The Theme for the Week........ Listening!

This week I have been listening to birdsong, listening to the girls ignore most things I ask them to do, listening to my own body telling me it needs something different and listening to terribly sad news from Boston and Texas on the radio whilst decorating the children's rooms still. My prayers are with the victims and their families as well as the rescue workers, medical staff and investigators. 

The birdsong was in the garden of friends of my parents, where Dewi was doing some tree felling for them. The children had a wonderful time, the girls used thin branches to build dens and made dinner from the catkins, and Idris played with everything he could lay hands on. He helped to load the sawn logs into bags (above)....

 ..... he climbed in and out of the bags and giggled whilst Allan swung him round in it.....

 ...... the girls used the pile of twig sized branches as a trampoline.......

......Idris did a bit of impromptu pouring with the dregs of my tea.......

...... and was finally allowed to try out one of the tools that he had been coveting all day without being allowed to play with........

 ....... as well as a bit of tin carrying, these were tricky to pick up together and Idris had to try a few different techniques before he had any success! It was nice to see him busily engaged in the hard work of learning about the world. He had been unwell Monday and Tuesday with a high temperature making him feel miserable so good to see him back to his best.

The girls have been argumentative and rude with a lot of bickering over the last week. We have managed to nip some of it in the bud but it is always a multi-step approach when things get out of hand and will take a little time to get things onto a smoother path again. I have used a 'time out' discipline technique with one of the girls that I'm not a fan of, but as nothing else over the past few weeks has worked to get through to her about an aspect of behaviour that was really unacceptable, we decided to try it. She went into time out twice for the behaviour in one day, and we haven't seen the behaviour since! 

The issue of chores has reared it's head again as it does every so often with complaints about being asked to do EVERYTHING and dragging their heels when asked to do something or simply walking away and not doing it. I have responded by asking them to do more, and us all doing it together before moving on from a mealtime and it seems to work! I'm considering implementing some kind of chore card system to spread the load without having to verbally ask time and again, not sure though!

As well as listening to what the girl's behaviour was telling me, I have had to start listening to my own body telling me to take note of being 25 weeks pregnant! When I was expecting Idris, I could sleep til 7am with the girls waking about 7.15-7.30 but as Idris wakes up around 5-5.30 am I am getting less sleep and also finding that I often can't rest in the day when I need to. I have a few ideas in mind to help me get the rest my body is telling me it needs so hopefully will get things in better balance soon. I think next week's focus will be on little old me with a few of the other things I am working on on the back burner for a few days!!

......... And Breathe....... Slow Down!

I got all wound up and anxious last week, about everything and nothing, how much I wasn't doing, what I was doing, and ended up circling round unhappily doing nothing and enjoying nothing. Then realised what a fool I was being, took a deep breath, sat down with the children and...... suddenly found myself relaxing and laughing.... amazing what perspective threading a few beads on a wire with one's daughters can give you!

So I have resolved to stop winding myself up - Idris is just five weeks old, the house is clean (ish), there are meals on the table (mainly of the home cooked nutritious variety) and I have time for every one's needs (including my own) when I'm not wasting time worrying so I will keep reminding myself to sit down and play every time I feel anxious and I think I'll be much better!

A Break Does You Wonders Sometimes!

Eve picked these beautiful flowers and foliage from our garden for me....

We didn't intend to take a break..... lessons were planned but we all needed to not do school for a week! For starters, I had a deadline to get my Montessori 3-6 years teaching practice file completed and posted by Friday 3rd June, involving 5am starts and 11pm bedtimes! For seconds, we all had funny viral symptoms and Dewi and I felt exhausted and lethargic and the children were just 'not right'. School is never very productive when Eve isn't on top form and I am not superwoman and cannot do everything so we took a break!

I got my file completed and posted by 10am Thursday 2nd and by then we were all over the virus so spent the morning with friends at a country park, and then the afternoon chewing the fat with some home ed mums I met a few months ago! On Friday the hot sunny weather returned so we made our first trip of the season to Tettenhall paddling pool. Paddling pool doesn't really do It justice to be honest, it is HUGE, and about 80cm deep in the middle, surrounded by lovely grass and big mature trees for shade. I had invested in a camping chair to sit in and spent my time shuffling backwards into the rotating shade of the trees, whilst sewing! The girls had requested dolly swimming costumes so I cobbled two together from an old swimming costume of Faith's. A fairly Frankenstein effort truth be told but the girls were happy with the outcome!!

The funny thing about taking a break from school is that I have had loads of solid ideas about educational activities and plans that have been pottering around in the back of my brain for ages. They have just come to me one after the other and I can't wait to get going!

The other amazing thing is that Eve has begun to spontaneously pick up a book and read. She read to Faith in the car on the way back from a swimming lesson and then read all the way from the car to the door, then into the kitchen! She made some leaps that I have been waiting for, such as putting in a sensible guess at a word when she can't work it out, tackling some huge words and splitting them up into syllables. I was so blown away and happy for her. Her bed is always full of books and I often catch her looking at them after 'lights out' but haven't the heart to tell her off as I love it that she does this.... I always used to and I don't want to squash the secret joy of clandestine reading in bed! I found her another book of the type that she had read to Faith and when I gave it to her she said 'oh Mummy, it's just perfect!'..... I smile every time I think of it!!

Recharging batteries on the Beach!

We spent the weekend in Wales with my parents-in-law.  They live a five minute walk from the beach and that is where we invariably head as soon as is practically possible! The beach is pretty rocky due to the sea defences having been upgraded last year.  After all the earth movement and the importing of huge lumps of rock, I think that the beach has settled well, and the grading of pebbles from small at the top of the shore to large at the bottom has re-established itself.  The tide was out and that made for lots of small pools just perfect for rooting out unsuspecting crabs..........

Our little dog Poppy loves the beach too and runs round like a lunatic!  Here she was taking a breather and surveying the stunning view - this is her 'no-eyed' side so she could see the same part of the beach that you can see behind her in the photo!

Faith loves all God's creatures great and small..... she was particularly taken with the patterns that the little snails made all over the rocks!

We beach combed for hours, finding all sorts of things interesting for the girls such as a decaying fish with very large teeth that begged a good old poke with a stick, lots of pieces of large red crab shells and pincers to try and fit back together, many birds to watch (Cormorant, Sandpiper, Oyster Catchers and Gulls) and of course driftwood, shells, pebbles, seaweed....... we have returned home very refreshed and ready for the week ahead!

Late Summer Goodness!

At the end of a long week of an almost (but not quite) comical number of breakdowns, difficulties and illnesses, I have found tranquility in picking and eating the bountiful plums in our garden.....

making butternut squash soup for lunch......

And adding plums to my favourite tray bake recipe (delicious).  We followed it up with a long walk down the canal with Poppy (our dog) and then I indulged in a steaming bath with candles, hair treatment and face mask and reflected on all the good things in our life (they far outweigh the breakdowns, difficulties and illnesses!!).  Not least the generosity and love shown by our family and friends in helping us out during the tough times!

Looking After Number One

My Mum will snigger as she reads the title of this post as I am notoriously bad at looking after number one!  A number of things have happened this year that have gently pushed me to reassess my position on it however.  They are:

• Having had a ridiculous number of unpleasant and long-lasting viruses to contend with over the last six months.
• Going to a session on stress management run by my friend Emma, being honest in the survey and finding that my levels of stress are practically off the scale.
• And standing on the scales at my Mum's house this morning and seeing with resignation that I am almost a stone overweight..... I knew I was but it's never nice to have it confirmed!

The problem is that I don't feel particularly motivated to change anything right now...... I like chocolate and haribos and I have any number of obliging friends that tell me I look great and there's no way I need to lose weight..... but I do, and I need to get fit...... because I will then have less back ache therefore sleep better,  then have more energy, feel better about myself and feel less of a need to overeat!! 

Last Sunday I took the first step by buying myself running shoes and 'anti-wobble' sports trousers and bra..... then folded them neatly in my wardrobe and closed the door!!  Tonight at 9pm the urge came over me to run..... and I did.  I was expecting to return home in a state of near collapse, ready to be sick and crippled with a stitch but to my delight it flowed as easily as it used to as a teenager.  Despite my husband's parting shot being to wish the dog good luck even my pathetic excuse for a pelvic floor held out and I found my pace.  I ran a longer route than I planned to and then found my stride lengthening automatically to kick for home.  It felt good, really good and NOW I feel motivated to look after number one!