New Year Dreaming...

 

A friend gave us this beautiful Christmas candle decoration! (above) What a gift, the children found it magical and stared at it in wonder in the candle light of many an evening. It reminded me of all my german grandmother's wooden Christmas ornaments! It will be treasured for years to come!

Well it was a strange Christmas.
I was ill between the 21st and the 1st and am still not 100% back to myself again although I really am so, so much better than I was.

 

I have had the flu annually now for the last 4 years. Sometimes I get an infection too, lucky me :) This time I got a throat infection and some heavy duty antibiotics along with all the fluey symptoms.

 

Yes, Christmas was a very quiet affair for me. The first Christmas I can remember doing absolutely nothing.

 

And in my condition of being but a mere passive observer to the mayhem, surprisingly, I didn't feel angsty in the least about the inevitable mess, chaos, raw on the inside burnt on the outside potatoes, bits of lost toys by boxing day, big emotions, piles of dishes lamenting by the sink, squealing etc, that is standard Christmas fare.

 

Saying all this, Tani, did the most amazing job of looking after everyone and making Christmas truly magical, despite it all. I feel so blessed to have such a man in my life. Someone who puts his family before everything else, and tries so hard to be all that we need him to be. He has always had a chivalrous side to him, it was the thing that attracted me most I think :)




 Although as all the girls except Emmy ( who is strong as an ox) were also in various fluey stages of disrepair, they were all a little quieter and more retiring than usual.

 

 We watched The Snowman and Carols from Kings which we always do on Christmas Eve and Tani and a friend of ours who is living with us at the moment wrapped all the presents while I shivered away on the sofa.

 

Littlest lamby paid a visit to the hospital on Christmas day as her temperature ebbed toward 41. All my girls seem to cope remarkably well with high fevers for some reason, although they frighten me dreadfully.

 

Poor babe also had an ear infection along with the flu :(  She was really excited about the yellow medicine as yellow is her favourite colour, however, rather tragically, the excitement soon dissipated once she got the  taste of  it.

(note the pictures below are from our new Year Day walk in our favourite spot.... a tradition :)

 

Boo had a really quiet birthday. Her big present was a beautiful wooden xylophone, which she plays all the time now :)
She is such a sweet and gentle spirit. Although it was such a quiet day, she said it was the "very best birthday ever" :)

 
 

 We had booked tickets to see The Nutcracker at Covent Garden on the 27th and somehow, reinforced with industrial quantities of meds I made it!!!

 

 

I don't remember it too well, but there is plenty of photographic evidence to prove that I was indeed there, present and correct, and trying very hard not to cough and sneeze all the way through the quiet bits :)

 

 I have been feeling a little despondent these last few days and have made a concerted effort to get back into the swing of things today. Last year truly felt like it went by in a blur of activity.

 

Illness can be quite a centring thing. Although home school life with 5 children is never going to be a laid back lilo ride I am determined to centre our life around the basics and try not to fly off on a hundred different tangents at once.

 

Faith, Kitchening, Gardening, Keeping the Home tidy and comfortable, Friends, Crafts and Learning about things that are relevant to us and deeply interest us. These are the essentials. Anything extraneous that causes stress to any of the most important things must be put aside.

 

However, saying all this, some new ideas have taken root and I am hoping that some of them may come to fruition this year. I have ideas involving Waldorf workshops and family centres and craft workshops and learning about bio dynamic, organic growing and bush craft workshops where Emmy can share some of her skills and learn new ones.

 

So many ideas, ideas that need collaboration and a little capital too no doubt. But ideas are the genesis of creation and I am enjoying this time of mulling them over with friends and Tani and coaxing them into life.
Well from notebooks and conversations anyway :)

  

I am so sorry that I am a dismal blogging friend and visit so rarely. Blogging, unfortunatly has to be relegated to the "exteraneous" pile, and something that I do primarily as a form of journalling.

 

Although the reading of blogs and the connections I've made through blogging have been a great source of community and friendship to me and will, I hope continue to be so despite my irregular posting and commenting. I have closed my badly neglected facebook page which was a long overdue thing to do. And have decided to concentrate on replying to e-mails, blogging and my shop whenever there is the time available.

 

The girls have suddenly taken maturity leaps as seems to happen over holiday seasons. Boo has taken it upon herself to learn music theory, after years of playing brilliantly by ear and refusing any formal teaching what so ever. It has been so frustrating because she has such a natural talent for music yet would simply hit a blind spot if Emmy tried to sit down and teach her anything. Yesterday she taught herself a grade 2 Mozart Sonata!

 

She has also calmed down a lot about her role as biggest of the middle girls. She seemed to feel as if she had to corral the other  two all the time. If they were playing a game, Boo would be the one to direct it, which used to be fine when they were all younger but now that they are older they are all reaching for their independant voice. A transistion for all involved, especially Matilda who has always been so passive and in awe of Boo. I think that Matilda almost relied on her big sis in many ways, especially with her speech development issues. Boo would often act as translater and protecter of her little sister. She would also often speak for her, a role that she has found hard to unlearn. They have a very strong bond through it all and that is a beautiful, irreplacable, unbreakable thing.




Matilda has lost 4 teeth along the top of her mouth and two along the bottom over the last few months. With these physical changes have come great leaps in maturity and independance. I find myself missing her babyhood while being inspired by the funny, creative, quirky character she is becoming. She is also quite a social butterfly, in a quiet, understated way.

 

 Boo has always been a quiet, observer type, prefering one or two close friendships to groups. Fina on the other hand is a natural leader and tom boy and I find myself always watching that she doesn't overwhelm quieter children. So much so that, her two older sisters often end up following her lead in group games involving other children.

 

Fina has such a bond with Nola and Nola practically idolises her big sis. She copies her in everything and follows her around like a little lamb.
It has certainly softened Fina, having a little one doting on her so.

 

Emmy has a really strong bond with Nola too and loves to mummy her. I can really see a glimpse into the kind of mummy she will be through watching her with Nola.
She will be, firm, fair, fun and down to earth! All good things for a Mama to be! This year I hope to be strong in my vision, yet soft in my application of that vision, always ready to drop all for love whatever that love might look like or ask of me.

 


I have thought about what my word of the year should be and as usual many different words came to mind so I decided to write the ones that spoke most learly to my soul and put them in a hat and leave it to fate :)




The chosen word for the year ended up being "gentle" I think this means being gentle on myself and others. I think it means to take an unforced, way, and natural, steady path and pace and to reflect the words, that I find, in my life, turn to time and time again.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

 


Well I'm dreaming about spring already :) Bring on the blue skies, and a Happy Healthy New Year to one and All!



 
 Oooh.... and this is a lovely song....