Well it's been quite a while since I last wrote one of these Me & Mine family update posts on my blog.
For much the same reason as the sudden disappearance of my Siblings updates, I stopped doing these posts toward the end of last year and to be honest, I didn't think I'd miss writing them as sometimes it felt like a bit of a chore to write updates every month - things didn't seem to change all that much from month to month, and trying to find time to take a family photo so often felt like a bit of a pain!
But the last family photos we took together (other than one snap on my phone's camera when we were on holiday in May and a few Disney photopass ones from January) were back in October - which was the last time I wrote a Me & Mine post.
I do love having family photos of us all together to look back on and so I want to start making the effort to write these posts again, maybe not every single month but I certainly don't want to keep having 8 month gaps between them!
So what's been new with us lately?!
Well reading back over our update posts from last year, it feels like life has changed quite a lot in a number of pretty subtle ways.
There's been some good changes and some not-so-good changes - such is life, I suppose. I've finally got a diagnosis now which, although living with Fibromyalgia isn't great, at least we know what it is and I've been able to do some research into ways to make living with it more manageable which has certainly been a big help.
We've also been having quite an emotional time too with regards to Noah's gender journey, but I feel that I've already talked about this a lot lately.
Life often feels as though it's moving at about a million miles per hour at the moment, and you only need to take a quick glance at my diary to see that there is always lots going on - in fact I feel as though we rarely have a day where there isn't somewhere to go or an appointment to keep lately.
It's been this way for most of 2019, and in some ways I find it draining but in other ways I think I thrive on the chaos somehow - I find myself feeling very easily bored on the rare occasion that we do have a day at home with nothing to do, but of course doing too much can have a very negative impact on my physical health and so it's all about trying to find that sense of balance at the moment.
The children seem to be growing and maturing at a rate of knots, and I find myself constantly surprised by how grown up they seem.
Tyne has grown so much in confidence this year, and has been really enjoying taking part in lots of new home ed activity groups. He's coming on so well with his reading, writing and spelling as well as his maths skills, and he's forming new friendships all the time. Home education seems to suit him so well, and I'm so glad we chose to take this route.
Noah, who would be due to start school in September, is also becoming more grown up every day. Her vocabulary and use of language always impresses me, she regularly uses words that I just wouldn't expect a 4 year old to know. She is adamant that she's going to be a fashion designer when she grows up (which would not surprise me at all because she's always coming up with weird and wonderful new outfit creations!), but that she's never leaving home!
And as for Sailor - well he continues to be my little ball of sunshine. He's the most easy going and laid back little one I've ever come across, which I think has a lot to do with birth order! He never fails to put a smile on my face.
I feel as though I have a lot going on lately between my spiritualist group (I go to a weekly spiritual development circle, and also help to run the weekly open circle too so I'm there at least twice every week) , home ed groups and playdates with home ed friends, and keeping up with my own circle of friends too (which has grown quite a lot since last year...I've gone from complaining about feeling as though I don't have many friends, to complaining that I'm struggling to make time to keep up with all of the friends I have and want to spend time with!).
Work is also keeping me constantly busy, and after a quiet start to the year - I feel as though things have really started to pick up in the last couple of months, and I've been so grateful to have some fantastic opportunities presented to me.
I've been embracing meditation and the law of attraction in to my life more, and I feel that I've really started to see the results of this year in a lot of ways.
I feel busy in a positive way, my mind is always occupied which means that anxiety has less opportunity to creep in, I feel that there's an abundance of positive people in my life, and - thankfully - I also feel that our finances have improved FAR beyond I could have ever have hoped in just a couple of months.
I put all of this down to the power of positive thinking, gratitude and the law of attraction - I know that it's not for everybody, but I have a lot of faith in it and I am very grateful for the many blessings in my life.
The photos in this post were taken a couple of days ago, when we'd promised the kids we'd go fruit picking.
Every year since they were born, we've gone strawberry picking at Lifton Farm Shop and it's become a tradition that we all look forward to.
I always take lots of photographs, the kids pick punnets full of juicy strawberries and then they have a good long play in the park there while Jon & I enjoy a drink in peace - it's a lovely afternoon out!
Unfortunately this year, due to the bad weather throughout June and the afore-mentioned constant busy schedules, we haven't managed to make it to Lifton - it's an hours drive away, and we just haven't found the opportunity to go.
So - reluctant to miss out on fruit picking altogether and keen to take some nice photos - we decided to go to a Pick Your Own Farm closer to home instead.
Unfortunately they didn't have strawberries but they did have plenty of raspberries. The great thing about this was that picking the raspberries themselves encouraged the kids to try them - they've always claimed to dislike raspberries but something about picking them for themselves got the better of their curiosity and within no time at all, they were popping the sweet delicious berries into their mouths and saying how yummy they were!
So yay! Another fruit added to the approved list!
Hopefully we'll still make it to the strawberry farm but if not, we've at least had one lovely fruit-filled afternoon out and it was nice to support a much smaller, independent fruit farm (This was a place called Edwards Pick Your Own Farm near Totnes).
Of course, no attempt we make at getting some family snaps ever goes without a certain level of failure...and this was no exception!
Here are just a couple of our attempts at getting a family snap!
But thankfully we managed to get a few decent ones in the end!
So that's us in June...I hope you've all had a good one!
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