The Monster and I

Whenever my energy picks up a bit, I feel alive, like each day is not purely survival, rest is my key to success  and when I get enough of it, the times in between are sweeter.

Being able to stand long enough to do the washing up on our holiday.

Enjoyable to stand at my brother's wedding, have a brief conversation with someone instead of madly darting my eyes around to try and see if there is somewhere I can sit down without seeming too rude.... ( there was still a lot of this, but not as much as usual !!) 

Tasty and fun to have a takeaway with dear friends, staying up til 9pm !

Heartwarming to see my brother marry his beautiful wife, to be able to be there, and share that day with them.

Sleeping for 9 hours in a row.

Picking a few flowers from the garden and putting them in a vase to showcase their beauty.

Reading my Bible for a whole chapter and managing to concentrate long enough to breathe it in.

Going to the swimming pool with my little family.......... Sitting in the water holding my boy, while Daddy energetically marshalled Little tyke's attempts at drowning herself. The energy to get there and get changed was all I wanted for now......... swimming again will come in time.

Being outside, sitting watching beauty unfold.

Fun times......

The past week I have had a little more energy, so have been able to play with Little Tyke a bit more and generally be out of bed ( albeit lying on the sofa ) and pottering around the house.

It's been great, as these are our last few weeks with just me, her and him. So have enjoyed a few moments of just reflecting and enjoying this stage we've had as a three, while at the same time, anticipating the arrival of our boy who will make us a four.

A few snapshots of the nice things we've done......

This my friends is a picnic, apparently the one on the left, squashed into the ground is Daddy having a sleep......NEVER SLEEP in the presence of my daughter, she may squash you into the ground and say 'SLEEPING'

Apparently this is a boat, she suddenly insisted that she needed a spoon........I think it was doubling as a paddle...... a 2 year old's imagination is an amazing place :)

Tonight Husbando broke down on the way home from work, thankfully a lovely friend popped over in that slot of 'awake from nap time ,but Daddy's not home yet ' time, which is usually my worst time of day, she also cooked us some tea ( yes I do have amazing friends ). However LT didn't want the curry, so I decided on a tea which she would enjoy and would eat....... this is what it was.....humous and cucumber, then topped with some breadsticks which she proceeded to dip in a yoghurt. There was also a small orange which was split into segments and then kind of 'mixed' in with the rest of the food.

 Gross ? most definitely. Nutritious ? - fairly. Kept her happy for twenty minutes ? Check. A peaceful teatime ? oh yes indeed !

We had a fun teatime, and afterwards listened to Stevie Wonder LOUD, while LT bounced on our bed.

And lastly, my Mum came to visit last week. Normally when she is here I tend to have a long bath, some extra sleep and then lie on the sofa while she cooks or amuses LT, but last week we made it out for a little bite of lunch. Such a special time, with Mum and Daughter. There is something special about being out with my Mum, and my girl with her Mum, it just feels complete. 

I am blessed to have my Mum alive and well. 

........awaiting sausage sandwiches and paninis ......... yum.

Ten on Tuesday

This week's entry is largely about my little tyke. She is just in such a cute phase right now, I wish I could pause it. She is great to be around, never stops chatting and has really delved into the world of discovery and imagination.


1. On Sunday my brilliant Husband dug a hole to put an apple tree in the ground. My little tyke decided that she would join in and dig for worms, she really likes worms. But today she progressed to picking them up and placing them on a large square rock in the garden, saying it was 'worm's table' so there were worms on their 'table', the tree was planted and all was well.


2. On the topic of the cute language acquisition phase, she's getting into the stringing words together thing at present. The cutest one so far was when she said to her Daddy. 'Wiwwow Daddy's pork chop' (that's his little nickname for her) to hear her saying it while pointing to herself was a little odd, but cute none the less !


3. I have decided recently that trying to view what I have achieved in a week is just a bit too short a space of time, so I'm going with the month view...........weeks are so last season.


4. Today I feel an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. I know it sounds cliched but I really am so fortunate to have such a lovely healthy little girl, to live not only with a roof over my head but in a beautiful house with nice things in, with a garden, hot water coming out the taps, not to mention all the other luxuries we live around. Sometimes it jars with me, unsure as to why it's me who gets to live in such lovely conditions. But I decide thankfulness is the best way to start. 


5.  This time as we travelled back from Snowdonia, for the first time in ages I wasn't dreading coming home. I often hate returning home from holidays as daily life can be such a struggle. But this time I was looking forward to it, a sign that things are getting a little easier maybe. I am thankful for this too.


6. On sunday morning I got up with Willow, sat in my dressing gown on our grass and cut the edges ( which were rather jungle like in length ) with a pair of scissors. Oh it felt good to look out on a garden with neat(ish) edges. Yes it's a little sad, but I do love it when I can get outside and preen the rather unkempt garden.


7. I have decided I like the toddler phase more than the baby phase. The newborn phase is a different thing, nothing rivals that. But I like it in toddler land right now. 


8. Willow will be 2 in four months time, so she's still most definitely 1 as 2 is for big kids and I have a baby still, yeah right. Anyway, despite my utter defiance at the fact that my little girl will continue to have birthdays and get older with every passing year, I have started to think about her birthday already. 
Yeah I don't work so when I have energy, I like to plan nice things. I have am fully embracing the 'birthday clothes' tradition which is a thing in the city we live in, and already keeping my eyes out for a birthday dress for her. So far this cute item is in the running.....

9. Nappy changing has become a bit of a chore these days, she protests greatly and all teddies have to be cleaned with a wipe too..........takes a loooong time. But I am not about to embark on potty training so we shall struggle on.


10. And I will finish with a thought about Chorizo. I go through phases with Chorizo, sometimes it feels like it's in everything we eat, then there are dormant phases where it just sits in the fridge. This week is a chorizo week, and have discovered that grilled chorizo on a rice cracker with soft cheese is particularly delicious. Yum.

It happened

I think it was probably only a matter of time, but it has happened. God help us, we'll be driving a volvo before we know it, and I'll finally purchase a pair of hunter wellies.......


Yes we have reached that british middle class milestone, we've joined the national trust ! 

I would like to say I have got an annual pass to music festivals nationwide, but no, to the well manicured gardens we head !


Membership was cheap cheap this month, and we only had to get one adult pass, so you know it didn't break the bank. 


I am still trying to get used to the fact we have reached this milestone, and also come to terms with the fact I am quite excited and looking on the website at places we can now go. They are great places to go if you're a bit disabled too as they're full of old people so they are quite well equipped for the infirm to grace the rhododendron borders with their presence !


Don't worry, I shall keep you posted with our usage of aforementioned pass, reporting regularly on the life and times of the national trust is something I have always aspired to do ( or not ).


Bring it on 


p.s - this is not a sponsored post in any way shape or form !

Ten on Tuuuuuesssday

So here we are again, on this here SUNNY tuesday.

1. I did what every other parent did today and went out and bought a new paddling pool, to my surprise there were still some left. The crazy thing that takes us brits over when the sun comes out and Mr - 20 degrees comes to visit. Love it.

2. Willow however was more interested in her 'booons' than her pool, so we didn't put water in it, just sat in it with balloons. This however averted the usual 'sun longer sabotage', so I go to recline while she played with her chair and balloons......bliss.

                                    

3. You know you are spending too much time with a toddler, when you hear yourself say 'The helicopter has gone home for his tea' ! - if only you could ask the police helicopter to come back for another fly around.

4. As mentioned above, helicopters are big news in our house, Thomas and Percy have been shunned for Harold, there is a lot of harold love in our house this week. But to be fair he can fly, so give him his due.

( Only old skool ringo star narrated Thomas the Tank makes it onto our screens....can't bear the new channel 5 one)  #itsjustwrong

5. I did a thing this evening I often want to, but never actually do. I went for a drive through the countryside, a walk would've been nice, but a drive hit the spot. Bit of open farmland cleared my mind perfectly. Although I'm sure that's what my Grandparents do on a sunny evening ' go for a drive ' oh.dear.me.

6. Moam Stripes how I love you......seriously wonderful sugar hit. I dare not look at the ingredients.

7. I was annoyed recently cos the slugs ate our little pea plants which Willow and I were growing in the garden. I then read this and a few other articles, which highlight the crippling problems of when crops fail, 100's of thousands of children in Mali alone eat only one basic meal a day. So I ate frozen peas with huge thankfulness. When my crops fail it really doesn't matter. Not at all.

8. This week I pulled weeds out of the plant boarder next to our drive. This time last year I distinctly remember just looking at them, without the energy to get dressed let alone do even a little bit of weeding.

For being able to do just a teeny bit of weeding I am thankful :)

9. When you start having to double up on pegs, really, you just need to buy some more. There shouldn't be double pegging.

10. And I will leave you with this blast from the 90s....... Good advice from Baz.

New stone tablets

 The other night I found myself wanting to read a bit of bible, so I did what any self respecting biblical scholar would do, opened it and read what was on the page it fell open at. I was intending to thumb through to get to the psalms, (always a good place to read a little morsel of encouragement or a glimpse into God's character ) But I didn't make it that far, and instead read this ' Moses Gets New Stone Tablets' , now as you may have picked up, I am a quite partial to buying new things. But reading this made me smile - I am not entirely sure I would be all too pleased with new 'stone tablets'. However, as I delved deeper into this chunk of bible ( exodus 34 if your interested ) I discovered that these tablets were pretty cool ones !


Moses and his new shiny stone tablets, were all about God writing things on them for him and his people to live by. He goes up a mountain and talks to God, you know, like you do.

The first thing God says is 

' I am the Lord, The Lord is a God who shows mercy, who is kind and doesn't become angry quickly, He is kind to thousands of people ' 

That's what you want to hear isn't it, at anytime, but especially when you're on a hill on your own with the creator of the world. Awesome stuff.

I could share lots of thoughts, but the ones which have stuck with me are these.....


Firstly I have been thinking a lot recently about how I live, what I do with my life/time/thoughts. And if I'm honest, at the moment I don't always feel very proud of the way I go about things, I'm often a bit grouchy, sometimes unkind and have very little patience for some people. But these words of the Lord's are not only lovely to know about His character, but kind of gave me a proverbial kick up the bum about how I could be, would love to be ( I won't use the word 'should' cos there are far too many 'shoulds' flying around these days ).


Then later on in the passage it talks about the sabbath day, about how even during times of sowing and bringing in the harvest, we need to have a total day of rest. I'm no farmer, but I'm pretty sure sowing times and harvest times are fairly crucial to your crop working out, so you know, if ever there was an excuse to pull a 7 day week I think that'd be it. So there are thoughts for me about that too, and how I want our family to incorporate this into our weekly routine.


As ever with me, there are few conclusions, but I felt so very in awe of the God I serve after reading this. My faith at the moment is the opposite of an armadillo, it's strong on the inside, at the core, but very soft and messy on the outside. I have more questions than answers, confusion instead of clarity, but reading things like this bring me back to the rock of what it's all about.


God is merciful, slow to anger, and kind to thousands of people.......................how wonderful is that ?


...................and how inspiring to be more like him.

But I have to say, I think I'd prefer a new pair of shoes than new stone tablets.