"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2016"
Samuel James - He's a complex and beautiful boy, this week he's been teaching me patience and highlighting parts of me that I need to work on. Such is the life of a two and a half year old, I guess. If we survive, I know we'll be better and stronger because of it.
Matilda Grace - Cannot keep her eyes off her big brother; always watching, always learning, always wanting to be close to him.
This week Matilda is getting closer and closer to crawling, she goes from sitting, to leaning on her arms for a minute or two, then slowly slides to her tummy. Slow down baby girl, I don't want to miss your littleness! Samuel, on the other hand, has been pushing boundaries. He is getting help, learning to use more words, and is using "no" a lot in the meantime. Because of his limited vocabulary, his big emotions tend to escape in the form of anger and frustration. Because of my lack of sleep, instead of always being calm and loving in my responses, his anger has been met with mine, and we've all suffered. Thankfully, every day is a clean slate and a fresh opportunity to do better. This parenting gig is a wild ride, and the growing and stretching and learning isn't always fun, but boy, is it important.
Linking up with Jodi's 52 project.
It has taken me a while to feel settled in our home. Part of me was holding back because my heart was torn between wanting so desperately to live close to my dear friends, the beach and the calm of small town life, as well as wanting to create a home for my beautiful family where we already are. A home, to me, means somewhere to feel relaxed and safe, somewhere surrounded by green, gorgeous gardens that can help me to feed and nourish my family.
It has really been on my heart to bloom here in Sydney, it will never feel like home if I don't put in the effort to create that safety and comfort, and I'm the one missing out by holding back, and my family are missing out, too.
Andrew is a master of many skills, and lucky for me, one of them is building things out of wood. He went to work measuring, drilling, sawing and hammering and came up with a beautiful raised garden bed for me to plant out. First we had to move my little herb garden to make room, and I was a little worried how they would survive after being pulled up, but my herbs are all thriving now, and I've harvested a good handful of capsicums since the move. We filled the new garden bed (on an especially rainy day) with nutrient rich soil, then in went our happy, little seedlings! We started out with multi-coloured carrots, candy cane beets, celery, lettuce, baby spinach, purple asparagus, thyme, chives, basil and a sweet, little blueberry bush (plus a few marigolds to keep the pests away!). Since the first plant out, I have added some garlic and ginger from sprouted bulbs in the bottom of my pantry, and they both seem to have taken off quite well.
I made a little video to document some of my gardening, it was my first attempt at such a thing, and was pretty fun to be honest!
My carrots are a little crazy and most of them have split due to under watering when it got hot, then overcompensating and drowning the poor things. My beetroots have thrived and I have very much enjoyed incorporating them into our lunches and dinners. My poor baby spinach didn't make it. They looked good for about three weeks, then they all went to seed, but an empty space in my garden is just potential for something new to grow, so I'm planning on either zucchini or cucumber to fill the space!
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2016"
Samuel James - I'm seeing more and more of his personality peeking through each day.
Matilda Grace - What a ball of fun and cheeky independence this girl is!
Linking up with Jodi's 52 project.
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2016"
Samuel James - In his own little world, building and creating, just the way i like it.
Matilda Grace - She's really digging this whole eating thing, but only if she can feed herself and mush it everywhere. the faces she pulls are my favourite.
Linking up with Jodi's 52 project.
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2016"
Samuel James - nearly tall enough to ride on his own, he just needs an inch more confidence.
Matilda Grace - she has conquered sitting and is very much enjoying her new perspective (that and grabbing at her big brother as he skips past her).
Linking up with Jodi's 52 project.
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2016"
Samuel James - Where there's a puddle, there's this happy boy with his boots on!
Matilda Grace - Full of joy from the moment she wakes.
Linking up with Jodi's 52 project.
It's been quite some time since I last updated my blog. Life got busy, there have been some big changes, and I considered giving up on blogging completely, but today I looked over my old posts and I realised how much of a lovely thing it is, to be able to look back at snippets of our lives. So I've decided to start with a weekly 52 Project post and see if I can keep up with that this year. I will have to back date a few, but I'd love to be able to have this as a reminder, if not for anyone else but me.
A little update on some big changes since I last posted: We built a lovely veggie garden out the back and I have changed my food focus dramatically to be quite health centred, so there may be some posts around that, and possibly some recipes; Andrew has started working at the airport, my gorgeous boy has grown and is firmly in the thick of being a bubbly, busy and energetic two year old, and the biggest change of all is our newest family member! Matilda Grace was born at home (which wasn't exactly planned) on June 13, 2015. She is such a cheeky, independent, beautiful little honey, and we are all totally in love with her!
