Exhausted!

I don't think there can be anything as tiring as taking young children to a theme park. The queues, the walking between rides, the sun, the people EVERYWHERE. The baby and preschooler wanting to be carried. So exhausted!

We went to Legoland today and had a fab time. It's a great place to go with young children. Chloe was in heaven! Water and rides and Lego!! If you are planning on going I would recommend taking swimming costumes for the Duplo Splash Zone. I'd also head to the submarine ride or the boat sailing ride first as the queues got very long. Oh and bring £3 for the car park (when did theme parks start charging for parking?!!).

Lovely day. I'm off to bed :)

Dreams

My big dream, my biggest ambition, is to write a novel. Getting it published would be amazing too but I love the process of writing and just accomplishing a finished story I was proud of would be worth it. I have wanted to write since I was very small. When I was younger it was the easiest thing in the world to sit and write and write. In fact, I wrote a full length novel when I was about 13. 

Every so often I get 'the bug' again and begin writing. But most ideas fizzle out quickly. I am currently writing again but it is slow progress! I find I am not good at disciplining myself to write when I don't feel particularly inspired. I know if I am to be successful in achieving my dream then I need to keep at it, a little bit every day. 

I think the difference between the 13 year old me and the grown-up me is that I am too much of a perfectionist now. I want my novel to be perfect; factually correct, gripping and with perfect grammar! I need to throw all my standards away and just write.

I love this quote by Ernest Hemingway:

'There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.'

I know that God has put this desire in my heart and if it is his will then I will achieve it. I need to sit down at my typewriter (laptop) and spill out my thoughts. 

Sensitive girl

I am really having to rely on God in my plans to go back to work at the moment. I believe that God gave me my teaching job; it was perfect, fitted in well with family life and I got an interview in a completely unexpected way! It has worked so well for us up until now. I decided to go back in September, partly for convenience for me starting at the beginning of the school year, but also to bless my employer and help out my head of department who would have really struggled to find cover for half a term or a full term.

I think my plans would have been fine but children are always full of surprises! Livia is proving difficult to wean onto a bottle; mummy is much nicer apparently! But she also had a reaction to formula last week which means we need to keep her on breast milk only until we've seen a paediatrician. I am going to persevere in giving her bottles but will need to express to practise with her which is a lot of work!

Livia also seems to be a lot more sensitive than Chloe ever was in situations isn't familiar with. If she is with a lot people she doesn't recognise and I'm not there or if I put her down somewhere she doesn't like (eg those fold down changing tables in disabled loos!) she can sometimes 'freak out'! She will scream for dear life and it's a horrible scared cry which is totally different to a hungry or tired cry. It is very difficult to calm her down and is upsetting for everyone!

I am trying very hard not to be anxious about leaving her in September. It will only be two days a week, she will be with her nanny and sister and every other week J will have the girls one day. I have to keep reminding myself of the truths in this situation and not give in to the lies the devil plants in my head (eg - you are abandoning her). I know that if I am meant to stay in my job then God will be with my girls too. He knows exactly what they need, better than I do. 

Please God give me wisdom in the next few months during weaning and please prepare all of us for the changes in Septemeber. We trust you Heavenly Father.

New adventures

On Sunday J was 'prayed in' as an elder (leader/pastor) at our church. I wanted to quickly jot down my feelings about it as we start this new adventure!

It really feels like we are in this as a family. That we are all committing ourselves to the church and loving and serving the congregation. It is a little daunting. From a selfish point of view I feel like life is complicated and hectic enough with just our family! But I love my husband's passion for the local church and his love of people. I am very proud of his leadership qualities and know God has been preparing him for this. In the same way I know God has prepare me to support him in this role too.

Exciting times!

Parks and postmen

So predictably we paid last night for going out yesterday when Chloe wasn't 100%! She was up part of the night with a high temperature again. This morning she woke up feeling better again although she was very grumpy from lack of sleep and I wasn't much better! It was decided that a morning at home was the best idea!

I've said before that staying at home often fills me with dread as a bored preschooler can be a nightmare! We have entertained ourselves this morning with a new postman game which was an instant hit. All I did was cut a hole in a box to be a post box. Then we filled a couple of envelopes with pictures we'd drawn and addresse them to people Chloe chose. Voila! A really easy role-playing game. 

After playing for a while we walked to the park, as thankfully it is a nice day. I love our park; it is such a blessing to have a really good playground so near to our house. If you are looking to buy a house which will be good for having a family in then definitely look to be near a park!

The day at the farm that nearly didn't happen.

Today I went with Chloe and Livia to a farm park in West Sussex. It was organised by Chloe's preschool and I was very keen to go because I have not really had much of a chance to get to know people. The dash to drop off children and then go and run errands means that no-one really chats outside the preschool. Chloe was super excited; especially as I had promised her a pony ride after she completed a reward chart a month ago. We had attempted to take her to a farm a few weeks ago to reward her but she had been ill so we had to cancel.

But! Yesterday Chloe went down with a temperature and was feeling quite poorly. During the night she was up several times and needed dosing with calpol to keep the temperature down. I still have no idea what is causing the temperature; she frequently suffers with ear infections and tonsillitis. We tend to only go to the doctors now when it continues for a few days or makes her very miserable. The amount of antibiotics she has had so far in her life is ridiculous!

Anyway this morning she miraculously was so much better! I had been praying and praying, as I lay in bed listening to her moaning in her sleep that we would still be able to go to the farm. Thank you God that you made it happen! We had a lovely day. I had been worried about a whole day out with both the girls and how feeding and changing and toilet trips would work but it was fine. The preschool teachers were fab and helped me out when there were things that were difficult to do when looking after a 5 month old baby.

A few highlights:
- Chloe having her first pony ride which she LOVED. I could see her chatting happily away to the girl leading the pony. I love riding so really hoping she will follow in my footsteps.
- Chloe going on a 'doughnut ride' down a dry ski slope with one of her teachers whilst I took photos.
- Watching some lambs and baby calves being bottle fed.
- Chloe making friends with a girl (not from preschool!) in the soft play and playing a pirate game. "The yucky pirates are coming to get us and are going to whack us with sticks!"

Chloe has been feeling a little worse for wear this afternoon but we had such a great day. I know she'd say it was worth it!

Meal planning

In the new spirit of sharing about how our family works, I thought I would blog about how I plan meals...

I find food shopping fairly stressful because it is one of the main ways in which I can make a real difference to our monthly budget. I tend to be a scrimper by nature and I can sometimes let this creep too much into my weekly shop! J has recently instructed me to spend more, as he needs more food in the house! 

Other than the cost, I enjoy planning meals and I love to cook meals from scratch. I find it relaxing and satisfying to produce something that I know I have made and my family can enjoy. Having said that, I don't always cook from scratch and we don't always have healthy food! But that's fine. I don't really feel a massive amount of pressure to home-cook everything. Although that can change when I run into someone at the supermarket and suddenly wish those ready meals would disappear!

This is how my meal plan usually looks:

- One dish that will do two meals. Eg lasagne, shepherds pie, chicken casserole.

- One dish that I haven't cooked before or is a bit more 'fancy'. When I say fancy, I mean I will spend a bit more on herbs or quality cuts of meat.

- One quick and easy regular dish. Something I have cooked loads before - usually pasta of some sorts.

- One 'naughty' dish for the end of the week. This will be for when I have no more fresh ingredients because I'm going shopping the next day. Possibly fish and chips, pizza or a bought curry.

That leaves us at 5 meals. Often there will be one night a week where we eat at our parents' or at a friend's. There will usually be a night where one of us is eating out somewhere so the other one plus Chloe will eat from the freezer (we are very good at saving leftovers).

I love family meals and planning our shopping list. This week I'm trying a whole roast chicken in homemade peri peri sauce. Yum!

Result below!