:: let there be… a mission ::

Something must have clicked, because before I doozed off to sleep, I was allowing myself to make mental pictures of my ideal at home situation – mainly focusing on the kids. I decided to make a list (don’t you love lists) with the things that in my opinion would help make this place a cosy nest, glowing with warmth and solid connections. I focused mainly on what I could do and provide, and tried to incorporate things that are already happening.

Let there always be something homebaked to nibble on

Okay, I admit, that is really my perfectionist side coming through. Let me defend myself: I love cooking. I’ve never really had a thing for baking though, because I’m not that much of a sweet tooth. Enter my kids. Especially when they come home from school and they are hungry. Even with full lunchboxes and snacks they always seem on the edge of starvation the second they run through the front door at 3.30 pm. So I provide snacks. Fruit and a cookie or something similar. And I want that cookie to be homebaked for some reason. It just seems the perfect way to show some love. And they can help me bake in the weekends or on afternoons. And I’ll up my baking game. Nothing but wins here.

Let there always be something to read by someone who wants to read it

That’s a biggie and we are already good at it. My youngest quite often asks me to read alout, totally neglecting the screen. And now that my boy starts to read by himself, he does his own bedtime story just before I tell hem a chapter from a chapter book. But I would love to have more reading time during the day, especially for my son.
I try to model reading as often as I can (doesn’t cost me much of an effort). When you ask my son what his mother likes to do, he’ll answer without hesitation: read books. In peace. There would be a lot more peace in the world if everyone just read instead of bickering.

Let there be games for all of us to play

Game night. I know quite some families who rock the concept. Not ours. Personally, I never really cared about games. But my children like it. The thing is: they can learn a lot from games. Biggest challenge: accepting bad luck or not winning. We have a lot of small games to play, but I have the feeling my 6 year old will be ready soon for some more extended board games. If you know some good board games, especially those that don’t focus on playing against each other, I’ll happily take suggestions.

Let’s go outside

Again: something the kids won’t mind at all. For me, it’s a different story. Especially when weather is bad and you have to put on coats and boots. We have some decent places to walk here, but it already takes the same time to get there by foot. I’m always losing my puff on that part. Two weeks ago I randomly decided to take a walk in the woods and drove 15 minutes to go there. It was rather fun and we came home tired and energized at the same time. I want more of that, but it seems so counterintuitive to drive somewhere to spend time outside. See all the ‘buts’? It’s merely in my mind. I should get over it, especially during the colder months that are coming. My oldest has soccer practice and game, and a weekly youth club where they spend the afternoon outside, so he’s covered. My youngest though… she could use some fresh air!

Let’s say nice things about each other

I’ve never wanted to be a yelling mother (who does), but I have to admit that I’ve totally become one. I try not to be mean, but with my kids, I’m losing my temper rather quickly. I don’t say hurtful things but even then, yelling is not okay. Instead of focusing on stopping the yelling (which I have tried already often times), I’ll try to model the behavior I do want to see in my kids (and hopefully I’m too busy doing that and the yelling will lessen a lot). I’ll make a special effort to double the nice things I say to my kids. To aknowledge they make me happy and to point out what I appreciate in their behavior. The same goes for my husband: I want to focus on all the things I like about him (which is plenty) instead of nagging about where he got it wrong. It’s something I personally want to work on, but I hope this will spread out naturally and reinforce our natural kindness. We are kind people after all!

:: Currently ::

READING

Just finished a book one of my students has to read for my class. Inspired by What should I read next, the fabulous podcast of Anne Bogel, I let my students make a list of three things they have loved reading/watching and one element they really can’t stand. Based on that, I handpicked three French books that are fairly recent (so untranslated, which is key), that might spark their attention and let them choose one of them to read. I am reading along with them so we can have a genuine book talk as their oral exam. So far I’ve read three out of seven and enjoyed them all. Even more: I could imagine asking them specific questions on their reading experience. I’m totally giddy about it now and glad I could update my French reading list with three recent lovelies that leave plenty to discuss.

Right now, I’m diving into Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. A few years ago I read her Temeraire series and was hooked. I also thoroughly enjoyed Uprooted, so I’m confident this will be once again a great read. I’m very enthusiastic about the fact that it’s loosely based on a known fairy tale (Rumpelstiltskin). I love literary connections!

watching

Not much, as usual. With soccer on television, I’m not very tempted either. But my husband finished the second season of Westworld and that was one of those series I’ve mostly seen from the corner of my eyes because it really spoke to me. Quite complicated though (that’s probably my own fault, refusing to drop the book while I was watching anyway).

listening

Podcasts mostly. I’ve been looking for some French ones that could spark my attention, but I don’t really know where to start. I am charmed by the slightly geeky Relife. Big part of the fun is the interaction between the two hosts. I think that is what my favorite podcasts have in common: interaction. I tried some individual ones and it felt more like a monologue to me and that wasn’t keeping me interested (especially not if I had the impression of an all too well prepared as in: completely written and then read aloud text.)

And you? What are you reading/listening/watching? I’m always open to suggestions, especially of podcasts to check out!

Reflections on Sunday

• Participating in SITS Summer of Social Love has learned me a lot about Facebook and pages, but I feel like I’m losing connection to this blog along the way. That can’t really be the point of this, so I’ll have to figure out how to turn it around.

 

• It would help if Little Boy left me some time doing my things, but alas. He’s a whirlwind and asks for attention all the time. I know some children who can play happily alone for about an hour straight. Mine is not one of them. Oh well, we make a lot of fun little trips together and he’s a happy kid, but my house is a mess. Two more weeks, then a trip to France with my family and then daycare is open again. I may sound like a bad mother, but he’ll love to go back and I’ll be happy to bring him three times a week. He loves having his playmates around and the whole place that’s adapted to his needs and wants.

 

• I love how he talks and calls a koala a ‘lalala’. It makes me laugh every time, so today we went to the zoo and we visited the koalas. Joy all over!!

 

• I’m reading again! This week I’ve finished The haunted house by John Boyne. I already read The Boy in the striped Pyjamas and loved it, but it was only after having finished this book that I discovered it was actually the same author. I liked this book, it’s a good, old-fashioned ghost story that reminded me of one of my favorite authors when I was a kid.  It’s very predictable, but still a page turner and the last lines… I didn’t see that coming!

 

• I was hoping to find a good fantasy series to read this summer and decided to do a reread of something I read about thirteen years ago: the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. It was a disappointment and I didn’t even want to finish the first book. Bizarre, ’cause I didn’t recognize a thing and in my memory, I think I liked it the first time. I brought it back to the library and now I’m rather enjoying The Thief’s Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna.

 

• In the Worldcup, Belgium has left the building. It was the first time in ages that we had a good team again that showed promising things. One would thing to gain back some control over television then, but no. There are other teams to be supported and games to be seen. Oh, and the Tour de France has started.

 

• One of the beautiful blogs I discovered, is Embracing the Spectrum. It’s a mommy-blog, mainly about parenting children with autism. It’s beautifully written and I learn a lot from it, because setting boundaries and the struggles that come with it are recognizable for everyone who is somehow involved with kids, as a parent, teacher or any other way…

 

• I already told you plenty of times my house is a mess. But yesterday I did some ironing. And this very moment I’m baking bread. Maybe there’s some hope for me.

 

 

Little Boy reads

Even if Little Boy is really very tired when I pick him up from daycare, we still like to read at least one book before going to bed. I made sure to pick some books that had a few sentences of text – a nice rhythm, or a hint of a story I could tell. While he loves books with separate words and name giving, in my experience the bedtime books need to have a story, so he can just watch.

For many readers, these will be maybe less usable, a lot of the books is only published in Dutch and therefore maybe a little less interesting in the other end of the world. I’ll give a brief description anyway, because well, you just never know…

 

All of the books together and the translated version of ‘Das gross Buch der Bilder und Wörter’ by Ole Könneke. It’s the least favorite right now, because the images aren’t fully recognizable yet for Little Boy and there are a lot of things that aren’t yet part of his world.

 

Two bedtime books! The first one belongs to our favorite series, Noodles: Noodle loves bedtime, by Marion Billet. He likes the one with the cars and trains better, but this one is nice also. The second one is Het grote slaap-boek, by Guido van Genechten. Only in Dutch as far as I can find. It shows different animals and how they sleep, with a little sentence as a comment. Very funny.

The one below is from the same illustrator/author, Kijk je mee? We have another one in this series with wildlife in our own collection, this one is about domestic and farm animals. Little Boy likes them and the peacock is his new favorite!

 

 

He’s very into animals anyway. What I like (and Little Boy agrees) about the next one, is the mix of (shutter stock) pictures and drawings. It’s just called Huisdieren, by Mack, and every page has a comment, that I often play around with.

 

 

 

 

But the absolute winner lately must be the last one, it’s a recent buy and it’s a watch- and- look- book. Originally in German (Was machen air auf dem Land/in der Stadt?, by Lila L. Leiber, it once were separate books, but my copy unites both parts), it’s interesting for chidden of very young ages but for older ones too because of the things to look for (like in: why is the woman panicking, who doesn’t like cows, how many ducks can you see,…). I handed the book over on a very busy morning where Little Boy was whining, his dad was still in the bathroom and I had to leave for work. He hasn’t even looked at me anymore, that book was an instant success!

 

 

 

 

Sharing with 
Kristen @ Yes Works For Me Wednesday