Here We Are Together

Recently reading around here has slowed down.
The little ones have been busy with many crafts & games, the rain stopped & there was time for outside play,
Mama has been knitting, and there has been less time for stories.
We all missed it a lot, so now there is a new “rule”.
Every evening we pick out ten books to read the next day.
If we want to read more, that’s great, but not less.

The books are a mix of german and english books, long and short, with pictures and without.
It already had a great effect on our days, and even though it still feels a bit strange having a rule to follow, it really is helping us.

Do you have anything like this?
♥

We are grateful that we homeschool, that our little ones don’t spend all day in school,
that we can spend all day doing what we like, & that on early mornings during the week we have the whole playground to ourselves.

Good times!

What are you grateful for?
Have a lovely weekend!
♥

We are all a bit ill over here, runny noses, fever..the usual.
We have not being doing much, just a lot of reading, snuggling & attempts at sleeping, but I did want to share a favourite corner with you.
This is where Geem spends most mornings, sometimes all the way through to lunchtime, sitting on the rocking chair, looking at books, ( he really likes “Dear Zoo” and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” ) .

I love that little man & his sweet ideas so much!
Now I better go back to washing handkerchiefs & trying to make some a soup at least not everyone will hate. It’s not easy I tell you.
What have you been up to?
Have a lovely day!

♥

Sometimes all we need is a little bit of time at the beach to remind us all how to breathe again,
how to slow down & live in the moment.

All that space,

playing with the seaweed & sand,
(and of course tasting it!)

getting your feet wet,

& being together;

It’s so healing, isn’t it?
Much love to all of you today.
♥

This week I am grateful for my sweet Emi.
The past month has been really hard for us.
Emily suddenly started to change. She could not hold a conversation anymore, she would not play, she would scream, yell & cry a lot,
& when a three year old says that drawing is really too difficult , when just a couple of days before it was her “most absolutely favourite ” thing to do, then you start to worry.
When she did sit down to draw for all of 10 seconds her drawings would look like this:

Really we are not the kind of parents who judge their little one’s artwork, but it was such a sudden change that it really scared us.
Even more scared us the possible reasons that could have caused this sudden change in our little girl,
a quick google will tell you that a sudden change in a child’s behaviour is most commonly caused by Leukemia or a brain tumor.

There has been a lot of crying & worrying, but we now finally, luckily, happily know that Emi simply has severe food allergies.
(Really a life without dairy & wheat seems like such a gift to us right now.)

We are beyond grateful to know our Emi will be just fine,
& since we cut out all dairy and wheat products we have been seeing her return so beautifully and quickly.
And the drawing? She is loving it again. And so are we.

What are you grateful for?

ps// I know that there are many families who are not as lucky as we are, & for whom a nightmare has come true, and I urge you to help these families and little ones by making a donation to the Make A Wish Foundation , because there is truly nothing worse than a seriously ill child.

Oh, I am sure you all know this, it’s the end of January (already?) & even though we try to spend as much time as we can out,we find ourselves being in most days in these winter months.
And so, for everyone’s sanity, a little re-arranging was in order.
A new art table for the little one’s, a place for Mama to rest her cup of raspberry leaf tea, & many more changes in our home. I will share some more during the next weeks, it’s a slow (& messy creative) process.

Have you changed anything around recently?
♥

How silly of me to assume that
“Mama, Georgie & me are playing with blocks!”
means anything other than
“I am filling his shirt with blocks while he laughs like a tiny maniac“…

Apparently there are few things funnier than your shirt being used as a carrier bag.
I love those two so very much.

♥

ps// to answer a question that keeps coming up , the characters on their pajamas are characters from a
children’s book from the 1970’s called “Barbapapa” & were sent to us all the way from Oma in germany.
(thank you!)

I have decided that from now on Grateful Friday will be just a little bit different around here,
I feel that so many stories have not been shared properly, so many moments did not get the attention they deserved, simply because they were shared on a Friday.
So from now on I will share only one thing in these posts, so that nothing gets lost.

This week I am grateful for my little man’s interest in the outside world,
the way he sits (or stands) by a window for hours just watching people,
his chubby baby legs (oh how i love them!) never getting tired of climbing whatever it takes to see what he wants to see.

(He’s watching the postman here!)

What are you grateful for?

♥

Yesterday, while I was looking for some boardgames that I had not seen since we moved (aehm..) ,I found a big pink mirror that used to be in my bedroom when I was a child.
When I brought it downstairs to put it into the dress-up corner I never would have thought that it would make such a difference, but the moment I put it down they started making faces at themselves in the mirror, putting on hats & then trying on every single costume they could find.
Even little George had so much fun dressing up, he obviously didn’t mind that the only costumes in his size were princess dresses..

Did I mention this is a madhouse?

Have a good day!
♥

Things have been difficult recently, dealing with what we now know is a wheat allergy .
There had been a big change in our little Emi , and while we were trying to let her get through it we also wanted our home to remain calm & peaceful.
We have always had quiet time , where the curtains are drawn & some soft music is playing.
Our latest addition to this quiet time was a space projector
, & I must admit, I am impressed.

I have never seen my children calm down so very quickly, taking a break from all the busy dress-up & building that is usually happening, getting blankets and pillows to lay down & watch the lights, then slowly starting to experiment with their shadows, and eventually getting inspired to make shadow puppets.

It is just something I really wanted to share with you.

Have a peaceful day.
♥