iBlog Friday: Our weekly roundup of Aussie bloggers

It's a chance for bloggers introduce their favourite post of the week to iVillage readers and for our community to read what Aussie writers are up to.

Here are the bloggers who have sent their submissions this week. Happy reading!

Vanessa Palavicini of CEO of My Joyous Life share the five ways she reclaimed her happiness in her post 5 ways to Reach Breakthroughs.

The saying goes something like, “If life hands you lemons, you make lemonade”. Times of despair are definite delicious lemonade opportunities! Okay, in the moment lemonade may not be on the top of your list. You may be more in survival mode. Breathing through the day might be the only task you can take on. But guess what.

Little do you know, breakdowns create some of the best breakthroughs! Sounds crazy, but consider yourself blessed for the opportunity for growth. For wisdom. For time to choose a better path.

Read the rest of Vanessa's post here.

Bianca Slade of Wholefood Simply talks about how banana bread is never just banana bread in her post It Makes A Meal - Protein Packed Banana Bread.

We are a little crazy for this bread at our place. I am constantly making it and we are constantly running out! It is a perfect meal for my fussy little boy, the ideal lunch box snack for my hungry school girl, and a sustaining and satisfying breakfast for my early-to-work-and-eating-on-the-run husband. As for me, I will happily indulge anytime! Every home needs a go-to banana bread recipe, could this one be a staple at your place?

Read the rest of Bianca's post here.

Renee Wilson of Mummy, wife, me is forced into a difficult parenting dilemma which she explains in her post With the stars.

While Curly-locks can be timid around people, even those she knows, she would let her guard down with Aunty May. She loved how Aunty May would envelop her in her arms and make soft bird sounds in her ear. Aunty May would skip with her and talk to her as if she was the most interesting little girl in the world. She paid Curly-locks attention, and of course, Curly-locks lapped it up.

We knew for some time that Aunty May was losing her battle with sickness, but we never broached the subject with Curly-locks not knowing how to explain it and not wanting to let our minds even go there.

Read the rest of Renee's post here.

Kellie Turtu of Mama Pyjama ponders a reality of life and explains how her children cope in her post Waiting.

If you’re in the early months (ok…years) of parenting and stuck in the mode of “survival waiting” (waiting to sleep, waiting to eat, waiting for your partner to return home and save you from your sleep-deprived self), I feel for you.  It is really hard and it can do really nasty things to your motivation and sense of self.  You can get lost in the cycle of waiting – and forget almost completely at times to enjoy the moment you are in.  I know that talk is cheap, and that most things are easier said than done…but if you can try to remind yourself that things WILL get easier, that the time WILL pass without you needing to sit and watch the clock, and all the things you are waiting for will eventually arrive, it may help bring you back into the living moment.

Read the rest of Kellie's post here.

Keri Arkell of Awesomely Unprepared explores her love/hate relationship with social media in her post Facebook: I love it but sometimes I don't.

Facebook. It’s just this little social networking site. Don’t know if you’ve heard of it?

It’s a place where your worlds collide. You can see into the lives of almost everyone you’ve ever (or even ‘never’) met, on a daily (or several times daily – let’s be honest) basis. This can be fun. It can be voyeuristic in the kind of way where someone has actually invited you to stalk them so it kind of makes it OK.

Read the rest of Keri's post here.

Nami Clark of Bubba Gum HQ bites the bullet and joins a gym in her post Bodyrock.

Read the rest of Nami's post here.

Jody Scott-Greer of Six Little Hearts has the perfect post for anyone who wants to do some early Christmas shopping in her post The Ultimate Mum's Guide to Shopping Online.

I love shopping. What woman doesn't?

Read the rest of Jody's post here.

Sarah Joy-Pierce of Love Bites shares her theory on marriage in her post My marriage is like housework.

I find a strange pleasure in housework. I know, it’s fairly mundane, repetitive and flies in the face of everything feminism stands for…but I actually do enjoy making my home tidy. Whether or not I actually do it on a regular basis is another matter altogether.

Given a few free hours early last Saturday morning, I decided to just bite the bullet and get it done. Floors don’t clean themselves, after all! As I was mopping, scrubbing and dusting my little heart out, I had something of an epiphany – marriage is sometimes a bit like housework.

Read the rest of Sarah's post here.

Susan Taylor of One Woman Circus shares her guilt over her recycling, or lack-there-of in her post I'm not as green as the hulk - but...

I've always been into recycling and being mindful of the environment, but I'm ashamed to admit my intentions are far greater than my actions. And the older I get, the more 'green' I want to become (probably because it's playing on my conscious and now that I'm a parent I also feel a responsibility to set a good example and do my bit to help slow down the self-destruction of the world).

I constantly feel guilty about all the environmentally-unfriendly things I do on a regular basis (like using disposable nappies for my kids and driving an old V8 that spits out more fumes than a sick dragon), and even though I try to be better I know there's always more I could do.

Read the rest of Susan's post here.

Alisha Lynch of Naughty Naturopath Mum's Blog says some words that are used to reflect physical health but do nothing for mental health in her post A Weight off my mind.

Overweight. Big. Fat. Large. Trying to lose.

Words that I am saying goodbye to and I’m writing this blog today to help you start to as well.

You see, it’s these types of words that circle constantly around the brain of people who are over their ‘ideal’ weight and they cause so much harm.  Negative thinking about how we view ourselves keeps us where we don’t want to be.

Read the rest of Alisha's post here.

Louisa Simmonds of My Midlife Mayhem develops a mid-life intolerance, to house cleaning, as explained in her post Position Vacant: House Cleaning Fairy, Sydney.

Reaching middle age has affected my health in many ways. I am unarguably larger in size, most definitely losing my marbles, but I’m also mentally far less tolerant to…well, just about everything.

My biggest and most recent ‘intolerance’ is to house cleaning. The sheer banality of housework, when there are so many other things out there to ignite the senses, frankly gets on my tits.

Read the rest of Louisa's post here.

Caylie Jeffery of Distractions of a busy mother talks about when the stranger danger rules don't apply, but maybe they should, in her post Stranger Danger...

Can you remember in the early '80s when Radio stations started sending panel vans out into the community to give away 'free stuff'? Black Thunders would crawl around the streets, pull up in crowded areas and blast out their music. The first hundred people to turn up would get a bag choc full of advertising junk, with maybe a chocolate milk carton hidden down the bottom? You'd take the coveted FM sticker and paste it onto your Mum's rear window, where she wouldn't find it until the sun had well and truly baked it on...

Read the rest of Caylie's post here.

Lisa Wilson of Two Point Five Kids discusses what it's like to be married to a police officer in her post A Police Wife.

I think the first time I had a glimmer of what I was getting in to was about six months after Mr Point Five and I had met. He had just started at the academy and I had just handed my driver’s licence in for three months as I had accumulated one point too many. Aherm. It was the first Saturday afterwards and I grabbed my keys to duck down to our local Coles which were literally 200m at the bottom of our street.  Hubby looked at me, dumbstruck. What on earth do you think you are doing? he asked. I explained that the car needed a run and we needed groceries. But you have no licence he says. Well, duh I said, rolling my eyes, I’ll drive carefully wont I? No, he said firmly, you won’t and he took the keys off me. I think this was our first major barny and I yelled and screamed at him that I was a grown and independent woman.

Read the rest of Lisa's post here.

Julia Alexander of Perfect Wife Magazine takes marriage advice from an unlikely source in her post Marriage tips from the perfectly imperfect wife Alecia Moore (but you can call her PINK!).

Inspired by her honesty, we have collated the best marriage advice from a girl otherwise known as Alecia Beth Moore, married to (and sometimes split up from) motorcross rider Carey Hart.

It involves lingerie, death threats and plans for many more children. Of course.

How to win your partner back (when it turns out you actually would rather live with him than without him)

Read the rest of Julia's post here.

This week's winner will receive a "Books You Must Read" pack and their post will be published on Monday.

To enter iBlog Friday send us your favourite blog post by midday next Thursday at info@themotherish.com.