2 little girls

Livia seems to be much more of a little girl all of a sudden. This morning we have been playing play dough; something which a few months before she would not have understood at all. She 'gets' pretend play now and can join in a bit with Chloe's games. Earlier they being giraffes and tigers and crawling around the sitting room.

We went to the farm yesterday with some friends. The last time we went to the farm Livia tried to eat the animal feed and wouldn't give it to the goats/sheep etc. but yesterday she understood what she had to do and really enjoyed feeding them. So far the girls seem to have similar interests, both loving animals.

Livia also seems to have her sister's daredevil nature, trying to follow her on all the big slides at the farm's soft play. This does make it quite hard work, having to constantly run after her. She will just charge away with no worries about where I am! I was quite jealous of my friend having a nice cuddle with her daughter whilst Livia squirmed on my lap trying to get away.

I love seeing her personality developing and I have benefited a lot from the one-on-one time I get whilst Chloe is at school. Livia can be such a pickle but I love her sparkly, fun-loving personality and wouldn't change her for the world.

Some funny Livia-isms:

-J has taught her the song 'Boom boom boom, shake the room.' She will say 'Shake shake shake' when he says 'Boom'!

- She thinks horses say 'yee ha!' because of Chloe's Sheriff Callie programme.

- Livia loves her reflection in the mirror and is constantly kissing herself.

- When Livia has a dirty nappy, she will come and say 'poo-ah!'

- She still says 'no' to every question you ask her. 

- If she is in the kitchen without me, she will raid the fridge. She either rearranges the shelves or helps herself to food. Last time she started chewing on a block of Parmesan!

Friendships... Again

I have a feeling I'm going to be writing about friendships a lot! This subject has been on my mind, as Chloe is still getting used to navigating the mindfield that seems to be little girls' relationships. 

On Friday Chloe came home with a sheet of paper where she had asked her friends to write their names down to create a list of people who could come to her party. On first glance I thought this was really cute and ingenious, however I got suspicious when another mum from the school put a picture of a similar list which her daughter had also come home with. I questioned Chloe further and it turns out quite a few girls in the class were doing this. I couldn't help but also notice that Chloe's name was missing from the other girl's list.

I ended up sending a message to the other mum and asking her whether she was at all concerned that the girls in the class might be using these lists to select people they like and not allow others onto the list. The other mum wasn't too worried, as they are just establishing friendships. She has an older daughter too, so perhaps is used to these things going on. (Just to clarify, I was in no way saying 'why isn't my daughter on your daughter's list?!')

It made me think that friendships by nature are quite 'exclusive'. When a child says that this person is their 'friend', they are choosing to spend time with them above being with others. When I think about myself, I can see how my closest friends are people who I feel safe and comfortable with, people who share my interests and who I enjoy their company. There's nothing wrong with this and maybe I shouldn't get worried when Chloe says that a certain person at school doesn't want to be her friend; there will be plenty of others who do want to spend time with her.

I have encouraged Chloe to be friendly with everyone and to allow lots of people 'onto her list'. I hope she won't become someone who has the sorts of friendships that exclude others. But I am also going to try to back off a bit and not concern myself too much with the friendship making process, unless she seems upset about it. As before, I am going to pray and trust that this is most effective thing that I can do.

Joy in His presence

I read this in my 'Jesus Calling' daily devotionals book this evening...

'As you turn your attention to Me, feel the light of My presence shining upon you. Open you heart and mind to receive My heavenly smile of approval. Let my gold-tinged love wash over you and soak into the depths of your being... I suffuse your soul with joy in My presence; at My right hand there are pleasures forever-more.'

I really benefited from meditating on these words this evening. Today has been a day of feeling not quite good enough and probably being too critical of myself. This has been a great reminder of God's acceptance and the joy of resting in His love.

('Jesus Calling' is written by Sarah Young and is a record of words she received during times of listening to God and waiting in His presence. I've been working through it each day this year and have found it really helpful).

Feeling content

A positive post from me today 😊 Today is one of those days when everything feels like it's going 'right'. Chloe skipped into school with no issues, I had a few brief conversations with the mums at the school gates, I then headed over to where I was going to a toddler group with some friends from church. I managed to do a bit of browsing round the shops, as I was a bit early, and then had a lovely time at the group,chatting with friends whilst Livia enjoyed playing.

The sun is out, the leaves are pretty colours and I'm loving autumn. Now, I'm having a sit down with a cup of tea whilst Livia sleeps. Nice.

I love how God is so gentle with us and gives us lessons to learn through difficult times but then also leads us through 'green pastures' too. It's sometimes hard to keep my eyes looking up when life gets a bit complicated and busy. I'm going to make sure I spend more time 'looking up' during these relaxing weeks, so that I'm well rested in him before term start again.

Half term thoughts

I'm currently snuggled up in bed, having just drunk a late night chai latte and watched Friday night comedy tv with J all evening. I'm feeling all peaceful and happy because I've reached half term, hooray! (Not state school half term yet so Chloe is still at school next week).

It's a particularly good feeling because I was quite anxious about how this school year was going to go: new classes, longer hours, more responsibilities, new childcare arrangements and Chloe at school. But it's silly really because I do this every year and God has never failed me. It has all worked perfectly and, although work is really hectic and I am having to work a lot of evenings, I still enjoy it and it still fits in with family life.

I wanted to share with you something I am really enjoying at the moment and that is Chloe's new found love for letters and words. She was never very excited about learning them before school but now she loves it. She will find letters she recognises in books, will spend an hour drawing pictures of things that begin with each sound (which she received a house point for, proud mummy moment) and this evening she read her first word, h-a-t! I know this doesn't make her a literary genius and some others her age have been doing this for a while but I am SO proud and excited for her. I love how passionate she is about it and quite amazed at how much she has learnt on a few weeks. 

That's enough boasting. In it all I am so thankful that God has turned round Chloe's experience of school from a few weeks ago and she is now enjoying it again. Thank you Father.

Ephesians 3:20-22

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Games evening!

I wanted to share about something that I did with Chloe this evening. We'd had a bit of fractious day; she was being stubborn and argumentative and I didn't have much grace to deal with it. I had promised I would play with her during Livia's nap time but she ended up having a sleep too! So by the time dinner came around, I didn't feel like I'd had any decent time with her at all. So, spur of the moment, I told her that she could stay up after Livia went to bed and we could play a game together.

This might be something completely normal in other houses, but I am usually very reluctant to give up my special grown-up time in the evenings. So Chloe was thrilled about this, much more than I thought she would be. She started planning what we could do, what snacks we could eat and which teddies she wanted to bring downstairs with her.

I ended up teaching her how to play Uno, which is something that would be impossible with Livia around. It was nice to interact with her in a more mature way. You can really see her change when you give her intense attention. Suddenly everything is 'I love you mummy', 'you're the best mummy!' Nicer then the 'you're a horrid mummy' which I got when we were shopping earlier (ha!). I also learnt a bit more about some games she'd played with friends at school which naturally came into the conversation; much better than forcing it out of her at the school gates.

I'm definitely going to do this more often!

A home - the small things

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I often find it hard to be satisfied when I'm at home a lot. There's always a project that I want done, especially after moving into a house that needs some work. Currently the list is very long: a blind in the sitting room, upcycling/replacing the kitchen, finishing off the painting in the sitting room, putting up pictures, ripping out the electric fire, stripping wallpaper from the stairs and painting, buying a house sign and painting the door, a curtain for the front door (it leads into the sitting room and can be chilly) etc etc etc! 

Oh dear that makes me sound very ungrateful. But I do love our home and just want to make it feel even more like 'ours'. I'm learning that sometimes you have to accept the way things are and that it takes years to do all the jobs you want. And you will  probably never finish! 

So I'm writing this post to describe the little things we have done which are not completely transforming but have helped to make this feel like a home. I love that we have now painted the chimney breast in the sitting room, it makes the room so much more interesting. They've died now but I really enjoyed having some fresh flowers from a special friend in our kitchen. I love the chalk board for recording the letters Siena's learning each week and our calendar on the bathroom door. I really like the plate rack in the kitchen which gives it more character. I love the blue cushions on the deep windowsill in our bedroom.

That's better :) It feels good to feel thankful for how far we've made this house a home. It's definitely something I need to do more often!

Friendships

The last week has been an emotional one. Chloe continued to feel a bit funny about school. It came out at the start of last week that she was having a few issues with children in her class. I want to tread lightly with recording this in the blog because Chloe's getting to the age where she might object to me revealing all about her relationships etc. Also I don't really want to discuss other people's children. So let's just say Chloe had a couple of girls not wanting to play with her or 'be her friend'.

As a mum this can be pretty heart-breaking. You think the world of your child and can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to befriend them. You want to protect them and defend them, even when you know this is probably a battle they need to fight themselves. So I prayed and I shared with a few other Christian mums and they prayed too (thank you ladies). Oh, I should also mention that I did make the teacher aware that Chloe was having friendship problems without going into detail.

God is so amazing. I'm writing this post after a week of Chloe progressively getting happier to be at school. She reports that the two girls are now friends with her again and she has made another friend who has invited her to a party. I'm sure this won't be the last friendship problem we have (definitely a little girl thing!). But I feel more confident about tackling it now and not projecting any old feelings of rejection I may have hung onto from my school days! God will go before her into school and watch over her. I pray for lots of helpful and strong friendships.