Cooking dinner with children around!

This is a more practical post from me. Recently I have been finding the end of the day reeeeally stressful. The children are tired and getting hungry, I've been on my feet most of the day, my patience is wearing a little thin and the girls are more easily irritated with each other. We have been trying to get Livia to drop her afternoon bottle in time for a holiday we have planned in May but she is very reluctant! It means she is extra sensitive and can have complete meltdowns (I usually give in!). And then we come to cooking a dinner from scratch. This requires detaching myself from the children and getting them to occupy themselves!! 

Here are a few tips for coping with cooking dinner with little ones around. Is love to hear your ideas too if you'd like to post below...

1) Start a new activity off for them. I will choose an activity for Chloe where I know she will be engaged for a good amount of time but where she doesn't need too much help or supervision. This will usually be cutting and sticking craft, drawing or play dough. She will come in and show me what she's made and I can set her another task: 'that's a great dog, can you make a puppy to go with it?' You get the idea.

Below this post is a photo of this tactic in action. I made a den and Chloe had to put things inside it (including Livia!).

2) An excess of toys and mess! My top tip for one year olds is to get lots of toys out which they haven't played with yet today. We have a big basket of odds and ends which rarely all get played with. I will drag this into the kitchen with me (because Livia insists on being in with me) and she will happily empty the whole box and spend ages examining forgotten toys. I don't worry about mess at all when I'm cooking. Priorities! 

3) Get them to help. If it's an older child who is seeking attention then you can get them to help you cook. Give them jobs like crumbling stock cubes or stirring. Obviously you have to watch them closely with the hob but I've not had any accidents so it can be done.

4) Baby bouncers. If you have a baby up to the age of one (or whatever the weight limit is) then a baby door bouncer can be really useful when you're cooking. Unfortunately I can't use this with Livia anymore but it was so helpful when she was smaller. It meant she was entertained but also immobilised! I had her in the doorway to the kitchen so she could watch me. A baby walker could also work in the same way.

5) TV time. It is maybe a bit deceptive of me to put this one last, as this is usually my first port of call. Cooking time is usually TV time for the children. I am quite strict about when the TV is allowed on but this is definitely a key time when it is on. The children are tired and need to wind down and you need to get on with providing food for them. Give yourself a break and use the TV! Of course sometimes they decide they'd rather cling round your legs and this is when I'd use the other options.

I hope these are useful. Most of them are quite obvious but it's sometimes good to have them all collated in a 'toolbox' ready for when you are feeling stressed. Happy cooking!

Sister closeness

My girls are so close at the moment; I find it so heart-warming to see them together. I so hope that this closeness grows with them. I didn't have a sister growing up and had such a romantic view of what it must be like. Sharing clothes, going on day trips together, telling secrets. I'm under no allusions that their relationship will always be plain-sailing but I believe I can pray and dedicate it to God. I was chatting to a friend about this the other day and we were wondering how you foster this closeness as parents. We concluded that it is very hard to pinpoint exactly how this is done. So trusting God suits me!

An example of their current closeness is that every night Chloe gets out of her bed and carries her bedding over to Livia's cot. She lies down next to Livia's head and goes to sleep on the floor! We put her back in bed when we go to sleep but the fact that she wants to be near her sister is so lovely. 

Dear Lord, please let my girls' love for each other grow stronger over the years. Please keep resentment and rivalry far from this house. Help us as parents to encourage love and forgiveness for each other in whatever ways we can. Amen.

Grown-up girl

Chloe is growing up so much at the moment. Suddenly she is acting more like a young girl than a preschooler. She surprised both J and I by writing her name the other day. She must have been learning it at preschool, as we had no idea she could draw any of her letters! She is also loving chatting to adults and will talk to people she doesn't know about anything (which can be embarressing!). I am glad she has such confidence.

Chloe had a really sweet moment this week, which completely caught me off guard. We had finished lunch and I went to take Livia to bed for her nap. Chloe came rushing upstairs and said, 'mummy I've been really helpful!' I have to say I was slightly worried by this but came to see and, bless her cotton socks, she had taken all of the plates, the butter, cutlery and leftovers to the kitchen for me. Such a nice surprise! (Sorry if that was a bit show-off-y but it was so unexpected!).

A less positive part of growing up is that Chloe is starting to question everything. Most instructions she is given will be met with attempted negotiations or questions 'why?' She is fiercely independent and wants to do everything herself. I'm finding it hard to let go and accept she probably can do some of these things eg - brush her hair, butter her bread, dress herself. I think I'm quite a controlling parent so this is something I'm working on.

This week we found out which school Chloe is going to attend from September. We are both really pleased that she got into our first choice, which was far from certain as it wasn't our closest school and is quite popular. I think I'll talk more about the process of choosing a school in another post; I had no idea how it all worked until going through it.

I'm glad so many of my friends are having babies at the moment, so I can get my 'baby fix' with them and enjoy my growing girls at this new stage.

Moving! Maybe?

So the exciting news for this week is that we are going to be moving fairly soon. I posted a few weeks ago about a house we'd seen and offered on but couldn't go for in the end because it needed lots of work. Well, another house in the same road came up and we went to see it, offered on it and they said it could be ours once we'd sold ours. This week has been quite mad because this all happened on Monday and we then had to get ours on the market ASAP. Because every house is in such demand, we quickly booked in viewings - 5 the first day, 8 on the second! We got an offer of the asking price from the first day so could then accept it and secure the house we wanted to buy. Phew! As J is an estate agent, we know the process pretty well and that this is not at all the end of things. 1 in 3 house sales fall through so we are not getting too carried away just yet.

I thought I'd jot down a few things about our house buying experience so far...

- A phrase that I felt God kept giving me was 'hold it lightly', every time we viewed a house. It is so hard not to get attached to the idea of a house that could become home, especially as a wife and mum. When I view houses I have to think of it as mine and how I would make it home. Then when that house suddenly ino longer available or out of our reach, I find it really hard to let go. I hadto allow J to be quite firm when we had reached our limits because my emotional attachment would make me get carried away!

- If you are selling and you have children, get out of the house as much as possible. It is absolutely impossible to keep the house in a presentable condition when you are at home. I would clean one part of the house to then find a spillage or mess in another part. Once the house looks good, escape quickly! It is also better to be away so that the viewers can feel more comfortable looking around. I never like looking around houses with the owner there. You can't linger or look in cupboards or have an honest conversation.

- Concentrate on the good points of moving. It can feel very overwhelming and a huuuge decision when you think about buying a house. The house we are buying is better in some ways than the house we are currently in but in other ways it is not as good. The area in particular just can't compare with the lovely neighbourhood we have now, with the park around the corner and the friends we've made. I feel very sad about losing those aspects. But I know that change is needed and the good does outweigh the bad. I'm trying hard to not allow myself to dwell on what we'll miss.

- Make a wish list. It really helped us to clarify what were looking for and then work out what we could compromise on. Our list looked like this:

1. Area. We wanted to be near where we currently live because we've applied to schools for Chloe around here and it's in the middle for both our works, church, family etc. There were a few villages we wanted to be in and this was the priority.

2. Three bedrooms/potential to extend.

3. Two reception rooms

4. Nice position/road

5. Character

We got the area, character (Victorian house - yey!) and sort of a nice position (it's a busy road but a nice one). There is a slight compromise on the rooms because it is currently a 2 double bedroom house with a lounge and small kitchen/diner. In this market, it was just impossible to buy something that was perfect already. However we are buying at a price where we should be able to extend straight away. This will at least give us a big kitchen/dining/family room. If we can afford to do the double extension then we can move the bathroom upstairs and eventually go into the loft for another bedroom. A neighbour has done all this already so we are confident it can be done. I'm really looking forward to designing an extension and seeing our plans become a reality!

I'm sorry this post has gone on a bit. There's so much buzzing around my head. It's happy and sad at the same time. I'm going to be an emotional wreck saying goodbye to our lovely family house but it's also super exciting having God lead us somewhere new. God is such an amazing provider! 

We love to shout your name!

Super quick post to say that Chloe is playing upstairs and I can hear her singing, at the top of her lungs (which is loud!):

Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name,

Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise,

Yahweh, Yahweh,

We love to sing your name, oh Lord!

So lovely to hear my daughter singing praises to God!

Verses on God's provision

I've been feeling a bit bleurgh about moving house the last few days. The market is moving so fast that it's hard to get to see something, let alone make an offer that would be accepted. It's hard to imagine how we'll ever find our next family home in this kind of market but I am determined not to let this worldly thinking affect my trust in God's provision. His ability to give us what we need is not affected by a seller's market!!

Below are a collection of verses that I am trying to drum into my head about God's provision. I really do have everything I need. When God decides that it's the right time to move then he will provide a house. Until then I need to be patient and enjoy all God has for me now.

Maybe these verses might help you too.

'And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.' Phil 4:19

'Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you not forsake you."' Hebrews 13:5

'His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.' 2 Peter 1:3

'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.' Ephesians 1:3