I've moved!

Blog addresses that it. Since I often use my mobile to blog I have decide to relocate to one that is more accessible in that way so here it is ; https://rainbowstitch.wordpress.com/ . So far I've just been crafting (I have a Christmas Countdown going on!) but there will be more family updates & little memories eventually. Hope to see you there!

Natalie 

Autumn days

Autumn is probably my favourite season. The crisp morning air that promises frost, crunchy leaves in glorious colours and the ripening fruit in the trees and hedgerows make me want to spend most of the time outdoors. Just look at that blue sky!

 

If only this were possible! Of course the other side of Autumn is the rain and the start-of-school-year colds. At the moment I'm feeling slightly sorry for myself; partly because I have a cold but also because on a family walk over the weekend I realised that this year I won't be able to climb any trees in the annual quest for apples. I may have been slightly petulent about this realisation but we still had a lovely time. Lyra climbed the trees to reach the sadly few apples growing within reach;

She has a very sensible helmet on because she rode her bike, which she's a natural at after two weeks as a cyclist;

 

And we had lots of fun hunting for conkers in the grass, much to Logan's excitement and pleasure when he found several. Each time he spotted one his face lit up and he was very happy to have them photographed;

 



 

 

So all in all the season is off to a good start. I've started making Christmas presents because making gifts takes much more time than buying them but will wait to share any of them until the new year!

Growing up!

My little princess rode her bike without stabilisers for the first time yesterday... How can she be that grown up?! School has seen her blossom into a confident little girl who no longer hides behind mummy and is incredibly polite - her "please may I" is adorable. She can read and write so well; how
Is she old enough to do that?! Her tights are size 7-8 due to her long slender limbs, her feet are long and slender too, though her brother is catching her up. She is very funny, though her level of humour is "what's brown and sticky? A POO! Haahahahaa!"
I used to look at her and think "I did that" but now I know it's not just us who influence her and the person she's growing into; her friends and wonderful teacher do too. Growing up? Bring it on (burnout too quickly)

Summer has finally arrived!

After the most wet, miserable, grey June & July imaginable we've finally been blessed with glorious sunshine - since the children broke up from school in fact. It's been fabulous. I have absolutely loved having an excuse to fill up the paddling pool, chomp on ice lollies and the laundry drying so quickly is just the cherry on top. Yes, it's a mum's life but somebody has to do it!

Tonight, in my insomniac Internet browsing, I ended up looking through all of my old posts from back in the days when I used to update this blog religiously. It was wonderful for me to read the little reminders and anecdotes from when my babies were actually babies. They are so big and grown up now! Lyra has finished her first year at primary school and we will be receiving the school application pack for Logan in a few short months. The teachers will have their work cut out that's for sure.

Thr children are loving spending time together and have been playing really nicely (apart from the occasional scrap and one biting incident that resulted in some of Logan's cars being confiscated - they are children after all) the play house has been brilliant and they have loved playing house in it. Logan likes to set up shop and plays at driving to work in his little tikes coupé, either that or driving to the "cinema" (play house!) and eating pretend popcorn. Lyra does join in but her favourite things are dressing up, doing lovely drawings and writing about her pictures. She made me a booklet at school last week "facts about butterflies" (spelled kind of phonetically but she worked it ALL out herself. Logan joins in with the dressing up and makes a beautiful Rapunzel, though Lyra always ends up shouting at him if he "joins in" (read "ruins") her pictures.

As for me, I've discovered Fimo. I made a teeny tiny bucket the other day - to wear as a necklace and put real teeny flowers in. Love it! I've also discovered Fimo sticks as nail art tools. So has Lyra and I can't wait to decorate her nails tomorrow. I love doing girly things like that with her! She's so sweet; a couple of mums have commented on this to me; my little princess is very kind and considerate and even if she wasn't as clever as she is (beautiful writing, excellent reading, gorgeous drawings etc etc- she's a proper little clever clogs reading well over her age range) and she really is a mummy's girl right now. She has a huge collection of hints I've made for her that HAVE to go to bed with her.

Logan drew me a lovely colourful rainbow the other day. for a boy who has never been interested in drawing its a huge step and it wasn't "hotwheels"!!! He really cracks me up; he runs around singing the superman theme run when he's wearing his superman Pajs, points his elbow forward when he's running along being lightning McQueen & if he's being mater he puts both hands behind his back & wiggles his fingers as the "hook" - it really makes me laugh!

We've managed to avoid losing the kitten too! He's an adventurous little hung and I have to pluck him off of the back wall pretty regularly when we're in the garden. He lives being outside though and is being a bit better about not running away & staying in the garden than he was a few days ago. Thank goodness really; the neighbour on one side has a jungle of stinging nettles in his back green & I would hate to have to try to rescue him from there!!

Anyway ttfn, I'm finally sleepy (always tired!) aren't I doing a good job of updating regularly!

Nostalgia

I'm very lucky to have a box of very old photographs to help personalise my exploration of my family tree. Some even have names written in beautiful script on the back of them to help identify the subjects; "Uncle Harry" for example, who was the youngest son of my great, great grandparents and my Gran's uncle. It makes it all the more poignant and real when the subjects of these pictures reached an early demise. Uncle Harry and his brother, my Great Grandfather, were both among the many casualties of WWI...

Similarly it's very special to have some pictures of my Grandma and her sisters when they were young and beautiful and the world was a much less complicated place.

Another amazing thing to have (loaned from my mother while I scan and transcribe them) is the letters my Grandfather wrote to my Grandmother when he was away in the airforce. They married in 1944 and the tender, romantic, adoring tone of these letters is so very touching. Add to this the fact that she kept the letters to her dying day, 29 years as his wife and 33 years as his widow, and the are very emotive reading. I know that she never forgot him and that he was always in her thoughts even when she became very old and very frail and confused about everything else she was always constant in her love for her beloved Jimmy.

I am not a believer in life after death, certainly not in the traditional "heaven and hell" sense. However I like to think that, with time and space being the tangled mess of knots that they are thought of most often these days, somewhere Marj & Jimmy will always be young & together and in love. That sort of thing never ends.

Silence is golden

Because nobody likes a whiney complainer and you don't want to read about my everyday woes do you.

I've been signed off from work since the beginning of March following a minor knee injury that caused an underlying connective tissue disorder (Hypermobility Syndrome, now likely to turn out to be Ehlers Danlos Syndrome due to my other symptoms)to flare up big time. No it hasn't been fun. Yes it hurts a lot. No I'm not better. There, I think that's succinct enough.

However there have been a lot of positives in my life too & that's what I want to write about so I don't forget!!

Lyra has been thriving at school and had a glowing school report. She is friendly, kind, funny, clever & hard working. I'm so proud of her. Her reading & writing are amazing, her pictures are beautiful, she is already on year 1 reading books and was having extra ballet lessons because her teacher didn't want her to miss out on the extra syllabus the older girls were doing. On top of this she has loads of friends and is so kind and thoughtful other mums have commented on it to me. *glowing with pride & love here*

Logan is becoming a proper big boy. No nappies ever now! He had finally taken an interest in sitting down & concentrating on puzzles or drawings & did two age 4+ puzzles by himself the other day. He's getting better with his colours, though drawings are rare he CAN do really well - he traced around his name last week with minimal help. He's also so sweet & caring it hurts. He often says things like "I love you so much mummy. We love our chothers (each other!) don't we mummy" but is still such a BOY. It's like he read the how to be a boy manual. At his preschool sports day he won all of his races. Ok he came second in one but then he ran it again until he came first!!!

David has been amazingly supportive while I'm having a hard time. He's also managing to cope really well with the inevitable emotional fallout. We had a lovely family holiday in the middle of June and it was so wonderful to get to spend time with him. I do miss him so much sometimes when he's at work; surely a good sign after 7 years of marriage and almost 11 years together. Goodness hasn't the time flown!

After we came back from our holiday we brought a little kitten home - Chewy - who is absolutely adorable & so cuddly. His birthday is 3 days after Logan's :) he's been a great source of happiness already & tolerates Logan picking him up by random body parts so well!

I've managed to do quite a bit of work on the garden this year, despite the torrential rain & plague of slugs. Mum & David have done the heavy stuff but my veg patch is doing well & there are plenty of pretty flowers. In fact it's looking rather well established. I've not had the emotional energy to be inspired & get making things but am hoping this will pick up. I have managed to do some research into my family tree though and am hoping to carry on with this & do a little "family history" book for us all. Ok probably an e-book but that's not a bad thing!

I've made lots of new friends since Lyra started school and I really feel I have a good place I the community. I've done a lot for Logan's preschool as the chair of thei management committee and really hope to be able to help a bit in Lyra's class next year (work allowing - we shall see what happens with that soon enough) I really feel good if I'm helping out. It's good to know that I'm considered a good, reliable and responsible person even though I'm not so worried any more about what people think of me if I'm being me. If I have an off day I worry though!!!

Anyway it's late and I need to sleep. TTFN & I hope it's not so long next time.

This too will pass...

Time is a strange thing isn't it, flying by st a crazy speed but at the same time seeming to drag... Children are the very essence of this; their lives made up of fleeting moments that pass far too fast as they grow and change so quickly. My little princess is 5-years-old and blossoming at school. She is soon to be moving up a group in her ballet lessons, will read and write surprisingly difficult words, draws beautiful pictures and holds amazing debates with us. Always a one for encouraging questions I love it when she reasons her way through an argument. It may not make it easy for me but I'm proud fit to bursting! And my baby boy? There's no baby in this house any more and hasn't been for some time now! Turning 3 in just over 2 weeks he holds proper conversations with us now, has the confidence to ask for what he wants in shops and will more often than not take himself to the toilet without any assistance. He loves his cuddles and plays and dances and sings all the time... A bundle of cuddles and movement and enthusiasm. My darling son! They are both so full of life and newness that I am simultaneously full of joy at their thriving and growing and grieving for those lost moments; they will never come again. In life there is no going back, not really. We all change over time and what has been passes into memory, some more clear than others. Neither the good nor the bad can last forever so I try to cherish the moment and make the most of what we have. It has been a tough couple of years and I've grown and changed a lot myself. I'm now so much happier being myself and don't try to be anyone else as that frankly won't make me happy. I've become more honest; I've always been truthful but I'm more likely to get issues out in the open now rather than ignoring them. I know I've helped a lot of people and given a lot of myself. I have achieved a lot and upset one or two people along the way too. I have lived. Who knows what tomorrow will bring; embrace happiness where you can find it because you'll never have this moment again.... Xxxxxxxxx