You Are Such a Whore. A Blog Whore!

My name is Kylie and I'm a Whore. A Blog Whore.

The problem started about 5 years ago when I discovered a little blog called Mamamia. It was written by a former magazine editor from her living room couch and I found it really interesting, the little snippets that she posted throughout the day.

From there I discovered that there was a whole host of people writing stuff on little websites called blogs and once I started reading them I couldn't stop. I was addicted. I would spend my lunch breaks and my free-time after work reading as many blogs as I could find. I would search them out, clicking from one blog-roll to the next, constantly on the search for my next hit.

The Babbling Bandit. Just one of my fave blogs

Some were funny, some were sad, some had awesome spelling and grammar, others not so much. But everyone was writing for themselves and nobody cared if people read or commented, they just wanted to get their thoughts down on the page (screen), record awesome things they found around the internet, practice their writing and use their brain for something other than mothering, or mindless office work.

People didn't care so much about the blogs that others read, or who read theirs, or who the 'big' bloggers were, people just read what they wanted to read and concentrated on tapping away on their keyboards, telling their own stories. Nobody cared if you liked this blog or you didn't like that blog and nobody felt any sense of entitlement that blogging or bloggers owed them something and that people should be tailoring their blogs and their writing to their specific tastes.

The Illiterate Infant. Another fave

95% of the worldwide blogosphere is still like this. It's still those ordinary people, tapping away on their keyboards, filling their spaces with the stuff they find interesting. It's only a small minority that seem to have a problem with this and I suppose in the end I shouldn't really worry about that minority.

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There are many definitions of what a 'blog' is. The word blog is actually an abbreviation of weblog, and I personally relate most to Bloggers own definition of what a blog is (the bold emphasis is my own)...

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.
Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

After becoming immersed in the world of blogging I decided to start my own blog. Which I did back in May 2009. You can read my first post here. I saw blogging as a way to practice my writing, to get better at putting my thoughts down in a way that was somewhat coherent. If people read what I wrote and identified with it great! But that wasn't the main aim.

To be perfectly honest with you, I doesn't matter to me if people do or don't like my blog. I write it primarily for me, and now for my daughter as well, to have a bit of a record of our lives that she will be able to easily access. So that she can gain a glimpse in to my mind and the thoughts and feelings I had when she was first born and on my journey of becoming a mother.

I love Cup of Tea and a Blog

I also have a journal that I write letters to her in. This is where the most personal stuff is written, stuff that I won't ever publish on here. Not because I don't want to, or because its not fit for sharing with the world or anything like that, but because those words are for her and her alone.

You may wonder why I don't just keep an offline journal if I don't care whether or not people read or like my blog. You may wonder why I bother to participate in link-ups. The answer is this: online its much easier to find previous posts and things I've written about. I also use this space to collect links to things that I have found funny, amusing, entertaining or thought-provoking. Its easier to keep it all together here, searchable with the use of a few key words.

Kelly's Handmade Tears and Triumphs is a must read

And I love participating in link-ups because I love to find new blogs. Like the title of this post says, I'm a blog whore. If people want to visit me from a link I've shared on IBOT or FYBF then great! But I participate because its a great way to find new blogs, to read and hear different voices.

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I wrote a post the other month that was a little bit ranty. Anyone that knows me in the offline world knows that I love to get my designer Ranty McRanterson pants on from time to time. I enjoy having a rant about stuff, its a great way to blow off a little of the steam that builds in everyday life, where I can say whatever pops in to my mind without having to worry about boring my husband.

That post that I wrote about blog snobs, it was read by quite a few more people than I expected. I really only expected some of the regular IBOT community to have a read, because after all they are the ones that seem to love my ranty pants and I gotta say, I quite like them too! They're comfortable! And elastic-waisted!

I also love to read about Amy's New Adventures in Dreamworld

I stand by everything I wrote in that post. I just wanted to point out one thing that I don't think I actually mentioned on Tuesday. That post about blog snobs was mostly written from the perspective of a blog READER. Not as a blog writer. Just like my Book Snobs post was written from the perspective of a READER. When I take offense to people saying there is nothing worth reading out there and that there are no decent blogs, I am taking offense to the idea, both stated and merely implied, that what I read and enjoy reading is crap and that I'm an idiot because of it. Perhaps nobody means that when they say it, but its what a lot of us hear between the lines.

It doesn't bother me what people think of my blog because I understand that its not everyone's cup of tea. People either like it or they don't and that is 100% fine by me. I've been blogging for 4 years now and sometimes lots of people read my blog and other times no-one reads my blog. I've published over 1000 posts and I'd say that probably only half of them have comments. I have no idea about the page views because it just doesn't matter to me. It's not the reason why I post here.

I'm not gonna lie and say it isn't nice when someone takes the time to read and leave me a comment. It's lovely when people do read your words and take the time to respond and let you know they either get it or think you're dead wrong. But if they don't? It's not the end of the world. People obviously had better things to do that day. Like read other blogs or live their lives. Or they just simply didn't like what I wrote. It doesn't diminish what I wrote, or the value of it.

The Climbing Tree is an ever growing obsession

There are more important things in life than how many people read or comment on my blog. Unless someone is trying to start a business through their blog, or their blog is for their business, then I think that people need to stop worrying so much about stats and followers and analytics and cliques and all the rest of it, because it doesn't matter.

Write for you. Write to please yourself. Read blogs that make you happy, that you identify with. Life is too short to waste time whinging and worrying about how many people do or don't read your blog and its certainly too short to waste time reading blogs you don't like.

If you write for you, first and foremost, then everything else is just the icing on the cake, and you might be surprised by how good that icing ends up. But don't do it just for the icing. Your writing will suffer if you're doing it just for the icing.

I love to laugh along with Emily from Have a Laugh on Me

So tell me, why do you blog? What got you started blogging in the first place? Do you do it to make money, become "well-known"? Do you worry about your stats? Are you in it for the hobby or the community? They say you should "know your niche" and what your blog is "about" if you want to become a successful blogger. But I don't think that's always true. The best bloggers are not always the most popular or most successful. No matter what or why you blog, to me the best bloggers are the ones who write from the heart and stay true to themselves.

P.S. The blogs scattered throughout this post are just a taste of what I think is some of the best writing on the web. There is so much more from where this came from and I have a post brewing to let you know of a few more that I love. I hope none of the bloggers whose headers I've nicked for this post mind. If you do just let me know and I'll remove them.

P.P.S. If you are looking for more readers to your blog please send me an email with a link to it because I would love to check it out. My whoring is not limited to any one type of blog and I'd be seriously happy if you took the time to introduce me to your blog. I promise I'll have a read, and even leave you a comment! Plus, I'm going on maternity leave in a few months and will be spending ridiculous amounts of time with a child attached to my boob, so having plenty of reading material in that time is going to help keep my sanity intact!. kylie(@)kyliepurtell(.)com

The Salmon Tin. A Cautionary Tale.

Consider this if you will. There are very few things in this world that really shouldn't be messed with. But there are some things that are so sacred that they should never, ever be disturbed. 

I present to you, The Salmon Tin. A Cautionary Tale.

The scene opens to a slightly messy kitchen in a suburban household in north-west Sydney. The early-pregnant wife and mother has just arrived home from work, ravenous for some lunch. She's been dreaming about making a lovely salmon sandwich for lunch since about 8am that morning.

Cut to the lounge room and the husband and toddler girl are playing together. Husband has been off work on holidays and taking on the duty of house husband. He's been doing a pretty good job of it too. Getting up early with toddler girl, keeping the kitchen relatively clean, cooking every night (which is not so different to when he's not on holidays) and getting the washing and shopping done.

We return to the kitchen and the wife has defrosted two pieces of bread in the microwave and is now looking in the pantry for the much sought-after salmon. She shifts boxes and cans and looks on every shelf. Her movements grow more and more frantic as the search lengthens. She's tired. She's hormonal. She's hungry and nauseous, all at the same time, thanks to the little parasite miracle growing in her belly.

After looking through the same shelves and coming up empty handed her hormones and temper get the better of her.

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"Where the fuck is the salmon!" she shrieks at the top of her lungs.

The husband enquires from the lounge "The tinned salmon?".

"Yes, the tinned salmon" she screeches, "the two tins of salmon I bought the other day to have on a sandwich for lunch, where are they."

She prays that she's wrong. That the answer she knows is inevitably coming from her garbage-disposal husband will somehow, please, be different to what she knows to be truth.

"I ate them" he calls back, unaware of the rage that is about to be unleashed because of those three small words.

"THAT WAS MY LUNCH!!!! WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO EAT NOW??? I'M STAAAAAAARVING!!!!!!!!".

Cue Aldi coffee machine coffee pods being thrown violently around the kitchen, cans being pegged so hard against the back on the pantry that they are dented. Other food stuffs vollying all over the kitchen as she blindly throws them about. Pantry door slamming.

The gates of hell have been unleashed, and this pregnant, hormonal and hungry wife is in the throes of a full-blown meltdown. All because of some tinned salmon. And a husband who eats more than should be humanly possible.

Fade to black.

What do we learn from this tale of rage and woe?

Never, ever eat a hormonal, pregnant woman's food. No matter how many other things are in the pantry that she may like, do not ever assume that you can eat those two tins of salmon that she had so desperately been craving, that she can have something else.

Because hell hath no fury like a hungry, pregnant woman, and if you know whats good for you, and want to continue having a pair of balls, don't ever eat a pregnant woman's food without asking her first! Because if you do, be prepared to see a tantrum of epic proportions, that makes even the toddler of the house shake her head in dismay.

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Next time we'll learn about why the worst idea in the world is to ask your pregnant, hungry and hormonal wife why she is over-reacting so badly to a tin of salmon being eaten.

Linking this post up with those lovely lizards over at The Lounge for this weeks link-up theme, Adult Tantrums, hosted by the awesome RoboMum.

Wordless Wednesday - The Sweetest Card

I told Dave all last week that he needed to take Punky to pick out a Mother's Day card for me. I didn't need a present but a card would be nice.

On Sunday night we were finally home after being away for the weekend and Punky staying at her Aunty's house, Dave told me to go in and look at Punky sleeping. Tucked up beside her was this card...

Linking up as always with this tremendous trio...

The Final Frontier. I mean Trimester!

Almost 30 weeks. How did that happen? Seems like only yesterday is was mid-November and Dave was getting home with the shopping and I could smell the nectarines from the other room; now here we are, in the 3rd trimester and getting scarily close to the business end of things. 

Word!

My last (proper) pregnancy update was almost 12 weeks ago and so much has happened since then. 2 hens nights, 2 weddings, an ultrasound, a first birthday party, a blogging conference, a funeral, a glucose test, a lung infection (Dave's, not mine!), our first child-free weekend away since Punky was born, and not to mention many, many, many trips to the bathroom!

In my last update I hinted at PJ#2's gender, and if you missed that post I can tell you that we are in fact having another girl! We asked them to double-check last Friday that it was still a girl in there and I am happy to report that yes, PJ#2 does in fact appear to still be a girl!

18 week scan

I've been feeling pretty good since 18 weeks, the nausea and extreme tiredness have mostly been absent, although just lately I am definitely starting to notice the tiredness creeping back in. I'm also starting to feel a lot heavier and slower and rolling over in bed is becoming at least a 4 part manoeuvre and something I know is only going to get harder and harder. I may need to hire a crane to help me rise from slumber in the last couple of weeks at this rate!

This bub seems to be hanging out a lot lower than Punky did and putting lots of lovely pressure on my groin. The punches to my cervix are a wonderful reminder of the pain yet to come! I'm also feeling it in my hips and lower back a lot more, particularly when the day involves quite a lot of walking or standing up, or sitting down. Basically she's just a pain in the groin.

PJ#2 is proving to be just as active as her big sister was, and enjoys putting on a show of an evening and letting her Dad know she is in there. She's gotten the hiccups once or twice but nowhere near as often as Punky did, with her it was a twice-daily occurrence from about 29 weeks on.

Left: Bridal party duties, nailed!
Right: Living it up as guests last weekend

I'm pleased to report that I made it through my good friend's wedding back in March, in which Dave and I were part of the bridal party. My dress managed to last up until the speeches, when I think the pressure of an amazing entree and main, coupled with a dodgy zipper to begin with, saw me literally busting open and needing to be pinned back together! Thankfully the staff at the reception centre came through with a truckload of safety pins and an engineering bridesmaid and good friend were able to squash me back in to the dress!

We also just enjoyed a little 'babymoon' this weekend gone, where we headed up to wine country and made the most of our other friend's wedding-weekend. Punky stayed with my sister A for the weekend and had a lovely time, she was thoroughly spoiled (that's what Aunties are for after all!) and we were able to relax and enjoy some beautiful fresh country air and scenery.

I mentioned the other week that I had my glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes and the results came back borderline. I was bang on the cut-off, so to be on the safe side they've classed me as GD and I am back to following the diet and checking my blood sugar levels 4 times a day. It's not as bad as last time, that's for sure, mostly because I knew what to expect and I was already loosely following the diet they gave me with Punky. Which seems to be paying off now.

We had a growth scan on Friday where they checked the baby's main growth measurements, paying particular attention to the belly measurement (GD babies tend to have large bellies as that is where they store Mum's excess sugar). Thankfully PJ#2's belly measurement was bang on average for her gestational age, unlike Punky's, who at the same stage was measuring in the 95th percentile! So that is excellent news and shows that the GD hasn't had any effect on the baby so far. She ended up measuring slightly below average overall for her gestational age and everything is looking really good so that is a massive relief!

PJ#2 is definitely not as much of a chubby bubby as Punky was at this stage!  In case you can't tell, that's a 4D pic of bub's face.

Having had so much on these last few months we really haven't had a chance to do anything about re-arranging furniture and clearing out bubs room. The room that PJ#2 is going in is currently being used as an office and general dumping ground, so in order to find a place for the desk to go we need to get rid of some of the furniture in the rest of the house. I am really not looking forward to having to condense so much stuff and getting rid of a lot of books to accommodate everything, but I am looking forward to it all being done so that we can start decorating the room!

I've decided to paint the walls a pale pink, as its quite a small room with not a huge amount of natural light, so pale walls will help with that, and I am going to use the green we have in Punky's room for the accents. I've got a few bits and pieces to use for wall art that I didn't end up using in Punky's room due to lack of wall space so that will save some time and money looking for stuff. We do have to have one trip out to Ikea to look for a new bookshelf to match the TV unit so some of the stuff we need to consolidate will have a place to live, and so I can get a cool light fitting for PJ#2's room like we have in Punky's. I'm looking forward to that trip a lot more than Dave is!

Left: I lost my feet at 25 weeks
Right: The bump certainly comes in handy for propping up iPads!

So that's where we're at right now. Everything is going pretty smoothly. Despite the aches and pains I am enjoying being pregnant and feeling my little munchkin wriggling around in there. Although I am already very much in love with this little one, I am starting to wonder, when I look at Punky, how it's possible that I'll be able to feel the same kind of love that I feel for Punky for another person. I know its possible when I look at my Mum and MIL and my friends with more than one child, but its a strange thing to comprehend.

I'm nervous about how Punky will react to the new addition once she is here, she doesn't really have any recognition of what is going on, although I think she has noticed that my belly is getting bigger. We talk about the baby in Mummy's belly but I'm pretty sure she has no clue what we are going on about, and the ultrasound pictures we've shown her probably just look like a mass of black and white to her!

How to dress a baby bump for a wedding, Purtell-style!

So anyway, if you've made it to the end of this massive pregnancy update, thank you for sticking with it! I will endeavour to update a few more times before PJ#2 makes her grand and hopefully quick and on-time entrance in to the world.

Linking up as always on a Tuesday with the essentially bloggeriffic Jess for IBOT!