Here We Are Together

No, we still don’t have a house yet, but this week, so far, has been full of smiles.

It’s quite sad really that it took all this to make me realize that we make our own happiness,
but just now, when it seemed like we were missing out on all the good stuff, when we were far too busy to do anything fun at all, that’s when it happened. It wasn’t an instant change, but slowly, really slowly, we are getting back to doing things we used to do.
I picked up some yarn today and got some lovely brass knitting needles from a very lovely lady (thanks!), and I already feel a lot better.
I now knit while Anthony reads Harry Potter to us, and it is so good.

It’s really all those little things that make our life happy,
this little one and his lovely big smile, it’s brilliant!

He started making those tiny little baby noises, and I just can’t stop smiling.

I love this little man so very much, it’s funny to think that just two months ago he wasn’t even here yet.
Well, not properly,anyway. He’s been around before that, of course, listening, finding out about us.
I hope he is happy that he chose us, I hope he likes it here.
Emi loves him so fiercely, she is always showing him thinks, asking him questions,
(”Do you like my princess dress,Archie?”)
I can’t wait till they can play together a bit more than they do now.
I finally ordered some basic craft supplies, as we had run out a while ago but really could not afford to get new things. That was a difficult time.

I didn’t tell you about it back then, because we don’t want people to worry, but when you can’t even pick up a set of glitter glue for £1 then you know things are bad. They really were. But we made it through. Well, almost, we still don’t have a new place to stay, but we are a bit better now.
We have had a lot of help from friends and family, and I think we never said thank you often enough for that. Thank you!.
I also think I need to apologize to some people still for not being very social during that time. I would have loved to go out for coffee and such, but I really could not.The reason for all that was that a while ago Anthony had to quit his job and work from home because there were problems with Emi. She was not feeling well, and she changed. We are now seeing doctors to help her feel better, don’t worry, she’s okay, but Anthony is still very much needed at home, I could not homeschool Emily and the boys on my own.
Did you see what I did? I called them “the boys”. I love that, but I really must be careful not to do that too often,
I think Arthur will look a lot like George, and I want to make sure that I know who he is, I don’t want his personality to get lost in all that “looking like Georgie” thing.
Emi is doing much better now, we are even doing crafts now.
Baby steps, though, starting out simple again, today a magic wand:

She loves all the magic that is spilling from the Harry Potter books into our daily life, and I’m not bothered. I think I might be enjoying it more than the little ones are.
We are probably looking at another house tomorrow, but for now I have to go & pack some things into boxes.
Wishing you all lovely day!
♥

I have been trying to blog, I really have, but we still don’t have a new house, so we are starting to worry a bit, we are always busy looking at places, and it’s difficult fitting in fun activities. We still do, though. We have little family dance parties every day and try to always have time for a game or two.

I am trying to focus on the positive things, so, this week we are grateful for:

A visit from Great-Nan:

A lot of Harry Potter family reading time, combined with pretend play , knitting (There are so many patterns! I am currently working on a Quidditch set!) and new recipes. (Have you ever tried butterbeer?)

Nanny & Grandpa’s new puppy:

And the way these two picked each other as their new best friend:

What are you grateful for?
Wishing you a lovely weekend,
see you next week!
♥

Dear sweet Emily,
we hope you have a great,brilliant,fantastic birthday,
we are so proud of you and love you so very much!

I can’t believe that my little girl is four today! FOUR! I remember her being just a teeny tiny baby,
and now we have a little girl who knows exactly what she wants (lots of princess things),
who loves to play and dance and read stories..

Oh, and of course the traditional “Birthday Child On The Table” picture:

Have a lovely day!
(I know we will!)
♥

We are back. Really!
The past month has been insanely busy for us, with Ari’s birth, having to move & Emi’s birthday coming up soon,
but now things are a bit slower, a bit less crazy, and that works rather well for all of us.
Last night Emi and George slept in their own bedroom for the first time. It’s been a long co-sleeping journey for all of us, but things were getting a bit crowded, so we thought we’d give it a try. Emi was happy to fall asleep in her own bed , but Georgie fell asleep with us and was then moved to the kid’s bedroom. They both slept through the night and woke up very happy, so I think it was a success. To be honest it feels nice to have a little bit of our bed and bedroom to ourselves, but Archie still sleeps in our bed, obviously, and I love that.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you, we went to register him, and we decided to swap the “Lucius” for “Ariel” , as Lucius sounded much too fierce for this little man.

Anyway, we are back now, thank you for waiting, thank you for emailing and asking how we were doing.
It really means so much to all of us!
We are looking at a place on monday and will most likely just say yes because we are running out of time, but it’s a nice house. It’s a two bedroom house and it will probably be a bit crowded with the five of us, but we don’t spend a lot of time inside during the summer, and we like it cozy in the winter, so we should be okay.

Now, this week I am grateful for..

How very loved our littlest one is:

Naps in the “nest”:

Wikki Sticks:
(no,really,they are brilliant!)

The effect that all our “house talk” has had on the crafting and playing:
(I love how she used the page with the fridge!)

And how our home looks a lot less messy by candlelight…

It’s Emi’s birthday on sunday,so I will be back then to share.
We are just having a little family part this year, but I am sure she will have lots of fun,
I hope I can figure out how to make a castle cake, she really loves princesses right now.
Wishing you all a very lovely weekend,
thank you for still being here,
it’s so good to be back.
♥

I can’t believe it has been so long again!
We are still looking for a new house to move to, we have a little over a month left and I am trying not to worry too much about it.
It seems to be the new thing around here, not worrying. Life has been good, & I think in a way we are all happy we have to leave, because now we don’t have to worry anymore, we are not expecting to be asked to leave, we already had our bad news, and now we can try and make the best of that and find a home that is perfect for us.
It has been really sunny and we are spending most days outside now.
The other day my two little adventurers were trying to find rainbows.

George is not scared of water anymore and I am so happy for him, he is such a wonderful little person.

I never used to like summer, but these two, their pure joy and happiness, the way there seem to be no worries in the summer, how we just flow so freely between inside and outside during the summer months, no need for shoes or much else, it’s great.

Arthur and me have been staying in the shade, he is a funny baby, he really is.
And he is so loved it’s crazy. He already has a huge box of drawings and crafts and other lovely things that were made for him by his Emi & Georgie, and he enjoys it so much, all the attention, books, songs and games.

I really wanted to share this picture of my tiny little one, I apologize because it is yet another breastfeeding picture, but it’s just how we spend our days, Archie & Mama. We were sitting outside and it was sunny so I covered us with a shawl, and I really like the patterns that hot afternoon sun is drawing on his skin.

Now I best go back to playing & chasing rainbows,
and maybe i’ll even get some packing done, but if i don’t, well, then i don’t & i won’t worry about it.
That’s how we do this now.
Happily.

Have a beautiful day!
♥

I’m afraid I’m going to have to rant for a minute here.
If you read my blog then chances are you agree with at least some of the things we do,the way we raise our children and educate them. We co-sleep and our boys are intact. We don’t hit (or smack ) our children , we don’t let anyone cry it out and we certainly don’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to. We don’t have a TV, (we do watch DVDs sometimes though!) we have family meals and family story time, we begin our day with a morning circle or meeting in bed, and, what I think is really quite a big part of our life, we homeschool.

(Pictures are from a recent nature walk in our little forest. Because “the world is our classroom“)

For the past four years we have seen our children grow from tiny helpless newborns into independent smart people.
I can only repeat again and again “you are your child’s first teacher“. We read to our little ones, we answer their questions, we take time to do experiments, go to the library to read a book about how something works, we learn together.
Our children actually enjoy learning!

I understand that to some people it seems like a crazy idea, because it’s not how they grew up, it’s not what’s normal for them, but it really makes sense when you think about it.
No-one knows your children better than you do. You know exactly how to meet their needs, how to make something fun for them, how to make them feel better when they are upset.
Teachers have to learn how to be teachers because they have to teach 30 (or more) students at the same time.
At home, you can give your child your full attention, when they understand something or learn something new you can build on that, you can move on, progress.
In school your child would have to wait for everyone else to do that.
If your little one has questions, wants to know more, they won’t be embarrassed to ask, and you can take the time to explain it to them as many times as they want to.
You can do fun experiments, you can go on school trips ,hey, a school trip to Spain for a history project sounds great , doesn’t it? And even if it’s not Spain, a trip to the garden can certainly be far more educational then reading about your garden in a book. And reading the book in the garden? I’m sure you know what I’m trying to say.
Besides, how many three year olds that are not homeschooled can tell you which leg-bones belong to which animal?

Anyway, my point is, the way we choose to raise our children, the choices we make for our family, we do these things because we feel they are the right thing to do. We know our children better than anyone else, and homeschooling is not easy, we give up a lot to do this, if we both worked full-time jobs we would life a much more comfortable life, but our children are worth it, we do it for them,
so please, don’t accuse us of “ruining their future”, because I happen to find that pretty offensive.

Aehm.
I hope your day was better than ours.
Here’s to tomorrow.
♥

A lot has happened the past few weeks, and I do so want to tell you all about it.
Only just a few weeks ago I was complaining about the neighbours and wanted to move far away.
It turns out that our landlady wants to sell this house, so we are going to move.

We have always been very sensible , lived in very safe places close to family and playgroups, but now,
well, we are ready to move on.
We have been looking at places a bit further away,

we are ready to do what feels right for us, and right now a move far away seems just right.
We have found a lovely house on a sweet island where life is a lot less expensive than it is here,
and that certainly is a plus.
Of course we will miss Nanny & Grandpa, our friends at playgroup and the places we go to every day; Our forest, the beach, the little shops in the village..,
but there will be new beaches to explore , a zoo, nature reserves and botanical gardens, and I am sure we can find a forest or two on that island, too.
Nothing is very definite yet, Anthony will have to go see the house before we make a final decision, (we can’t all go see it, it’s a long trip,especially with three little ones!) but still, for the next few weeks we will be busy trying to fit all of our belongings into boxes, but I will try to check in as often as possible.

It’s a big decision, but sometimes you just have to do what feels right, no matter how scary it is.
(Right?..)

Wow, has it really almost been three weeks?
We have been busy around here, getting to know our newest little one,
sharing hugs and kisses, name changes , doctors appointments, and now we’re about to move to a new home, too! You can see why I haven’t been around much!

I will be back at the end of the week and then hopefully i will have some time to tell you all about our move , our life with our lovely new baby, how we are all doing and what else has been happening.
I hope you have all been well!!
♥
Miri

Look who joined our family today!

We waited patiently for him to tell us his name,
& we are very pleased to introduce:

Arthur Graham Lucius

He’s a tiny little person, just about 46 cm & 3100 g ,
quite different from our other two, & we can’t wait to get to know him better.

Now, I wish I could think of something meaningful to say, but we’ve been up for three days straight,
so I really want to go to bed & hug this sweet little one.

Wishing you a very lovely day.
♥

Thank you so much for all the comments & emails, you really have no idea how much i needed that,
how much i needed to hear that we are not the only ones who have bad days.
It’s hard to remember sometimes, you know?
I want to share our forest with you, because it’s the place we go to when we need to get away, when we need to be alone yet together, if that makes sense.

Our forest is a really magical place. It’s up high on a cliff top, so when you are at edge of the forest it overlooks the sea.

This place here, it’s one of my favourites, these tree stumps in a circle,

they are so perfect for sitting, thinking, climbing, balancing or just touching them.

Every day there is something new, I’m not sure where all the things come from, but I’m reasonably sure it’s not made by people.

These are Emi’s favourites, they’ve been here a while:

This was not here yesterday:

And these are new, too. There were many of them, all up high in the trees, some in little tree-houses:

What I love most about our forest is how safe it feels, how there is always somewhere to sit down and think, but also to run and play and be wild.

There is another special little place in our forest , but I will have to share that tomorrow,
because now it’s time to light some candles, put the clary sage on the oil burner and snuggle up with Ezi ,
I’m hoping tonight he will fall asleep before 3 am.
I’m having some contractions, but I don’t think they will turn into anything lasting, but you never know.
We still have not decided on a name, though we have really given up on that, we will just have to wait till this baby lets us know.

I’m wishing you a lovely weekend,
& again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
♥