I’ve not been in much of a blogging frame of mind lately. Starting up our new business has kept Mike and I a teeny bit busy. Our last week off when we hung out together as a family was in May ~ *eek*.
The busy, busy weeks mean that Mike and I *really* try to focus on family stuff over the weekend. We’ve become a little bit insular to be honest, we’ve even put away our iPhones and the accompanying noise of twitter etc. It’s what we’ve all needed.
The ubiquitous Autumn snuffle has had the boys operating at about 90% either side of half term. Nothing that would keep them off school, but a little extra TLC and a little less galavanting has been in order.
Littlest boy headed off into the big wide world of reception in September, and being a just-turned-four-year old, we’ve had to handle the induction with more of a kid glove approach than we did with the biggy, who was almost five when he started school.
He has settled really well, but I think is still a little bit in shock from the ‘every-day’ aspect of his new gruelling routine. He can be very tired and grumpy, which is a bit of a shock for all of us – he’s usually our perpetual sunshine boy. To that end we have agreed with the school that a mid-week ‘mummy day’ is the best solution for everyone concerned. He gets time to get his breath back and spend some time getting some quality one to one time with me, and I get to spend some time with my lovely boy, who I have missed so very much since he donned his school uniform.
This ‘bedding down’ period for Family Ellis, although slightly enforced upon for one reason or another, has made me think about the simplicity of life which I craved when I first jacked in my career two years ago. I dreamt that I would stop the constant rush, rush, rush of child-rearing and career progression. I dreamt that I would slow my pace and enjoy the simple aspects of my existence – from hanging washing out to dry, or reading a book to making something for our home, or preparing a meal for the boys. All these things before I did at full pelt, somehow, I think, missing the journey whilst in pursuit of the destination.
I dreamt that the changes that we were making to our family life would make us live more in tune with the world around us, responding to the seasons and perhaps treading a little less heavier on the planet we inhabit. I wanted to waste less, consume less and spend less and in the process perhaps live a little more.
Of course my blog posts often coincide with happy times, when the children are, in the main, delightful, when sleep is plentiful and when I’ve had time to play a board game with the kids, or spend a whole evening reading a book. They tend to be when I’ve found time to make healthy meals, and take some exercise.
Of course many of our weeks aren’t like that. Many of our weeks include work deadlines and both of us cramming work to all available hours. Mike would probably testify to most weeks being like that at present. Some weeks I lose my cooking mojo and we eat less well, and we frequent the fish&chip shop or use up food from the freezer. Some weeks the boys challenge us or make us worry and push us to the edges of our patience or sanity.
But this week is a good week so I thought I would share a few of our current favourite things that keep us happy on our slightly slower journey through this life.
Drinking hot chocolate and watching the sunset
Last weekend we headed to Clevedon, our little bit of seaside heaven, which we all adore. There’s a small, pebbly beach, good for pottering on and watching all the lovely Clevedon-esque type activities – like the old(ish) people who strip down to their speedos and head out for a swim around the pier – IN NOVEMBER! – or the sailing club people doing their sailing club type things, just off the shore.
A stroll along the pier is a must, and last Sunday there was an angling competition and a fine view of Wales. Another must is a hot chocolate in one of the nice seafront cafes. We even stayed and watched the sunset as the boys wanted to watch the lovely twinkly lights on the pier come on at dusk. The cafe had blankets as well as hot chocolate, so you can sit outside. Perfect.
The last time we watched the sunset in Clevedon I was heavily pregnant with littlest boy. I still had almost three weeks of pregnancy to go but as I sat and watched the sun slip below the horizon I felt all was right in the world and ready for the arrival of the final piece of our Ellis jigsaw. Twenty four hours later my waters broke and our little boy began his slow journey into my arms.
Gadding about at the orchard
Recently we joined a lovely community orchard share in Bath. The place is beautiful, with lots of space for energetic boys to run around and climb trees. The clay oven and compost loos are an endless form of fascination for my boys – poo and fire – a winning combo.
A few weeks ago their was a lovely open day when people came and ate apply things, hung out, admired the view and listened to some talented folk play some nice folky tunes. The day was a picture of autumness and we paused for a while and just enjoyed being together in a lovely part of the world.
Star Wars
The boys have arrived at the age (well mainly biggest boy has) where Star Wars is the ultimate type of pastime. They play Star Wars type games, read books about Star Wars, draw pictures of Star Wars type things (mainly guns) and on Saturday they finally watched Star Wars. Mike sat happily with them, reciting lines learned off by heart over thirty years ago. Yesterday I brought them a book from the library that is amazing cut away drawings of every Star Wars machine / gadget / vehicle. Biggest boy was very impressed with my book choice. I suspect it will be renewed several times over the coming months. God Bless our wonderful library in Bath. God Bless Star Wars.
Haba Games A lovely mum at school passes lots of games and jigsaws in the direction of my boys from her older girls. The best haul from her came last week with two wonderful games by the fantastic German company Haba. We’ve enjoyed many a happy hour playing with Haba 
games with our friends Jo & Neil and their littles. Neil is board game crazy and even travelled to Germany a couple of years ago to replenish their Haba collection and bought us our first Haba game which involves wearing a pig snout whilst searching for magnetic truffles. Genius!
The games are very surreal, which kind of makes them all the more amazing. They are also beautifully tactile with gorgeous wooden pieces and lovely little things for little hands to play with. We highly recommend!
Tabby McTat
This is is littlest boy’s favourite book the moment, it may have even taken over from his Cat in The Hat love. I love the rhythm of Julia Donaldson’s books and at the moment I haven’t tired of reading it over and over again. There’s a lovely picture in this book of a family which one of Tabby McTat’s kitten goes to live with. They have a garden that looks like ours, it’s scruffy with a big compost heap and chickens and children roaming free.
Our other favourite Julia Donaldson books are Tiddler, the story of a fish who tells tall tales and who is *always* late (I like!) and The Snail & The Whale, which always makes me want to go to New Zealand because that is where I think the school on the beach is, either there or a Hebridean island.
I think it is Julia Donaldson’s books that I will lovingly squirrel away, when the boys have outgrown then, keeping them for when my boys have children of their own.
Space, black holes and stuff
Biggest boy loves this book published by the Science Museum. He was obviously born with a love of all things Science Museum due to it being the place where his parents met! For any child who is into the whole mind blowing nature of the universe, this book is for them.
This morning, before I had even had my first coffee of the day, I was having a conversation with a 7 year old about Copernicus. Oh how nice it would be if he fancied being an astronomer when he was older!
I notice they have another title in the series called Why is snot green. I feel a Christmas present purchase coming on!
And finally…
Another lovely school mum friend recommended a fantastic book to me recently. It is a perfect book to see you through the long, cold, winter nights, tucked up by the fire. It’s called We, The Drowned and is a wonderful tale of the inhabitants of a seafaring community in Denmark. The story spans over 100 years and weaves together tales of characters who lives are interconnected by their town and its reliance on and relationship with the sea.
I am currently researching my Danish ancestors, who lived not far from the town that is the focus of this book. This book makes me want to visit Denmark immediately!
I have a handful of chapters left to read and already can feel how sad I will be when I have run our of pages to immerse myself in each evening.
Thank you Ginny for recommending this wonderful book. We are both a little bit in love with the cover – and I’m am very jealous that Ginny’s copy as coloured page edges too! Who said you can’t judge a book by its cover?