Here come the disclaimers!

I do plan to have this blog be about my whanau4life.  And I hope by now you get a sense that whanau in our world is bigger than just my kids and I.  There are so many things that interweave in our immediate lives, and things that happen on the periphery that affect us all the time.  If I really intend to be a shameless capitalist and make gazillions off this blog then I have to post about as many of these connections as possible.

The hub of this blog is my kids and I, you'll meet them soon.  We are the centre of the network.    And yes, if you’ve noticed my blog-speak, I have been googling ‘how to blog’ and apparently I can have more than one blog and it should stem from the hub.  Kind of like the spokes of a wheel on a bike (that is directly ripped off of someone elses blog, I may have to pay for that!).  There will be a blog at the end of each spoke, an outblog.  Thus forming my own network of blogs.  Perhaps one of these outblogs can narrate the journey I’ve taken.  Who knows.

Now for the disclaimers.  This blog wont be a man-hate-fest aimed at the ex.  That will be reserved for one of my R-18 outblogs!  You will most definitely have to subscribe to that one because it will be worth the money haha.  It wont be a soul–searching hunt for the real me either.  Though I believe that is bloggable, the truth is every post will reveal something about the real me.  And my language.  I can gangsta it up if I have to,  but in my (second year) seventh form history class, my teacher taught me to embrace my knowledge of the language and not be ashamed to use my big words.  What can I say, I read so much as a kid that I’m just an out-and-out nerd.  So take me, take my language.

The last disclaimer?  The rawness.  I cant or wont change the way I write.  It has to be real.  Its who I am.  I did worry about the level of pain that my kids could read about, but they know I hide nothing from them.  They have seen me at my lowest and cried too.  But they wont let me stay there.  Nothing gets me out of a sook session faster than their need for me to get over myself and cook/clean/pay/play/drive...live.  They're quite simply the best kids - I cant wait to introduce them to you!

This blog will be about the things I have learnt, the fears I have faced and conquered, and the joys of being a mum, a solo mum.  Awww, cant get better than that!  It took me ages to accept that label.  Solo mum.  And I know my story isn’t unique, how many of us know a woman currently raising kids on her own?  I am not the first woman to do this, and sadly I wont be the last.  This blog is about acknowledging all the people I have met, and the people I will meet, who have helped shape my new life, my new look  whanau.  My strength is my whanau, whanau is my strength.  Ohh, maybe I can outblog about cheesy oneliners!