I’ve got a toothache. It’s so painful it feels like Jack Reacher has taken a flying kick at my jaw with typical unexpected force, taking out all his betrayed-by-the-Army malice on my face (I, of course, then kung fu’d his ass and then we became friends, although not lovers despite his tendency to objectify and then fall for strong women. I am after all happily married.) I started the day treating it with arnica and a special tooth-pain mineral remedy and some cloves and then, after lunch, I sacked that off and moved on to the paracetamol, ibuprofen and codine so, basically, I’m totally out of it.
I thought it would be a good time to update you all on our life! *crazy smile*
The last time I did a personal post it was to let you know about how we bought this land in this beautiful spot by a river with our friends. We are still buzzing out on the fact. We get together and dream (taking notes and everything) about our plans there. We have also bought a new, even bigger, yurt, which is so enormous it can have a mezzanine floor! We will live in this yurt for years and years until the kids grow up and then we will build them a tree house each in the forest. And we’ll grow old in the yurt, but probably won’t be able to get up the mezzanine floor – so that could be a special place for our grandkids where they can scribble on the furniture without their arthritic Nana getting up in their grill about it. Go on Grandkids, get your crayons out.
Summer here was incredible. We had a visit from my folks – and in their precious few weeks in New Zealand Ramona taught herself how to swim! This gave us an extra boost of confidence in our journey of unschooling as we have been so hands off with Ramona in the water – just loving to see her play and have fun. And then one day she decided she wanted to swim, so she just started swimming. And the next day she was swimming the whole length of the pool. What a mighty and determined child she is, propelled along the water by vision and hope alone. When kids are motivated and ready to learn they can do ANYTHING! So cool.
We spent much of the summer with friends that were over from the UK, our old neighbours. We free camped in our buses and fished and dug great monsters in the sand.
Sadly, summer has taken a hike here in New Zealand, off on a voyage to the other hemisphere to bestow some long, warm evenings on my family and friends over there. (We will be following it in a couple of months- spending June- September over there. YAY!)
So it is a bit cold in our yurt at the moment. We are going to be with all the wool clothes we own on, and 3 feather duvets on top. Normally, if you have a fire, it is manageable but we haven’t installed ours as we are on the move.
We took a little holiday to a place called Raglan this week, it was windy and cold but spectacular! We visited some people we met for a few minutes at a festival and (fortunately, really, because imagine the awkwardness if not!) a tiny weeny mustard seed of friendship just bloomed. They live on the wild west coast and we clambered down through the native forest to the sea and chipped oysters off the rocks and slurped them down and got a hit of zinc that enlivened my very bones.
Juno had a birthday at the weekend – can you BELIEVE SHE IS TWO?! As friends were running the London Marathon I was remembering my own marathon that was Juno’s birth. A marvel of emotions and strength and then a baby born! When you are growing a second baby you truly do wonder how on earth you can love a second baby as much as the first…. and then somehow the love you have expands and deepens and folds inside out and unravels and then when it is knitted back up it isn’t TWICE the size but TEN TIMES the size. It is a little bit like when I put our wool clothes on a hot wash by mistake, but the opposite.
(Psst – I did a new Youtube about bonding with your baby and attachment and things)
Ramona has begun going to a forest Kindergarten on Wednesdays – she is loving it and I am loving her excitement. They spend all day fossicking in the woods and Juno and I spend all day fossicking around the charity shops finding beauties like this….
A third typewriter I don’t need, likely to get its letter jammed by children within 30 seconds and missing an ink ribbon but only £7! BAG IT!
I’ve been busting a gut on a super exciting project that is just in its final stages…. I cannae wait to reveal all! Hopefully next week.
Gosh, I sort of want to ask how YOU have been? Y’know, like, what is exciting for you? What’s going well? What is a bit hard at the moment? I feel like I know and like lots of you, and wish I knew some of you other more silent readers. Funny eh.
Hope you are finding the sparkle of presence in even the most mundane of stuff, and the magic in nature, and contentment in your everyday.
Ah, I love this. Thanks! So much good news (though I’m sorry there’s no fire yet. It’s CHILLY now.)
Our news is in the post that Comment Luv has linked to here! We’re off to Thailand… See you there on stopovers!
xx
Such exciting news!!
I just want to express my gratitude to you for your blog. It’s planted a seed in me towards a more holistic and free life with my partner and little baby and it’s just begun to bloom. So thank you for your beautiful words and wisdom and for sharing your life. It’s changed mine forever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Oh wow! Yay for seeds of hope and all the things that made yours bloom! Thank you for sharing this with me x z
A great post (obv not great about the toothache, hope its better). Have you thought about adopting your readers? The image you create with the mezz yurt and treehouses and grandkids and forest is just wonderful – am ready to pack up and move! Guessing lots of other readers would too.
Yay for Ramona’s swimming and I just LOVE the use of the word “fossicking” (had to google its meaning, lol)
Our news is that we are off shortly for a holiday in a Gypsy Vardo caravan – living a bit of my dream, even if only for a week 🙂
Thanks for sharing x
Ooh have a lovely hols, do some fossicking!
Your enthusiasm for life is infectious Lucy! Love this update – your photos are stunning too. Am now off to watch your vlog. We’re all good here in Devon. The weather’s cold today but that’s obviously because it’s a bank holiday and that’s the rule in the UK: bank hols = crap weather. Excited for you to be coming back to the UK. If you’re passing through Devon give me a shout! x
I shall so shout in Devon! Hope the weather cheers up x
Seems like a great time except cold and tooth ache. Inside tip from someone living in a polar country, hot cocoa and hot squash cheers up any cold kid.
Its summer here now and my brother is staying to live with us for the summer. With his dogs and girlfriend. Its supercramped but cozy and we are going to build a green house together for my allotment. I want it purple with glass windows but it will probably be a plastic thing. But still. A green house for my kid to play around in. Looking forward to that!
Ah, we are building a green house right now too! It’s not purple either. *sad face*
I didn’t even know I wanted a purple green house.
I have been dreaming about it since I saw this photo. It is so cool!
http://cdn.lovelylife.se/blogs/2/2014/04/color-1-av-1.jpg
My life has taken the turn I’ve been yearning for for a while. .. We are now home schooling 🙂 My approach has been unschooly although C is still in the process of deschooling so is asking for ‘work’ occasionally. I’m loving it and we’re all so much happier. Just to convince L to join us now!
Oh, no way! Wow!!!! What a marvellous journey you’ve begun! Yay for you!
Sometimes kids just really like ‘work’ even if they are unschooled. I went to regular school in my country but LOVED it. I loved writing and reading and lessons and schedules. I often had my mother make up extra work for me at home and did things on my own time. I got old textbooks from thrift shops and did lessons from them. Everyone’s different. 🙂
Thank you. Yes I think she will always like routine and structure, so probably ‘work’ too 🙂
Not long ago a very good friend of mine went all the way from Portugal to Raglan! I thought it was a nice coincidence. We too will live in a yurt, next year and I can’t, can’t wait… Must be patient, I keep telling myself… Land by the river is dream! Do you pinch yourself everyday?
Raglan reminded us of some of the surf towns in northern Spain, actually! Wonder if it is like Portugal at all….
Also, every. Day.
So, I’m reading this post laughing out loud and my husband Rob says; ” you love this family so much, you should write them!”…. And then I read the end about wanting to know your ‘silent readers’ better… So here I am, thanks for this invitation. First of all I just want to thank you for being you and for writing your blog; I laugh my ass off and really appreciate your perspective on life – Go Global Team Authentic People! I’m excited because Rob and I are about to finish the first draft of our book, our 2 year traveling-the-world-stint is coming to a close, and were ready psycho-spiritually-mentally to start a family! Im super pumped to get plugged back in to community and going to try California at first ( maybe eventually alternating with Bali and Tuscany which we love so much). Our dream is to buy some beautiful land with water with our ‘tribe’ — so thank you for the inspiration!! ( this just made it a lot more interesting- http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/elon-musks-worst-kept-secret-has-become-power-companies-worst-nightmare )
That being said, our savings and working on sailboats money has run dry and I get anxious at the prospect of not knowing where our next paycheck will come from and ‘reentering the normal world’ for a bit. So lots of adjustments coming up both heartfilled and scary!! Sending everyone some love, Desi
Ah Desi! Cheers to your hub for inspiring you to write! Heelooooo! Ooh, your plans sound so exciting! Live the dream :)))
Amazing and gorgeous photos. Go Ramona for teaching herself to swim, you are so right though, if kids want to learn they just do it! And you can never have too many typewriters 😉 x
Really, you just can’t. 😉
I always love your updates because you manage to be honest about the tough bits but still come across as positive. This one’s no different and HOW exciting you’ll get to spend 3 months with family and friends soon!
All is well with us. Current challenge: not turning every stupid thing into a battle with the 2yo and staying positive about our parenting. Surprisingly difficult, this. Current news: we’re moving to southern Sweden in 3 months. Really, amazingly exciting, this, as it’ll hopefully mean a much less urban, more outdoorsy lifestyle. I can’t wait. (Oh and I have it on good authority that a warm, soft blanket placed UNDER a duvet will make you feel much warmer than one placed on top of it. Can you tell I’m swotting up on how to deal with Swedish winters?)
SWEDEN! Oh my golly! Doesn’t everyone basically want to live in Sweden!!! All the best for that! Xx
I hope you’re feeling much better tooth-wise by now. Toothache is awful!
Great update – I cannot wait to see how life on the land unfolds for you and your friends. So exciting! And how cool that Ramona just figured out swimming?! Love it. And happy birthday Juno! I remembered that she was born around the same time as my son, but couldn’t quite remember when. Doesn’t time really fly?!
We’re getting used to life with two wee ones – our daughter was born two days before our son turned two. She’s now six weeks old, and I feel like I’m really starting to get to know her. I love what you wrote about love for children expanding exponentially – so true. Also, weird second time round realising that even from birth babies can be very different! One huge difference is that I’m able to breastfeed this time round, which has been something of an epic journey. But we’re finding our feet, and it’s wonderful to see my son dote on his baby sister. I’ve also been wondering if maternity leave might be a good time to try going no-poo…we shall see!
Every time that I read your blog it works so inspiring for me! I love your enthusiasm so much! Thanks for sharing! Lovely post! 🙂