Here We Are Together

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!
♥

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.
♥

Has it really already been a week?
I’m sorry that I haven’t been here in such a long time.
Things have been busy, but we got some good news, we won ‘t have to move for at least another three months, so we are a lot happier now.
I am grateful for that, I truly am. I love this tiny little house of ours,and even though it will undoubtedly get a bit crowded in a couple of months it is still our home.

I am grateful for …
a tradition of baking Hamantashen with my sweet Emi:

Purim favours for our friends and neighbours:

This lovely postcard my baby cousin sent:
(See, that’s the trouble when you’re the youngest, you’ll always be the baby, even though he really is very much a grown-up!)

my sweet little Ezi & our morning snuggles.
(Do you see that “big boy bed” next to ours? We’ve got till may to convince him that sleeping in there is lots of fun. He still much prefers our bed though.

& this picture that Daddy & Emi just sent from their adventure.
(Adventure really just means taking the train to do get to the post office, but still..)

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

Sorry, I am a bit late with today’s post,
Ezzie (he chose that name all by himself, isn’t that lovely?) has been ill for the past few days,
but his temperature , which reached 39.8 ºC yesterday is on the way down & we are all very grateful for that.

He still sleeps a lot, but he is definitely getting better.
What are you grateful for?

I am also grateful because it is friday, all the housework is done,
bread is in the oven, and we are looking forward to some cozy days just for us.
I wish you all a very lovely weekend,
Shabbat Shalom,
♥

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!
♥

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.

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?

♥

This week we are grateful for..

..this bright pink handknit octopus :

homemade sweets:

& the very many new “Conni” books that were recently sent our way from Germany:

What are you grateful for?

♥

This week I am grateful for our last visit to the beach this season,

for how empty the beach was ,

how high the waves were,

& how much fun we had on this last (& first for this year!) trip.

Have a lovely weekend,
♥

Sorry for this very late post, we are still trying to catch our breath , hoping for things to calm down just a little.
This week I am grateful for a very lovely present that sweet Miri sent to us all the way from Israel! (If you don’t speak hebrew, it is really worth putting that link through the google translator!)
Miri is a really good friend of ours and a very talented Mama, (check out the travel activity book she made, or this beautiful waldorf doll!)

I was so happy when I received her present, I am very grateful to be able to have some things from her home in ours, for example this lovely fairy embroidery:

this beautiful hamsa:

& just look at this beautiful tree that Miri’s husband Eyal made for us:
(He is an incredibly talented artist, you can find his Etsy shop here.)

Miri also sent me this beautiful Star of David necklace:
(excuse the photo, have you ever tried to take a picture of your own neck?)

Thank you so much Miri, I am so grateful that we met, I am so grateful for our honest & open conversations, for the advice, for the inspiration, for you.

What are you grateful for this week?
Wishing you a lovely weekend,

♥