Here We Are Together

I can’t believe it’s September already!
I am sorry that yet another week passed since I have last been here.
Many, many, many things have happened,
good things, bad things, things that give us hope.

The good news, well, we might possibly have found a new home, and , oh, I can’t wait to tell you all about it. We will hear back about it tomorrow or Friday.
I am trying not to get my hopes up just yet, but it is so absolutely perfect for us, it really is.

Thank you for your kind emails telling me that you are all crossing your fingers for us, and I do apologize for the inconvenience. (Yes, there have been complaints about the excessive amount of finger-crossing that is required!) Thank you for your prayers , wishes and good vibes, too. We feel the love, we really do, things are changing, things are getting so much better.

I am so glad that it’s autumn now, it’s definitely my favourite time of the year.
I love how our life slows right down, how we light candles, how we read so much more when it’s rainy, how even Emi, my sweet little early bird , is so much more willing to snuggle up in bed together for a slow morning.
This picture here really sums up the slow and warm part of autumn for us,
books (Harvest Moon, this Mama’s absolute favourite,of course!) , comfort food and apples.

The cold, wet, bright, colourful and active part of autumn, the puddle jumping, the leaves changing, the harvest , well, these things are all about to happen now, and I really can’t wait.

It’s Boo’s birthday in just over a week , can you believe my sweet and tiny little man will be two? Two!
Of course I am a little bit slow in finishing his birthday quilt, but I have no doubt that it will be done in time.
Well, saying that, I better do some more sewing tonight,
I hope you are all doing well,
wishing you a lovely day!
♥

Last week a package arrived on our doorstep. It was a Brio Magentic Train sent to us by Trevor of the online nursery and baby shop “Hello Baby” .

Today we finally found some time to have a good play with, and I must say, it is absolutely lovely!!
The train set consists of 11 brightly coloured pieces.

The sturdy wooden blocks all have magnets inside to make stacking easy even for the littlest ones. (It says 12+ months, but I can see much younger children happily playing with this.)
George absolutely loves his new train, it did not take him long to figure out the magnets, and he spent quite some time just putting the two train carriages together and taking them apart again just to see them click into place .

He was thrilled when he discovered that the blocks,too, were magnetic. He still has some trouble stacking “normal” blocks, so this really seemed to give him a lot of confidence.

He soon got more creative in his playing and stacking and started building sideways, too!

He loves pushing the train around and has come back to play with it many, many times already today, which is really unusual for him, as he is really, really picky when it comes to playing.
As you all know , I am quite picky,too, but I trust Brio and I know that my little ones are safe when they play with this, even if a block was to get licked or chewed.

All in all, I would really truly recommend this toy for any child who enjoys building with blocks, and even Emily, who is now four years old already , (four!!) really likes it. I know that it will last a very, very long time, as my little ones have some of the Brio toys I used to play with as a child, and that is really not something you find very often these days.

I hope you liked my little review!
♥

Not many words today,
things have been so busy!

right now

today’s mess:

this morning
trying to take a picture of all three little ones :
(in their pajamas)

last night
knitting breasts for Lactation Consultants of Great Britain:

yesterday
trying on Mama’s glasses & looking good:

I hope you are all doing well,
we have been taking a little time to ourselves, not visiting the grandparents twice a week like we usually do,
(I think they needed a break..) and focusing on what will happen in our life now.
I am going back to work as a Doula and will soon start my volunteer work for HomeStart, so we had a lot to talk about and prepare.

We still haven’t found a new home yet, but we are keeping our fingers crossed (that’s what english people do), our thumbs “pressed” (that’s the german way) and stand on our toes (that’s how it’s done in africa! ) , and of course we are doing a lot more than just hoping, praying and waiting, too.

I hope you are all doing well,
I am sorry I have not been good at responding to emails, we’re mostly using the computer to look for a houses these days.
Wishing you all a lovely day,
♥

This is one of my favourite places in our home,
it’s the kid’s drawing table. Underneath are some of the many jigsaw puzzles we have, and a basket for used but re-usable paper.

We put up a bit of yarn and some little wooden cloth-pegs so that the children can put pictures they like on it.
They are really proud whenever they climb up onto the table & put one of their newest drawings up.
Emi painted the canvas with a picture of her and Boo.

I think wherever we move to we will make sure to have room for this little place, it is so nice for the little ones to know they can be creative whenever they want to.
Wishing you a very lovely day
♥

It’s been raining for the past few days, and so we stayed inside, home.
I still find it hard to imagine us in another house, this place has really become our home even though we have only been here for a little over a year now.
We have very little time left to find a new place and to be honest I am not sure where we will go if we don’t find one soon.
Even though we are both very worried about this we don’t let the children notice it.
They know we have to move and are really quite excited about what our new home might be like, and for now they are making the most of their time here.

One of our autumn / rainy day favourites is the train set , and I am so glad to see that they are playing with it together now.

I’m enjoying the rainy days and dark afternoons because we can light some candles , eat sticky toffee pudding and snuggle up on the sofa to read.

I think I will spend the next few days taking some pictures of our home to share it with you.
I don’t ever want to forget this place.

Recently surprisingly many people told me

a house is built with boards and beams,
a home is built with love and dreams.

and I know it’s true, I know that we will still be the same family, no matter where we move to,
& I know we will probably have most of our things with us,
and even though we have many happy memories in this house, I have no doubt that soon we will be making new memories in our new home.
We just have to keep thinking positive thoughts, praying and hoping..

..everything is going to be just fine.

have a lovely day.
♥

Time to paint (& organize) our bookshelves!

Before:

& After:

much better!
&hearts

Where I grew up, back in germany, Autumn started in August, so usually around this time of year I start to look around for little things like leaves turning yellow, or more & more squirrels gathering nuts.
Today I even had to put a hat on Archie because it was so windy, and during our walk a yellow leaf landed on Arthur’s quilt in the buggy. (Mama’s back hurts, so our little man can’t go in the sling, but luckily he doesn’t mind too much.)

I had half hoped for a thunderstorm , so when it started to rain on our way home I was really happy, because we wanted to bake cookies and that’s obviously a lot more fun when it is cold and rainy outside!
Boo is a lot like me, he has always loved the cold weather and he went to sleep the minute we got home.
I wish i could have curled up with him, sleeping during a storm is brilliant. I think I have always loved it, but with three little ones, well, chances of all of them being asleep at the same time, I am sure you know what I mean.

As jealous as I might have been of Boo, it gave Emi and me a little Mama & Daughter time, so we made strawberry vanilla cookies. They did not turn out as nice as I had hoped, that gluten free flour makes things rather crumbly.
They look very pretty though. Next time we might use a little bit more of her dairy free butter.
Next time might be quite soon, I’ve got a feeling these ones might be eaten up rather quickly!

I am so grateful that people are starting to know about food intolerances around here , last Christmas and Hanukkah were really quite sad because we could not bake any cookies together. It’s easier now and I can’t wait to bake muffins, cakes and bread with my lovely girl.
She is so good about it,too, when offered a cookie or chocolate she says “No thank you, I’m wheat free!”
I love that. And I love her.
Now if only I could get her to look at the camera..

Today we will look through our bookshelves to find some books about indoor games,
if you have any good ones to share please let me know!
Have a lovely day!!
♥

The past few days the weather seemed to reflect my (our?) mood perfectly, it’s such a crazy thing, it’s like we control the weather. We argue and it starts to rain, we yell, we shout, and there’s thunder. We calm down and make up and the sun comes out. I assume it’s the other way around, of course, but wouldn’t it be neat to control the weather?
I think I’d choose rain more often than anything else, I really like us all together and cozy. I can’t wait to go for a walk in the pouring rain,jump over puddles, (or into them) and come home to hot chocolate and stories by the fire.
I love the freedom summer brings, but it’s nothing compared to that strong family feeling you get in autumn and winter.
There has been a lot of writing from Emi recently, we don’t push her, and I enjoy seeing her learn something all by herself, just like that.
I never had any trouble in school when it came to reading and writing, but I know many who did, so I am of course incredibly proud of my sweet girl. She’s writing lots of letters these days, mostly to her friend Lena and to Aunt Sarah. She’s copying books, too, which I think is great, I can’t wait to have our own Emi-made version of “Brown Bear”!

We’ve also been doing some structured learning, by her request,of course. Her favourite is matching words to pictures.

When we have found a new home we will need to get a dog, Boo loves the puppy so very much, it is so gorgeous and funny to see them play together, (click!), they play chase, it’s the sweetest thing. And the puppy, she is so good, she really doesn’t mind that Boo sometimes falls and lands on her.

Children and animals grow up so very loved in this family, i love that.
You can really see how good it is, how absolutely brilliantly confident our children are because they know they are loved, and how much fun we have each day. I always hoped for exactly this, I always hoped I could be friends with my children, because I know some parents aren’t.
I get that,sometimes. I think on some days we could all do with a break, parenting is intense, if you actually do it. There is so much we can learn from our children, we just need to remember to listen.
I need to learn that still. I need to remember again and again that I am not always right simply because I am the grown up.

It’s so much fun how “even” tiny Arthur is already his very own person, it’s a great adventure,getting to know him and finding out about him.
He likes it quiet, and he likes songs, but he doesn’t like looking at books or toys just yet.
He loves stories more than anything, though he will fall asleep during most.

I sometimes wonder what it will be like when they are a little bit older , will it be easier? We will certainly get more sleep, but will we have as much fun? It’s really hard to imagine, especially because we don’t even know where we will be in a month or two, but still I can’t wait to find out.

Our local shop now finally stocks gluten free flour, so Emi and me will spend today baking some strawberry & vanilla swirl cookies, if they are any good I’ll show you tomorrow!
Have a lovely,fantastic and beautiful day!
♥

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!
♥