mamaUK

Moving

We moved into our little Victorian house we bought on the 1st February.

We've found out a little bit of history about the property, it's a former railway workers cottage.

Moving was really hard for me. After being in our rental property for over five years, I didn't realise what a creature of habit I had become until it came to actually packing up everything and moving it into our tiny terraced cottage and then having to get used to somewhere new. Everything felt different and strange and I knew it would take a while before it felt like home. It's only just now that I've felt able to photograph and write again.

As we have moved into half the square footage we've had to get rid of about half of our furniture and minimalise our stuff even further...and things were really quite stripped back and simple before we moved. When it comes to minimalist family living, this is one of my absolutely favourite blogs to read.

Little L turned five on Monday! It was a simple day with birthday poems, cake, birthday presents and a family birthday party. Long time readers always ask me what I buy my children and this year Little L had a Barbie doll and Barbie little sister doll. Maybe I could write about why we're not solely buying natural toys now the children are older in a future post?

 

Snowflakes

 

 

Wow, it's snowing.

Big, fat, snowflakes started to fall in the early hours when I should have been sleeping and it hasn't stopped since.

There's something cosy about lying in bed while the world outside turns white.

We've bought a tiny house!

We bought a tiny house yesterday!

At 540 sq ft for a family of four, it's even tinier than the one we almost bought, but we had to pull out of the sale.

It's a cute little two double bedroom/ two reception room Victorian period property built in 1870 with a courtyard garden.

We felt the pull of the area we used to live when Miss K was first born so we decided to move back into the city, into a pretty street just behind our old rental house right next to the beautiful river, park and nature reserve. We will be five minutes walk away from the stunning cathedral and the lovely close it stands in.

Our moving date is the 1st February.

 

Christmas

 

It's the simplest things that make Christmas special. The shining lights of the tree, the bare, silhouetted trees growing ever darker in the fading light, your child's voice singing out, brightly, in the Nativity play. Your heart clenching as they glance your way, your eyes lock and you see the colour rising in their cheeks.

It was her first Nativity and such a bitter sweet moment. I found myself counting in my head how many more Nativity plays I would witness my youngest child in before her childhood years run out and she grows up, leaving only memories of moments like these to thread together.

Waldorf Winter Fair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Outside the Waldorf Kindergarten)

We visited our local Waldorf Winter Fair at the weekend. The children loved hand dipping candles with a cosy fire close by, making tiny bottles of 'magic' potion and visiting the gnome garden.

They waited for their turn outside a kindergarten classroom. They knew it was time to enter when they heard a knock from inside the door. The children pressed through a soft, light curtain and a girl offered them a stone to take home from a little woven basket and then she quietly played her lyre.

Miss K and Little L had to crawl on their hands and knees through a thick carpet of autumn leaves, all the while seeing the little hand felted gnomes nestled all around, some in their tiny homes and others getting on with their winter activities like fishing on a pond or sitting on a swing made from twigs. The way was lit with candles shining inside their jewel-like lanterns and aromatherapy oils burnt. After pointing out the different gnomes to each other, whispering and giggling in surprise, they pushed open another door and stepped back out into the daylight to the sight of a fire burning brightly and explored outside the kindergarten classrooms.

We love our tradition of visiting the Waldorf Winter fair each year at the beginning of December, it signals the beginning of Winter to our family, even though the Winter Solstice isn't until the 21st December when true Winter begins.

 

Tiny house

Last week we had to pull out of the sale of our tiny house!

After the local searches were completed our solicitor informed us that they could not find any building regulation paperwork for the two bedrooms in the loft which, in legal terms, means they were not considered habitual. The children were going to sleep in the loft bedrooms and, without any sort of paperwork, our main concerns were safe escape from fire and whether or not the loft conversion had been built with the correct structural strength and insulation.

We were advised that, without the correct building regulation paperwork, re-sale of the property would be difficult as the tiny house would be considered a one bedroom property, not a three bedroom property as it had been marketed. This could have a significant impact on the value of the property if we needed to re-sell the house in the future.

So, three months after we put the offer in on the tiny house, we've had to walk away and the contracts have been returned to the seller. We have lost money but I am grateful we had good solicitors who found this out before we actually exhanged contracts and completed the sale and the cottage became our home.

 

10 Mindful Minutes by Goldie Hawn

 

 

 

I've been meaning to read this book for a while now after my mother mentioned she had read an article about it and she thought I would like it. She was right! It is a remarkable book that can be used as a guide to help us raise healthy, happy children by using different techniques such as deep breathing and mindfulness in our everyday lives.

10 Mindful Minutes shocked me. From the little bits I had read about meditation I knew that deep breathing was beneficial to health and the mind and can be used as a way of reducing stress and anxiety, but I didn't realise quite how important taking those deep, calming, breaths was until I read this book.

There's lots of detailed research referenced in 10 Mindful Minutes about the impact stress and anxiety is having on children and their brains and what we can do as parents to help them cope with modern day living. We can help children from becoming overwhelmed, stressed and overstimulated by using simple techniques such a mindful breathing and thinking. We can make simple lifestyle changes such as reducing the amount of technology children use for the sake of their mental health and emotional fitness.

10 mindful minutes shows you how you can help teach your child empathy and gratitude, how to help a child deal with sadness and anger and the importance of kindness.

I have already told my children that if they have an upset in the playground to take three deep breaths to help calm themselves. It's only the smallest of baby steps, but it's a start to show them how they can take control of their own emotional state. I realise how important the quiet, calm time is in our home when they have finished their school day to rest their body and mind.

I'm sure I will return to this book time and time again, it seems so important to understand why adults and children react and behave the way we do and positive changes we can make for our emotional health and happiness.

It's among my staple reads now, sitting along side Simplicity Parenting, Hold on to your Kids, Mitten strings for God and Buddhism for Mothers. I wrote about Buddhism for Mothers here.

 

Bonfire Night

Stark silhouetted trees. It was a clear night and the stars were out.

Miss K watched the bonfire while Little L played with a ring of glow-sticks I had made. I tossed it out into the pitch darkness while she ran, squealing,to retrieve it. She would turn around, disorientated, and call out 'Mama!' I called her name so she could find her way back to me.

We sat on a picnic rug, covered with blankets to ward off the cold. Little L sat on my lap and burrowed her head into me and started to cry as the fireworks began, their loud bangs echoing around the valley. I calmed her down by telling her the fireworks were sending messages to angels in the sky and could she call out each colour as she saw the fireworks explode? Totally distracted, her tears stopped and she turned her face to the sky and watched the sparks shower down.

Autumn

It's Friday afternoon, outside is grey and dusky already. The children have been kicking and playing in the fallen leaves and the blustery wind before coming indoors and nestling down under blankets to read their 'new' library books. Since we're back in Greenwich Mean Time and darkness is falling earlier, we've been lighting beeswax candles in the late afternoon.

We've spent the last couple of days at home, a slice of quiet time after a busy few days as the girls' cousins came to town combined with my annual hospital visit to London at Hallowee'n to check I'm still in remission from Hodgkin's Lymphoma . It was lovely leaving the city late in the day and seeing the streets covered in multi-coloured crispy leaves, kids playing on an urban basketball court in the Autumn light, windows slowly being illuminated one by one and a trick or treating child dangling a pumpkin basket as she held hands with her mother. These glimpses threaded together is what Autumn is to me, in that moment I felt so much gratitude for our changing seasons.

Changing rhythms

Now the Autumn is here, a new rhythm begins to suit the season. When the children get in from school, they change straight into warm pyjamas. Changing out of their uniform is their way of signalling that the busy school day is over and their bodies and minds can relax. They settle straight into free play, either together, or apart.

Quite often, all Miss K wants to do is settle down under cosy quilts and read. This is how she relaxes.

I find Little L physically 'needs' to play to release any stresses from the school day. If she doesn't have enough opportunities for play worked into her day, she will struggle falling to sleep at night.

Watching TV as an after school activity has never been been something we've done. Here, we don't have the murmur of the television or radio in the late afternoon/early evening, we just have quiet, a hush falls over the house. It feels simple and relaxing and calming to us. It's our 'normal', our rhythm. I draw the curtains when it's twilight, our evening is beginning. The children can hear the dishes clinking from the kitchen, dinner will be ready shortly and then it will be bath and bed.

With the nights drawing in even further, soon it will be time to start lighting a beeswax candle to cast a warm glow around the living room. Perhaps Little L will put her toys aside and follow her sister, burrowing under quilts and blankets and hibernate as the season dictates.

A slightly new rhythm will have begun as the season draws on.