February Joys

I join Amanda and her celebration of february’s joys. This month should be the shortest of the year, but it seems endless, as we wait for some spring sign. While waiting, Amanda wrote a list of things that make her happy in these february days, and invited her readers to “play” with this idea. So, here are the things that make me happy right now:

1 – The growing complicity between Leonardo and Gloria. Seeing them play together, help each other, share important secrets, fills me with joy.

2 – Gloria’s rapid (and a little late) language evolution. It was not easy to understand her “secret” language just a few weeks ago. And suddenly… her sentences make sense, and in both languages. We are so proud of her.

3 – Leonardo’s intellectual evolution. He found out how to write his name (as nobody was going to teach him…) and now he is interested in English language. He asks me to translate some words, and then makes a sentence. The funny thing is that he doesn’t ask me to translate the whole sentence… he likes to do this on his own. And then he identifies the words he knows in english songs. That’s exactly how I started learning English and translation. But I was 10 and he is 4 and a half.

4 – The new friends I met on the net. Great people like  Amanda, Denise and Humble Woodcutter. There are many blogs I read, but with these special people I have a dialogue that enriches me every day.

5 – My crafting projects. I have started a thousand things… I’m not sure I can list them all: two dresses for Gloria, a cachemere jacket (always for Gloria), a pullover for Leonardo, a “newborn” Waldorf doll, several toys for the kids, a bag and two pullovers for me, and the Roselette top. I have not started this crochet projet yet, but I will probably do on thursday, at the weekly “Tricot-thé Annecy” meeting. Sylvie, the pattern creator, will be my crochet teacher. I know, I should not start so many things at a time. But when I have a new idea I just can’t wait. It takes me a long time to finish each project but that’s ok.

6 – The landscape. I finally can go shopping (and back home) without GPS navigator. That doesn’t mean I don’t get lost anymore, but I can still find my house and itgetting lost doesn’t bother me, because each time I find new, beautiful places. The beauty of the landscape is a real pleasure for my eyes and for my soul.

7 – I am giving Homeschooling “a try”. We have been on holiday last week and I just “pretended” we were homeschooling. It was great. As a result, they had to go back to school on Monday but they didn’t. I was not ready. This is not an easy decision for us, and a week is not enough to know what that really means, but we’ve had a great time.

8 – Shopping with the kids. During our “homeschooling” week I went everywhere with my kids. I usually don’t want to go shopping, or to the post office with them. I want to avoid tantrums and I don’t want to complicate the whole thing. I’ve been very tired and depressed after Gloria’s birth, and every single mishap just made me crazy. But it’s over now. And I just discovered that I can go to the organic shop, to the post office, to the “bees house” (shopping for honey and royal jelly) with my kids and have fun with them.

9 – Nature. Born and raised in big cities, I am not really familiar with this wonderful thing I wanted to live closer to. So I am learning with my kids. Learning to know plants and animals and dscovering together the wonders of nature.

10 – Flowers. We can now find primroses and daisies on the path we walk along every day. Spring is not so far away…