving to a house just up the street. The new house is also bigger, it still only has 3 bedrooms but it has bigger living areas and a bigger kitchen which I am excited about. Oh and it also has an ensuite, so finally we will have 2 toilets.

We have been slowly packing away things that don’t get used often and I have to say I have been surprised at the amount of stuff that we have. I’m not a keeper, I throw stuff out all the time, but still we have a house full of stuff.  I have decided that I am not taking anything I don’t want to the new house. So that means going through everything and tossing or giving away anything we don’t use, love or want.

I plan on spending the majority of tomorrow packing up more stuff. Most likely some of the kids toys and books and things.

Riley at the Pools!

I’ve been a bit quite this week. I decided to take a little break from blogging while the kids were on school holidays!

We haven’t done a great deal these holidays but the kids did have a sleep over at my Aunt’s house. She is one very brave lady. She went from 2 kids to 6 kids, and they are all under 10 years. It was Riley’s (4yrs) first time having a sleepover somewhere other than Nan and Pop’s, so he was very excited.

On Thursday we took all the kids to the local pools. We spent a few hours there which was lots of fun. The girls got to brush up on their swimming skills and have a play in the water. Even Riley was much keener to get into the water than he normally is. Sophie how ever clung to Rob like a little koala and wouldn’t let go in fear that I was going to take her in the water with me. She hates water, screams when I put her in the bath and screams when I put her in the pool.

Next week we are planning on going to the movies, taking a walk to the creek, going to the local library, visiting a friend and her 6 girls, meeting with my Mums Group at the park and having my 2 cousins come and have a sleep over. So it should be a fun week!

About a month ago we got a call from our landlord telling us that they had friends interested in buying the house that we are renting. We have been in this house for almost 11 years so we knew that the time would come eventually when we would be asked to move out. What we didn’t expect was for it to happen while Rob was out of work. He took voluntary retrenchment from the bank in July and has found it harder to get another decent paying job than we expected.

Our landlord rang again during the week to tell us that their friends were interested in buying the house and wanted to arrange for a valuer to come around, they came on Friday afternoon and now we have to sit and wait to hear back from the landlord to see if and when we have to move out and hope that Rob can find a job in the meantime. Wish us luck!

We had Caitlin home sick from school on Friday with a tummy bug, luckily it was just a 24 hour thing but now I am waiting to see if any of the other kids end up with it. I hope not! Caitie is very happy that she is better because she has a birthday party to go to this afternoon.

I think that is all the excitement we have had this week.

*Updated* – Poor Caitie never made it to the party. We took the kids to the Plaza to do some shopping in the morning. At one point Caitie turned a horrible shade of grey, but she swore she was fine. We came home had some lunch and then started getting ready for the party. While I was doing her hair, Caitie told me that she needed to have a little rest, so she went and lay on the lounge. A minute later she had thrown up all over the rug and her new party clothes. I striped her off and cleaned her up and got her settled and then took the rug outside to hose it off. This would have been fined except that it was raining, so I’m standing out in the rain with the hose and a broom, some washing powder and disinfectant, scrubbing the rug. It was quite an exciting afternoon.

Head over to 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordless Wednesday to see more Wordless Wednesday participants.