Brown paper packages tied up with string

I love The Sound of Music. It’s a classic, and which is the most well-known song, if not My Favourite Things?

When you think about the song, you think of the brown paper packages, and the roses, and the crisp apple strudel. That’s the point, you don’t think about the storm crashing around you.

Life with three small, slightly wild boys can most definitely be described as a storm. It’s not terrifying (until there is an eerie silence), but it can be bewildering and sometimes it knocks you on your butt, figuratively and occasionally literally. I’ve decided though, that I need to focus more on the packages and strudel and less on the storm, so here are just a few of my favourite things.

Sam picked this flower for me on a whim, it’s from a garden up the street (he picked before I could stop him) and I love them, with their tiny flash of purple. Also the fact that he picked it totally unprompted.

We have a farm shop near us and they have an animal area. These oddly coloured squirrels are new, and made Henry squeal with delight as they scurried up and down the cage front.

Ikea has their Christmas stuff out! We are a very Christmas family. The children have already started Santa lists and we have a canvas up with an ‘Elf’ quote on it because I couldn’t think where to put it without it being damaged, so I just left it on the wall. We bought three kinds of new tree decorations (we normally get a new one each year but got a bit excited) and two of their little reindeer. This year they had them in red and white/grey wool. They also had large ones that Sam kept riding.

We went for a walk on Sunday afternoon. Sam hid in a recess in a wall. He refused to acknowledge that we could see him when his eyes were closed. So much so in fact that it took a lot of cajoling to get him to continue, little nutter 🙂

Also with their Christmas lights out, B&Q. And I thank you, B&Q, for saving my bacon and waking up my snoozy boy enough so he didn’t fall asleep on the way home right before school run time.

This tomato, which Sam ran inside to tell me about when I had let him pick the ripe ones. “MUMMY!!!! It’s a Butt-tomato!”

This school photo. Oh school photographers, you do amuse me. First of all, my children are not some kind of boy band, or the cover of a comedy film. Ethan seems to be having a brilliant time though. All the individual photos were taken at a jaunty angle too, with their head in a corner. What are you thinking, school photographers? I’m yet to buy one, as even for the comedy factor, I’m not paying your prices.

And finally, this one. He’s a book lover you guys. Another one! I’m so pleased, they all love books. Henry is still at the enjoying the page turning and occasional pointing stage obviously, but this one captured him. It was Ethan’s school reading book, about Mrs Mog and her 26 cats. That was possible the pull for him, he loves cats and dogs.

And there we have it, the most recent favourite things. We’ve had a trying afternoon (Ah Henry, I understand the yearning to feed oneself, but please at least aim for your mouth), and this has distracted me back to the happy things. Now, I’m off to eye up my curtains for three matching pairs of Lederhosen.

Oh Julie Andrews, you have the answer to everything don’t you?

September – We’re not weirdos.

I’m sorry, I’ve had a terrible case of writer’s block recently, along with getting back to school and routine, and a couple of real doozy tantrums from Sam, and I was NOT in the mood to write about them. To be honest I’m not particularly in the mood to share them now, but I’ll get to them at the end, along with a couple of things I did to cope.

First I took the children down to mum’s for a few days during which Henry and I went to Nanny’s funeral. For something with the word ‘fun’ in it, it sure does suck. We did however get to have some fun before and after, including the mega 4 hour drives there and back as I took Amy and her two with me to share petrol costs, so I got to learn about traumatic eye injuries and stuff. By the way, Amy is an A&E nurse Sister (I keep forgetting the promotion!) and also teaches lectures on the subject every now and then, we’re not just weirdos. I also got to see my sister Sheri over from New Zealand which is of course rare.

Also not weirdos. Maybe.

We had the return to school, which both boys were excited for, though not especially photogenic!

That’s better! They’ve settled in nicely and Ethan is enjoying being on school dinners this year. He’s enjoying seeing his friends again and as far as I can tell, enjoying lessons. The Headteacher took a lesson with him and mentioned to his uncle (who works at school) that he was very bright so that’s lovely to hear. Sam loves nursery, he’s got some new little friends already and we’ve even had two over for a play already. I was terrified it would be manic but they all played very nicely!

Then two days later, Ethan had his Orange Belt Grading at Tae Kwon Do. Unfortunately I had a brain fart and we were 20 minutes late as I thought it started at ten thirty, when in fact, it did not. They were very kind though and let him in anyway and he did brilliantly.

For some reason I didn’t take a picture of him actually breaking the board, but he did it first time! That’s Tony with him, who he thinks is the bees knees. As an aside, the school is absolutely fantastic. All the teachers are great with the kids and they have such fun, but without too much messing about. It’s Ossett Martial Arts and though it feels expensive as you pay monthly, you can go up to 12 times a month and so it works out at less that £5 a session. You do pay extra for grading but that happens at the most every 3 months. It’s a family run business, Brian and Tony are a father-son team and Brian’s wife Jan runs the office. We love it, so if anyone nearby is interested, tell them we sent you 😉

Slightly deer-in-the-headlights here, but he was so excited. The belt is of course massive.

That same afternoon (understanding my slight exhaustion yet?) Sam had a birthday party at Ponderosa in Heckmondwike. It was fab! We got the reptile talk party and Sam loved it.

He was mesmerised by the snakes and bearded dragon, and had a lot of fun playing with his friends and riding a pony.

He decided the party hat was a unicorn horn. Also not a weirdo.

The next week we headed over to Accrington to see my brother-in-law Matt, his wife Mel and their new baby Caleb, who was being blessed (just remembered, I still need to transcribe that!) at church.

 

Isn’t he gorgeous?! I was sat behind them too so I got to steal him for many lovely snuggles. The boys were totally in love with him. Sam kept stroking his head and even Henry was ooh-ing at him. We’ll get to see them again in a couple of weeks which will be lovely, and I hear he is packing on the pounds, sounds familiar!

Then we headed back down to my parents again to bid them farewell on their mission. As there were lots of people we were in a hotel overnight and the boys found it very exciting.

I was impressed actually, it was only a Travelodge, but we had a kingsize bed, two full size pull out single beds, and a cotbed for Henry, and still had enough room to walk around them. The bath was ridiculously small, but the shower was fine. We took our own breakfast snacks and all was fine, except for the people in the room above us clomping about at all hours. You can’t have everything I guess! I also managed to forget my favourite facial scrub and shower gel, along with a jug we’d borrowed from mum but c’est la vie.

We’ve now sent them off for 18 months to New Zealand to serve the Church, where they’ll be helping oversee the building of a new camp which will be opening fairly soon, so not a holiday by any means! That was pretty much the end of the busy weekends though, so now we’ve been tackling the weekdays.

Sam. Oh Sam. Why must we do this? So many tantrums. You’ll be four in less than a month, but we are still entrenched in toddlerhood, it would seem. I assume it’s escalated with the return to school and such, but they’ve turned extra mean. And at pick up time, where everyone is watching. I love you little oddball, but you really must stop punching me. and screeching. Please.

I am desperately trying to be kind about it. We can’t keep fighting each other, we’re too similar. I try not to shout, I promise I do. Now, please try to stop shouting no at me and running away, and hitting. Ta muchly.

I’ve found several posts over at HandsfreeMama helpful, particularly the one about yelling  and one about jumping to conclusions and blame, and most of all, the about page, where she talks about the distractions of life and trying to put them aside and be more in the moment with your children. It’s a little too saccharine for me sometimes, but the points she makes are all spot on.

So, I’m trying to be less distracted. I’m putting the phone, and the lists, and the computer, down more. It’s harder than I thought, but it’s worth it.

So we can be not-weirdos together.