Camping in County Donegal, Ireland

We went camping again this summer (for last years camp trip click here ((the photos of Ché Phoenix are insane!!)) this time at Rossnowlagh Beach, County Donegal, a bit closer to home as someone isn't fond of car journeys these days!

We went with my sister Pippa (or Auntie Squeak as she's more commonly known!) and Al's sister Sel and her hubby James - 3 of the coolest people in the world. So it was always gonna be great :)

Ché Phoenix LOVED the beach, I mean look at that FACE!!! I have about 200 photos of him in the sea, rock climbing, digging, and just running free :) In 99% of them he is totally naked (even cuter!) but we'll keep those ones to ourselves I think, infact he spent most of the holiday naked, wild and free, thats my boy <3

County Donegal is on the North West coast of Ireland, its rugged, wet and windy (even in summer)! Luckily we had brought our market stall gazebo to make a communal area to hang out in at the camp and we still went on loads of walks and had an amazing time.

BEST PHOTO BOMB EVER!!!

The best thing was that we forgot our iPhone chargers and so were completely unplugged and disconnected for the whole week, a blessing in disguise. I felt so present in the moment and relaxed in a way I know I couldn't be whilst being online and contactable. Lesson learned - holidays are iPhone free times :)

That squished up annoyed face with the up turned hand, whilst saying 'nuu' and shaking his head slightly is our favourite these days. It means 'it's not there anymore, its gone, not sure I'm happy about it!

Note: I may have pulled that face as we drove home from that wonderful family break...

Our plan :)

I've been missing writing on this blog, and the connection with people who know my 'journey' I often think about making time for it and sharing my journey again - we have come so far and there IS so much to share. I am just out of the habit of actually writing... Instagram is good (and bad) like that!

He literally takes me by the hand, pulls me down and pushes my face at the flowers! So cute!

So I'm sorry if this post is a bit all over the place but I feel like i just have to go with it and my flow will come back :)

Back to the beginning - our journey to a dream, I feel that Al and I have been really good at keeping our main goals in our head as this last year has progressed. Our marriage first, happiness of all three of us, family time, work time to be sure we are travelling in the direction of our dreams. We are becoming less focused on the 'dream' and more on the 'journey' lately. Maybe having your own family does that? I saw this clearly when a house round the corner from us came up for sale at a very reasonable price, it has only a small garden and so would have been dismissed by us in the past but we ended up chatting for a long time about it, and deciding buying a house like that would be great for us right now. We talked about how it'd be a good investment - its a great time to buy, maybe sell in 3 years or so, how we love the area where we live, how we plan to concentrate on growing our business over the next few years and how if we have another baby in that time we'd need the time we want away from our business to nurture our growing family :) Buying land to build a home this year and start our dream farm is just not the right focus of energy and time for us... Plus how would it even be possible, at this stage of being self employed? We want to keep working hard on Itty Bitty Book Co, it is bringing us so much joy and fulfilment :) We hope to be in a position to step out of the day to day running of the business and have the time to invest in our smallholding when we find it :)

We're happy with that plan, it feels right :) and its nice to write it down too, to share it with you guys :) I know theres a lot of smiley faces in this post but I really am smiling so :)

A rare shot of the 3 of us (all facing the camera!), at a lovely family wedding last Saturday :)

Ché Phoenix and I went on an adventure to find the sheep - I still love the closeness you get using a baby carrier, when he gets tired on our walks i put him in and he cuddles up to me and 'talks' and points at what he wants me to notice, birds, planes, cars... And I kiss his face every 2 seconds until he looses patience with me and then he starts telling me 'no nu' and shaking his head lol I love him so much... More on him in the next post :) 

Becoming market regulars in Belfast

Over the last few months we have become regular market traders at St.Georges Market in Belfast. We have loved it so much, there is such a fun and friendly atmosphere between all the traders there and wee Ché Phoenix is the star attraction - we joke that its our selling ploy, draw them in with the cute baby lol. But really we just naturally include him in whatever we are doing, he has made so many friends at the market and he meets so many new people each day, it's got to be good for him socially, plus he's such an active and alert baby, he needs so much stimulation that when we're out and about it's easier on us!

A market day pic from our Instagram account :)

Camping on the far west coast of Ireland

So most people wouldn't go camping with such a young baby... We did and it was amazing! We drove down to County Galway, through Connemara and camped at an eco campsite right on the beach. That part of Ireland is just stunning and hours and hours of just what you expect the  wild west coast of Ireland to be - mountainous, green, quaint and full of history and charm. The weather was amazing since we were still in the record breaking heatwave (about 25-30 degrees every day for a few weeks!). We lay about in the shade, swam in the ocean, walked along the beaches and just relaxed with friends, it was bliss. But being us we couldn't stop work altogether and approached a lovely local gift shop who's owner just loved our books and now  you can find our positivity all the way in Clifden, County Galway :)

Rights of passage start early in our family :)

When I was pregnant I read about other cultures traditions around pregnancy, birth and children. We adopted a few of them for our own family, taking the parts we love out of religions and cultural traditions to make our own traditions. It's something we did for our wedding too :) 

So the one thing idea we loved was to make a big deal of the first time you place your baby onto the earth. How we ended up seeing it was, until you place your child onto the ground he is still more connected with the sky, the universe, and the heavens than with earth. So the moment you place his feet on the earth the ties from the sky break and new ties are created, ones that keep him grounded and connected to nature and fully part of this world.

We have always found the top of mountains particularly spiritual places so we decided to challenge ourselves. To climb Slieve Donard and place Ché Phoenix on the ground at the very top. Slieve Donard is 850m and a tough climb (without a baby!), it took us 4.5 hours to reach the top and 2.5 hours to get back down. We are so proud, the sense of achievement is still buzzing inside us and the hike was nearly a month ago! 

In the car park ready to go!

About an hour in, sandwich and milk time :)

Around half way, you can see the sea in the background near where we started

Looking forward from half way, at the top is the wall which runs along the peaks of the Mourne Mountains, when you reach there you know its only about an hour to the top but it feels like 3!

Giggles with Daddy at the wall :)

A fellow hiker offered to take these next two pics :) 

We made it! The very highest point for hundreds of miles!

The reason for it all...

love this shot! cape blowing in the breeze and everything! Epic!

We sent positive thoughts and love from the top to Nelson Mandela who was in hospital at the time.
We wished him peace and happiness he will always be one of the people who inspire me most to
be the change I want to see in the world.

We stayed at the top for about an hour, I could have stayed so much longer!
But the mist was rolling back in so we headed back down. Slowly, on shaky legs...

The lower half of the hike runs along a beautiful crystal clear water way, which starts as a spring and by the time you reach the bottom is a beautiful river with rocky waterfalls and pools, we sat by it for a while, Ché Phoenix loves to watch water. This was the first time his feet dipped in a natural water way :) On a side note it was shocking and disappointing to see rubbish in such a stunning pace so we filled our backpack with every piece we saw on the way down, starting with the can in this photo...

Getting fit again after pregnancy...

It's not easy LOL A few weeks after Ché Phoenix was born I was out of breath walking to the end of my road (not very far!). 

Walking with him for the first time!

Even though I had kept up exercise all through my pregnancy and hadn't really gained any extra non baby weight I found myself super un-fit, which I didn't expect, did anyone else find that? I sorta thought once he was born I'd just have a squishy tummy and the rest would feel normal after a few days. If you're a mum yourself feel free to laugh at me now, I would!

39 weeks pregnant :)

39 weeks pregnant side view (I got way bigger btw!)

So over the last 4 months (Ché Phoenix is nearly 5 months!!!) I have been working towards my pre-pregnancy fitness levels. I think it's important to do this gently and to be patient with your body, it has just done something miraculous and deserves your respect no matter what shape it's in now! Especially when you're breast feeding you need to keep up your liquid and calorie intake which is quite a bit more than normal and if you're exercising you need extra on top of that! So I didn't diet at all, just ate healthy and hiked, carrying Ché Phoenix :) 

Next week is breast feeding awareness week here in Ireland and the UK so although I don't normally show nursing photos I wanted to over this next wee while to show my support for other mums and help normalise it in this part of the world. It's natural and the best thing for babies, if you're a breast feeder you should be proud, I am :)

I tried to go walking with my friends about once a week and we did a family hike once a week. We started with a little 2k walk then moved up to a 6k walk then a 10k hike (with hills!)

 

I love panoramic photos but I always forget my phone can do them!

Mourne Mountains County Down

I'm very proud of how my body has regained its fitness levels and we have something MASSIVE planned that we have been waiting/training for... but I cant tell you LOL yet! It's a celebration of sorts and a special thing we wanted to do for Ché. Pictures and post on that as soon as we've done it!