Housewife Confidential » Family Life

Soup Baby

Kat — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:30:30 +0000

Under a Mountain

Kat — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:30:03 +0000

Milla and Betsy Sharing a nap on the sofa.

That’s where I feel I am right now, buried under a mountain of work. In the last couple of weeks I’ve had to undertake some training and attend meetings in the evenings and losing that little bit of time has been tricky to manage.

I thought I’d been smart in scheduling some recipes for last week yet something went wrong with Friday’s Seville Orange Marmalade recipe and it’s going to need re-writing this week.

So while I surf through the post-festive surge of work, I hope you’ll forgive me for being a little quiet here this week. I think it is an end of January funk kind of week and like last year I’ll be sharing some pictures while I work my way through the to do list.

Pickle

Kat — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:00:08 +0000

A most lovable pickle.

Midwinter Feast

Kat — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:00:41 +0000

I’m so enjoying being tucked up together, pottering around the home and getting very little done.

We had a Midwinter feast on Sunday with a rather splendid goose centre stage. I whipped up an experimental sauce of rhubarb and cranberry to accompany it and it was so amazing I will be writing it up for you. Goose is an absolute delight to have around for leftovers and it makes an almighty good Rogan Josh.

I am soaking up these precious days of nothingness and food in the same way I soak up the last of the warm sun. I think I’ll need them to sustain me in the next few months.

Breathing Space

Kat — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:00:52 +0000

Pictures from Winchester Christmas Market with my 50mm lens.

I love this time in between years. We have been reconnecting, feasting and taking every day ever so slowly. I hope you are all finding space to breathe too.

Thank you all so much, for visiting, commenting, chatting and taking time out of your lives to share ours. Wishing you all peace and cosiness in the days between years. Now, time for Downton I think…

Kat xoxo.

Home

Kat — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:12 +0000

Five years ago on a bright December morning. I sat in my kitchen surrounded by boxes. Alternating emptying them with sitting and looking with awe at our new home. A tiny Milla swimming happily in my tummy.

Our little tardis-esq house, tucked away in a wood smoke-scented street. The house that when I walked inside I could imagine bringing my babies home to. We poured everything we had into moving here and what hopes we had for it.

We made lists over the days that followed. Lists of where things should go, of what needed fixing or decorating. Lists of vegetables for the newly ordered raised beds and of things to do before the baby arrived.

The lists got longer, paint peeled, cracks got bigger, housework was ignored. None of that registered because babies arrived and we were too busy falling in love with them. Knowing the to do list would keep but the babies would not. Slowly, very slowly that’s how we move through our life.

And before we knew it, five years had passed. Five years since we made this our home. Five years in the blink of an eye because wasn’t I just emptying the boxes a minute ago. Five years filling this house with our noise, mess, love and memories.

Home is where the heart is and my heart is curled up on the sofa by the fire surrounded by my family.

The Nativity Cat

Kat — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 12:30:26 +0000

A late night sewing session produced the first of (no doubt) many costumes destined for the school nativity. Milla is a cat. Specifically an orange cat. She is thrilled about this and I love her enthusiasm for taking part in school performances.

But. But, I do feel a little uneasy. We are an atheist family. Our local school is a Church of England primary school (for international readers: despite being state run a great many primary schools in the UK are C of E controlled meaning that Christianity is part of their way of life). Although on the surface I had the option to apply to a non-C of E primary in reality I had no choice but the village school. The positives far outweigh this one negative.

So we have to find ways to work around their religion. I do feel frustrated that the school’s solution to our beliefs versus their Christmas celebrations and plays is to ask us if we’d prefer Milla not to take part. Considering they started prep for Christmas back in September/October I don’t want my child to be excluded from such a big part of their work. What I want is for our beliefs to be included and respected.

The pre-school she attended were happy to talk about celebrating Solstice and to switch terminology for Milla. But it doesn’t feel like the school are prepared to include our beliefs in discussion about theirs. Both of us having been through C of E primary schools Mr Kat and I are of the opinion that religions should be taught in schools but should not be the foundation of a state-run school.

Where does it leave us? In the same place as the cat in the Nativity: we’re there but we don’t really belong.

Autumn Walks

Kat — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:00:56 +0000

Breathing in the clear Autumn air is top of my happy list right now and in the last few weeks we have found ourselves drawn to the woods for walks and outings.

Out here I feel so much more connected to how the season is moving from the shifting colours to the change in footing. The pictures above were taken two weeks apart in the same clearing.

The excitement of hurtling towards the woods over the chalk down hasn’t left me since I was a child running breathless into the valley.

We’d come here with a sledge at the first sign of snow, sliding down the hill and dragging ourselves back up again for another go over and over until we were exhausted from the fun.

Later, I’d ride horses across the bottom of the valley, feeling like I was flying before heading through the woods towards home. Cold, wet, muddy and bursting with happiness.

We headed to the woodland playground that I have written about before with friends in half term but far more exciting was the rope which came with us.

A gnarly old oak, a small log and some big muscles created a swing which we used to hoist the children into the tree tops. Their laughter bounced back from the evergreen trees surrounding us as they found themselves swinging from a high branch. A completely inspired idea (not mine) and one we will have to repeat although I’m not confident I’ll be able to given our hoister is a strapping 6’4″!

Coming back is always the same: a little warm stepping out in to the open once more, feet dragged the closer to the car we come and promises to return soon the only thing which can persuade them to leave.

And return we do. For walks, rides, picnics and long naps. Drawn here by our hearts; which beat more peacefully in this space.

Welcoming the Darkness

Kat — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:30:39 +0000

Don’t you feel like you are stepping into the darkness as soon as the clocks turn back? The creep of the minutes off the day suddenly rushes forwards to swallow up what’s left of the afternoon.

I relish the celebrations that come along with it. The bonfires, fireworks and Halloween all light up the nights as we enter the dark months.

I’m so ready for everything the dark months bring and hoping that when we emerge into the light next Spring we will have managed a metamorphosis of sorts.

I am…

Kat — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:30:21 +0000

Loving: back step chalking.

Smelling: wood smoke in the air.

Watching: a developing relationship.

Thinking: I should at least tidy before taking pictures.

Baking: and baking and baking…

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