Tag Archives: Stream of Consciousness Sunday

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Toddler Tantrums

33 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

BiP is just over 18 months old – she was born screaming, fiesty, and determined.

Not much has changed over the last year and a half except she’s getting louder and more demonstrative in order to get her wants and desires fulfilled.

Don’t get me wrong, I love her more than I could ever describe. I love that she has such a strong character that random passersby actually comment on it. I take it as a compliment, although I am aware that the French tend to mean that she’s wild/hardwork/loud – all the things that kids shouldn’t be.

Recently I’ve begun to experience full on tantrums – BiP dramatically throws herself face down on the the floor, screaming, limbs flailing. The sympathetic looks of onlookers are often coupled with smirks and comments like “oooh la la, the character!”

I know I must not be alone in experiencing this but I’ve yet to see any other kids put on such a class act.

I’m at a loss. This time will pass I know.

Any tips of how to cope with these Toddler Tantrums? I’m ALL ears …

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Special Breastfeeding Comments

23 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

I’ve had my fair share of “special” comments over the last 18 months regarding breastfeeding. Some are more “special” than others:

  • Someone dared to say that formula was “far superior” to my breast milk (BiP was 6wks old)
  • “You are making her needy by not giving her the bottle” (BiP was 8 weeks old)
  • I’ve been told that I was only breastfeeding my baby for my selfish wants and needs (BiP was 3m old)
  • Apparently I was “abnormal” to be still breastfeeding a baby of 8 months (thank you ultrasound lady)
  • When BiP was approaching her first birthday a lot said that “I’ve done my bit but enough’s enough”

Now most people don’t bother saying anything – I’m a lost cause.

My favourite recent comment actually can from a guy and I’m putting in bold because I think it’s “great“:

“Umm … isn’t BiP a bit too old to still be breastfed? I mean, I’d get it if she was a boy”

What do you say to that? *insert eye roll*

There, I promised you a “special” comment.

Any of your own you’d like to share?

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Paleo French Cooking

6 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

I’ve always loved food. My love of food turned into a love of cooking.

Now that I live in France I have some of the best ingredients at my fingertips.

Being on the Paleo diet for almost a month I have become a lot more creative with the meals I make. Without rice, pasta and bread (even the gluten-free options) you have to try hard to make a nutritious, tasty and fulfilling meal.

It’s been a challenge from the day I moved to France as I am gluten intolerant and we have next to no dairy in our diet – NO cheese and bread … in FRANCE? Yes, it’s possible!

I’ve realised just how many French recipes are essentially Paleo – until you bring in the baguette!

I’ve decided to add a new section to my site called Paleo French Cooking. I’m really excited about it.

The biggest challenge is going to be getting out the camera and remembering the quantites of each ingredient I used as I tend to add a “bit of this and a bit of that” when I cook!

A friend asked if I’ll be cooking snails? Why not! 🙂

I guess I might have to cook rabbit at some point but I think they look like cats in the supermarket so I am not convinced.

My time is up and my tummy in rumbling!

Any French recipes that you’d like me to post that are gluten, lactose, salt and sugar free? I promise they’ll taste amazing!

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Paleo Diet

28 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

3 weeks ago I decided I needed to do something about the way I eat.  I’ve always understood that “we are what we eat” as cliche as that might sound.

The Paleo Diet, or Caveman diet is the way of eating that has always appealed to me. I am gluten intolerant and rarely have any dairy in my diet anyway so it wasn’t going to be that hard to make the switch.

If anyone is wondering what it is that I do eat it is simple: lean meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, fruit and nuts.

What I don’t eat is: grains (rice, oats, wheat obviously – that includes corn, it is not a vegetable). No potatoes, no sweet potatoes (you can have them in moderation if you exercise for over 1hr and I’m not there yet!) I don’t eat anything processed. No sugar, syrups including Agave. No peanuts (they are legumes) not nuts and no beans or pulses. No dairy products but eggs are allowed (not sure how they ended up in a dairy category). No alcohol and my only vice is coffee.

The first few days were really hard – I had terrible headaches and I could feel my body detoxing. A few days later I felt great, I had more energy and I felt invigorated.

My main motivation was initially to lose my pregnancy weight – saying that I just had a baby, and then whispering 70 weeks ago, wasn’t cutting it anymore.  BUT! After a few weeks and some great weight loss and awesome inch loss I have started to realise that this way of eating is for improving my well being and productivity and the weight loss is a fantastic byproduct!

Do you believe you are what you eat?

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Kinky Kids

21 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

It’s not the first time I write about advertising that is blatantly sexualising children. It’s starting to make me feel sick. It makes me want to scream, cry and break things – in THAT order.  The scary trend is alarming and disturbing.

thylane-blondeau

Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau, a 10 year old girl from France has appeared in Vogue posed as a adult. At a glance you think “Wow that’s a hot chick” then you realise SHE IS TEN YEARS OLD. It’s sickening.

Another French company called “Jours Apres Lunes” has created a lingerie line for children made from finest silks and lace etc … the products themselves don’t bother me really, as you have a choice to buy, BUT the advertising does – we can’t avoid seeing.

This goes beyond pageants. If these images were found on someone’s computer there would be serious questioning going on.  These children are minors. They are inappropriately dressed and posed. If I told you the images came from a paedophile ring you’d believe me. The fact that their are in a catalogue for children’s wear or in a magazine DOES NOT make it ok.

My blood is boiling. I will not let this topic drop. Hot, Kinky, Sexy, Erotic, Alluring etc are words that should NEVER go with child.

What are your thoughts on this?

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Are Expats Fickle Friends?

18 Replies

stream-of-consciousness-sundayHere is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

 

I’ve been an expat all my life. I was born an expat. As a child I hated the holidays. Everyone would go back “home” and some would not come back. Transience was just a part of life. Friendships were always intense even if they could never stand the test of time. However, many did. I now have friends on every continent and social networks have helped me get back in touch with many of them. Often we just pick up from where we left off. Some naturally remain avatars in my friend list on facebook and that is cool.

We need friends. We are social creatures. Do we need an army of BFF’s? No. That would be too hard to manage.  But we can’t just hold on to the friends of the past. Socialising online and Skype serves a purpose but I crave human interaction in its rawest form: face to face.

All too often expats seem to live somewhere, create a life only to hit PAUSE the minute someone “better” or from the past descends on their life abroad. Replies to emails usually read “So busy with XYZ from home visiting! Can’t meet up until after they leave” or invitations are turned down because someone else is around. Someone better.

Waiting to go “home” always makes me wonder what they see the country they are residing in as? It’s not a holiday – you don’t usually pay tax and stay on holiday for years. I guess not having a home makes this concept a bit abstract.

I love getting people from all over together. When a friend visits I usually have a party. I like mixing past and present – it leads to a possible future. Perhaps even a more interesting one.

So there you have it, are expats fickle friends? Are you guilty of hitting pause?

 

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Googled yourself lately?

14 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

Just this week I was talking to a friend who was mad that she’d been Googling herself to find that in the top 10 results, below the usual suspects like Linkedin and Facebook, there was a post she’d written for my site that was NOTHING to do with what she did. It made me think about how important it is to develop your personal brand online.

Nowadays, if you can’t Google someone and find results there is something wrong. We expect to at least find out something about that person. It’s next to impossible to exist 100% below the google radar.  Never has there been a better time to focus, mould and develop your online identity.  Ok, you can’t claim to be a rocket scientist if you are an teacher but I guess you could try. At the end of the day, if you are having things published online you NEED to be in control and on top of your game. Is your online presence really something you want to leave in the hands of your company, your community groups or your sports club?

I know that when my real name is googled: Ameena Falchetto – the first 5 pages of searches are links I am 100% cool with and mostly ones I have orchestrated by posting on my blog or others.  I mentioned last week that I took a step to change my name on twitter to my real name and nothing has really changed in my search results.

C’mon, it’s never been easier to be in control of your online results with social media … so the question is … are you riding or are you hiding?

 

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Unveiling the Real Me

35 Replies

Here is my 5 minute brain dump as part of this great series. Here goes …

 

This weekend I decided to change my twitter name from @MummyinProvence to @AmeenaFalchetto. Why? The answer is simple. It’s my name.  Yes, I am a Mummy in Provence but that is just one part of me.  I’m new to twitter and blogging as a whole so when I started I treated it a bit like forums where you were anonymous.  I used to keep my Facebook locked down to only the people I knew in real life but recently opened it up to people I knew virtually as well. The Google+ happened and I realised that most my tweeps, who I love, couldn’t connect with me because, well, THEY DIDN’T KNOW MY NAME. I felt a bit silly for that.

MummyinProvence made me feel like I was living a secret life – It was also limiting when it came to talking about different topics that interested me. Some have asked my why I would just put myself out there, the real me and well, the answer is simple. I write my blog, it’s my words, my thoughts, my ideas and opinions so why not attach my name to it? I live my life in such a way that I really don’t have much to hide (apart from my jelly belly but you don’t see that online unless I decide to post a picture of it, which I promise I won’t!)

So, there you have it! Why do you choose to hide behind a username? And if you don’t, what was you reason for putting yourself out there?

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

 

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: The Bilingual Baby

16 Replies

Today I stumbled upon the Stream of Consciousness Sunday series. A 5 minute brain dump of words! A fabulous idea!

We live in France, my French is terrible, I’ve been here 2.5 years and I hoped within the first 6 months to be fluent! Oh how my expectation crashed and burned! I made terrible mistakes and still do. I found myself resigning myself, in conversations to smiling politely and nodding often at the wrong time! BUT! What a wonderful opportunity for BiP!

When I got pregnant we were already living in France, my husband accompanied me to all my doctors appointments to help me understand the bits I missed and to help me communicate – I have no idea how I would have managed without him. When BiP was born that was when the questions about what language we would speak to her in. “In English of course?” I would reply. We speak English at home, anything else would be unnatural. My priority is to give her the richest language experience I can offer and French is certainly not that. So English it is.
BiP already, at 12months, understands both English and French. She doesn’t say much but that is to be expected.  She certainly smiles upon receiving glowing compliments when we are out and when someone says “Au Revoir” she waves bye-bye.

I am always irked by the monolinguals, in France, who criticize the fact that we speak English to BiP. “Well, you live in France, you MUST speak French to her” is what I am often faced with. How can I possibly do that? The other day I told someone I could F*&% the price on something rather than lower it – a simple mistake in pronunciation as the former is baiser vs. the correct word baisSer!!!  What kind of example would that be?

I have no doubt that BiP will speak French at school – ok, she may lack certain vocabulary and may struggle for the first few months but at age 4 is that really a problem? Some think it is. I tend to ignore such opinions and carry on. I know there will come a day that BiP’s French will be better than mine and I will be scouring the internet looking up what she will have said but that’s fine. She will speak both languages without effort and the world will be her oyster, well, a lot of the world.

Right now, given that English is rarely spoken in the part of France that we are in, is to find a network of like minded parents who speak English with their children to ensure that when BiP does go off to school that she’ll also be exposed to other English speakers.

 
How are you dealing with raising a bilingual baby?

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This was my first 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.