My Garden Girls

Nola just loves the garden. Often she will she head to the back door shoes on hands and knock until some kind soul offers her an escape into the great wide open that is our postage stamp sized back garden.



This is her new trick.



She can even pick flowers at the same time.



She even has her very own flower picking basket.



"Now I know they won't find me here."



"Fooled them."



She is quite a determined daisy picker.







Rose petal soup anyone?
I try to encourage her to use the dead heads but apparently they don't make as good soup as the full blooms.



Florence is characteristically unimpressed.



   But Nola is not discouraged.

{This Moment}

Joining Soulemama today for {This Moment}

 - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

and some good reads from the week


Some words for a young writer


A Cautionary Tale for homeschool Mamas...

A lovely way to welcome the Sun with  little ones

Risk

 Joining Lisa Jo @ The Gypsymama today for 5 minute Friday...



Risk.

I try to avoid it.
I have felt it's sting before.
Fallen off the edge
And scraped myself sore.

But I want to learn to embrace
it better, let myself fly free
Let faith be my wings
Hope my flight
Love the thermals that take me higher

Faith can embrace me better
that way.
Love will become deeper
that way
Dreams can dream further
and hope can become
what it is meant to become.

Risk management is what
the world seems to be about today
Insurance plans
Security policies
Pensions, mortgages, health care

I want to walk the way of risking
all
for love

someone said
What is life if you can't live your own story
to the edge of the page
till the paper curls

I have a blank canvas
And the story that might be written upon it
is worth more than life to me.

Simple Woman's Daybook

"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."

 ~Winnie the Pooh~ 

  

 FOR TODAY

Outside my window...

Crisp morning sunlight is flooding the road platinum. Dogs are barking.
There is a sense of stillness


I am thinking...

About how important connection is.


I am thankful...

For a husband that just brought me bread and jam, a cup of coffee and a little time alone before he goes off to work.



In the kitchen...

Roast dinner with chicken, potatoes, french beans and carrots for dinner today.
I look forward to roast days.


I am wearing...

I'm still in my pajamas. It's early enough still... sortof :)



I am creating...



Another birthday crown




I am going...

On my first holiday in 10 years in a weeks time!!!
I have butterflies just writing that.


I am learning

To cultivate my own time out of the day, to be, to listen, to pray and to grow in myself.
I am also learning, now that the girls are getting older, to give them this too.


I am pondering...

About what real holiness is all about.

"And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

 I like this idea of holiness.


A favourite quote for today...

"No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to ...others is that it makes them kind themselves." 
- Amelia Earhart


One of my favourite things...

Sitting in the garden, with the sun sighing deep on my face, listening to the girls playing happily.


A peek into my day...

 leftovers :)



 And a book my great Aunt who was a nun published many years ago.
My children love it.
I really want to republish it to preserve it.
I think it is the last known copy:(




linking up with the Simple Woman's Daybook

{weekending}

 Joining Amanda @ "The Habit of Being" for Weekending





Saturday

Sent my 8 year old off on cub camp with her big sissy Friday night....
Lots of tears. Lot's of excitement.  I wrapped up the little burrowing owl stone and put it in her pocket.
Tucked her prayer book into her sleeping bag.

Got stuck in the Etsy trenches for an hour or two
Decided I won't be doing that again. (too many rabbit holes)
I am a simple soul, I need...
Peace
one thing
at a time
I need to be present
fully
authentically.

Sunday

Went to our local national trust park
Jumped in lots of muddy puddles with trainers on
Girlies cried over wet soggy feet.

Jumped in muddy puddles with trainers on again.

Thought how beautiful the world looks in the sunlight after a shower of rain.

Letting something go for love to come in.

Played rock paper scissors till it was time to go.

Nola squealing in my arms on the toy train as it whistled through the woods.

Collecting smokey smelling, muddy, red cheeked camper girls with big smiles on their faces.

Running hot baths.

Eating warm bowls of pasta.

Hearing good old camping stories
one after another till bed.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for {This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Have a wonderful weekend :)

First bloom on Eliyana's rose.

 

And a beautiful song to send me into the weekend smiling.

Great take on a lengendary classic.

For a Moment

For a moment I draw little one into my arms, heavy body sleeping like a warm bag of millet seed
nestled in the crook of my heart and the light falls so quietly,
without judgement
without past regrets
or future doubts
on her curled lashes
All I have is this to hold onto
And I wonder
which moment will be the most precious
which act the most important
which thing the most needful
at the end of it all?

{Yarn Along}

I am joining Ginny @ Small Things today for {Yarn Along} Frontier Dreams  and WIP Wednesday

I finished testing out my doll sweater knitting pattern over the weekend. I like this cable it is simple and repetitive enough to do without looking.
 I like that kind of knitting. It can come in very handy when you have a wiggly, wriggly 1 and a bit year old around :)
It is available here in my shop.

 





Nola is definitely turning into the family princess :)

 

She is becoming very vocal about telling us what she does and does not want. She is also the most demonstrative baby I think I've ever had!

We were at a fun park the other day and she met another little baby in the ball pool. Nola loves other little babies to bits. So she starts resting her head on this baby, stroking his hair and face. Trying to kiss him with little wet cheepy bird mouth kisses. The baby, who was an only child and not used to all this  baby attention sat completely still, watching Nola with grave intensity from the corner of his eye. I don't think the baby minded her pawing. He was just a little bemused by it:)

Nola is also desperate to get into anything and everything she knows she is not to at the moment. That means switches, remotes, phones, cupboards , any kind of utensil whatsoever...

She is also a clean queen apparently. She will find any small bitty bit of dust on the carpet and give it to me in the most solemn way as if she is doing a very important job.
She also loves to get a dishcloth and pretend to wash everything. She scrubs at her baby dolls, the carpet, the doors, the poor cat...saying very softly sh sh sh as she goes :)

So onto reading, I have been re-reading "No Greater Love" by Mother Teresa.

 

I love the simplicity of this book. Mother Teresa's spirit shines through her words and hers is a refreshing voice in the sometimes over complex modern world of ours. I also love her because she was Albanian, like my husband :) Something I only found out a couple of years ago.

Here is a favourite excerpt:

"We do not need to carry out grand things in order to show a great love for God and for our neighbour. It is the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them into something beautiful for God.

Peace and war start within ones own home. If we really want peace for the world, let us start by loving one another within our families. Sometimes it is hard for us to smile at one another. It is often difficult for the husband to smile at his wife or for the wife to smile at her husband.

In order for love to be genuine, it has to be above all a love for our neighbour. We must love those who are nearest to us, in our own family.

From there, love spreads toward whoever may need us.

It is easy to love those who live far away. It is not always easy to love those who live right next to us. It is easier to offer a dish of rice to meet the hunger of a needy person than to comfort the loneliness and the anguish of someone in our own home who does not feel loved."

An Interview with Matilda

 I thought giving Matilda an interview would be fun.

 I got my inspiration, and a few of my questions from the very lovely "Carried Family" blog.
The photos are just to remind me that it is actually meant to be Summer still  here in rainy old England :)

 

What's your favourite colour?
Yellow




What are your favourite things to do?
Love, cuddle, play. Playing with my sisters. Playing on my trampoline.

 


What is your favourite food?
Porridge

 


Do you like being unschooled?
Yes

 
  
What do you like about it?
I like it  because I like staying with my mummy.

 

anything else?
I can't do maths? I love playing best.

 

What have you been learning about?
Owls mostly. And we made smoothies yesterday.




What's the worst thing about being homeschooled?
When Fina and me bicker.

 

Is there anything you would change about your life?
No





What do you do all day?
Make up stories, dress up in dresses.

 

What is your favourite toy?
Poppy my doll




What kind of books do you like to read?
About princesses and mermaids? Yes it can be about princesses and mermaids. They are my best.



What is one thing mama always says to you?
Do not bicker and I love you.

 
 
Anything else I say all the time?
You say you are a very kind girl Matilda.




What is mama good at?  And what am I not very good at?
You are very good at teaching us schoolwork. You are not good at jumping on the trampoline.

 

What are *your* biggest talents?
Making and sticking, and painting. I paint a lot of cats at the moment. I can make paper flowers too!



What do you find hard to do?
Climbing up big trees. I am very good at climbing trees. Once I fell down off one and a lady came up to me and said "are you okay?" I wanted to cuddle her but I was a bit shy.




Is there anything you don't like learning about?
I do not like doing maths!



Is there anything you have to do that you don't like?
I do not like sausage sandwiches with tomato sauce in them.



What is the most wonderful thing about being Matilda?
because I love my name... giggles... and the zip slide. I can do it all by myself now.

 Some pictures of Matilda from then to now