little white truths

I wouldn't normally write my 'five good things' post until the end of the month, but since that's not too far away and I'm not feeling inspired to write a product review, I thought I'd do this now while I remember. This monthly post is a newer addition of mine to the blog and I have forgotten to write it before, so best I do it while it's front of mind.

I must say, it's been no easy task picking out five positive things this month. I'm coming into my 38th week of my second pregnancy - which has been extra tough physically because my toddler has brought all sorts of bugs home and, being immunosuppressed as we all are in pregnancy, I've caught them all - so we're both sick again and many people are away at the moment so support is thin on the ground.

But enough whining. What I'm getting at here is, having had two hours' sleep and having woken up with tonsils the size of balloons, now seemed like the right time to write this post. Better to focus on the good, yes? Even if it's only for a short time as I sneak in a sentence or two in the spaces.

Apathy is great for panning projects

Beauty lovers will understand this one. While normally it's a pleasure to pick out which of your products you're going to use each day - and, on the flip side, it can be really hard to keep using your chosen items for Project Pan or Pan that Palette on a constant basis - at the moment I'm not getting the same joy from my stuff, which means I'm more than happy to slap on my panning products without thinking.

The good news here is, my panning products have been shrinking throughout the last few weeks with very little willpower from me, so it hasn't felt like an effort to use them. Indeed, I've found a weird kind of peace in reaching for the box on the kitchen table that contains the things I want to get through. Normally it's a struggle, so in an odd way it's felt like a panning break. Yay to that.

Apathy is also great for your wallet

Yes it's true. My husband's suggestions that we get takeaway for dinner have been met with a resounding 'no' over the past few weeks, and he's even offered to take me shopping at Mecca (which he so rarely does because the purse strings are tight), and would you believe, I said no to that too. Well I never!

While normally I'm scanning the seasonal releases and watching out for online specials so I can make a purchase or two each month, at the moment I'd barely care if a bunch of free stuff wound up in my lap. The good news here is, what I'm not spending now can be saved for a later date, when I'll take more pleasure in fun new things. A definite positive.

D-Day is coming

The best thing about the last month of your pregnancy is that you can finally see the goal posts. For the rest of it, it can feel never-ending - especially for those of us who know when we're pregnant straight away because of how we feel. Some people get a good 'free' couple of pregnancy months. Others don't.

And while many struggle with the terrors of the first trimester, I personally find the second the hardest because it feels like the longest - and then it rolls into the third, when the physical discomfort seems to grow by the day. But at least now I can tell myself that it could all be over tomorrow. It probably won't be, but it could be. Remembering that helps.

Help is coming, too

My parents have been overseas for the majority of the last few months, my husband of course works and his mum lives overseas. But, come October, my parents will be back, my husband's mum will be here and my husband will have a whole month off work when the new bub arrives. All that help! I won't know myself. I almost can't imagine it.

On top of that, once bub is here, my body will return to its pre-pregnancy state. I remember the moment when it did this after my first pregnancy: five days after childbirth, I was walking the dog home from the park and I suddenly realised that I could move my legs properly. The thick weight that had coursed through my veins for 40 weeks suddenly evaporated into thin air. It was almost a religious experience - I'll never forget it. That moment is coming again, too.

I'm still blogging

I started this blog during my first pregnancy, and if there's been one constant over the last couple of years, it's been this. It's true that everything changes after you have kids - even things you'd never expected to change. You know that your life will suddenly become about your child, but no one tells you about the other stuff: the stress on your marriage, for example. You hear about the trials of early parenthood, but you can't understand the intensity of them until you experience them yourself.

So I do think that it helps to keep things in your life that don't change when everything else does. For me, that's been this blog and making sure I do my skincare routine and play with my makeup each day. For others, it might be going to the same coffee shop each morning or having a massage once a week. Pick something that doesn't change. It helps.

In sum

Well as usual it took me a good while to write this post - the standard morning juggle when your daughter rises as early as you do - but I got there in the end. Plus I managed to do my skincare stuff and put my base on before my husband left for work, so all that's left now is to reach for my panning products throughout the course of the morning and whack those on in the spaces. The rest of the day is for my daughter, the belly and the dog. But those things are for me.

I mightn't have slept, I might be sick and I might be keeling over from the weight of the growing bub, but that's still a good-enough start to the morning. 

And sometimes 'good-enough' is nothing short of perfect.