School's out for Christmas!

MOM Deer Hoodie - selling for the last 4 days only!!

Hey Readers, thank you for following my blog here. I just want to say I made a hoodie out of the whole Mom Deer T-shirt idea...but its only up there for four more days. I never knew that once you made something limited, it would have a limited time frame to buy in so I am telling you guys here first all about it hurrah!

Click on this link if you want to get it - also available in a white long sleeve jumper for 23 bucks!
http://teespring.com/MOMDeerhoodie

http://teespring.com/MOMDeerhoodie

Ebook Promotional Video

I am going to post up one more promotional eBook video if I may :) 

Remember the Amazon promotional week is happening on Jan 5th if you want the book for not very much!! :) then the price creeps slowly up on Jan 8th and then the promotion finishes on Jan 12th. You heard about it first here! Thank you to all of you who do take an interest in this release!! Enjoy!

Make it So Christmas Song :)

I had to post this song up. I do like Star Trek :) Enjoy!!!!

The Piano Guys - Frozen meets Vivaldi video

I am a huge fan of the Piano Guys. I have to post their latest video up here. Vivaldi and the Frozen song go really well together!! :) Thank you piano guys. I am a piano girl myself so seeing this video is inspiring....

WEKEED - Wild Child (Official Video HD)

The Miss Barbara Store

Finally a place to get some unique custom-made t-shirts, hoodies etc. :) clothing with a Barbara twist. How cute is this top?? if you want to order anything at all to look more festive click here to get to the online shop!! Simple, sweet, feminine and festive. I think I might get myself one lol! the irony.

http://teespring.com/MOMDeertee

Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! :)

Happy Holidays :)

E-Book Promotion Video & Amazon link

Hello my fellow readers. I finally made a video to promote the new e-book that I just spoke about below. I really hope you do enjoy it. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Feel free to get it on Amazon and I hope that it will inspire you in terms of giving you new fresh ideas that can widen your perspective about how you go about managing finances and so forth. Why fret about it? just take out a copy of Barbara's book and slip into my world for a while! :) Thank you so much for all the kind support I have been getting from family and friends. Its up on Amazon at the following link - just click here

UPDATE: Promotional week for this book starts at 8 a.m. PST on Jan 5th 2015 and price drops to just 0.99 cents on KDP!! hurrah...then it goes up to 1.99 on 8th Jan and then back to the final original price of 2.99 dollars on 12th January which coincidentally is my 34th birthday agh!! :) so yeah feel free to buy it lol. Again thank you to you all - without you this would never have happened.

Money Madness Book - how to end the search for income : A book for big spenders, smart savers and everyone in between

Yesterday I just published an e-book on Amazon so its only fair I let my fellow bloggers on here know about it first. Amazon link can be found here: http://goo.gl/Ns9frt 

Just for you my readers I am going to have this book at 0.99 cents for Kindle readers for three days!!! yes just for a short while then it will return to its normal price of 2.99 dollars

Its a real page-turner lol :) can I say that about an e-book? how about a real scroller lol? :) Anyway, I finally have a motivational book out there. It is really about financial matters which are written in an easy to understand way...so if you would like to know what I have to say about Money.its a nice light read..feel free to check it out. Its available in the Kindle Store now!

I dedicate this book to my wonderful three children, Isabella, James and David - if one day you don't know what you think about money is all about, just refer to mommy's book for answers! :)

Song of the Day: Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings 16 Tons

For anyone who hates their current cell phone

Gotta hand it to Rhett and Link :) this is how I feel when I see my phone these days lol! My phone blurs when it takes a photo each time. Its on a slow death. I bet it would probably taste better deep fried then actually being a phone lol!! and no I am not going to try this any time soon....Happy Friday, have a nice day and week-end ;)

Song of the Day: David Gray - Babylon

Song of the Day: Coldplay - A Sky Full of Stars

I really like the originality of this music video - the way he is walking around as a one man's band - I feel that way all the time lol :) Anyway have a nice day and enjoy :D

Chocolate Smelling Chicago

Its known to be the windy city :) but has this place now got a new nickname since it seems to be smelling of chocolate lately? For anyone who wants to keep tabs of the chocolate smelling map you can find it here - enjoy

http://chicagococoasmell.tumblr.com/

Less of this more of that

‘A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.’ ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life can be ridiculously complicated, if you let it. I suggest we simplify.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote wrote the shortest guide to life you’ll ever need:

“Smile, breathe, and go slowly.”

If you live your life by those five words, you’ll do pretty well apparently. And as always, these rules are meant to be broken. Life wouldn’t be any fun if they weren’t broken from time to time. LESS of the following and MORE of this please:

1. less TV, more reading
2. less shopping, more outdoors
3. less clutter, more space
4. less rush, more slowness
5. less consuming, more creating
6. less junk, more real food
7. less busywork, more impact
8. less driving, more walking
9. less noise, more solitude
10. less focus on the future, more on the present
11. less work, more play
12. less worry, more smiles
13. breathe

Becoming Emotionally Self-Reliant

For many years, I have been a bit emotionally needy. I sometimes even find myself going back into this predicament from time to time. The fact is I don't handle emotional pain very well. Tell me - who does?! I discovered that in a harsh way the day I lost my daughter - Jasmine - she died after twenty seven days old and although this devastating incident happened 7 years ago its still a wound that never goes away and opens itself up every year without fail once her birthday comes around. I buried her at the start of October so this month is always personally a bit hard for me. The bittersweet thing is 4 years later, I gave birth to my son James a day before the date I buried her so that oddily helps me to block out the loss a little by the celebration of his birthday which by the way was great. These days I chose to escape my miserable feelings where possible once I find myself going back there. After all I am lucky to have the kids that I have now, their births were not easy at all! and am delighted that the kids are healthy - so why am I even allowing myself to get down is beyond me?! I am not a needy person either - not in a crazy, desperate way, but in the way that many of us are. 

Here is what I have learned in terms of becoming more emotionally self-reliant and maybe what I have to say will help others so here goes:

My mistakes included: 

1. I wanted someone else to make me happy,
2.  Blamed others for my unhappiness - not realizing at the time I was either, 
3. Sought to fulfill my emotional needs through others or the internet.

This caused all kinds of problems I didn't even realize were there: I’d have relationship problems because if the other person was not meeting my needs, I’d resent it. I’d be unhappy lots of the time, because I thought happiness was outside of me, and therefore it was unreliable and elusive. I was helpless, because if other people are supposed to make me happy and fulfill my needs, then what could I do if they did not? What could I do if they hurt me instead?

From the research that I have made online, usually, this way of thinking starts in childhood. After all, we rely on our parents for our emotional needs — love, comfort, support, validation, etc. And we don’t often develop emotional self-reliance skills as kids, because parents (out of love for us) do their best to provide for all these needs.

And then we become adults, without having learned emotional self-reliance at all. And so we look for someone else to fill our emotional needs. We look for the perfect partner, and will probably go through a few breakups, because 1) we’re not emotionally independent but we fool ourselves into thinking we are at the time, and so we do needy things that hurt a relationship, and 2) our partner is probably the same way.

But here is the mistake that we make: we should not seek perfection in our partners. Just accept them the way they are - love them for who they are and if they make mistakes with you embrace it - try to take things less personally. Strive to find inner happiness more and you will probably realize that your relationships becomes better gradually.

If we’re ever hurt, we tend to blame the other person for hurting us. If they are not there for us, we blame them. If something bad happens to us, we become victims, because you can’t move on with your life if someone has done something bad to you, right? Oh yes you can - I chose not to be that victim anymore. 

Its all about the choices you make - the paths you take on your conquest to this place of inner peace.

So what truly is the solution - are you ready for it?

We have to learn this: Happiness is not outside ourselves. Its on the inside.

Only in the last few years have I been becoming more emotionally self-reliant day after day. It has made my relationships better, and has greatly increased my happiness. But the only problem I have is to try and remember to practice what I preach that sometimes you are better off not dwelling on the negatives that have happened or are happening to you right now - focus on the positives.
And here’s the thing: it’s not their job to fill our emotional needs. They are struggling trying to meet their own needs. Nobody is perfect. Accept this. Forgive the person you are with if they have shortcomings. Make your own happiness.
So instead of looking for happiness from someone else, we have to realize it’s not out there. 
Simply put: It’s within us. It’s available right inside us, right now, all the time.

Happy positive thoughts really do make happier people.

A brief history of melancholy - Courtney Stephens

I really like this video - I think it shows the history of sadness well - I am a big fan of TED too. I wonder if we do actually produce black bile like what the Greeks use to think and if we do if we could just suction that stuff out when we get sad! Food for thought huh - have a nice day :)

Bad Bike Locks

Today my bike lock failed on me. Its on a slow painful death. I cycled into work and it began to rain - looks like October weather has truly started. Its becoming hat and glove weather again - oh no. Let's break out the sweaters too while we are at it. Anyway here I am with the key of the bike lock twiddling with it for dear life trying to get the lock of the lock (I know nuts!) to lock! It pretty much defeats the whole purpose of being a bike lock! Don't even get me started on my cell phone - that's a whole new other post. Anyway some body-builder dude walks over and smiles and says here would you like me to give it a try? At this point I think sure why not - its so damn hard he might not even get it! I nod my head deflated that I can't seem to do it myself. He does it in ten seconds flat. I awkwardly thank him and walk on. I watched him thinking what did he do differently that made the thing actually lock? nothing was my conclusion except maybe he used more force on it than I could ever possibly physically do. Then he says to me just as I go to leave - sometimes you just need a man around to do this stuff? Really I thought! I don't think so lol - I muttered to myself as I am a very independent individual and rarely do I like to depend on anyone to do stuff...but since he looked so happy and he did such a nice gesture for me I chose to let it go. And now I need to think about letting the bike lock - well...eh go!

Song of the Day: Frozen - let it go - the sing-a-long ;)

Jon Gomm - Passionflower

Look how this guy plays guitar and sings along - beautiful piece :) its also a wonderful new approach to guitar playing. Keep up the good work Jon...posting it up on my blog to inspire others!

Head Lice - warnings of "outbreak" in schools

Its that time of year again. Your kid goes back to school....and then within 4-5 weeks of them being back one kid in your kid's classroom gets sick with lice. Oh no! Then the school texts your phone and tells you there has been an "outbreak". Should I call in the Hair Force http://www.thehairforce.co.uk/the-enemy/the-products-dont-work/ (worst case scenario I imagine) or get those robo combs on Ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MEDISANA-ELECTRIC-LICE-COMB-/271513424985?pt=UK_Health_HealthCare_RL&hash=item3f37761459 and electrically fry them out of their hair or go with a more traditional root...route...root being the wrong word huh lol...or stick with the old-fashioned but trusted manual nit comb: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nit-Comb-Comb-for-Headlice-Removes-Head-Lice-and-Eggs-/221562440511?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Hair_Care_Brushes_Combs_PP&hash=item3396268b3f

Either way I am going to be picking this cost-effective 3-1 in shampoo up now among using neem oil and Tea Tree Shampoo... http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=259437927

Let's hope if we get this problem - they won't be drug-resistant mites. Hopefully this blog entry will help others who on Friday received a text message like that from their schools - have a good week-end!!

The Purple Store - for everything well..purple :)

My little girl Isabella loves purple! I don't know if your little girl is the same...but when she was one years old - she never really was into pink - it was actually the colour blue that she loved. Then she hit 2 and we upgraded to Purple and we stuck with that colour too when she hit 3 and now that she is 4 she is starting to go for rainbow colours :) so needless to say her art is starting to really look interesting and she is starting to draw some really good stick figures :) Anyway I thought my readers my like to know where you can now find a purple store online - how cool...click here

Posting Somewhere over the Rainbow song just for her....I like this version that is on Youtube - enjoy and have a nice day :)

How to glam up your eyes quickly! - gorgeous eye-shadow set

How beautiful are these pigmented eye-shadows sigh and the set is up on Ebay!! :) I had to share this with you and the set even comes with a little mirror hurrah.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130873576785

Example video of how you can use them :)

Radio Shows I like

I like the Tom Leykis Show. I know some of his opinions can be totally and utterly against women and sorry to say this Tom, but well I feel at times wrong.

I know that he expresses certain view points I don't agree with at all but my golly at the same time, he sure does a good radio show so hats off there. He often says some politically incorrect things but I like what he has to say a lot of the time.

He is not a fan of marriage. Fine - no issue there if that is how you feel but then again it might not suit him. Doesn't mean at the same time that it won't suit someone else or that we are all doomed to end up alone!

He broadcasts 5 days a week - keeps his material fresh and new etc. so at least he has the get up and go in terms of motivation.

I don't think Tom is too much anti-woman, he just doesn't like it when a woman takes from a guy all the time and doesn't seem to give back in return
or expects guys to rescue them - so yes fair enough maybe he is saying to women become more independent! so is that really a bad message then? I think not.

Maybe I feel challenged to say all this. Either way I hope it causes no offence to Tom or anyone out there. Maybe I feel his voice lends itself to radio perfectly. Whatever the case may be, I hope he doesn't finish it up and keeps doing his own thing. You can find him here

Maybe my blog can be as successful as your radio show Tom.  I just want to add in if this blog ever does become successful I will send you a thank you note at the very least in terms of  inspiring me to do something new and fresh :) have a nice day!!

Dealing with colic!

So I had the pleasure (if you could say that lol!) of dealing with colic for the very first time with my now 8 month old baby. He wasn't being overfed. He was also born 5 weeks early. Waters broke suddenly at 35 weeks 3 days and suddenly it was all systems go to deliver the baby! The doctor believed it might be due to his umbilical hernia which is apparently common in babies that are born a month ahead of themselves. Now thankfully the hernia issue has since resolved - just took 4 months of doing what the doctor told me to do in the shower but now that my precious baby has a belly button this has suddenly been replaced with colic! yikes. The doctors are keeping an eye on it too! and well hopefully its okay - it was the size of a 2e coin - the outie..and now its an innie. Bring on the sudden bad crying at night-time, waking and searching for Infacol which by the way works pretty well if you get caught out in this predicament. His weight gain suddenly spiked to the 98% weight gain - so back to the doctor I had gone - turns out he had caught croup off my other two kids which they caught in playschool and I think the steroid the doctor gave him at the time to clear him of the croup caused him to pile his weight on too quickly. So now that he has begun crawling his weight is finally resolving and the colic is getting less and less thank god! Once they start crawling they burn the weight off nicely so now he has dropped down to the 91% weight gain! :) For any mothers out there who have had to deal with colic - this music (see below) helped him soothe him to go back to sleep quickly without having to stay up for hours. I also learned from speaking with other mothers who have dealt with this that if you are in a particularly dry climate it can help to wear socks while you nurse. I also think if you can express the first part of your milk off then it can lead to resolving this issue. 

Dropping kids to school :)

Have you ever felt this way when you dropped your little one off to school? does getting a coffee suddenly appear to be attractive? now I am not scruffy or at least I hope not but when you have three little ones running around a lot at home, you could be forgiven surely for having the odd bad morning?? Note: the school my daughter goes to does not have a school bus - and as you know schools are pretty sticky about starting times and getting there early. That is not to say I can't time manage either - I can...and very well but yeah what is it about some parents who make you feel like you did something wrong with your appearance. Meanwhile you seem them in these beautiful sports jackets etc. Maybe I have been watching too much "In The Middle" TV show which by the way I happen to love lol :) so yeah to all the mothers out there let's set up a new trend its called the I made it to the school on time even though I have other kids trend and I don't really care what you think of how I look as long as I am clean lol.

The toynami situation :)

My flat resembles a Toynami lol. Its official. Every time I put stuff away, get the kids to help me put it away which they love doing :) it still ends up a mess. Now I must admit sometimes this is fun too and you can't be a total neat freak about this stuff when you have kids but yeah scalding the germs off the toys is another thing momhood has taught me :) Since Christmas is around the corner too. I think its safe to say that this is when the real Toynami occurs! have a good one...

Dealing with food intolerance's in toddler

My son James needs an allergy test - I have brought him to the doctor four times now. On the fourth consultation, I was finally treated properly by the doctor, up till now I was made to feel like some sort of hypochondriac and they kept to tell me they would be keeping an eye on it. I kept a food diary which has helped. Anyway he finally agreed with me and has given him a referral for a pediatrician - hurrah - result but sadly this appointment is still a few months away so I will have to now pay for this test privately! I guess some of it can be claimed back. I thankfully have health insurance and he is covered under it. I rang the hospital up and tried to forward the appointment but to no avail would they entertain this even though I have health insurance etc. We have taken gluten away from his diet - re-introduced it etc. and the doctor doesn't think he has celiac disease. He thinks he has a non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I nursed my son for two years before weaning him so the doctor thinks that has helped him...but anyway I have been giving gluten to the baby now to get him hopefully used to the taste - apparently they say you need to introduce gluten into their diets before they hit 7 months...so yes we hit the Milupa cereals up. Anyway today I stumbled on this article which says the opposite so feel free to share your thoughts and experiences below. 

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-babies-gluten-celiac-disease-20141001-story.html

Anyway since its his 3rd birthday coming up I am hoping he will love the birthday cake below which is thankfully gluten-free. He turns 3 this Saturday and adores trains, trucks, cars - anything with wheels :)

Here is a helpful leaflet I have found in terms of explaining it to kids - leaflet here - also useful to print out for that little person in your life.

Different strokes for different folks!

Isn't it amazing how we tend to describe things differently to kids? I am always wondering how evolution has in some ways almost pre-programmed us. You know I want the best for my kids. I don't care what career they end up in as long as they are happy. I partially care - I care that they get a brilliant education. I care that they are learning enough subjects. Take for example, the previous school my daughter was going to. I won't name the school in question but I started to get concerned as she was only learning one letter a day and my daughter can amazingly already write the entire alphabet including her name. The teacher was amazingly rude and cold - not even listening to the other mothers etc. Now for 4 years old that is wonderful news...I thought if anything her teacher would be thrilled. The teacher gave out crayons. My daughter put up her hand and asked her for markers...but because she was ahead of the other kids, the teacher said no to this request and sort of shunned her. She also told my daughter that if she decided to be an artist and draw outside of the lines that she would lose marks...now I get that they are trying to teach kids to keep everything within the lines and trying to effectively teach order which my daughter thankfully has mastered too but somewhere down the line I wonder if primary schools can kill creativity a bit by this mindset alone? 

The new school is thankfully great! the teacher is a dream to deal with, soft spoken and I am so happy that I can just simply approach her without having to worry that she is going to upset me with her dogmatic views. And guess what, my daughter is now reading Cleopatra! yes a 4 year old already reading ancient history...that's how you know its a good school! It beats learning one letter a day and seeing a child come home grumpy and bored from being held back by the others :) Moral of story: sometimes moving as hard as it can be at the time can help your child even more.

I hate my flat - Cabin Fever, Eating In and Eating Out rant

Is it normal to hate where you live when you have been living there for too long? is it normal to feel this way?? My kids are also growing up way too fast. For any of you out there who is a parent - the first year of babyhood just flies. When it comes to purchasing baby clothes unless you have a really small baby on your hands - you are almost better off buying one year up a size.

My eldest daughter -Isabella - 4 has just started school for the first time but sadly I had to take her out of the first school over a school bully! She is now in a far better school and I am steeped I managed to get her out of there in the nick of time. I didn't want to wait on the fence for her to get self-esteem issues etc. My middle child - son James is just turning 3 this Saturday...he has a food intolerance and I managed to somehow order a gluten-free cake which cost a bit more but oh well he deserves it. I am amazed at the lack of gluten-free birthday cake choices online. I am hoping he outgrows his gluten and dairy intolerance. Doctor thinks it might take until he is 8 years of age! So onto my baby son - baby David who is now 8 months old today...he is crawling and starting to really enjoy the other two kids. Its really nice they are all playing with one another and enjoying all the fun and games!

Thankfully I make it a thing for us to always get out of my flat...even if its a bit like a military operation at times. I think its good to mix it up for kids and give them something to look forward to on the week-ends as they miss us during the week cos both my partner and I work. As for eating out, we try to do that but obviously its expensive so we mainly cook at home. Bringing packed lunches to the park can be fun though and I recommend not bringing stale bread to feed the ducks with!! Isabella loves to eat the bread when she throws it at the ducks - James doesn't eat the bread - he is too busy working on his throw lol...and baby David well he is just cooing which is adorable to watch that gummy smile. Here is a diagram which I am sure a few of you moms out there might love when it comes to date night or eating out with the kids lol - enjoy :)

Song of the Day: Dearg Doom

Nothing like getting through the middle of the week with a little rock ballad tune from Ireland :)
Have a nice day to all of my readers...Dearg is the Irish word for Red so quite literally this song is called Red Doom :) its got that lilt going on though!

I think this dancing street light could actually catch on....I assume it was done for fun to see also what the results would be. Its nice to think that something so simple could make a city safer! I am also posting it up because I know my kids love the green and red man light although here we also have the amber light too and if they saw him doing the limbo dancing - it would certainly be well received.

Welcome to Barbara's World. This is a personal blog which hopes to randomly chronicle random life events or talk about well just about anything. I am a mother of three wonderful children and I do know that to make a blog actually worth reading that content is king or can I say queen in this instance lol :) Thank you for stopping by anyway and I hope this is an enjoyable read to any of you out there.