Touched out

Not a lot to report this week.  Ex has had his days off change yet again, and given that I have accomodated changes with little to no warning for the last 6 months, I have put my foot down and said that enough is enough.  I have rearranged my life and schedule enough and it isn't going to happen anymore.  Sadly this means that Ianto and Anouke don't get to see him much - they have been spending an hour or so at a park with him in the afternoon, which to be honest leaves them more upset than if they just didn't see him.  The other side affect of this is the fact that I am REALLY over being touched all. the. time.  Anouke being a bit restless on the boob I can usually handle but at the moment it drives me insane.  Ianto is actually quite even tempered, but the demands on me to get them food, get them drinks, wipe their bottoms...

It is still a million times better than being in the relationship though, so we soldier on.  I think we might try getting out of the house a bit more, go to the park a couple of times a week if the weather permits - which it has been lately.  It is cold, but not pouring all day or anything most of the time.

Planning a trip to Hastings caves soon to swim in the thermal pool with our gentle parenting/homeschooling friends which will be fun.  The last half of the year is always busy for us as all of the birthdays in the family seem to fall between the end of August and Ianto's birthday at the start of February.  That is a lot of birthdays crammed into a few months!  This year is super busy because the small people and I are planning a holiday, my cousin is getting married and then Sis is back from overseas, not to mention friends from the UK visiting Mum and Dad and Younger Sis coming home for a week and all the usual birthday/christmas stuff...  It is exhausting just thinking about it, but a very satisfying, happy exhaustion!

trying a new tack

Lately Anouke is starting to assert herself more.  She has discovered the word "no" and is not afraid to use it!  This has lead to a fair bit of conflict with her brother and a lot of shouting.  I got sick of shouting to make myself heard and really, the situation was just escalating every time I stepped in.  So I stopped stepping in.  And you know what?  They are sorting things out themselves.  There is a fair amount of screaming still, but I think they are starting to learn valuable life skills.  Things like negotiation, taking turns and respecting each others boundaries are all being learned and I'm not having to do much.  Another plus is that the laundry is getting done because I hide in the laundry when it gets too loud.
Ianto has had another developmental leap this week and can now write his name and a range of numbers.  He was very proud of his success and copied words for a whole day.  I think he is now having a processing break from writing as he works on his washing up skills.

A productive day today

Today was supposed to be craft day in the hall attached to my unit, but the vomit fest seems to have travelled around to every one else this week!  I have had a productive day anyway, got the house cleaned and vacuumed, some washing done, I have pork belly cooking slowly in the le crueset on the stove top and beef stew with lentils in the slow cooker.  The pork belly is in water with orange zest and juice, cinnamon, allspice, salt, cardomon and cloves and after it has cooked in that for a while I will stick it in the fridge to cool down overnight and tomorrow roast it in the oven for our dinner.  Will probably have some cabbage and granny smiths with it, yum....
Anouke is officially out of night nappies at the ripe old age of 18 months - for ages she was waking up in a dry nappy and I got sick of giving myself more washing lol.  Ianto has finally - at the ripe old age of 4 - done the same thing, so no more night nappy washing for me!  Unfortunately Anouke hasn't yet figured out that wee belongs in the potty even though she is aware of needing to wee and can hold on so I spend a fair bit of time cleaning up messes but it could be worse.
After looking at my finances and doing up a budget I have discovered it should be fairly easy for me to save enough over the next 5 years - if I leave my money in a couple of term deposits - for me to be able to buy a block of land outright.  It is a dream of mine to be able to build a little cob house for myself and the small people and being able to do it without getting the banks involved would be brilliant.  It is going to be hard enough getting planning permission to build with cob, I doubt very much a bank would be willing to give me finance for it!