Sunday Lovelies

Another week down, a big week indeed. Here's what was most lovely:

1) Our school is within walking/scooting distance. Hooray!

2) Morning sunshine in the garden.

3) Late afternoon picnic right before the storm.

4) Sneak peek at a new colour (I'll be updating the shop in the next few days).

5) Grow, babies, grow. My home-grown bruschetta's last hope...

6) Tiny pastry chefs.

Wishing everyone a lovely week x

6/52

 "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013" via Che and Fidel.

Lola: An exhausting end to her first full week of school. She's been 60% excited and enthusiastic, 38% cool, calm and collected. This picture describes the other 2%.

Pearl: She seems so much older this week. Our conversations are hysterical.

Stella: (Almost) always giggling.

Catching Up

Hello.

I feel like I've been a little absent in the past few weeks (and they have been some crazy weeks). I've been filling space here with food and hats and portraits of my children, but in the background there's been a whirly-gig of wild activity which leaves little time for much more. My ideas and thoughts and inspiration levels are near to overflowing, but I've lacked the space to turn them into anything.

But soon, but soon. Nearly a year's worth of plotting and planning is about to fall into place. This week marks 11 years in my job, which means it's been a year since I've been eligible for long-service leave. Some people would plan an extended break to allow more family time. I'm sure you won't think me crazy (do you?) to know I've timed my extended break to coincide with one child starting school and the other two preschool. I've spent almost every day of the past three years with the darling little creatures. Because I work from home, even when I'm working, I'm with them. If they're not knocking the door down for a cuddle or to give me a drawing or to ask for a bandaid, they're right outside the office where I can hear and feel their every move. The ways in which the "work from home" dream didn't quite meet my expectations are the stuff of another blog post. Suffice to say, when my part-time job goes into a two-month hiatus in a few weeks, it will be all about me. Me, me, me!

Thank you for your sweet inquiries about my big girl's first week of school. It has all gone wonderfully so far. Her energy and excitement after day one was incredible, and though the tiredness is beginning to show, it's clear she's loving every bit of it. And she seems to have grown up so much in the space of a few days. I'm so proud.

And I've been having such lovely days with my babies, just us three. It's such a different dynamic when big sister is out of the picture. They miss her like crazy, and run to grab her when she gets home, but in the meantime they play beautifully, dare I say quietly, and things seem to be in a happy rhythm for now.

In other news, I'm currently doing Stephanie Levy's Creative Courage e-course. Have you heard of it? I had wanted to sign up for some sort of online course to do during my long-service leave (remember, me, me, me!) and while this one fell a little early (I'm struggling to find the time to complete the exercises at the moment), when I saw the starting date was my birthday, I took it as a sign. Many years ago I did The Artist's Way with a group of girlfriends, and it was such a great experience to allow ourselves the time and space to just be creative. I remember doing a visualisation exercise where I imagined myself one day living in a house in the country with a gaggle of beautiful babes, writing every day. If you squint your eyes a bit to make the vision blurry, it sort of came true.

Well, that's a lot of information for a quiet Wednesday evening. I'm off to knit a hat, plan a double birthday bash, pack a lunch and contemplate just how much knitting, writing, photographing, recipe-inventing and blessed silent nothingness I can fit into the coming months.

Late Summer Tart

After all our efforts last spring, we haven't harvested a single tomato. That's if you don't count the funny, knobbly little green one Pearl picked yesterday with the greatest of glee. Which leaves the total number of tiny green fruit left on the few straggly, surviving plants in the patch at about four. 

But summer equals tomatoes, even if they have to come from the greengrocer. I made this delicious little tart for Kidspot recently - I hinted at it here - and promised you the recipe. The tomatoes are slow-roasted. Herby ricotta is smeared onto puff pastry, then topped with the tomatoes. It's baked till puffed and golden, then drizzled with a simple thyme oil.

You can find the recipe here.

5/52

 "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013" via Che and Fidel.

Lola: What a week.

Pearl: Imp.

Stella: Dimple.

February? Week 5? I have a feeling this project is going to magically speed up the passing of time,

Day One

You don't have to be the brightest or the fastest or the smartest. I don't care if you're at the top or in the lead. You don't need to be most popular or best in show.

All that matters is that you have fun, surround yourself with good people and love the learning.

Enjoy the ride, kiddo. I think this might be just the thing we've been waiting for.

Apples

There's an apple tree at the bottom of our garden, just behind the lemon tree. Last year it produced a handful of tiny apples that fell and rotted on the grass, so I declared it a dud. This summer has been different. There were abundant blossoms, then abundant fruit. They should have stayed on the tree longer, but we were advised to get in before the hordes of birds beat us to it.

The full basket has been sitting in the kitchen for a week; they're a bit sour for eating. Today I took to them with a peeler and knife. I made apple sauce, then apple oat muffins (via here, with chopped apple added before baking) for tomorrow's inaugural lunch box.

Half a basket left. I'm thinking pie.

Lead/Follow

Of all the crappy things that can happen to a 2.5-year-old, landing baby twin sisters would have to be up there. OK, there's illness and poverty and neglect, that would be worse. But from a toddler's point of view, to go from being the centre of the universe to having not one but two interlopers, that must be pretty rotten. Three years ago, this kid was number one, everything and all. And as much as her mother tried to ensure the two tiny additions would not impact her world too much, they did - a great deal. They were noisy and smelly and fussy, they took up lots of space, and they absorbed all the time that used to be hers.

They also hogged the limelight. People arrived at the house, looking over her shoulder to see the pair. Strangers gazed past her into the pram to gawk. We were stopped often and asked questions, always about the twins, rarely about her. But she didn't get cross and she didn't complain. She forced herself into view to tell people about the babies, her babies. She loved them and she was proud.

Nearly three years on, that not so tiny pair still get in the way, they're still very noisy and often quite smelly, and they've learnt to take her toys, tear the pages of her books, pull her hair and be a general nuisance. But still she loves them. Still she talks about them to strangers.

She was sad to know that she wouldn't be at preschool when her sisters start there next month. She wanted to be able to show them the ropes. As she heads out the door this week to start her first day of school, it'll be the first of many huge life steps she'll take, leading the way, and always glancing back over her shoulder to make sure they are following.

We snuck up to Sydney for a couple of days last week, my Lola and I. She called it our 'love weekend'. I walked the city behind her, letting her dictate where, what and when. I'm so grateful for those couple of days, just the two of us.

Sunday Lovelies

Counting down to the end of summer holidays, the first day of kindergarten, a very, very big year ahead for all of us...

1) Big feet, little feet.

2) A very special trip to the city, just me and my girl.

3) Ohhhh... I finally spent last year's birthday gift voucher. Ohhh...

4) I wish she'd play this independently during the day. She sets up the best games ever - right on bedtime!

5) Apple pickin'. A little early but we had to beat the birds.

Hoping all sorts of loveliness comes your way this week. I'll be taking lots of deep breaths. Lots.

4/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013" via Che and Fidel.

Lola: My almost-kindergartner.

Pearl: Serious face.

Stella: A couple of days of mystery vomiting left her in a very bad mood.

PS Did you see what we won? Thanks so much, Jodi, for the incredible giveaway.