Monday 31 January 2011

What I'm reading now

I seem to be spending a lot of my free time reading or flicking. Some favourites are ::



Lent to me by a dear friend who loves buying books and passing them around. She is off on a 10 week holiday so has allowed me to look after it for her. It is a beautiful and inspiring book but is causing me a lot of frustration as I try to free style with my sewing machine.



Out with 'balance' and in with 'rhythm'. This book is inspiring my husband and I to enjoy the rhythm of life and not struggle with keeping everything in balance. Practically, this means a bit more planning...so I am now cleaning my windows on the third wednesday of every month : )



It makes me smile when I think of myself reading this book. 'Lessons in grace and elegance'...I don't feel elegant or graceful but I think I secretly desire to be. I would never buy this book but I couldn't resist picking it up when I spotted it on the shelves of the library.

Friday 21 January 2011

Gratitude Friday

Today there are lots of things to be thankful for...

A few of the most simple are

:: A cup of coffee in my favourite mug



:: Quick to make and quick to satisfy mini chocolate cakes



:: Happy children. NB. The chaos Lj creates in her cot before falling asleep...I put her in the other way round too!

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Our day in photos #1

Lately I have been struggling to find the time to put together a blog post. Often they take shape in my head but I can't find time to get them posted or when I do get to the computer I am no longer feeling inspired to share.

So in an attempt to over come the blogging block I thought I would use my camera more and take photos of our everyday, then post them with very little words.

Here goes...


My first ever knitted jumper is nearing completion. I wasn't going to blog it until finished but it is a strange sort of design which I thought might make more sense if there was an 'in progress' photo.


Most days MJ chooses to play trains. Todays track was especially complex. I'm wondering if our trips into London are inspiring his designs!


When I take my camera out MJ always want to have a go too. Half of me is scared he is going to drop it and damage it but the other half of me wants to encourage him to play with it. So I let him take his shots while I hover nearby ready to catch. I love the shots that he comes up with. He took this one and it didn't even need cropping!

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Light and lights out

Light

:: Today the clouds disappeared and we had beautiful clear skies. The sun shone through our window and reflected off our vase covering the walls with pretty coloured polka dots. This photo nowhere near captures it but it was a quick try!



Sleep

:: I enjoy listening to 'Focus on the family' and have recently been downloading the series on 'Sleep'. It is reminding me and encouraging me that I must prioritise sleep in order to keep my mind and body healthy. I have never in my life existed on so little sleep, as I currently am. This is due to feeling like I need some free time in the evenings when the house is quiet, both MJ and Lj waking at least once in the night and starting the day at 6am. The new plan is to try and get to bed earlier and catch a nap during the day when MJ is at school. It happened today and I insantly felt like I had energy to start some sewing which has been on my mind for weeks.



Good night!

Friday 7 January 2011

Gratitude Friday is back!

We used to sing a hymn in church when I was a kid, it went a bit like this:

'Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count your blessings, see what God has done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one
and it will surprise what the Lord has done.'

It is true in my life that when I reflect on the things which I am thankful for, my spirit is lifted and I realise how blessed I am.

So, welcome back 'gratitude Friday'!

I dislike rain...drizzling, wet, dirty and cold rain to be precise...and that is how I would describe the weather today. Therefore my natural reaction is to hide under the duvet, with a hot water bottle, some chocolate and my knitting. Not possible with a 3 year old and a 6 month baby however!

So here goes being thankful!

:: A break in the rain so we could escape the house for a walk.
:: MJ finding a forklift in the charity shop for 50p which is keeping him happy as I type.
:: Lj snoozing in her pram after our walk.
:: Biscuits.

I hope you have lots to be thankful for today.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Routine is good!

Finally I feel like we are establishing a routine...that was until Lj fell off the kitchen work top today and we ended up in A&E. Thankfully she seems fine but it has made me realise again just how precious my little ones are to me. If only I could remember that when MJ is messing around and not getting his coat and shoes on...after being asked five times!!!

Okay back to the routine thing...this is precisely my problem...I am very easily distracted from routine.

Lj takes her morning nap after we are all dressed, fed and the house is semi tidy. This gives me time to sit with MJ and bond with him over crafts, role plays, stories or games. Mainly crafts as I enjoy that so much although his new gruffalo snap is a lot of fun too.





I feel like all of a sudden he understands so many new ideas: floating and sinking and opposites were two which he demonstrated he understood today.
Then with MJ starting nursery in the afternoons I will hopefully get a little more time to myself to read, write, make and of course gaze at my sweet sweet daughter.

Now, back to my knitting. My mum has set me a challenge which I plan to win...if I didn't keep loosing my cable needle.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Emotional rollercoaster

Emotions...sometimes it seems that I don't have a lot of them and when I do I find it hard to understand them. Thankfully I am married to someone who is much more outwardly emotional than me and understands emotions much better than me. So after 4.5 years of marriage I am learning that I don't need to be ashamed or embarrassed of my emotions and the cause and effect of my emotions!

I think it is very important to understand emotions and I know all too well how difficult they are to understand. So, I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for a young child. We put so much importance on learning numbers, letters, good behaviour, sharing etc but how much time do we spent talking to and helping our little ones understand the feelings that bubble up in them.

Reading 'Rhythm of the home' I came across the article on Colour my emotion and have been inspired to try out the activity suggested. We only got three of the emotions painted today before MJ lost concentration but that's okay, we will try some more tomorrow. He did tell me that he felt scared when he saw 'big scary monsters on TV'!





Totally unrelated but I wanted to add it. MJ decided that he wanted to photograph his toys. He got them all out of his toy box, put me in position beside them and snapped. He was so excited to see his photo and I like it too.