FULL HEART AND EMPTY BRAIN

Welcome to my first ever blog.

I am Anna Brophy.

That is it – no middle name. I am the youngest of 5 kids…apparently they used up all the good names early on. I am a 43 year old mum (…whoooaaaa…hold up…Ouch!…doesn’t that look ‘real’ in black and white..) and we have recently relocated from Sydney back to our Melbourne home at the end of last year. Whilst desperately missing Sydney, we are loving rediscovering our city and being back amongst family.

I grew up in South West Victoria and I am possibly the only country girl who never learnt to drive a tractor. I am from a bustling, big, happy family, where we all sang different songs loudly in the back of the station wagon. My mum is from Ireland, however I do a dreadful Irish accent and don’t actually like Guinness.

According to my siblings, I was the spoilt baby…pfttt…whatever…! My best and most challenging role yet is as a mum. Aside from that…well…I would like to say ‘writer’…but ‘blogger’ sounds cooler, right?! In what feels like another lifetime I was a secondary school teacher and loved it. I have been happily married to lycra legs Husband for 9 years, and we delight in our 6 year old son and our 5 year old daughter.

SO HERE IS WHAT I WROTE WHEN THIS BLOG BEGAN; A TIME WHEN THE KIDS WERE SMALLER AND MY BRAIN WAS STARTING TO FEEL LIKE ABSOLUTE MUSH….

Here is where I am now…

I spent a solid half hour in dead locked negotiations with my three year old recently, about why it was not appropriate to watch dead people on the iPad. This of course lead to a full scale melt down on the kitchen floor. When did my life jump from last minute weekends away, leisurely cafe breakfasts and sure thing Saturday morning sleep ins, to folding washing and bribing little mouths to swallow veggies?

Recently I had a face palm moment; I decided to hold my own intervention and go on my very own discovery tour. Make new and brighter memories; seek out the fun and laugh at myself (and with my kids) more often. Sometimes as new Mum’s, life just becomes way too serious. We are limited by kid’s sleeps, often shell shocked by living off one income, our own exhaustion, overtired kids and countless other hurdles in our day. We are so busy keeping a watchful eye on the banana level in the fruit bowl, that we start to lose ourselves. Why do we sometimes internalise it all like a badge of selfless honour?

I know I am blessed; never for a second do I feel regret or underestimate what a truly mind-blowing gift my kids are, but when you are rinsing out sheets covered in vomit, or trying to negotiate with an 18 month old that nappies STAY ON, I admit to having my moment of closed eyes, deep breathing and setting sail for my happy place.

So this blog is for me. It is going to be my new happy place. I will have no real answers, no shred of medical or scientific knowledge, but I will share with you ridiculously long sentences, inappropriate over use of exclamation marks and possibly an unspoken view of the down and dirty side of motherhood. I am a highly qualified foot in mouth deliverer, chocolate hider and under breath swearer, and I will promise to own up to my mistakes (well; some of them, anyway). I will aim to find something that resonates with you and hope you get your occasional three minutes of coffee time and rare silence to enjoy it. What do I hope you will you get from it?….. a bloody good laugh, a green light for a cry and the knowledge that those smug biatches are lying.

Welcome aboard, my friend, to the story of my little family and my mummy muck-ups.

Anna Brophy

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