Projects, Ordinary Life, Mayhem, Magic, and Other Stuff

Yeah, I know, another week of no news from me and then a big catch up all in one go. Partly I'm just not getting around to uploading pictures at the moment, and partly I'm hiding out (stressed, tired, ill, etc). Sorry, I miss you all, and I will try to visit your blogs soon and leave some love!

I don't want to wish away these last weeks of pregnancy. In some ways the baby coming very soon is the least stressful thing of all.

Other things get me down: like toddlers waking in the middle of the night and disturbing each others' sleep; siblings arguing over every little thing from sun up to sun down; children (and me) coming down with a cold and hiding under blankets for large portions of time; workmen coming and going inspecting the loft and finishing off in the boiler cupboard (don't ask); food not stretching as far as it ought; to-do lists just getting longer; friends ill and struggling and all kinds of other unfixable things...

Anyhow, the other stuff. I like to think the good bits are the "real" stuff, and everything else is just temporary distraction. Endlessly optimistic? Moi?

The castle was left behind after an entire crowd of small children visited to play with Jenna for an hour. They were a bit taken aback by the wooden toys for a few minutes! I love left-behind scenes like this, though, finding all the little characters and wondering what stories were created and lived by them (largely missed by me at the time, in the chaos).

Morgan has been playing a lot with the magnetic mosaics Emma bought us years ago in a charity shop. I couldn't believe it when I saw her carefully and accurately copying a design from the package insert. Gosh she really is growing up, isn't she?


The contents of a Waldorf swap from the other side of the world. <3
Rowan with the trains, another neglected toy getting a lot of play recently.

My bump again. Harder to forget there's a baby in there now! On that front, all is well. Baby is very very low, head down and behaving beautifully. Wiggling around, but not making me feel nearly so bruised as the others did by now!

Big girl, poorly, playing on Poisson Rouge.

Batch cooking egg muffins for lots of hungry people. (Thankyou, Pinterest!)

Morgie-sweetness, colouring Mandalas again.

And Jenna, very nearly beating me at Carcassone.

Letter writing station. I must credit Pinterest for the idea again! Nice to get behind my sewing machine for once though. :) Jenna, gratifyingly, is so so delighted with it.

Morgan tracing over her name with water on the chalkboard. She has recently been in a real development spurt, drawing people with bodies and incredible detail, starting to be able to balance more easily on play equipment, and to trace lines when she colours in or tries to copy Jenna.

Two very sweet little people, loving sisters (snarky comment omitted) and smiling in the sunshine.

Always good to remind myself that we are doing something, here, on days when I don't see any "result" I can point to to justify my existence, and my patience is close to zero, and I long to just sleep for a week and hand over responsibility to the nearest adult. *shifty*

No, it's not that bad. Look at those three little smiling faces...