Oddments

A few days of bits and pieces. The temp working is really throwing me off my stride, in that I can't plan and am floundering around for some rhythm. Case in point, I haven't made bread all week. All week! It must be months since I went so long without a loaf on the go.

We went to the Riverside Festival in Leicester - usually my dad tries to come over at some point on a Saturday to see us, though this hasn't happened for a while for one reason or another. This week we finally went to them. It felt like we spent all day on busses, and it was baking hot, but all in all a pretty good day. I crocheted on the bus, and we all drank about a gallon of water (SO glad I remembered to pack several drinks bottles!) even the baby who has rarely drunk anything other than milk.These huge wooden blocks are so exactly what I have been trying to scavenge for our garden for MONTHS with no luck whatsoever. This local carpentry company (Funky Monkey) sell them for around £20 each (far out of reach but nevertheless tempting after all of my girls spent a happy hour climbing all over them!). The smaller blocks are a giant Jenga game made by the same people.

What else, hmm. Walking to the market last Friday. This seems like an age ago already, but there you go. I love getting pictures of the two of them together like this. And how soon a third little adventurer will more often than not be joining them. :)On Sunday we went to Church for the first time in a couple of months, and were overwhelmed by the communal response and concern for us. I admit I've been feeling pretty negative about being there with the children, the little ones being parcelled off to groups, the attitudes towards "proper" behaviour (especially since we don't and won't send the baby off to creche and go with the older ones), etc etc feeling like I'm just making excuses and more excuses. I don't entirely know the answer, whether when I feel like that I ought to push through rather than just withdrawing from all effort at building relationships, or whether it is good for us to have times when we just do our own thing and take a break before we become legalistic about all the appointments we *must* make. I was very glad to be there this week anyway, and after some of the highest and lowest times in our lives, it felt like a homecoming. Which is what I think it should be like, after all.

Martin so far has only worked two full days, but it has been good for him. Though we are all more tired from the new division of labour (oh how I have loved all being able to make room for each other) and I am not always finding it as easy to stay calm. I'm drinking a heck of a lot more chamomile, let's put it that way...

We have been in the garden a lot even in the pouring summer rain. The plants are loving the rain, and so are the children. The first storm of our year had Jenna hiding under the sofa cushion, saying that the lightening was a crack in the world that might let bad spirits through. She is a funny soul, and has never been bothered by thunder and lightening before, I suppose it's one more thing that I can put down to how filled up her head is with her own new narratives and mythology. We are right in middle childhood here already!One day I got out a big bowl of soapy water and all the doll's clothes, and all three of them did the laundry and pegged it out on a little (not so great) washing line I made for them.

Now why am I not surprised that lolly - "lol-lol" - was one of this baby's first words?!