About Me

Welcome to my brand new blog.  This has been a long time brewing in my mind although only my husband knew that …..until now.  So big deep breath and here we go!  I’ll have to be quick though….. I need to finish before the end of nap time!

I’ll change this welcome page once I know what this blog is actually about!  To start with though, I’ll introduce myself and why I’m doing this.

Who am I?

 My name is Michelle and I am mum to two beautiful boys JJ and Fintan and wife to Matt.  I’m from Ireland and Matt is from England but we have been living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney in Australia up until 6 months ago when we decided to move lock stock and barrel to Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Why Jersey?

The first question I usually get asked is “why Jersey?”; and even more often “why on earth would you leave Sydney?!”  I moved to Sydney as a backpacker over 17 years ago and quite honestly it’s one of the most incredible places to live.  after living and working in Oz for a number of years, I met my Matthew in 2006 and we married back in my home country of Ireland in 2011.  It was only after our first little boy arrived in 2013 that the reality of living so far away from family started to sink in.  By the time our second little fella arrived, it was time to make a decision – stay in Sydney and accept that we would only see our family in person every few years or make a big leap of faith and move to be closer to them.  Matt’s best friend from Uni and 2 of our other close friends are from Jersey and had got us thinking about it as a very real alternative to Sydney:  capital city style jobs within a short commute of beach or countryside living, very outdoorsy culture, better (Slightly!) weather than the UK or Ireland and a beautifully safe, friendly and close knit community feel that’s very conducive to raising a family.  When a job opportunity was presented, we jumped at that chance and although it broke our hearts to leave our community of friends and our home in Australia, we welcomed the opportunity to create a new home that would be closer to our  folks back home.  I’ll write another post (or several!) on what  it’s actually like to live here as I don’t want this post to be too long and I can already hear my little guy making noises from his cot!

Matt photobombing our lovely mother and sons photo!

 

Why write a blog and what will be in it?

Actually this is my second blog; my first was a travel blog back in 2009.  Matthew and I took a year out to travel around Europe, Africa, Nepal and India and I used other people’s blogs to plan our trip and then documented our travels in our own blog.  When we decided to move to Jersey I struggled to find much information on what it would be like for a family living here and couldn’t find any blogs on the topic and so the seed of an idea was planted.  We’ve also made a decision that I won’t go back to paid employment for the next few months at least while we continue to get settled in our new home.  And whilst I love being a mum and a homemaker, I’m really find that I’m missing the thrill of a deadline and the satisfaction of finishing a piece of work….and I’m gradually realising that a mothering job is never done.  And finally, I need a challenge and ultimately would love to develop my own business.  I’m not entirely sure what that will be just yet but for now I’m going to teach myself about creating a website and learning about online marketing.  As to the content of this blog….well I guess it’s going to be all the things I’m interested in and experiencing here – family, food, travel and life here on this little rock in the middle of the channel.

  I’ll also be seeking out some inspirational mamas to chat to who will hopefully share their passions, successes and secrets to staying sane in this crazy job!

Fintan in my favourite carrier the Manduca

What’s in a name?

Just quickly to finish….probably the most challenging part of this process has been deciding  on a name.  It’s really quite limiting trying to describe who you are and what you’re about in a couple of words.  I played around with a hippie theme as a lot of my interests are a wee bit crunchy but really I’m only a part time hippie and a champagne one at that.  I have been following a lovely Aussie blog called the Organised Housewife and as I much as I love it I thought maybe i could be the antithesis ….the Disorganised Housewife but why be defeated before i begin……  I really am trying to be more organised!  And so I decided to be very Australian about this process and just say it as I see it – I’m living in the Channel Islands and I’m a mum…..the rest is a moveable feast!

So, thank you for reading this far.  If you would like to subscribe well that would be just lovely (fill in your email below) and I would also welcome any comments, suggestions or otherwise xx

My Buddha baby