Happy talk

We saw the air ambulance land today on the green next to our house. Bean wanted to take a photo of it and we discussed what kind of situation might require an air ambulance. We talked about the differences between illness that you can catch and medical conditions that you can't catch. What with our recent trip to hospital and cousinB breaking his fibular it was all quite topical. We discussed blood transfusions and blood types and blood donations and what blood does and what's in it and our friend whose job it is to test people's blood for different things. 

Today we took the boys to rollerdisco. They both are keen to go again. Bean began to master the rollerskating skill, he had balance and confidence and was really enjoying himself. Pumpkin took a little longer to feel comfortable and took them off shortly after arriving but wanted to have another try towards the end of the two hours. Plum was a little disappointed that she didn't have rollerskates but did enjoy running around the hall. It was really good to start getting back into meeting others and finding something that we all enjoy. 

When we got home Pumpkin, Plum and mummy made jelly. Pumpkin is finding the process a little slow but we did manage to distinguish between melting and dissolving. 

Bean made his own arrangements to play minecraft with his friend and came home, skyped her and got on with it. I was rather redundant in the whole process.

Secret Smile

It was Wednesday tea time, the same as any other, when I was feeding Lydia and noticed a lump on her neck about the size of a golf ball. She had had a temperature on and off for a couple of days and had been a little out of sorts with her feeding and sleeping and generally being unsettled. The lump was only on one side of her neck, had appeared suddenly and was hard. That evening I took her to the UTC in Crawley where she was assessed, with an initial diagnosis of a blocked lymph node we were sent to East Surrey Hospital. I have only driven to ESH once on my own before and never from Crawley, it was late (about 10pm), dark and raining (not my favourite driving conditions) but the Lord undertook it for us to arrive safely and without getting lost. We spent a large portion of the night in cubicles in A and E, she began a course of antibiotics via iv, and we were finally admitted to the ward at 3.30am. The following day we were blessed by a friend who came to play with the children whilst Steve drove Matthew to ESH to bring us supplies and collect the car. This was the last time I was going to see Matthew as Anna then became ill too with vomiting. By Friday morning we knew that Lydia was going to be transferred and possibly have an operation but we didn’t know when or where to. She was nil by mouth on Friday from 9.30am-8pm. It can only be a miracle that she was so settled all day. Another friend came to visit bringing with her more supplies as we now knew that we were going to be several days. She also surprised me with a bag full of goodies, mostly edibles, which I told her I really didn’t need. She also left Lydia a dummy to help calm her as I could no longer breast feed. It turned out that both these things were a God send.

We were transferred to St. George’s in Tooting at about 5pm on Friday and sat in A and E for several hours, in the process I had missed any evening meal and so the bag of edibles came in handy after all. By 8pm we had seen an ENT doctor who confirmed that they would operate but not until tomorrow when we would be put on a waiting list. Lydia could be fed through the evening but had to be nil by mouth again after 4am. At 9.30am the anaesthetist came to see me and told me Lydia would be in theatre for 10am. He explained to me how anaesthetic works with babies and how they can find the gas mask distressing and how it can be quite upsetting. Lydia on the other hand chose to lick at the gas as they gave it to her and fell peacefully into sleep, she wasn’t distressed at all. And after one hour and 15 minutes in theatre she was finished. After about 15 minutes she opened her eyes for a while and then she slept and fed simultaneously for about three hours.

The biggest answer to prayer for me was that Lydia got to keep her smile. The position of the abscess and its size (by the time it was operated on it was about the size of a tennis ball) on such a little girl meant that there was a very real possibility that they would catch the nerve that allows your mouth to turn upwards when you smile. It runs under your jaw line and would have left that side of her mouth drooping. I don’t think it is something I will take for granted again and will always be a reminder of God’s blessing towards us.

On Sunday the ENT doctors removed the packing from the wound, 24 hours earlier than they planned to. The biggest blessing of the day was a visit from a friend. She phoned me about 7pm and asked if she could come, it was going to take about 40 minutes for her to drive so could I pray that the traffic was okay. I also prayed that she wouldn’t get lost (because she has a habit of doing that.) And she arrived at 7.50 having driven on clear roads and found the hospital, car park, wing and ward without any problems. We went to the coffee shop and I was so thankful to see a familiar face. On the way home she got lost several times and stuck in traffic.

Monday was spent waiting, waiting, waiting for one doctor to come and see Lydia. She arrived at 3pm to tell us that all was well and we could go home. Thank you to Steve for coming to collect us.

It wasn’t an easy time being apart as a family. Matthew worked hard to try and find friends and family who could help out. Unfortunately my parents are on the holiday of a lifetime in New Zealand, my sister’s son has broken his fibula so she was looking after him, my friend who initially came to play with the children had caught the sickness bug that Anna had, my other friend who came to visit me on the Friday had a house full of coughs and colds to look after. We were grateful to Matthew’s sister who had the boys to stay for two nights, before catching Flu herself, and to another friend who had Anna to play for the day. Despite everything Lydia and I knew that God was with us and taking care of us, but most of all we thank God that we are home again.

I wonder?

Sometimes I wonder, what have we done today? Some home educators use a curriculum or are semi-structured. Some are autonomous and some Unschool. These are all terms that are used when home educating. One of the beautiful things about home educating is having the freedom to choose the how and the where and the when of your educational journey. I guess that it's easier to keep track of what you've taught if you use a curriculum. I say "I guess" because we don't have one and I say "taught" as I don't think everything presented to anyone is always learnt. 

Sometimes it feels like we aren't doing much and I wonder, what have we learnt today? And then I blog. 

Today...

...Bean has played minecraft with me and joined a home ed charity fundraising minecraft server where we learnt about pvp and Bean worked out immediately how to improve his position and equip himself better (and although he still continued to lose he was in good spirits about it.) 
He ended the day with a game of monopoly with daddy and a story or two before bed.

...Pumpkin was up late for him especially as he had gone to sleep early yesterday evening too. He played the Lego Indiana Jones game on the pc with Bean and then put some fence panels on the balcony of my minecraft house for me. He spent the evening watching 'I can cook,' choosing a recipe, printing it off and ordering the ingredients we need to make it. Tomorrow's dinner looks like it will be baked bean soup.

...Plum was up early and suffered with grumpiness for the morning. I had thought that this was our lot for the day but about 1pm she took to watching Peppa Pig on my tablet in my bed. I remembered that she has been having some 'relaxed time' in the afternoons recently and was hopeful that this might help her mood. As it happened she went to sleep and woke up perfectly restored. And I remembered that this is just as important for me as all the other stuff that our children learn, that she has the freedom to sleep when she is tired, to recognise her own tiredness cues and to respond to them by going to sleep and waking when she is rested.
She also had the playdough out today, the doll's house, the dressing up, and dolly. Plum also helped me to pair up our mountainous pile of socks, which took four times longer than if i'd done it on my own but we did have lots of giggles together as we did it.
She has gone to bed wearing her "party dress" so she can look like the fairies that decorate her duvet cover.

We all played together on the wii and tried out the balance board together. There was a family game of IT and a copycat free-running game across the sofa. We played hide and seek, and a throwing and catching game with some of the cuddly toys. And we put together a mold growing experiment. Bean bought a science kit last week and has really enjoyed it and Pumpkin has been experimenting with various bathroom products recently (soap, shaving foam, toothpaste etc) so I found a book with household experiments in it and the boys chose this one, so now we have several slices of bread in strategic places around the house, deliberately growing mold. 

And I realise that our days are full of learning and full of fun and full of togetherness. And life is enough. 

These Days

We have played a lot of minecraft in the past week. the boys have built the homes of spongebob and Patrick and their underwater habitat including cafe. On a separate biom the boys and i have been building houses and statues, a cafe and a hotel with diary farm and flower gardens. Today Bean and I started on elaborate country houses. It's only when you start to do it yourself that you realise quite how long it takes to build and complete something and the ideas flow all the time so your always ready to start the next building project. it made me thankful that the smalls have that extended, uninterrupted time to immerse themselves in a project (mummy, on the other hand, was constantly interrupted by the need to provide food and there was the small matter today of clearing up last nights sickness from Pumpkin. Never a pleasant task.)

Pumpkin has been busy building towers to knock down with his angry birds sling shots. He has two versions of the game and supplements the building structures with jenga bricks and wooden blocks.

Plum has completely and utterly moved into her own room. She goes to sleep in her own bed (with cuddles from mummy and/or daddy, and wakes up in her own bed in the morning. I think she is missing waking up with us there. She has cried every morning this week because daddy has gone to work. I officially moved her toddler bed out of our room today.
Plum is busy playing with her small world collections, Peppa Pig, Sylvanians and doll's house all join together in one beautiful game. 

Still no phone, still no photos. But Pippin turned 4 months today. She has been full of cold for the past two weeks and struggling to clear her airways when lying down so nights have been less sleep until daddy raised her mattress at one end two nights ago and thankfully we are returning to longer periods of sleep at nighttime. It's pretty regular of her to have six to nine hours.

Now I am six (Pumpkin)

Today is Pumpkin's (aka Asher Matthew Timothy aka Roo) sixth birthday.Six years ago today at 40 weeks + 3 days at 2.07am Pumpkin was born, the first child to be born in our house, our first home birth.

Last year we all dressed up and went to Fisher's Farm for the day. This year we held a fancy dress party at the weekend and then spent today, his actual birthday, at Fisher's Farm  (his choice.)

Fancy dress family

Star wars minecraft cake

Decorating gingerbread men

Apple bobbing

dress the teddy

Everyone invited to the party dressed up, we had; farmers and romans and cats, there was superman, power rangers, spiderman and superwoman, along with a fairy, princess and robot. On the games itinerary there was apple bobbing, sweets hidden in flour, decorating gingerbread men, pin the button on R2D2, dress the teddy and pass the parcel. 

There aren't any photos of our trip to Fisher's Farm as mummy's phone is broken but we spent a long while on the go-carts, trampolining, playing crazy golf, playing cannon shooting, the children each rode the horse, played on the ride on tractors, enjoyed the tractor ride and had a brief slide indoors. Mostly we were outdoors today (for 4 1/2 hours) It was a two pairs of socks, thermal vest, hat, gloves, snowboot, crack the ice sort of day but the need for sunglasses seemed to help! 

Pumpkin continues to love butterflies and baking, robots and lego, he has interests in light and shadows, and how the body works. He loves his family most of all and enjoys playing with each of his siblings. The day is not complete without a cuddle with Pippin and teaching her a new word or song. He loves to move about, mostly bouncing and running and twirling but being upside down or fiddling with lego will do. He doesn't stop moving for about 12-14 hours from when he gets up in the morning. He loves to eat...constantly. His favourite things are pancakes, granny smith apples, toast with spread, ham and cucumber sandwiches, prawn cocktail crisps, haribo, soup, muffins, sausages, broccoli and more.

For his sixth birthday he got a remote control car, solar powered robot, walkie talkies and several boxes of lego. 

I-AM-A-RO-BOT

We've been noticing the changes this week. Bean has gone into a shop on his own and chosen a birthday present for Pumpkin, he also went off with a friend of his to look at computer games together and he finished a craft project that he started. This is his finished robot (the leg holes are cut out individually):

Pumpkin is getting ever taller and Plum is in the process of moving into her own room, last night she slept her first full night in there. Pippin has found her hands and has been watching them whilst she wiggles her fingers and clenches her fist and rolls her wrist around.

This time last year we were looking at robots in Woking. Topics and interests often come up repeatedly in our house, it may appear that we flit from one thing to another, most of the time seemingly not finishing what we started but there are repeating themes when we look closely.

This is our house

Last Thursday Bean declared that he wanted to make himself a robot costume (just as we were walking out the house to visit friends.) Today we finally got around to doing it. We're not a highly scheduled family but other things have seemed to come before the robot construction, like going swimming with daddy and Pumpkin on Sunday afternoon and going to Fisher's Farm yesterday. He spent ages choosing the right boxes and drawing on where he wanted parts cut out for his head, arms and legs to go. We then used the craft knife to cut the boxes up. The head box didn't work out quite how he planned with the mouth piece covering his eyes. He then mixed his own paint and got painting. It's not finished yet though! Meanwhile Plum painted herself and a picture, and Pumpkin watched endless Meg and Mog.

Pumpkin brought me his kindle at one point and asked me to look up what 'snapdragons' were. We looked up several pictures and then found out why they are called snapdragons. He wants to go and see some and then grow some in the garden. We also spent some time gathering ideas for his birthday party this weekend. 

Plum set up her own game of Angry Birds today and spent most of the time in her new fairy outfit that she bought with some birthday money as well as playing with some polystyrene packaging. 

The boys spent the evening playing on the wii and Plum and I did several puzzles together before snuggling down to read stories. At the weekend daddy put together the bunk bed for the girl's room. Plum loved the look of it so much and was so excited that she has moved in. She is still crawling into mummy and daddy's bed at some point in the night but her bed in our room has become redundant. It feels a bit weird and is totally unexpected as she had shown no signs of wanting to sleep in her room but she is so happy and loves her big bed and, this evening, she discovered the pictures on her wall and rearranged them all by putting them next to her head and making a "garden."