Hello Jessica! Thank you for joining us for this week’s “Blogger of the Week” at Baby Hints and Tips! We’re very excited to be able to chat with you about all things motherhood and blogging. To start off with, could you introduce us to yourself and your family?
Thanks for having me. Well, my name is Jess Moodie, I have three beautiful children, Leo 3, Maisie 1 (2 next week), and Posy 6 weeks old. My husband, Duncan, and I met when we were working together 10 years ago, and we have been married now for 5 years, we have recently relocated to the South Coast of NSW to give our family a taste of beach-side life.
If you had to describe your personality as a colour, which would you choose and why?
My personality, I think, is bright, happy and funny, when I think of those words the colour yellow comes to mind. So Yellow? I had originally wrote purple for the plain fact that I love purple but I think it is too dark for my personality so I changed it, what’s a colour that represents someone who is indecisive? Can I have ‘rainbow’ as a colour? Maybe I should change it to that?What does an average week look like in your household?
What does an average week look like in your household?
As you can imagine our house can get pretty chaotic. Duncan works five days a week, with Thursdays and Sundays off so we try and make Thursday and Sunday Family day where we either go for a drive, spend time down at the beach together or go for a walk together. The days where Duncan works is pretty much a juggle, I am still navigating my way with three kids so we take it as it comes. Leo goes to preschool Tuesdays and Fridays, so the girls and I enjoy some time together, and this is where I usually get all the mundane chores done (groceries, vacuuming etc). On the days with all three I usually try and spend lots of time outside, playing puzzles and we generally bake something once or twice a week. We are busy but it is fun.
You are a blogger over at Our Sea-Changed Life. Can you tell us a bit about your blog?
My blog is just all about everyday Motherhood, raising children and just my experiences with the children, I also share some recipes now and again.
For the most part I am just sharing my views and opinions about our life with our children. From most of my experiences I have found that for all the little quirks that you discover as a Mum someone else is generally going through something similar no matter how trivial, and I feel some of the things I write about get that conversation going.How long have you been blogging for? How have you been kept inspired for so long?
How long have you been blogging for? How have you been kept inspired for so long?
I started my blog when Leo was nine months old, it was a way of just getting my thoughts out, a type of therapy almost. I had worked my whole life and now I was at home alone with a baby, I think I was a bit bored and felt like writing it all down gave me a voice and made me feel validated again. Although my blog posts have been sporadic since becoming pregnant and having Posy, I have a real passion for writing, I love it, and the fact that I feel like I am connecting with people and hitting a chord with other mothers inspires me to keep on doing it.
How do you juggle blogging around motherhood and your day-to-day life?
I used to love a good day time sleep to write my blog, now my three-year old has dropped his sleep and a new born that demand feeds, that approach has fallen through, so my blogs are written simply when I get time or when I get an idea.
Some days it takes me no time to write a blog, it pops into my head and I can type away while the kids are eating their lunch, but for the most part I have little notes written in my phone and I make the most of the days when Duncan is home, lock myself in my room and write, I then usually send it off to one of my sisters to edit and check it for me and then when I am happy, generally after much scrutiny from myself I will post to my page.As a first-time mum, what was your biggest concern?
As a first-time mum, what was your biggest concern?
I think my biggest concern was always wanting to do the right thing. I just wanted Leo to be happy, safe and healthy, something I am sure most new mums will understand. I spent so much time stressing over if I was feeding him enough, if he was warm enough, if he was sleeping enough, the list goes on, I think it took me a while to trust my instincts and when I finally did that being a Mum was so much easier.What is your most embarrassing or funny motherhood story (to help us all feel better about motherhood?!)?
What is your most embarrassing or funny motherhood story (to help us all feel better about motherhood?!)?
That’s a tough one, there are so many things that happen every time we seem to go out, we have had our fair share of poonami/projectile vomiting stories but when they learn to talk and want to tell people things is when your embarrassment levels are really tested.
Three-year old’s tend to just say it how it is and one thing that comes to mind is when he thought it was wonderful that he knew where the baby was coming out of. He would tell complete strangers that ‘the baby will be coming out of mum’s gina’, funnily enough talking about a stranger’s vagina with a three-year-old tends to embarrass the other person more than it tended to embarrass me!What is/are your best baby hints or tips for new mums out there?
What is/are your best baby hints or tips for new mums out there?
There are so many little tips that you learn along the way. I am still hopeless at remembering to take nappies everywhere and have been caught out way too many times, so nappies and wipes in the car, in your handbag, by the front door is a must.
Besides that, the best advice I can give is to learn to filter through it all, when it comes to Motherhood and Parenting everyone seems to have an opinion or some words of wisdom to give, I know when I was a new mum I was overwhelmed by all the unwarranted advice that was coming my way, all I can say is take what you need and trust your judgement.
Thanks for joining us this week Jessica! To find out more about Jessica and her blog Our Sea Changed Life, you can visit her website here or her Instagram.
