Another Week

1: Sunday sweetie-pie on the park in the sun.  Oh! how I adore that smile.
2: Beautiful windows on Elvaston Castle.
3: Hogwarts, drawn on the wall in the play room!
4: Roo monkeying in the living room door.
5: Puppy jumping along on the wall during a night time walk.
6: Serious looking baby pudding and smiling mama at Messy Church on Saturday.  (I know this isn't the best way to use a ring sling, but Tali disagrees, so I go with it once in a while for an easy life!)

And you only get six days this week, 'cause I have too many other things to post about already, and I didn't take a single photo on Monday!  Another seven lovely busy days filled with living.

(Following along with Jacqui at The Barefoot Crofter.)

Seaside

Back to Normal

The park is just where we left it.



Everything is the same.  Sunny days and rainy.  Oh, and snowy too in fact...

The mess in the house and the mud in the garden and everything, everything typical of this time of year.  Home is pretty great, too.

Even while I'm missing the sea air, and sand, I'm loving the smell of moss in the woods, and the familiar pavements my children's little boots clump along.  Even while I'm missing the log fire, I'm loving being back in my own kitchen and in full swing for festival celebrations.

This is what happened to my bedroom mirror, though.  Morgan climbed onto the top of the wardrobe to get nail polish, and helped Rowan to paint with it.

I saw it, picked up the bottle and walked silently downstairs to put it in the outside bin (empty).  I didn't trust myself to say a word.  I still haven't, quite.  I can't decide if I didn't address it because I was prioritising relationship, or because I don't trust my temper.  And I can't decide if not addressing it is permissive, or sensible.  I know they know I was very upset about it.  I think I have to say something if only to reassure them that I'm not going to shout about it at some later point, you know, waiting to spring it on them.

I know if someone else asked me for advice I would suggest that they have the children help them clear it up, and calmly reiterate that if things are up high it is to keep them safe and they need to ask for help to get them down, etc...  But you know what?  It's really easy to give advice.  Even occasionally sensible advice.  It's harder to follow through when you're having big feelings yourself.

One day I'll laugh.  Maybe tomorrow.

Passover preparations have had me running around like a mad thing.  Every year the same, it isn't as if I don't know it's coming...  Well it's all done now.  A quick sweep round tomorrow - and cooking of course, but I *love* to cook, so it will be no hard thing at all!  I am very very tired.

This room so desperately needs painting.  Oh, and curtains, which we have and just haven't managed to hang yet.  Somehow there is never a time when everything that needs doing is done.  Though at least for now everything is clean and crumb-free!

Post holiday tiredness, perhaps.  Small baby, definitely (I *knew* the sleeping and the loads of energy and the everything being easy couldn't last forever).  I haven't even had time for a bath since we got back from holiday, somehow caring for myself is always the last thing on the list...

This little lull between celebrations, this ordinary in-between day, it has been beautiful too in its own way.  Normal is good.  With all its ups and downs.

Knitting and Reading - the holiday edition!

Would it surprise you to hear that I'm still not even halfway through A Dance with Dragons?  No?  It isn't so much the sheer size of the book, as it is, well, the sheer size of the book.

In the past week I have read one of those Eragon books (again, not remembering that I wasn't over-keen the first time around), Mortal Engines (which is AWESOME), as well as finishing Goblet of Fire and Charlotte's Web with Jenna, and starting a bunch of GPTaylor books in the hopes that I hit upon one a good deal more interesting that Tersias (which I found extremely bleak).

But I'm not getting far with Dance with Dragons, even though I am *really* enjoying it.  It's just too hefty to carry around, read in the car, or the bath, or any time I'm holding the baby, which rules out just about all of my reading time.  *shut-up-about-your-kindle-version-thankyousoverymuch-Ashleigh*

Knitting, weeellll now...  I've had a whole week on the beach.  *beam*



Happy happy happy.  And when this happened...

THIS happened...

It's a Faraway So Close in scrap yarn and on bigger circulars, and I am loving it, and it's just zooming along.  I don't know what it's for yet...  I might not be able to bring myself to part with it.  Actually it's nearly done now, but no picture from any more recently than last week!

I started Dvjelue baby helmet hat in the car on the way up north.  It worked up fairly slowly but wasn't too tricky for car knitting, though I knitting a six month size and it's only just right for Tali!

The Amazing Maurice was a second hand purchase for Martin, who is really enjoying it, and I'm looking forwards to reading it aloud to Jenna shortly.

The yarn is the Yvestown bright pure wool, and much brighter than that (slightly backlit) picture.  I will have to get more of it, because there are just not enough rainbow things in my life!



PS, the orange and blue stripes popped up on auto-post last week after I'd posted them off to a friend - here they are!

Eight Years

Today is our wedding anniversary.  We spent all day outside, had a lovely picnic, rambled around this familiar old place.



For us, spending this day surrounded by our little ones is just great.



(The grim/solemn expression in this picture is, I am told, in fact merely contemplative.)

When it rained on us we went and ate ice-creams under the nearest available shelter.  Because it's never too cold for ice cream.  Especially when you have such a lot, SUCH a lot, to celebrate.