1. Lifehack! If, like us, you have a kingsize duvet – a duvet which is too close to square for you to tell before putting the cover on which the long side is, but far enough from square that it will bunch up overnight and leave acres of unfilled duvet cover to drive you crazy if done wrong – I have a solution. Next time you’re changing the cover, have a permanent marker to hand. Check carefully whether the cover is full of duvet from one side to the other, and if not, rotate duvet 90 degrees. When you’re happy, mark each bottom corner of the duvet – ie, the two corners by the open end of the cover – with a clearly visible dot. Ta-da!
NB: (1) If this is, like, duh obvious and how everybody does it, I don’t want to hear about it. No, actually, I do. But please employ high-class mockery. (2) If you’re taking lifehacking tips from persons who make a point of complaining loudly and often about how they keep screwing things up, I question your choices and accept no responsibility for any unfortunate results that I may have yet to discover.
2. Little Dude turned 3 on Monday. My younger kid is now 3 and officially out of the baby stage. Except for that ANNOYING nappy thing, and his tendency to say “I’m not three, I’m your baby!” when he wants to be carried up stairs. But still. I survived the baby years. That is all.
3. I had the neighbour’s* two kids over for the entire afternoon and evening on Thursday. (She had a work thing, her husband was away.) Armin was off on his team’s ski day, so I was sole adult in charge of 4 overexcited children, two of whom do not speak German (ETA English! that should read English). And I rocked it. I am way more chuffed about this than I should be, considering how many families actually have 4 or more children.
4. We went sledding on Saturday! Finally it’s proper winter. Turns out there’s a rather lovely little piste on the other side of the hill just behind our town. The one with a view of the hilltop castle. Yup. I live in a place where there are castles and ski lifts** just 10 minutes’ drive away. It’s no big. (IT IS BIG. I can’t get over how different my kids’ childhood landscape is to my own. Make no mistake, Cape Town is an amazing place to grow up, but snow is pure magic to me.)
5. I was all Ms Needlework yesterday. I sorted out some hand mending, and I’ve cut out the pieces for my next sewing project. I’ll be using the remnants from my maxi skirt, and I’m pretty darn impressed that I managed to fit it all in. (I cheated. The neckline and sleeve bands are neither on the grain, nor on a proper 45º bias. How bad can it be? I GUESS WE’LL FIND OUT, now that I’ve asked the question. Basic narrative logic. Exciting times!)
I do think I need to be more strategic with my fabric purchases, and not only because I don’t want to end up with an oversized stash akin to my yarn situation (nor do I have space for it). I really like my angled-stripes maxi, and I really like this planned angled-stripes T-shirt, but I don’t really like the idea of ending up with an obviously mix-n-match home-made wardrobe. I mean I won’t wear the pieces together, of course, but people who see me regularly will recognise them a bit too easily. I don’t know if this feeling makes sense. I’m proud to be making my own clothes and am not shy of people identifying the products! It just… feels weird to possibly end up with too much matchy-matchy stuff. You don’t have that problem with yarn.
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* I seem to be weirdly shy about calling people “friend” unless the friendship has endured a solid half a lifetime. I feel like I’m showing my neediness, maybe. Well: C is our neighbour, yes, and the mother of my favourite two kids who are not directly related to me by blood. She’s the first person I call when I need help with the kids. I like her really quite a lot. But I’m still hesitant about calling her my friend. Maybe if we spent more time together that wasn’t directly related to kid stuff.
** Well, one, and it’s not often operational, and it really isn’t a proper ski piste at all BUT EVEN STILL.
Woolly thoughts (and fuzzy logic) 
"Two of which do not speak GERMAN?
Which two?
And congratulations – on surviving babies, and toddlers. Now prepare for the real test of parenthood (adolescence). You’ve got a few years in training, though.
English! I meant English. Two do not speak English.
Adolescence "the real test of parenthood"? I bet it is a bigger parenting challenge, yes, but less of an all-out assault than babies. I’ll need signed affidavits from stay-at-home parents who had sleep-resisting babies and can actually REMEMBER those years to make me change my mind. (Plus, I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was a perfect teenager who never gave you a moment’s worry.) (Um.)