Do not fear

Sunday 18th August 2013

in an attempt to post regularly once again, i write for the second day in a row.

today has rather been a sort the house out operation and settle in the guinea pigs. Alex and Charlie are both only six weeks old and are rather daunted by their new home. Alex is Pumpkin's guinea pig and Charlie is Bean's. Currently, Alex is more settled and cautiously beginning to explore his surroundings whilst Charlie has hidden all day under the box. They have had several cuddles and strokes, Alex nussling in nicely and Charlie being nervous and jumpy. Daddy has spent the day locating a new hutch for them too, successfully.

I have spent the day sorting the house out. We constantly live in a state of disarray and i've got used to the piles of stuff but random items left in odd places for no particular reason, they bother me. so today i have cleared the conservatory, Plum's bedroom, and our bedroom, helped by daddy who took a trip to the dump. And whilst all this was going on, our boys played lego, not just building bits but using it to make their own story together. they played this for over two hours. And Plum played pouring water in the garden with a bowl and several cups. she also spent many moments just kneeling next to the guinea pig run watching Alex.

The morning was spent with our church family where daddy attacked me with blue paint and i came home with a blue face. And we were encouraged with  'And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.'

Planes

Saturday 17th August 2013

Today, something totally amazing happened, something that i didn't think would happen for many a year. As i have frequently written about, Bean is not a film fan. He struggles to watch anything new and is over sensitive to the dramatic music and any slight stress in the story line. Film nights are spent watching the same three movies and any new show is viewed from behind a blanket with the volume being turned on and off and the pause button in frequent use. We have always been very calm about this although maybe sometimes expressed our desire to watch something else or suggest something new. And then...Thursday Bean mentioned a film he had seen advertised called 'Disney Planes' and it looked like Cars and he would like to see it! I honestly didn't think that we would make it to the cinema. i explained how films are released at the cinema and then you have to wait for the dvd. And his response? 'I want to see it at the cinema'. Still cautious we talked about what the cinema is like. And all was still fine, so we booked tickets. And today, we all went to the cinema together to watch 'Planes.' And it was great. I may have sightly over planned. We talked about adverts and trailers and darkness and loudness and other people. We got their early enough to get ourselves a box and we took glow sticks to wear around our wrists and, of course, we had popcorn. The boys took cuddly toys to watch too but it was all okay. no tears, no need to leave. at one point Bean had his feet up on the railings, totally relaxed, no fingers in his ears, munching popcorn and laughing at the film. excellent afternoon out.

And this was followed by a trip to a local farm to collect Alex and Sticky/Charlie (undecided) the guniea pigs who are now resident in our garden. 

Bean lost his first tooth this week. A genuine growing up moment.

Here comes the summer

The last few days have been as busy as ever. Bean is enjoying minecraft and experimenting with different ideas. Mostly it's houses with various features including swimming pool, balconies, tunnels and underground rooms. He's also building different sized gardens and greenhouses.
Pumpkin has been watching endless Pink Panther (cartoons) and interestingly starting to produce his own narrative to each episode. Plum is busy entertaining herself happily. She enjoys putting things away in the right places, giving me my sunglasses and emptying my purse on to the floor.

Thursday was our new gymnastics day followed by a play at Tilgate Park. It was amazingly hot and I did try to dissuade them from the park but they were both keen. By 3pm Bean was saying he was too hot and could we go home so I seized the moment and we headed home. It took us half an hour to walk back to the car as Pumpkin was slowly dragging his feet but we made it without incident and by the time I had left the car park all three smalls were asleep. I also managed to successfully transfer all three from the car into the house and they all continued sleeping. So, for the first time in years I had a few hours to myself during the day. Bean slept for 2 hours, Pumpkin 2 1/2' and Plum 3 hours. Of course, this meant that they were all up much later than usual but we have a far more pleasant time in the cool of the evening than the heat of the day.

Friday saw us taking a spontaneous trip to see friends for a few hours in the middle of the day. Bean and I made clay pots in the afternoon and there was some painting with old make up sponges that I found.
Daddy spent hours in the evening playing board games with all three smalls as I had some admin to do for CAC and I needed the time and space to get my head around it.

Saturday turned out to be a lazy day, in as much as we didn't have anything planned (surprisingly). I spent the whole morning in the kitchen and daddy did various bits and pieces around the house. He took the boys out to the park in the afternoon and Plum slept for a couple of hours. By the time they got back we had a short while until we headed down to the beach with our church family for an evening of BBQ, climbing on rocks, paddling/swimming in the sea.

Sunday is church day. Daddy was leading the service and after yesterday's late night we were all up late this morning. We had friends around for lunch and spent a relaxed afternoon eating, chatting, return trip to the park, tea and playing in the garden. I had a long chat with our neighbour about Beans's ability to remember things and discovered he has been giving our neighbour advice on his ant problem.

Mostly, we are enjoying being together. Pumpkin continues to get upset when I mention that I'm going out for the evening even though it is daddy who is with them at home. He feels the pain of separation more so than Bean or Plum atm. As it is the end of the school year, there is a lot of talk about children starting school in September and I am once again reminded of how different our lives are as they revolve less around a school year than most. I'm also reminded that it is Pumpkin's peers who are entering school in September and am so thankful that we have the opportunity to home ed. for all sorts of reasons, school is not right for Pumpkin, although I know he would adapt and 'be okay in the end,' I'm glad he doesn't have to go through that process and the benefits of him being at home far outweigh any notion of his need to be in school. I guess I'm just feeling grateful for being able to spend my children's childhood with them.

Summer days

Today. Hot. Melting.

We were up early today as Plum has taken to waking around 6am, not my time of day! But it does mean that we are up and out with a large number of chores done by 10am. Wow! We had a few errands to run. I am loving having the Little Craft Shop on my doorstep (it will bankrupt me), and then to the bank and the post office before a walk and a play and a paddle at Southwater Country Park. We arrived there about 10.15am. The play area was empty and we enjoyed having the space to ourselves. Although with Plum being so mobile now and none of the equipment really being a suitable size for her she needed a lot of support spotting which meant I couldn't help Pumpkin as much as he would have liked on the zip wire, although he did have several goes and Bean watched Plum for a while.

We took Plum on the long long slide, which she was very excited about. Bean took a little video of us going down. Bean also managed to work out how to get out of the tubular rope net and climb on the top of it, similarly Pumpkin climbed on top of the tunnel and crawled across it. There is little shade in the play area and I was not feeling great in the heat, despite the food and water supplies, so I had to call it a day.

We walked back to the car via the 'beach' and had a paddle. The water was really warm. Plum refused to put her toes in when I was holding her but then proceeded to take off her own shoes, walk across the shingle and go into the water on her own.

Plum feel asleep on the way home and me and her slept for an hour on the bed. The boys played downstairs. For the rest of the afternoon we decorated t shirts with fabric paints, did extra special bubble blowing, read books together and lay about keeping cool.

Daddy says that Beans's minecraft creations look like Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. And sat with him for a while to show him some examples. Pumpkin has been busy playing games on the cbeebies website and it's good to see him having some uninterrupted and unguided (by his brother)time. It's also giving him a chance to improve his mouse skills, although I suppose so much is touch screen now that they may well be an outdated skill.

And finally, both boys offered to help Hoover this evening, crazy days! Must be the heat!

How does your garden grow?

Yesterday we went to Nyman's Gardens. Yes! Again. I'm not sure what it is exactly about it that I love so much but I do love it! It was just over a year ago now that we learned of the home education membership that the National Trust offer and decided to go for it (I know this because we have just renewed it) i can't say I was ever really interested before but it is too good an opportunity to pass by and now I am a avid fan. Nyman's Gardens is our closest haunt and we go regularly but we have also taken advantage of the membership and visited several local and some further afield properties.

Nyman's garden has it all for us. Architecture, gardens with wield and wonderful collections as well as beautiful commonly seen plants, woodland, nooks and crannies, a fairy tale house, and lots of space. And on a day like today, shade.

The staff are always amazing with the children and today was no exception. The house normally hides a toy fox named Foxy that the smalls enjoy looking for but they have a new art exhibition displaying E Shepherds work for The Wind in the Willows and so they had character toys for them to find. It's the details that I love. The boys laughed their heads off at the large Toad escaping from the upstairs window, hanging on to bed sheets. They also enjoyed the art exhibition and we walked round it and then returned later to see it again. We have had the stories before but I think a revisit will be in order.

We spent a large amount of time out in the shade of the Cedar tree in the lawn. The smalls made friends with another girl and played, hide and seek, what's the time mr. Wolf, tag, and horse and donkeys. It was the perfect place to be on such a hot day.

This outing was topped and tailed by a town trip including signing up for the summer reading scheme at the library, and lots of minecraft, reading, lego building, all sitting in the cool of our living room.

Out with the old

In with the new....I'll let you decided what's what!

Monday: our usual routine? No! Today bean finally gave up his gymnastics class for real. No more talking about it and then changing his mind. Today we went to the class and he told his teacher that he wasn't doing it anymore. I'm not sure what has finally pushed him to committing to not doing it but the deed is done. So, we spent an extra long time playing in the park where we met up with people who are familiar faces to us but we haven't had the opportunity to get to know them better before today. The sun is finally shining and we had a great time in the sand pit, which is an unusual play spot for us.

Tuesday: family outing.
I had this plan to take the boys to Leed's castle today and then Bodium castle tomorrow. Almost topic based learning inspired! But it wasn't to work out that way. We went out to Bedgebury Pinetum with grandma and pops and FA#2 to celebrate pop's birthday. 69 years old and still climbing on the trim trail! We all had a go and a more than a few laughs especially as pumpkin described fa#2 as old (she is one of the youngest in our immediate family relations) We had family dinner at fa#1 and stayed the night. Plum has had a temp since Sunday evening and after struggling to keep it down and it peaking at 39.6 degrees we gave her meds but she had an incredibly unsettled night. And then bean wet in the middle of the night and I had only bought one set of bedding and clothes with me so he ended up wearing the previous days shorts and t-shirts and sleeping under a bath towel!

Wednesday:a trip to Bodium Castle.
The national trust don't specialise in castles but this one was left to them. I remember it well from childhood school trips and today there were plenty of those around. It was good though. There were people in character and the staff were really helpful and knowledgable and both boys asked some really amazing questions. Bean wanted to know what the silk merchants wife did and pumpkin was intrigued where the stones had gone.
It was a long journey home and all three smalls fell asleep in the car which is unusual these days.

Thursday: the new gymnastics day!
The boys have started a new gymnastics class in a new venue that they can take together. This suits them just fine. A few people have mentioned that the boys might like to do things separate but it just doesn't sit we'll with them and who am I to cause deliberate discord between siblings? After this we went and picnicked in the nearby park, tilgate, with several home ed families. We enjoyed meeting new people and the boys played amazingly in a group of boys all of similar ages. They played their own version of Star Wars for hours. It's the first time I've seen both the boys really involved in a group game. Some families left as the afternoon progressed but we stayed for four hours and just caught the ice cream man at 5pm before he left. It was such a beautiful day. Plum was clearly a lot better but being outside has really helped her.

Friday: a well earned rest.
We planned a day at home and preparations for our trip to nana and grandad's tomorrow to celebrate daddy's birthday. I spent time in the garden and doing chores and the boys played indoor hockey with their umbrellas and a ball and then devised a crazy golf course in the garden.
In the afternoon we went strawberry picking. Bean declared that he wanted to pick strawberries when he's older and pumpkin spent the whole time bounding around the field  shouting "this is the best ever!"

Saturday: we took a trip to see daddy's family and spent a beautiful day with BBQ in the back garden.

The mood has changed some what since the sun came out and we are all happy and relaxed. It's forecast to last a while too, just before school term ends, yippee.

Beach Boys

I haven't posted in ages and this time it's because we've been so busy and also because we have entered a completely new groove! Since returning from our holiday both the boys have not been going to bed until about 10pm. It has had a dramatic effect on our rhythm and mostly for the better. Now all our smalls sleep roughly at the same time and the boys are sleeping much longer than they used to, putting them in a better frame of mind generally. The later morning wakening does mean our day seems to start later and we miss a chunk of the morning but we have also gained a chunk of the evening and daddy gets to spend more time with the. Happiness all around.

This week has involved meeting in the park with fellow home ed friends, a day on the beach-where bean built his own sandcastle city with moat, an unexpected but delightful play date with friends at our house, gymnastics classes, daddy's birthday preparations and celebrations, a spontaneous trip to the seafront, and a weekend away with our church family.

Monday: our regular gymnastics class for bean followed by a play in the park. Bean appeared to get himself locked in the toilets but it transpired that the door was not actually locked just very stiff. It took me and another to pull the door before it opened. Pumpkin has been trying out the spinning egg cups as a new venture and plum is loving the zip wire. She's also loving having the command of a few of the other home ed smalls and it's great to see them playing with her.

Tuesday: a knock on the door from friends who were returning the space shuttle we left at their's last week quickly became a morning play date. An additional three smalls in the house and a new take on many familiar at home activities. The morning was spent playing between 'the world of dark' and lotions and potions. The world of dark involved taking everything luminos or light bearing into the bedroom which had the curtains and blind pulled.
The garden housed the lotions and potions and the children had a bowl each to mix powder paint, water, colouring, bicarbonate, moisturisers, bubble mix, washing up liquid and a few other household items and the decant the into bottles. It ended up being a group production as they mixed all their lotions together.

Wednesday: our first UK trip to the beach, oh how I had forgotten how much I love to spend the day at the beach. It's the first time I've gone solo since having plum walking and I was a little anxious but it was amazing. There was paddling and rock pooling and sandcastles and sand writing and football and treasure hunting and ice cream and tree climbing and den inhabiting and more. Brilliant day, well spent.

Thursday: we went to our new gymnastics class for the second time. The problem with not blogging daily is I now have to explain that last week the boys joined in for the last five minutes. This week it was the last half an hour. I'm not forcing them to take gym classes! They are both keen and want to, they just get a bit anxious when they arrive. New venue. New teachers. Pumpkin is very keen but won't go without bean. But we'll get there in their own time.

Then to the shops and home to make daddy a birthday cake and wrap presents.

Friday: an unplanned breezy trip to the play area on Worthing seafront. Certainly blew the cobwebs away! Lovely time together followed by a crazy hour trying to pack our bags for the weekend. The boys really enjoyed checking out all the different play equipment and we were faced again with Plum's dislike of sand. 

Saturday and Sunday: Church Family Weekend Away. I saw the boys for meals and swimming and bedtime but other than that they have had a crazy wonderful time with their church friends, cooking marshmallows on a bonfire and making things out of boxes and forts in the grounds and playing team games and a whole load of other things. They went to bed slightly later than usual but took themselves to bed about 10.30pm and were up slightly earlier too so very very tired. Brilliant time away with our church family though. loved it.