Rebozo, reparo and re-go-slow!

I can't believe we've been in six weeks already. The weeks seem to be flying past. The weekends go the fastest, probably because Mr Beehive literally flies in on a Thursday evening and out late on Sunday afternoon.

Of course, with us being in our own house, we manage to fill the weekends with DIY and jobs that need doing.

We need to find time to explore where we now call home, rather than putting it off, so he's going to be around more over the half term holiday and we have planned to do a few things. It's so easy to get carried along by life rather than carried away with it, so half term is going to be our time to reconnect as a family and be present for a bit.

This weekend he put together the chicken house which I'm thrilled with. All we need now is the run, which my dad is coming up to help me build and the girls themselves. It'll be a real blessing when they're here and laying as pancakes were the demand for breakfast this morning!



We're also having work done on the heating and water system over the next few weeks. We are in a village that has no gas so all our heating comes from oil. We are starting to cut back on it by installing the first of two wood burners, the other one will go in the kitchen/diner area which is large and with that and the range will mean we should be able to cut back downstairs. The main change though is that we're going to put photovoltaic panels on the front on the house and put an ecocent system in the roof.
The eco cent works by extracting the heat and hot air that is produced in the bathroom and using that, alongside the energy created by the PV's, will help to heat the water in the tank. Hopefully this will gradually reduce our need for fossil fuel, potentially reducing it completely in the spring and summer, maybe we can just use it in the winter for really early mornings or cold evenings.

Of course, with putting this system in, we no longer need the electric showers that we have, so we're having them taken out and will be putting in regular ones. Whilst we're at it, we're going to use the space that housed the old hot water tank to put in a new shower.

We realise with making all the mess to create this, we may as well do the remedials and redecorate the two bathrooms too. Being all dreamy and having my head in the clouds, I have clear images of how I want the upstairs bathroom, in particular, to look. It already has a roll top bath and classic sanitaryware, but it just needs "old-i-fying" a bit more. So we're going to replace the tiles and taps to something more representative of the look and I also want to do "something" with the floor.

The floor is currently a very strange concoction. I believe that previous owners probably brought in a bucket load of sand from the beach, threw it randomly across the floor and then dropped paint on the top. This is before they bothered to level the floor, ensure the nails are all down and everything is neatly sealed. Hence we have a rather nasty floor, which isn't pleasant to walk on but, Boy! it gives great exfoliation!

My lovely handyman managed to talk me out of my unrealistic dreams of a bamboo floor due to the fact the stack doesn't have enough in it to lift the toilet high enough to run the floor under it.

So look what I'm up to now!!

I wish we lived in a dolls house because I'd be done by now. I am beginning to think that my "lovely" handyman actually is trying to teach me a lesson for all the ridiculous ideas I keep thrusting his way. This is his idea! Stripping the floor back to it's lovely original wood - which, when it's done, I know he's right!

This is two hours of work - both dry removal - on the right (which works better!) and using some paint stripper - on the left -  that basically appears to have no stripping ingredient in it! I think the floor probably contains the same properties as kevlar and the stripping ingredient is fairy liquid!

Ah well - luckily, the lovely handyman won't see the mosaic tiles I bought for him to fit in the downstairs bathroom until AFTER he's done this one mwahahaha!

So back to the theme of staying present I worked on creating a zen garden with LMB's help this weekend. We have a small patch of barren earth that was covered in cobbles. I can only think the cobbles were there to hide all the stones and rubbish that was buried underneath it. We dug and sifted and sorted. In the end we resorted to the fact that we'd need to get part way to Oz, then re fill with so much compost or imported top soil that we may be better off thinking of new plans.
Having a ton of slate chippings left from the paths round the veggies, we decided, inspired by our years of Montessori, and, more importantly, to remind us of our Montessori friends, to create a small Zen garden. So this is the beginnings. To finish it off, we'd like to install a small solar powered fountain or water feature in the middle. I think it'd look really cute!

Oh and finally, this was an awesome day! A Rebozo workshop, lead by a doula and NCT teacher. The rebozo is basically a simple Mexican scarf, made of cotton with a weave in it and used for just about anything, carrying, warmth, wrapping etc. However, this day was exploring the ways the Rebozo can be used with clients in labour to help turn posterior babies or to massage tired muscles.  I did a workshop on the Rebozo in Philadelphia in 2006 with some traditional Mexican midwives , including Naoli Vinaver, but I've never felt confident enough to use it. It's amazing what a few years of experience, working with women and learning some important pregnancy related anatomy does for you. This was a seriously amazing day. I do have notes and photos from the day which I am happy to share with any doula, midwife or childbirth teacher if you just contact me below, however, I'd highly, highly recommend a hands on day with Stacia Smales Hill!

This is me having a lumbar stretch - unbelievably relaxing and restorative!

Now this is a great way to live in the present!

Have a lovely week!