Now you probably won’t remember, but a little while ago I set myself a challenge to follow some of the recipes from my beloved food magazines. You can check out the post by clicking here.

And I did it! I had some bananas just sitting there getting browner and browner, so I made delicious banana bread. Now I didn’t technically get the recipe out of a mag, but it was once in one of my fave mags and is now on Taste, a site that has all the recipes from the best food mags. Check out the recipe by clicking here. ...

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I’m trying this out as a way to get more exposure to madmadmummy - let’s see how it goes. They want me to put this in a post..

So here is the link guys - Technorati Profile

When I Charley, I put on about 25 kilos. In the first couple of months after bringing her home from hospital, I managed to lose around 10 of those, but in the six months that followed, put on about 3 or 4 kilos again.

Then I bit the bullet, and decided that I was tired of being fat. So with some hard work, I lost about 18 or so kilos  in about 4 months. I was looking pretty fab if I do say so myself.

But that was around a year ago now, and while I have generally managed to maintain my ...

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Now I know that this was nearly a week ago, but I promised photos, and silly me forgot to take my camera, so I have put some up that I downloaded from my sisters camera today.

This is one of the four of us - from left to right is me, Yvette, Ness and Angela. Check out my photo albums for the rest of the pics!!

There is a little girl in Charley’s swimming class who is a fantastic little swimmer. She is probably a bit younger than Charley and is a real water baby, and can swim on her own with a back bubble on. She’s a real cutie. But then there is the case of her mother.

Now I can understand being proud of your child, but there comes a point where pride becomes plain old showing off. She deliberately puts the child in situations where the little girl can show off exactly what she can do - like have her jump off a high ...

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Yesterday was a day of, well, waste.

The first was a kind of pooey situation. Charley loves to get in the shower when I am in there, so usually I let her play with her cups in there while I am having a shower. Now trying to stop a two-year-old from weeing in the shower is near impossible, so I tend to just let it go when she does it. But when I opened my eyes after washing the shampoo out of my hair to see her squatting down proudly doing a big poo I had to draw the ...

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So I’ve just sent out the first mumspace.net newsletter, which I agonised over and nearly had a heart attack before I sent. Everything looked perfect, but now I realise a little flaw. I have asked all the current members to put a post in their mumspace explaining why they are a supermum. But I didn’t explain what I think a supermum is!

To me, any mother who loves their child or children and does the best they can to do the best by their children is a supermum. Sometimes that means leaving the housework in order to spend more time with ...

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Ok, I have to admit - yesterday, I would excuse you for saying I was a bad bad mummy. Or at lease a bad bad housewife.

The beds stayed unmade all day, and I got around in a singlet and undies all day. Charley was at pre school, and apart from working on mumspace.net, I didn’t really do anything.

But I think I have made up for it today - I vacuumed, did the washing, cleaned the kitchen - I even cleaned the microwave and did the grocery shopping - and all with charley at home!

The point of this post is ...

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So last night was my first "every second Tuesday" with the girls. I must say, it was just so refreshing to catch up with what was happening in their lives, even though it is so completely different to what is happening in my own, me being the only one with with a baby and all.

I didn’t realise how much I missed catching up with them, but now we are going to make it a regular thing, so it will be all good.

BUT I forgot my camera, but Vetty took some photos, so I will get them off her and put ...

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I have a small group of friends who I have I have known for years. While we all used to live out of each other’s pockets, changes in our lives and working hours etc has meant that we haven’t been able to catch up  for ages now.

So tonight is the begining of "every second Tuesday" so that we make sure we don’t lose touch. Looking forward to having a big old drink!

Here are some phots of me and the girls - what very old photos! I might take my camera tonight and get some updated ones to put up here. ...

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It has been 5 days since Charley had an afternoon sleep. So I think that I will have to accept the inevitable. The afternoon sleep has gone nigh nighs.

As I am sure I have mentioned previously, this would not be so much of a problem if she would sleep through at night, and not wake up at 2 in the morning wanting to play. But for the last couple of nights she has been good, and only stirred a little, but then last night was another shocker, with two and half hours somewhere between 2am and 5am which consisted of ...

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Lately I have been getting frustrated, as with all the "jobs" I do, I find very little time to spend with my family. So yesterday, despite starting work at the bar in the afternoon, my husband and I took Charley to the local swimming centre and took her in the pool. It is really cool there, with big mushrooms spitting water and frogs and gnomes and sharks etc.

The best big about it though is there is a really shallow section where Charley could walk - she got her confidence after a little while and was practically running around in the ...

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Mumspace.net now has photo albums, so go to the photos page on my mumspace to check mine out!!

We’ve hit it, we’re there, we have arrived. It’s the terrible twos.

At present I have no problems saying that Charley is a wilful child. The last week or so has been filled with tantrums, tears frustration and very little sleep, and it all happens when Charley doesn’t get what Charley wants.

Lately I find myself at a loss of what to do as I look down at my supposed little angel banging against the door because I won’t let her play in the car. Or lying on the floor banging her fists on the ground because she can’t go outside because ...

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You just finish up having a lovely shower (something which you haven’t had in like 3 days) and realise that you haven’t got a towel.

Enough said I think.

Yesterday Charley fell into a gardenia bush, and ended up with a big scratch under her eye.

Today, it looks like she has a black eye. Not a great look. Particularly for a cute little girl.

But we are quite used to that. Our fearless little one is constantly falling over and bruising herself - not that you would know that it hurt as she just picks herself up and keeps on going. But sometimes to look at her you eould think that she had braved World War III.

Guess you can’t wrap them in cotton wool. Looking forward to this black eye ...

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It is official. Mums can do anything. And most of the time they can do it better.

For the last month or so I have been involved with the Business Mums Network, which is basically a support network for mums or mums-to-be looking to start their own business.

While I have been building mumspace.net the help and advice that I have received has been great. But even more so, the services that I finding there are even better - these chicks are great!

So far I have used Jade Kemp of Jade Kemp Designs to design my ads and redo my logo ...

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Ask any mother of a premmie baby, and she will tell you that it is the hardest thing that she has ever done.

It is the hardest thing I have ever done. Charley was born at 29 weeks due to my severe pre-eclampsia, and at the time my husband was frantically searching the web for more information on what we were about to go through. He came up pretty much empty.

That is why I am so happy to see the lauch of moment by moment, a new site offering advice and support to premmie mums, as well as clothes for premmie ...

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Charley’s favourite movie at the moment is Monsters Inc. She loves it. She has even taught herself to put the DVD on and is constantly running up to me with the remote asking for monsters. One thing I do try and do is fast forward through the scary bits - last thing I need with her is nightmares!!

I have had an hour sleep in the last 24 hours. A measly hour.

Yesterday Charley decided not to have a lunchtime sleep again, so after keeping her in her room "playing quietly" for two hours, we gave up.

She went to bed at 7:30 and passed out.

Until 2am. She then went on to stay awake until 6am.

I worked last night, so didn’t get to bed until about 1:30, so got a bit of sleep from then until 2 and then a bit until about 7 when my stupid body clock kicked into gear. But most of the night was spent ...

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So last week I had my wisdom teeth out - that’s no secret - you all know that cause I have been whinging about it since. They were infected you know. Yeah, you know.

They just started healing up at the beginning of the week, then I got ulcers in my mouth, which is a common occurence when I am under a little bit of stress.

The ulcers have just started healing up. Ah, starting to feel healthy. Am able to give Charley a bit of attention. Work is going to be no problem so some serious money can start coming in. ...

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WIth Valentine’s Day just around the corner, here are some sentiment that I’m sure some people are feeling. (Not me honey, never.)

Now that’s a happy Valentine’s Day!!

Ok, I admit it, I am a try-hard foodie. I LOVE cooking shows and am absolutely addicted to food magazines - my favourites are Good Taste (maybe because editor used to be my editor at one of my previous jobs) and Super Food Ideas. If I see a new one at the shop, I will buy it.

But to be quite honest, I never really make any of the stuff in there, or what I see on TV for that matter. I just love to check it out, but while I am an ok cook, i like to stick within my ...

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As a member of  the Business Mums Network I am taking part in their blogging challenge - I have been a bit slack of late, and this is my first challenge, but here goes.

Something I can’t live without is RSS feeds. I just use my Google homepage to list them all for me, but as there are heaps of blogs that I try and keep track of, this is great for checking whats happening where and whether or not its worth a visit - saves me checking them all individually each day!!

Mumspace.net is getting close to launching openly to the public, and the new functionality keeps on coming! We have now put friends in place so that members of mumspace.net can connect with each other and check out how other members are using their mumspace.  Looking to go public next week, fingers crossed, and now off to cross something else off the list!

I think I am giving in. Charley just won’t sleep. Even gave her some herbal Calm stuff last night to try and get her to go to bed before 11 - it still didn’t work.

I am at my wits end!! I am going to keep trying the herbal stuff, to see if it works over time cause I have heard rave reviews about it, but any other suggestions are quite welcome!

Better go and tell her to get back in bed.

YOu finally finish folding up the clean washing that has covered one of your couches only to open the dryer and find a whole load that you forgot to take out.

The phone rings when you are on the toilet

You get home from work at 2am, go to bed at 2:30am, and your daughter wakes up at 3 and decides it’s playtime till 6am.

You’ve just cleaned your white bathroom floor and 20 minutes later find it covered in little black footprints!

Stay tuned for more….

Now anyone who knows me well knows that I am not artistic. Creative, yes. Artistic, no. That is why I am so proud of this work of art. My cat. Charley has since smushed him back into the big ball of play dough in the sky. Farewell, dear cat. Thanks for the memories.

At about 4 this morning Charley came trotting into my room and hit my until I woke up. She demanded a cuddle. I pulled her into bed with me and gave her a bit cuddle, expecting her to go to sleep.

After about 2 minutes she said to me "I want to go back to bed now Mummy." And off she went. What a cutie.

Now the obvious answer to this is - get some help.

But what happens when you can’t? Now I am not technically in that situation. I am not at my greatest having had two wisdom teeth ripped out over the last couple of days, but while I am not yucky enough to be a danger to Charley, I am not feeling great.

So today I have put everything I am "supposed to do" on hold. The house gets tidied, every couple of hours if at all. The TV is staying on all day and I don’t care. When Charley asks me ...

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