We are starting to wind down, or is it wind up to Christmas? I took the children to McDonalds last week, and my coffee cup came emblazoned with reindeers smiling up at me.
I’ve unearthed my Christmas folder (sounds horribly organised but I’ve found it works better than endless pieces of paper which I then loose) and started to gather together our ever-growing collection of Christmas books ready for lots of read aloud times.
Every year we fill shoe boxes for Samaritans purse. It’s a good thing to do with our children who have so much; they are reminded that these are probably the only presents these children will get. However, this year the filling of them seemed to cause all sorts of squabbling…not the selfless and happy experience one would have hoped for! On Wednesday we picked up lanky dude from college, and then went ice skating with our home school friends, taking advantage of a quiet ice rink. The older children are good, but I was glad of the plastic seat which sparkly eyes sat on, and which I could cling on to, supposedly helping her around!
Rhythm dude Went again the following day with a friend, and we are planning on going with youth club. We’ve had very soggy, grey and windy weather generally, but Sparkly eyes managed to find a dry slot to go out and dig up the remnants of our vegetables. Our studies of the middle ages has included learning about the importance of wool at that time. Especially pertinent in our small town, which at that time grew hugely due to the wool trade, thanks to the sheep which we still see grazing on the hills and in the fields. I dusted off my spinning wheel, re-acquainted myself with how to use it, And the girls had fun carding and then spinning some wool.
We had a gap in the skies this week end, which was good as a few home ed friends came over for a chilly walk and campfire in the field, before retreating to our much warmer house!
The boys’ band played at church this morning, and we had an excellent speaker who is always very inspiring. And then creative auntie and another old friend from our big city days called in; so appreciate the underlaying understanding of those old friendships.
I’ve missed typing for a couple of weeks as my Weebly app appears to be on time out. After a helpline phone call to Jenny, I’m using the boys’ computer, where my typing is slow but it’s working.
The boys are glued to their Sunday night dose of Robot Wars. Lanky Dude is particularly focused on it, as he’s planning on building one of these robots for his EPQ {research project}. I knew this was what he was intending to do but have only recently actually seen them in action on the television It’s quite an undertaking! Dancing Toes returned from a Brownie sleepover this morning…it was her first sleep away without any siblings and was a big deal for her. We were so proud of her. She was one of the last off as she was sitting on the back row {singing songs!}, so I was just starting to wonder where she had got to….and was so pleased to see her when she finally traipsed down with a trail of belongings in tow. The rest of us went to a wedding yesterday, and had fun dancing the night away. Sparkly Eyes kicked into overdrive fuelled with sweets from the sweet bar! She slept for about twelve hours, but despite that, both girls have been more than normally screamy today. We’ve had a few cinema trips recently as part of the ‘Into Film’ festival. As home schoolers we can access it and watch some free films. So, last week Rhythm Dude and his local home-school friend went to see ‘Wonder Woman’.
Myself and the girls had a much-needed peaceful morning with his siblings and mum at their home. Although the girls see lots of each other us mums usually just swap children as in a relay race, so it was lovely to have time to chat. She gave us our first mince pies of the year, and Sparkly Eyes and I went straight off to Lidl to buy some more! This week we’ve seen Cars 3 at our local cinema, and then Despicable Me 3 up in the Big City. Lanky Dude was able to join us for the latter, and we had a brisk walk through the centre of town, saw some home ed friends and got back to college for his afternoon lessons. We decided to make a day of it…an outing just because we can…so we meandered along the seafront and visited the museum before picking him up at the end of the day.
Mothering through the seasons 