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How divine – you have found my blog, welcome!!

Well hello! I am a Mother of 4 scrumptious kids aged 5-14 – Liberty, Jago, Ruby and Rex. My heart and soul have poured into them since the birth of my first born. It has been a crazy rollercoaster ride – full of love, confusion, exhaustion, joy, guilt, tears, love, love and more love!

My husband and I are both one of 4 kids and 4 kids of our own always seemed like a grand but obvious plan. We both grew up in a hubbub of noise and activity and wanted to recreate that magic in our family home.

We live by the sea in Poole and love everything about the outdoor life here. We are all water babies and sail, surf and swim whenever possible.

Since my youngest started school, I have thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with my true essence. Working out what actually floats my boat these days, after years of putting others first. It has been a period of huge growth and self discovery and book writing! I have honed a love of writing about my experiences and reflections on motherhood and plan to publish my Joyful Mothering book next year! My mission is to reach out via the book, my blog, workshops and Qoya classes, to help all mothers who, like me, wish to enJOY their experience of motherhood more.

My lovely Mamma said that she always wanted to write a book – I too, have always harboured that dream and now it feels as though I am doing it for the both of us. My motherhood journey was felt more intensely in light of my lovely Mummy dying just before I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. ‘Life is short, so make it sweet’ became a motto for me and I was determined to soak up all the joy on offer. The book is first and foremost for me – to bring together and make sense of my Motherhood learnings, thoughts and experience to date. Secondly it is for my children, a means for me to pass on my knowledge in an easily digestible way, lest I forget! Thirdly it is for the greater good – if this book can illuminate a few minds and create more Joyful Mammas and joyful children, the ripple effect will be huge and that is a staggering thought!

My favourite things are: Kissing my children awake in the morning (they are thankfully all past the stage where they wake me up each morning!); Lighting a candle and relishing the space created by my Morning Meditation while the rest of the house sleep; Breathing in the sea air; Running along our beach with Darby, our golden retriever; Making Birthday cakes; Eating birthday cakes (one bonus of having lots of kids!); Writing in my Beach Hut; Making people belly laugh; Inspiring chats with my soulmate; Connecting with my beautiful sisters; Reminding myself of all the wonderful reasons to be grateful for this life; Watching the sunlight sparkling on the sea from the beach or the bow of a boat and feeling ALIVE!

My wish is to connect with as many of you gorgeous women as possible and share ways to help you connect with your inner joy. Joy is the birthright of each and every one of us but as we grow and our responsibilities increase it becomes more ellusive for many. It is a topic that I am passionate about and through much reading, experience, research and training in Mindfulness, NLP and Qoya, I firmly believe that JOY is intrinsic – inside us all always – the trick is to stay aware and awake enough to soak it up. Us Mammas are all so busy and the pleasure of BEING is often lost in the never ending TO DO lists, but there are truly so many ways that we can enJOY life more each day. Consider that no-one but the Mamma can give their children the precious gift of a Joyful Mamma. This is a call to action – it is our responsibility to find what works and embrace it. I would dearly love to help you do just that.