About Orla - The Irish Mammy
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Orla - The Irish Mammy
There is no such thing as a mammy who has it all together!
Blogging and writing has always been something that I have been interested in. I follow so many other bloggers online and always leave each site thinking "I can do that. If they can start a blog, why can't I?." The one thing that stopped me was fear. I was afraid that my content wouldn't be interesting enough or that I wouldn't have enough things to blog about. However, I feel that I am now at a point in my life where I have lots to say, on all topics. The last two years of my life have changed dramatically and I have had to face different challenges along the way - both terrifying and wonderful.
These changes have included the birth of my beautiful daughter Ruby, who is now 16 months old. She has been the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It's hard to imagine my life without her and hard to remember what life was like before she arrived! I often wonder what I did with my time before she came along - even though life before Ruby was filled with a ridiculously busy work life, filled with 6/7 day weeks, each day packed with long hours. My time was filled with office work, tutoring, performing and driving here, there and everywhere. I had barely any time for my self or my partner. So once she arrived, I made the decision not to return to my full time job. I had my six month maternity leave which was fantastic, but the thought of having to go back to my crazy work schedule and pay someone else to mind my daughter and enjoy all of the wonderful, funny things she would do was eating me up inside. We also had a rough start with Ruby when she was born, she had to spend sometime in the high dependency ward in the hospital (but that is a story for another blog), I got such a fright when this happened that I decided that children are only little once. So I resigned from my job at the end of my maternity leave and decided I could return to work when she was a little older.
But me being me, as much as I was enoying being a full time mammy to Ruby, I missed work. I've never not worked, since I started my first job in a deli when I was sixteen. So I started part time teaching in a music school that I had previously worked in (I am a music teacher), for me this is perfect. I can balance my work life with mammy life with out the added stress my previous job gave me, and I still get to spend most of my time with Ruby.
Some other big changes that happened this year was that we moved house (super-stressful) and we are currently on the search to buy our first property together. Also, I got ENGAGED this year! Something I hadn't expected to happen for a long time - my partner totally caught me off guard and proposed in the most romantic way (also another story for another blog). We're hoping to get married abroad, Lake Garda in Italy. We are heading over for a visit with Ruby and my parents in February '17 to have a look at venues and we'll hopefully be returning home with a set date. But we are aiming for early to mid 2018. I'll be keeping you up to date with the wedding planning - although, I am finding the prospect of planning a wedding abroad, let alone at home to be extremely daunting. If I could just pick my wedding dress and show up on the day, I'd happily do that and let someone else do all the planning!!
Another big change that hasn't happened yet, is that I have decided to take a slight career change. I've always worked in education in some way, so I have decided to go back to student life and complete a Level 6 Advanced Montessori course. It's part time over 12 months with 150 hours work placement. I feel that this is an achievable time scale and I should be able to fit it into my current work/ mammy schedule. Time will tell! I'm very excited about starting. I'm currently trying to sort my work placement and once that's done, I'll be starting at the end of January 2017. Also, I love to bake. I had started to get into the whole celebration/novelty cakes for friends and family before and during my pregnancy. But I found it too hard to keep up after Ruby was born. Also, it costs a fortune. I still love to bake though. Mostly nice things for Ruby. I love the recipes from the baby led feeding site by a wonderful lady named Aileen and also the Ella cook books which are specifically for babies and toddlers. I am also addicted to Instagram. You'll find lots of pictures of Ruby and my families day to day life.
Thanks for reading, until the next blog.
The Irish Mammy Xx
There is no such thing as a mammy who has it all together!
Blogging and writing has always been something that I have been interested in. I follow so many other bloggers online and always leave each site thinking "I can do that. If they can start a blog, why can't I?." The one thing that stopped me was fear. I was afraid that my content wouldn't be interesting enough or that I wouldn't have enough things to blog about. However, I feel that I am now at a point in my life where I have lots to say, on all topics. The last two years of my life have changed dramatically and I have had to face different challenges along the way - both terrifying and wonderful.
These changes have included the birth of my beautiful daughter Ruby, who is now 16 months old. She has been the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It's hard to imagine my life without her and hard to remember what life was like before she arrived! I often wonder what I did with my time before she came along - even though life before Ruby was filled with a ridiculously busy work life, filled with 6/7 day weeks, each day packed with long hours. My time was filled with office work, tutoring, performing and driving here, there and everywhere. I had barely any time for my self or my partner. So once she arrived, I made the decision not to return to my full time job. I had my six month maternity leave which was fantastic, but the thought of having to go back to my crazy work schedule and pay someone else to mind my daughter and enjoy all of the wonderful, funny things she would do was eating me up inside. We also had a rough start with Ruby when she was born, she had to spend sometime in the high dependency ward in the hospital (but that is a story for another blog), I got such a fright when this happened that I decided that children are only little once. So I resigned from my job at the end of my maternity leave and decided I could return to work when she was a little older.
But me being me, as much as I was enoying being a full time mammy to Ruby, I missed work. I've never not worked, since I started my first job in a deli when I was sixteen. So I started part time teaching in a music school that I had previously worked in (I am a music teacher), for me this is perfect. I can balance my work life with mammy life with out the added stress my previous job gave me, and I still get to spend most of my time with Ruby.
Some other big changes that happened this year was that we moved house (super-stressful) and we are currently on the search to buy our first property together. Also, I got ENGAGED this year! Something I hadn't expected to happen for a long time - my partner totally caught me off guard and proposed in the most romantic way (also another story for another blog). We're hoping to get married abroad, Lake Garda in Italy. We are heading over for a visit with Ruby and my parents in February '17 to have a look at venues and we'll hopefully be returning home with a set date. But we are aiming for early to mid 2018. I'll be keeping you up to date with the wedding planning - although, I am finding the prospect of planning a wedding abroad, let alone at home to be extremely daunting. If I could just pick my wedding dress and show up on the day, I'd happily do that and let someone else do all the planning!!
Another big change that hasn't happened yet, is that I have decided to take a slight career change. I've always worked in education in some way, so I have decided to go back to student life and complete a Level 6 Advanced Montessori course. It's part time over 12 months with 150 hours work placement. I feel that this is an achievable time scale and I should be able to fit it into my current work/ mammy schedule. Time will tell! I'm very excited about starting. I'm currently trying to sort my work placement and once that's done, I'll be starting at the end of January 2017. Also, I love to bake. I had started to get into the whole celebration/novelty cakes for friends and family before and during my pregnancy. But I found it too hard to keep up after Ruby was born. Also, it costs a fortune. I still love to bake though. Mostly nice things for Ruby. I love the recipes from the baby led feeding site by a wonderful lady named Aileen and also the Ella cook books which are specifically for babies and toddlers. I am also addicted to Instagram. You'll find lots of pictures of Ruby and my families day to day life.
Thanks for reading, until the next blog.
The Irish Mammy Xx
