adjusting

We have been a family of six for a month now. How quickly that has gone. As always with any change there is a period of adjustment. Some days it is easier than others. Some days the older children are really self sufficient and Ena sleeps well, and we are on top of the washing and the weather is great and I have eaten enough at the right times..and other days, well, it's not like that! 

my favourite sling, Storchwenwiege

Time slows down with a little baby. Whole days go by with nothing to show for them apart from a heap of washing up and a carpet of dog hair on the kitchen floor. And although I know this, some days it is hard looking at the piles and piles of 'things to be sorted' or having to ignore my desire to sit down for longer than 3 minutes and 45 seconds to sew something or write this blog. Some days I resent this, I am a do-er and not doing, just being with Ena takes a lot of practice and a lot of remembering to breathe and remindng myself it won't last.

We have discovered the 'Guinness Book of Records', 1 euro well spent in a charity shop

Rebe actually broke the world record of eating jelly with chop sticks...so she says

Life is made easier though, being in a team. The kids are super, they have their little jobs and can do so much for themselves and I share it all with Garry who is there with me for the nappy changes in the middle of the night, to wipe the tears when I am over tired and frustrated, to gaze lovingly at our little ones, to laugh at some outrage.

park fun

sage in bloom

I have been trying to just focus on the important things. Keeping up with the washing, making sure we are all well fed and watered and time spent with each child doing what they need to do, be it reading stories or playing catch or endless hours on the boob.

herbs from the garden for veggie sausages

I am trying to keep up the good habits I developed in pregnancy, focusing on my well being: eating as cleanly as possible, sleeping when I can (even if I would rather stay up and watch that film or do some knitting) and getting outside every day.

nappies on the line

the back garden

a half sewn doll and Benny's school trousers that I cut into shorts for the lovely weather

But through this adjustment, there is so much joy. We are all growing, we are all enjoying each other. We are loving life, through all the little things.
Yesterday Joa asked if we could have a picnic for lunch, so we packed a sandwich and an apple and some squash and we went to the green at the top of the hill. Joa and I sat there for ages, eating, watching aeroplanes scribble across the sky, looking at bugs and enjoying the sun on our skin.

He said to me 'Mummy would you like to take all your clothes off to have a real 'lax in the sunshine'? I said I didn't really but he thought he might like to give it a try...

Special moments, all of them!