The A to Z of Me!

After only a small bit of begging over at the Irish Parenting Bloggers group I was tagged by The Busy Mama’s to do an A-Z of me. Fomo is a very real feeling so I’m thrilled to be taking part. Without further ado here is me, and my a-z…

A is for A-Z and more specifically the rap in Wannabe by the Spice Girls which I am singing in my head while writing this (Soooooo heres a story from A to Z, you wanna get with me you gotta listen carefully….you are welcome).

B is for Batshitcray (bat-shit-crazy) which is what my children can drive me to be some days. These lead to what my sister and I refer to as ‘psychotic episodes’. A psychotic episode is usually accompanied by a banging soundtrack and involves purging of belongings, travel or a spiritual experience – like the solar eclipse.

C is for Clev, obviously, which is a nickname given to me by my bff. I’ve been called Clev or variations like Clevinne, Clevvie, Clevorina or Clevitino for almost ten years now and if my bff calls me ‘Clare’ then it sounds weird. So really I owe my ‘The Clevs’ based fame and fortune to her who invented the term.

D is for Divorce. My mum and dad are divorced and it has shaped a lot of my opinions. I am very pro marriage and I am committed to do whatever I have to do to make sure mine doesn’t end in divorce. Luckily Mr Clev agrees with me and we have invested many hours of therapy, heart to hearts and date nights to make sure we are super strong and the best team we can be. My nanny and Grandy are married 65 years and for their diamond anniversary got a telegram from The Queen. #relationshipgoals

E is for Epsom, town of my birth and home of the Derby and parents. Fondly now called the Epo Ghetto by the majority of my friends its somewhere that thanks to insane house prices and lack of bank lending I will never be able to afford to live, unless I win the lottery or am happy cramming 7 people into a one bedroom flat.

F is for Farage, Nigel, who I hate with a passion and feel should take his political party and fuck right off. Two Fs there for the price of one.

G is for Gossip. Any conversation that starts ‘did you hear about…’ or ‘ohhh you dont know/you’ll never guess what’ is a no no for me, as is asking outright ‘any gossip?’.  I have enough on my plate living my own life without needing to get involved in other peoples.

H is for History, which I studied at university. One of my 30 before 30 goals is to rekindle my love for this subject which Im happy to say I’m doing.

I is for Irritable Bowel Disease, one of which my husband has (Chrons) and it is suspected Maxi has too. They are shit (pun intended) and more needs to be done to raise people’s awareness of them and to hopefully find a cure.

J is for Jerusalem. I need to go.  Not content with just flying there for a week long visit I want to go there in a campervan with my children and travel around the whole Holy land. I’m not even that bothered by the unrest there, I want to go and immerse myself in the culture, bathe in the dead sea, see the Church of the Nativity and instagram the whole thing.

K is for Kids. I prefer the term children but I already used C. I have 5 kids who mean the world to me and whom I love with my whole heart. Its CBT (cheesy but true) but they are my life.

L is for London, my favourite city and where I’m lucky enough to have made many memories.

M is for Marathon which I’m running in October, well, finishing, there will be a mixture of running, stumbling, walking and crawling probably. Im not a runner so this is one of those ‘dream big’ challenges that I have set myself. I will finish, I will, I will, I will.

N is for Not moving back to the UK any time soon because we love it here (also see point F and point U).

O is for Ocean. Being near one soothes my soul. My babies all feel the same way.

P is for Pregnant. Which I was every year from 2005-2013. Carrying, birthing and feeding my children is pretty integral to my identity.

Q is for Questions. Like this one – what is a ‘guna’ as in ‘oh lovely guna’- its an Irish thing right? I have no idea and really want to know. While you are answering questions I would also like to know what will happen with the Irish and Northern Irish border if GB votes to leave the EU? That question keeps me up at night.

R is for Religion. We are pretty recent Catholic converts, having only being practicing fully for 5 years. I love the faith, I love God and I love my family. I pick and choose some of the other traditional catholic beliefs depending on how I feel at the time. I also think Pope Francis is doing wonderful things to bring Catholicism to youth and make it a more accessible religion. I am generally really interested in all religions and enjoy teaching my children about different beliefs.

S is for Sister. I was an only child for 8 years so it was a bit of a rude awakening for me when she arrived. For a long time if I was asked what the best thing about having a sister was I would reply “having someone to spend christmas with when my mum dies”. Said sister is 21 and living the dream traveling the world and studying in Exeter, but we do get on despite our differences.

T is for travel. Something that has not happened much at all in the last 10 years but that I’m itching to do now. Every day is a constant battle between being a proper grown up and jacking everything in and becoming nomads (the kind of nomads who drive a repurposed vintage bus, wear boho clothing and can work anywhere because they are digital entrepreneurs, natch).

U is for United Kingdom ….or is it? As well as Farage, Nigel I also not overly keen on Sturgeon, Nicola – she reminds me of Dolores Umbridge and Im pretty convinced she secretly wants to ruin Hogwarts/Parliament. This view is not politically based at all but has everything to do with her penchant for twin sets and slightly scary facial expressions.

V is for VOTE YES. I know it seems unlikely coming from someone who just said they are pro marriage and also Catholic. I believe marriage is scared and everyone should be allowed to have that experience if they want it. I have 5 children and 1 in 4 people are LGBT – statistically that means that one of my bambinos may well be homosexual. It would break my heart for them to not have the same experience of marriage as the rest of their siblings. Additionally it really hacks me off that the NO peeps think having LGBT people getting married devalues the institution but that divorce and remarriage between men and women (sometimes multiple times) is ok? er yeah, no, not really. Don’t even get me started on the ‘children need a mother AND father’, er yeah, no, just no.

W is for Wine bar. There is a serious lack of Wine Bars within walking distance of my current home. The last house I lived in was 10 minutes walk from a rather lovely Wine Bar. I miss that.

X is for Xavier which is what I wanted to call Luis, and then Maxi. My husband would never allow it because its too posh for us, and also he knows his family will endlessly tease him about it.

Y is for YOUCH, which I screamed repeatedly when I was giving birth to Cora on my sofa after 20 minutes of labour. Youch – its like ouch, but with more feeling.

Z is for Zante in Greece where Mr Clev and I went on our first proper holiday together. I was 8 weeks pregnant with Luis at the time but had ZERO idea, like none because I had a hot bikini bod and no symptoms. Before you hate me for sailing through that pregnancy I’ll throw in here that with Vivienne I was in hospital for the majority of my pregnancy with Hyperemesis Gravidarum. 

Do you feel like you know me so much better now? The fomo is cured and I can rest easy now knowing that I have a place in the blogging world and that i’m not the last person on the a-z bandwagon. Im going to tag the lovely Musings and Chatterings of a Busy Mind, whose election recap post is on point!.