Weekend paint and pyjama chillin

Probably going to be offline for a bit now..... We leave our house on Tuesday for Southsea, then fly on Saturday. Eeep! Wish us luck!

Packing (and not packing)

So, we are flying out to Nepal on the 31st, and leaving our house on the 27th or 28th to spend a couple of days on holiday at Grandma Rosemary's, by the seaside. This is in lieu of the Summer Holidays. Harv is starting work on the 1st of August. Although the first week is an induction week, including house-hunting, good places to shop, and lunches out, and the littles and I will join in wherever possible, I still think it's going to be a 'steep learning curve' to use the customary metaphor.

I'm just about to get started in earnest with the packing.....you can probably imagine how hard it is for me to find time to do it.
Example: Brought a box into the dining room to start emptying bookshelves. Eve was at school and the boys were asleep. Opened flaps of box. Thom woke up. Brought Thom downstairs. Thom put all of his balloons into box. Then himself. Then tipped it over. Then climbed onto it, squashed it and turned it into a slide. Then Noah came down. Then Eve came home. Box no longer a box, but shreds of cardboard.
Fortunately it was a 2nd hand one intended to store stuff into the loft, rather than airfreight precious belongings, but you get the idea......
So - I shall push off and get on with it now they're all in bed. Wish me luck - I am truly crap at packing!

Treasure

These are the things I am really treasuring at the moment.

Our recently updated season table, which now has a big fat sunflower to make it properly summery. Eve bounced out of school waving it proudly, even more proudly bursting with the news that she has her first wobbly tooth. Oh gosh, that hit me! Surely it only came through five minutes ago, as I cradled her, carried her and soothed her in my arms? It is the very same tooth she first cut. And now she's talking about the tooth fairy....

We sat down to make some Fathers' Day cards for Harv and the Grandads. After a while I wandered off into the kitchen to get on with some chores while they were busy, and was followed a few minutes later by Noah, smiling shyly and offering me this. 'Who's this one for, Noah?' I asked. 'It's for you, mummy,' he said. He melts my heart, that boy.

More camping. We packed up and scooted off for a single night away with some friends on a fab eco-campsite on a hill not too far away. I love how the children see the open spaces and RUN straight into them.


Thom watching the Tigers, trying to sneak up on him.

And the view from my back door this evening.

Wow!

Corr! I never thought I'd get one of these - THANK YOU!! to Claire over at The Green Queen.

So, now I get to pass this on..... These blogs are the ones that I love, that touch me and inspire me, and that really hit me with how HUGE life is.
(And that often having me sighing 'Wow, I wish I could make such beautiful things.....')
I really, REALLY don't get very much time to read blogs, but I am a faithful follower of these:

Enjoying The Small Things

Lazy Seamstress

When I Get The Time

A Smile a Day

Border Stories

Different Choices

My Handmade Haven

Free Range Family

Making Stuff

Buffering

The high pitched whinings of post-dinner, crotchety littles was grating tonight - they were arguing over the various contents of the doctor's case, Noah insisting that everyone needed injections (we've finished ours for a bit - phew)..... Gah! So 'Hey,'I said, 'Let's have a dance - what music would you like?'
'Mamma Mia!' they yelled.
Trusty Youtube was running slowly tonight though, so their current favourite kept stopping.
But..... no whining about it - 'Hey, we can play musical statues!' shouted Eve, and they did, loving every minute, including the buffering. See - they teach me things all the time - to enjoy the buffering, the little breaks in life where it feels like nothing is happening.....but you're still, if you let yourself, enjoying it.

Happy Campers

How much do kids love camping??
It starts as soon as we tell them that we are going - where will we camp? they ask. And who'll be there? The tent becomes a sort of play barn. They make their own beds (well, sort of). I had to BEG Noah to let me take the Bedroom photo - 'I want to mess it up, Mummy!' he insisted, trying to push past me and laughing.
And then there are rope swings, streams, camp fires, other people's tents, woods, swamps and waterfalls to throw ourselves into the love of.
After a looooong bath, their feet are still filthy.
Yep, we love camping.

Hunter-gatherer

Isn't it amazing, and fab.....? One minute you have a poorly baba who is floppy and listless, needs to be carried everywhere, and has a temperature of 39.1. Then he finally falls asleep on the sofa at 4.30, wakes up an hour later, and is BETTER!
And come bedtime is absolutely full of beans, not even close to tired....
So these photos were taken at about 8.30 as he munched his way around the veggie patch. There's not much in it this year as we are leaving for Nepal at the end of July, but he had a chomp of the purple sprouting broccoli and the chives....and finally went to bed about 10.30.




And check this out - at the grand old age of 15 months, I think he is finally growing some hair!