You can keep your bandwagon

The trouble with being on social media is that you see every single bandwagon there is to be jumped on.  I admit to jumping on a few, when they interest me or are something that I feel strongly about. What I don't like is being persecuted because I don't want in on the joy ride.  I chose what I want to be outraged about, I don't need your opinion forced on me.
 

The latest outrage, if my twitter feed is anything to go by, seems to be the word Cunt. Apparently as women we need to start reclaiming this word.  In simple terms the word cunt is used as a derogatory term for the female anatomy. So a feminist movement has started, saying that we need to reclaim this word from the men.  What if we never lost it in the first place?
 

It's a word, a word has as much power as you give it.  It may seem simple, but it's true.  If I call you a cunt, chances are that I kinda like you.  If I want to insult you I'm usually a little more inventive.  It's not really a socially acceptable word, so if I feel comfortable enough around you to use it, then chances are I count you as one of inner posse.
 

I very rarely use the word Cunt as a derogatory term.  When I do, I'm usually talking about a bloke and I'm not calling him a giant vagina.  My meaning is that well, he's really not a person that is worth my time. Just like reclaiming this word.  I've never lost it.  I just don't give it the power that other women do.  Cunt is certainly not the worst thing I have been called, far from it.  Maybe though that is because well I just don't see the badness of it anymore.
When I was a teenager I hated the word, thought it was vile.  Now? I just use it as an extra swearing describing word.  It kind of makes conversations seem a little more exciting. To me anyway.  The sentence 'The person was a little bit naughty so he needs to go over there, away from me', just doesn't sound the same without all of the describing words.
 

 So I won't be reclaiming the word in the name of feminism or any other cause because well I don't give the word the power that others do.  To me it's just another word.
 

What are your thoughts on the word cunt? Hate it, love it, or really couldn't care less?

Listmania: Currently I am

On my usual morning social media read, I stumbled across a new linky party by Deb from Home Life Simplified. It's brand new for 2013 and has a new list of prompts each week.  The linky is open for a week so if you are a blogger then come along and join the party!

 This weeks prompt is Currently I am:

 Reading: I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  I quite enjoyed it.  I think I'll read a Janet Evanovich one next as I like to have a filler in between 'heavy' books.

Listening to: Napoleon. Devil Spawn has taken a liking to the movie. I'm just waiting for the disc to die from overuse.

Laughing at: The phrases that Devil Spawn comes out with. It's amazing seeing how his brain works when he comes out with some of the stuff he does! 

Swooning over: In light of the Breastfeeding debate that was sparked by a woman getting asked to leave a pool, the images of Ryan Gosling that are circulating. He thinks Breastfeeding is sexy ;)

Planning: I've gotten into the swing of the Menu Planning and it's actually working, most of the time.  

Eating lots of: Lattice Slice. It is yum yum and the recipe can be found here

Feeling: Completely overwhelmed...still

Discovering: Not everything is as it appears. It's better to to stabbed in the front by an enemy than stabbed in the back by a friend.

Looking at: Ways to improve the blog. Let me know what YOU want to see more of here 

Wearing: As little clothes as possible when I'm at home. It is ridiculously hot here at the moment. I feel like I am sitting in a giant pool of sweat, even at midnight.

Cooking: More meals that are easy, but still nutritious. Ones that also appeal to a fussy toddler are also winners.

Wondering: If I am taking the right steps to making 2013 my bitch. It feels like two steps forward, one step back at the moment. I will OWN it!

Trying out: A bit of goal orientated exercise with Kate and signed up for Operation Move. 

What are you currently....

 

Body Love

If the 'fashion world' is to be believed, plus size starts at size 12-14. I call fucking bullshit! How on earth are we supposed to portray to our children that size isn't everything, when a world that is so dominant to a teenager is telling them that they are 'overweight' at a size 12-14.  There is so much outrage...and yet nothing is done.  

When will it be that a woman is recognised for her brain, her voice, her passion and not the size of her bra, shirt and short short skirt?
 

Loving my body is something that I have always struggled with and continue to struggle with.  It doesn't matter what size I am...I hate it.  I stand in front of the mirror, poking and proding, picking out things that I do not like.  I have always felt a strong disconnection between my body and my mind. My mind is strong, my body is weak. 
 

This isn't about hate though, this is about love.  I don't hate my entire body, I don't know if that is entirely possible. Even at my lowest of lows, when poked and prodded I could eventually come up with something that I liked.  As I have gotten older, I have realised the strenght that my body has. The things that I have put it through and it's come through the other side virtually unscathed.  Every weekend I thank my liver for being a fucking trooper.  That bastard puts up with a bashing!
 

I have lived through OD's that if left untreated could have done severe damage, drank things that were intended for cleaning purposes only and still my body is reasonably ok. I have reflux that hurts like a bitch when I forget my meds but other than that, it's doing ok.  I had someone lace my drink with turps and yet all I felt was a couple of cramps. Like I said my body has copped a hiding.  It still does the stuff I want it to do! It might put up a hell of a protest but we get there in the end.
 

I have cut it, burnt it and scratched at it.  I have tried to destroy my body in any way I could. Still it's here, doing the shit it's supposed to do.  It might not look the way that I want it to look. Does anyones?
 

I birthed a mother fucking baby out of my body.  I felt like a beach ball with legs, and still my body did everything that it needed to do.  It created this little Devil Spawn. It was amazing and scary all at the same time but my body did it.
 

Do you love your body? Has it kept you in awe at the amazing things it can do?
 

Link up for #RCThursdays below.  This is the last one for the year so lets go out with a bang :)

Since When

Today's post is a guest post. It's bought to you by one of my friends Sarah. She wants to have a bit of a dabble in Blogging so be kind :)

Sarah is currently on leave from my wonderful job to raise my daughter from a teeny tiny bub who decided that Christmas was too fun to miss out on last year and surprised us by arriving 2 months early.

Welcome to my first post. Thank you to Musings of the Misguided for hosting it for me.

I had been thinking about putting fingers to keyboard for some time, and have decided to bite the bullet.

So many things lately have made me ask “since when?”. None more so than the treatment of a lady who tried to create a space for women, by women without the fakeness of those popular women’s mags.

So here we go...

Since when did we start becoming a bunch of bullies who think it’s fun to bucket crap on someone just because they made a typo? Oh wait, that’s thanks to social media like Twitter and Facebook. Yes, Facebook has it’s merits, but I’m yet to understand Twitter. Limited characters, misconstrued meanings...

Since when did we start thinking we are entitled to Freedom of Speech? It’s Australia people. It’s not in our constitution. FoS is an American constitutional right, not an Aussie one. If you think someone has taken away you’re free speech, toughen up, princess and blog about it.

Since when did it become okay to teach our children that it’s acceptable to be rude, bigoted, ignorant people? IT’S NOT OKAY! I swear it seems worse than it did back in the 50’s and 60’s. And it’s just getting worse every day. I don’t know what the solution is, but I’m trying to teach my LO acceptance and tolerance. Manners have just gone out the window. There is a distinct lack of discipline that only started in the last 10 to 20 years. Please and thank you, please people!! And a simple “excuse me” wouldn’t go astray either.

Since when was it acceptable to threaten someone in any way, shape or form? It’s not cool people. Get over it. Grow up.

And one more, just to lighten the mood a bit...

Since when did Christmas card stamps start coming in packs of 20?? Normal stamps come in packs of 10, so why not Christmas card stamps too? Argh, it did my head in yesterday, because I only needed 10 and because they weren’t a pack, they weren’t self adhesive and I may have had to lick them, if not for the wet, squishy thingo they have at the post office.

Thank you to all who stuck with it and read it until the end. Thanks again to Tegan and Musings for hosting this for me.

Maybe I’ll start shedding a bit more light on what goes on in this overactive, yet mummy-addled brain of mine.

I still feel like a child playing dress up

Over the weekend a parody hashtag was created on twitter called #fakemamamia. I personally thought it was hilarious. It bought together many like minded women who weren’t afraid to laugh at a situation and who realised that being a mum wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops and shit.  What was created from this hashtag was Unreal Women. The start of a woman's online mag that was breaking the norm. Until the mainstream got a hold of it.  Sadly it’s over before it even began. All over a typo. Seriously.  Death threats were sent. Seriously.

Where I am going with this is that the following post was a submission I made to be included in the mag. The mag is no longer going ahead but I wanted to help tell it’s story.  To show the damage that can be done.  

I'm 24. I have been living out on my own for the last five years. Yet I am still waiting for someone to come along and tell me they caught me out, that I'm just pretending.  I don't feel like a real grown up.

When I was little I always loved bags. I still do and get a new one every couple of months. If my bank account allowed it I think I would get a new one every month.  One thing I always dreamed about when I was little was that I would have enough 'stuff' for a 'proper' handbag.  You know all the 'grown up' stuff that we see our mums stuff their bag with.  I now have the oversized handbag, complete with all the stuff. I still feel like a child playing dress up.

I always buy organisers when I get the chance. I love stationary and have way too much of it.  The diary is another thing that I saw as a 'grown up' thing.  I couldn't wait to be old enough to fill it with all of the activities I would do. All of the appointments I would be attending. The outings I would be invited to.  I have those things. I still feel like a child playing dress up.

As a female, the go to present is smelly stuff. I have enough lotions and potions to sink a battle ship.  I wear perfume every day. It's another thing that I equate with being a 'grown up'. You have places to be so you need to smell pretty.  'Grown up' things.  I still feel like a child playing dress up.

I always had a large collection of hand me down make up when I was growing up. I would sit in my room trying on different colours.  When I feel like being 'pretty' I put make up on. Sometimes it's for a night out. Other times it's to just do the grocery shopping.  I use foundation, mascara and lipstick. I'm not particularly good at applying it. I still feel like a child playing dress up.

Growing up I would fantasize about making my own home. I would think about all the stuff that I would buy and fill my house with.  I would picture all of the things I would use to decorate and how I could finally be able to display all of the ornaments I had collected.  I have all of that. I have so much stuff. My house is set up into a little home. It's not perfect but it's mine. I still feel like a child playing dress up.

Unlike other little girls, I never dreamed about having kids. They just didn't factor into my future plans.  I now have a 3 year old son.  He depends on me for everything and loves me to death. I teach him things without even realising it, I'm moulding a little human being. I still feel like a child playing dress up.

My whole life feels pretty surreal to me most days. I try not to think too far ahead or I get overwhelmed. I do things my way. Not everyone agrees with it, but I speak my mind.  I might feel like a child playing dress up but I'm an adult who's learning to cope in the big bad world.

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.

Beautiful? Who me?

I got massive surprise this afternoon when I logged on to see that Ann over at Help!! I'm Stuck!!   had tagged me in a super cool Beautiful Blogger Award.  So what does that mean? It means you lucky bastards get to find out cool interesting facts about me. Yep little ol' me.

This was my first thought when I had to think of something to say

 image here

I guess I should stop dicking around though and get to the important stuff.

1. Despite my tough exterior and my best efforts to not look all sissy. My favourite colour is pink.  There I said it.
2. My favourite movie of all time is Rocky Horror Picture Show. I could watch it over and over again.  Then once more just for good measure.
3. When I was in school I wanted to be a teacher. Now I am glad that I am not. My mum works in a school and the disrespect through stupid rules she gets is disgusting. It's something that I would really struggle with. Especially having to watch that I don't hug a child who is upset for fear of retribution.
4. I'm supposed to wear glasses when I am on the computer or reading.  I'm too lazy to go get them so I just squint at the screen instead.
5. I am a notebook-a-holic. I love buying new notebooks, even if I don't have anything to write in them.  In fact today I bought 3 new ones.
6. I love looking at storage stuff. If I had my own house each room would have different kinds of shelves and cupboards.  I could go nuts in a storage store. Sadly my bank balance gets in the way.
7. I really struggled to think of 7 interesting facts so I asked a friend and her answer was just say you're awesome because that says it all haha

My latest notebook haul

Now for the fun part! I get to bestow the honour of Beautiful Blogger onto some other awesome peeps!

1. Good Golly Miss Holly 
2. Edenland 
3. Dear Baby G 
4. Random Ramblings of a SAHM 
5. MagnetooBoldtoo 
6. Where's My Glow 
7. Wanderlust 
8. Help!! I'm Stuck!! 
9. Parental Parody  
10. Woogsworld 
11. Confessions of a 30 Something Woman 
12. Cup of Tea and A Blog 
13. Love Life and Hiccups 
14. What's in Emma's Brain 
15. The Things I'd Tell You 

No pressure to join in just thought it would be a bit of fun on a Friday afternoon. Enjoy your weekend!

Dabbling in the world of Handy Woman!

My washing machine has a mind of it's own.  It decides when it feels like spinning or if it even wants to wash at all.  *Insert sexist joke here ;)*
For a while I was washing in my bathtub using a broom handle and and the shower to do the 'rinse cycle'.  Due to it being in winter, the clothes would then take two days to dry.  Especially because I usually don't get the energy up for household chores until the afternoon, if at all.  I am so glad that during this time there was no gastro bugs in the Funny Farm house.
When that got old I started leaving my washing until the weekend and doing it at DP's house.  This really put a dampner on the lay in bed hangover caused by excessive alcohol consumption ritual we had going on.  I had to be all dometicated and shit. 
 

One day I decided to test out the tempremental washing machine and see if it had decided that it was finished being on strike yet.  Surprisingly it sort of spun, well at least enough to swish the detergent all through the clothes instead of the 4 or so items that were sitting in close proximity to the detergent.  Upon taking the washing out, I discovered there was something stuck between the internal and external tubs.  I pulled it a bit and it started to come out.  With a bit of pushing, shoving and pulling I managed to get it out.  Now the washing machine didn't work AT ALL.
 

At this point I decided to be all he-woman, figured I had nothing to lose and pulled the washing machine apart to see if there was anything else stuck inside.  I managed to pull it apart, cleaned out any build up and started the process of putting the machine back together.  By this stage I was all 'I am woman hear me roar'...right up until I dropped the screwdriver in between the internal and external tubs.  Cue string of profanities that drew DS from whatever he was doing to come and investigate what I was doing.  Shit was not good.
 

The space between the two tubs was about 10cm so obviously I wasn't going to fit my giant arm down there. 
 

Plan B. Tongs. The tongs could just fit down but they weren't long enough.  Sadly I didn't have any BBQ tongs or I would have been all over retrieving that pesky screw driver.
 

Plan C. Put the washing machine on it's side and see if that made a difference to me being able to reach it. It didn't.
 

Plan D. By this stage if I was stupid enough to have a swear jar, I would have enough coin to buy a whole new washing maching AND and entire set of screwdrivers so shit was really not going good.  Kicking the washing machine just resulted in the screwdriver going further down the tub.
 

Plan E. I found two sticks that used to hold a couple of fabric cubes together and attempted to reach the screwdriver using them like a pincer.  Of course the sticks were too short. Of course I swore a hell of a lot more.
 

Plan F.  I really had my thinking cap on now. I was wondering how much it would cost to dump this stupid washing machine versus having to tell DP that I fucked up and I needed his help.  Cue 'I am woman hear me roar' and I finally came up with something that worked!
I used the sticks from Plan E, and attached an allen key onto the end of each one using a ton of sticky tape because heaven forbid I lose two more tools.  I hooked each Allen Key under the handle of the screwdriver and ever so carefully extracted the offending screwdriver from inside the washing machine! I was so over the moon I nearly cried.
 

After screwing in the rest of the screws, I chucked a couple of items of clothing in the washing machine and IT WORKED! I was back to being all 'I am woman hear me roar' and now I can wash in my own machine again.  It still randomly decides when it wants to work but it does the job.
 

Are you handy around the house or a DIY disaster?  Let me know your best and worst forrays into the world of DIY.