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Archive : July 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Goodbye Momo
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" ~ Dr Seuss
After my amusing post earlier, it seems a bit weird posting this ... but that's life isn't it?
This afternoon, Tim took Mo for his final journey and we said goodbye. He made the appointment and then we had about 2 hours to wait until he went and I spent most of that time curled up with Mo in the bedroom sobbing myself into a headache and cuddling him. I didn't want him to go but he hadn't eaten or drunk for 2 days and was so old (15) and infirm that he couldn't even get about properly - he just sort of dragged himself around on his belly. We were kind of expecting this for a few days but even so it was a "sudden" decision in the end to take him.
I cried so much earlier that I'm pretty much through with it now and just feel numb and empty and a little disbelieving. I shall miss him so bloody much.
I'm utterly heartbroken and could have done with Tim not having to work all day tomorrow but he needs to work and they need him so I'll just have to cope *shrugs*
Taking a blogging break for a few days. Back soon.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
He's from Barcelona you know
Yesterday the foreman (I think that's what the boss type character in charge of a bunch of builders is called) of the builders who are going to do our bathroom came round. They had to measure up a bit more and he had to tell them what they were going to be doing.
One of the builders was very, very foreign and, in fact, sounded exactly like Manuel from Fawlty Towers. This left Tim and I grinning like mad.
The foreman was trying to explain things and "Manuel" was coming out with stuff like "we do bathroom next week?" (no, no! not next week!)
He also said "we do bathroom like hotel?" to which the foreman replied "yes, like the hotel".
Erm... so my bathroom is going to resemble one that they've recently done in a hotel I presume.
Hope no-one comes round and nicks my towels *laughs*
Monday, July 28, 2008
Dramatic
After a couple of days of blinding sunshine and intense heat, we've just been plummeted into darkness (not totally dark you understand!) It's that sort of darkness that says a storm is coming. Don't you just love that sort of dramatic change in the weather? I find it quite exciting and sexy *smiles* What I'm enjoying is the coolness after the (almost) unbearable heat we've been experiencing.
Not having a big, cooked dinner tonight - just cold chicken (left over from last nights dinner), salad and warm bread. It's so nice to have something like that during this weather. Also going to relax and eat it watching the Proms on tv - Beethoven tonight.
Been making another short video today - this time of my dear old cat Mo. He barely moves these days and is refusing catfood, the only things he seems to like are cold chicken and ham. He still purrs and will rub his head on you (you'll see him do this to me at the end of the film *smiles*) so we're letting him be. He's so doddery and feeble though that if he stops eating altogether and seems terribly unhappy then I think it might be time to say goodbye. He's a funny old thing though, he's been at a point where I thought "this is it" so many times that he seems like he'll go on forever. I know he won't, it just seems that way sometimes. Anyway, I made the video so I got something to remember him by (along with the hundreds of photos!) - in this I'm feeding him with ham.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Hengistbury Head
Had recovered sufficiently from our over-indulgence of alcohol last night to take a trip to Hengistbury Head this afternoon. It was really hot and sunny - absolutely gorgeous!
We had a lovely long walk and it was great until, about three quarters of the way round, one of my sandals broke and I ended up doing the rest of the walk barefoot! Yes, I walked on grass, gravel, pebbles and footpaths (that were hotter than the fires of hell) ALL the way back to the car park - my poor feet were nearly killed to death.
Anyway, here are some pics and (as is becoming my custom!) a little vid (watch out for a glimpse of my footwear-free wanderings in that!)
Edit: Forgot to say, Tim made a wonderful video from right at the top of Hengistbury Head - a sort of 360°, panoramic view. He's going to post it on his blog later when he's finished editing it so go have a look *smiles* Link to his blog is in my sidebar.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Oh dear
Too much chardonnay does not a clear head make.
Whoops.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
*Fans self*
Oh my bloody god it's hot.
Lovely, obviously, but a bit tooo hot for my liking. Some people are never satisfied ha ha! I do look rather nice though - bit of sun is just the job for making me look (even) lovelier ;)
Been such a lazy day today. Tim worked this morning (came home sweaty ewwww!) and then dropped Rosie off at a birthday party this afternoon. April and I did not much - just sort of lazed around feeling, well, hot.
Actually, I wasn't feeling 100% as we (why do I never learn?!) had Big Macs for dinner last night and I, predictably, felt like crap this morning. So, I'm trying to balance it out this evening with some light pasta, salad and fruit desert. Oh, and a glass of very chilled Chardonnay naturally *smiles*
We're intending to enjoy a couple of days of peaceful relaxation as Tim is doing a lot of overtime next week as Richard, his boss, is on holiday and someone else is ill so they are a bit short staffed. I think there is a also slight bit of guilt feelings on Tim's part as we are off on holiday soon and it's pretty much the busiest time of the year at his work. I think, therefore, he's trying to cram in some overtime before he goes to ease his conscience hehe!
Still charting my dreams. Had some very odd things going on last night while in the land of nod, stuff that didn't really fit with the dreams I'd had on the previous 2 nights and therefore don't help much with my experiments. Mind you, someone who was better at interpreting these things would probably give me an answer straight away.
Tim has, of course, come to his own conclusions about the dreams (particularly the first one) and has decided that I have a secret lover in real life and has even decided who he might be (the man in question shall remain nameless!!) based on the description in my dream. He jests, obviously, he doesn't really believe that - in fact, I think he's thinks I'm a bit bonkers for even bothering to write them down. No change there then *grin*
Friday, July 25, 2008
Dreams
"Baby don't wake me
Let me take you
On an endless journey"
~ In My Dreams with You - Steve Vai ~
I've become very fascinated with the subject of dreaming. Not from a weird, psychic "tell your future" sort of way but more ... erm.. scientific I guess!
What are they? Why do we have them? Why are they so often utterly bizarre?
From my own knowledge and a quick bit of Googling, it would appear that there are 2 main trains of thought.
Firstly, that dreams are the body's way of "clearing out" the un-needed thoughts from our brain (rather like a computer clean-up system) so that we don't get mentally cluttered up.
The second theory, put forward by Sigmund Freud in his book The Interpretation of Dreams, is that we dream to fulfill our surpressed desires and wishes that we can't in our day to day life. This is a very simplistic interpretation - his theory obviously goes into a lot more detail!
It's been suggested by many that dreams can help you in your day to day business by giving you "clues" to help solve any dilemas you might be having. This is not fortune telling but, say, your having problems coming to an important decision - you go over and over the details but get nowhere. When you sleep at night you dream - an apparently unconnected, jumbled series of events - it's been said that these jumbled events are, subconciously, giving you the answer to your problem.
IF you can remember the dream and IF you can make sense of them!
Apparently, the best way to try and interpret your dreams is to, obviously, write them down upon waking (if you've remembered it at all - quite why we remember some dreams and not others is beyond me). Over a period of time, particularly if you have several dreams in a row, you may see obvious connections between them that lead you to go "aaahaaa!" Or maybe not.
Personally, most of my dreams are bonkers ... which is slightly worrying! *laughs*. I fail to see how they could be my brain trying to "tell" me something. Nevertheless, being very interested in the subject right now, I've decided to give it a go and keep a dream journal and see if I can make sense of any of it.
Thus far, I've just been left baffled but I have only done 2 entries. I've decided (for your interest or plain amusement factor!) to reproduce them here - word for word, from my journal.
My email addy is in the sidebar - if anyone has any interesting thoughts then please do get in touch (note: I don't want any "you're barking" comments please! I know that already *laughs*)
**************
Night of:
Wednesday 23rd July 2008
I was walking down Redhill Avenue – the age I am now, although it’s been many, many years since I walked down that road. I heard a man’s voice call out “hey! wait a second!” and I turned round and saw a man who I obviously recognised in the dream but not in real life. He was getting out of a car (sort of posh, big, silver or light grey car) and he was tall, fairly dark hair and wearing a suit. I said “oh, its you” and he caught up with me. Then he put his hands on my face and kissed me. I felt giddy. The dream ended.
Thursday 24th July 2008
Nothing much in the way of a proper dream although I have a VERY brief, fleeting recollection of being stood in a dark room in a very enclosed space with tall shelves or cabinets either side of me. I don’t see anyone but someone puts their arm around me and their hand on my belly. I look down. They’re wearing a signet ring of some kind. That’s it.
**********************
I might occasionally post more dreams here and will definately post when I come to some sort of conclusion. Although I might not come to a conclusion because, so far, none of it is making any sense!
Added a bit later: I've been thinking about the first of the 2 dreams above. What I want to know is this ... WHY did my brain come up with "that" particular road for me to be walking down? It's a road that I walked for many years on my way to school but one that I've not been down for a long, long time. So why that road?!! Out of all the roads that I must have been down in my life, why, when my brain was piecing together this dream, did it pick THAT one?!! I haven't been there recently and it's not come up in conversation. The mind boggles.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Aaaaah! Lovely!
It's sooooo hot! Really nice after all the cruddy cold, rainy weather recently *smiles* However, it's not good when you go shopping - we went to Tesco this afternoon and nearly melted in the car on the way home.
Been looking through yesterdays Sopley photos again. I have to say I think I look like poo and it's really depressing because I don't actually look like that - I really don't! I just totally hate having my photo taken and always, without fail, end up either looking grumpy or pulling a stupid face (or I get caught at the wrong angle and just look plain fat!) Anyway, we were mucking around with my new camera again this afternoon (so many functions on it - so confusing!) and snapping away at each other and here are some results (Tim forced me to delete the ones of him - he hates having his picture taken even more than me!) Really trying hard to get some up to date pics at the moment because all the ones on the photo page are really getting old now.
Me having a cuddle with April (you WILL have a cuddle ha! ha!) See what I mean about me and photos though?! I look like I'm asleep! S'pose my hair looks ok *grumble grumble*
Rosie being very, very silly! She also looks a bit ill ... bad lighting I think
April "look at my sandy hands!"
I'm hoping our upcoming holiday will afford some better photos opportunities .. but I'm not getting my hopes up. *Grumble grumble again*
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Feeling fruity
This afternoon we headed out to one of our favourite places - Sopley Farm in Hampshire. It's a pick your own place and I'm pretty sure I blogged about it last year because we love it - they do the best raspberries EVER. Honestly, I've never tasted any better they are gorgeous.
Anyway, the weather was fantastic today so we had a good walk and came back with truckloads (ok, I exagerate!) of fruit - raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants and rhubarb. It also gave me the change to practice with my new camera again so here are some pics AND a little vid of patched together clips ... still getting the "rumbly" sound when we record stuff - will have to work out why. Right at the end of the video is a shot of some eggs in a nest we found amongst the strawberries. No idea what bird they came from but they looked abandoned which is a bit sad.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Na, na, na, I'm not listening
Photo of April taken a couple days ago. Aaaaaah! ain't she cute? Just wish she'd listen to her mother occasionally! Certainly would save an awful lot of tears - literally!
We have a huge area of lawn in our garden and, because April is still a bit unsteady on her feet, I've told her not to run on the path - just the lawn.
I've told her ... and told her ... and told her....
... and she totally ignores me. She runs on the path, falls over and screams blue murder while we mop her tears and apply tubefuls of Germolene to her various grazes. Every time it happens I say "don't run on the path just the lawn".
Today, she ran on the path, fell over and is now sporting glowing grazes on her chin and arm.
Bloody hell, I wonder why I bother. Really, I do.
Maybe I should try some reverse psychology ..... "for the love of God, DON'T run on the grass!"
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Proms
Wow! I've gone blog-post-bloody-mad today! What can I say?..... it's Sunday.
I'm not much of a telly addict, there are a few things which I adore and will ALWAYS watch (sometimes much to Tim's distress ... I'm thinking, Are You Being Served here) such as Spring/Autumnwatch, the Blackadder series, Goodnight Sweetheart, history documentaries and so on. The Proms is one such thing.
Obviously, I got into this because Tim was into it and we've watched it every year since we got together. Some years it's been brilliant and other years it's been a bit forgetable (or annoying, in the case of the jolly uplifting 9th Symphony by Beethoven getting cancelled last year!)
I haven't really had chance to study what is going to be on this year but Tim tells me that there is going to be the Miraculous Mandarin (Bartók). Oh! I was overjoyed - this was last on years ago (when I was pregnant with Rosie in fact) and I didn't take much notice of the music (shame on me!) but I adored the shadow puppets that went with it *big grin*
Alas! This year, no puppets!! NO PUPPETS! What's the point of the Miraculous Mandarin with no puppets?! Pah! The odd shadow puppets acting out the rather sordid story just soooo make it! *grumble, grumble*
Anyway, opening night of the Proms was ok (although there have been better years). Presenters are now stuck in a slightly bland "News at 10" style room which I don't think is quite right because they seem a bit separated from the action. Most of the music was nice but spoiled a bit by the rather long and noisy organ solo piece ... the title of which eludes me.
Looking forward to the rest of the season thought ... odd to think that by the time it finishes we'll be into early autumn.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
New home ed site
After much thought, I've decided to move all my home ed related stuff over to a new site here
this is because this site is becoming a little confusing and cluttered with a mixture of home ed and non-home ed items.
Doing this will allow me to post ... erm... whatever I like on this site without confusing/upsetting/bothering people who come looking for purely home education related things.
All homeschool stuff that was already on this site will remain (with the exception of the homeschool page which will be transferred completely to the new site) but from now on there will be no home ed posts - they will be on the new blog.
The link for the new site will be in the sidebar.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Montessori homeschool resources - Part 2
For part 1 of this click here.
There are loads of places you can get Montessori materials - both free and paid for - here are some that I think are the best.
Montessori Print Shop Has an excellent range of low cost pdf files in all subjects. Also has recently added a free download section which changes every month.
In-Print Montessori Gorgeous materials and the prices aren't too bad. I especially love their transparent skeleton overlay cards (which, if I don't buy anything else, I WILL be getting for the new school year!)
EdCatalyst Various free download files. Very nice.
JMJ Publishing Lots of free pdf's here so that you can make your own materials.
Montessori Materials Group Very well known, free materials site.
Montessori for Everyone Low cost pdf materials. Also has a very good section of free downloads here.
Alison's Montessori Has a good range of pdf files in addition to their "solid" materials.
The above links cover, mostly, pdf materials. If you are looking for things like bead materials, geometric solids and all the other "solid" materials, your best bet is to go to Ebay. I've got some real bargains from there (Montessori materials are VERY expensive). You could also try:
Absorbent Minds The prices of the materials are amazing BUT watch out for the VAT and postage costs which are added on afterwards, they bump out the price HUGELY and you could be in with a shock.
Finally, don't forget to check my home ed page - I'm slowly uploading free materials that I've made but it will take a while :)
Friday, July 18, 2008
All Zwinkied-out and other things
Bored of Zwinky now. That didn't last long but then I didn't expect it to, to be honest. It wasn't helped by the fact that it was waaaay too weird (some very odd things going on there). I'm finding more and more that I get bored of these virtual things very quickly (I used to adore them!) - maybe I just like the real world and real people much more ;)
Anyway, other stuff. We've made the big decision to get April out of nappies over the summer. Yes, she's still in nappies. Every attempt we've made thus far has failed and so I talked to the HV about it at April's 3.5 year check up. HV says to just get a tonne of knickers and go "cold turkey" as far as nappies are concerned. I'm dreading this but I can understand the idea behind it so I'm just preparing myself for a mountain of washing. Tim and I are both agreed that once we start on this road we cannot go back so if she is not toilet trained by September she won't be going back to nursery. She can't go if she's still wetting all the time and we refuse to put her back in nappies (she'll be nearly 4!!) We'll have a slight "blip" when we go on holiday soon as we'll have to use pull-ups but other than that it's bye bye nappies (apart from at night).
We're off to Tim's mums tomorrow evening for my (belated) birthday dinner which I'm very much looking forward to as she is making a curry and I love her curries. Actually, I probably prefer them a little bit more to Tim's but shhhhh! don't tell him!
Friday, July 18, 2008
A con and a half
Tim got a letter in the post today - it was a fine (why do they call it a "fine" when it is, in fact, anything BUT fine?!) for £75 for apparently parking somewhere he shouldn't - in this case a local pub car park. Tim wanted to park to get to the nearby cashpoint machine so he went in the carpark, realised he wasn't allowed to park there and drove out again.
...and he's been fined £75 for that. What a bloody con!!
His "crime" has been referred to as nuisance parking but (and here's the rather odd thing) he DIDN'T park - he drove in and drove out.
He didn't react well to the not-fine and I suspect the parking company are going to get a rude letter about it in which the words "shove", "violently" and "rectum" are going to feature quite heavily.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
What a day!
Had a fantastic, albeit up and downy day today :)
Tim got up and made me breakfast in bed and I had my pressies and cards - my new camera from him and Lush smellies from the kids. Then I decided to put the computer on and install the drivers for my camera. Nothing. Hmmm. It wasn't doing anything when I put the power on so (again!) along comes James and sorts it out. Not sure what was wrong but he said it might have been something to do with a power surge.
So, we had lunch and then James went home and we got to play with my new camera - in a big way!
Rosie was in the garden and heard a rustling sound in the bushes. When she looked she saw a grass snake wrestling with the biggest toad I've ever seen! Tim went racing down the garden with the camera (that I haven't got to use yet *laughs*) and got a brilliant picture AND a short video. The snake had fastened it's jaws around the toads head and was dragging it around however, I think it had bitten off more than it could chew because, despite fighting with it for about half an hour, it just couldn't eat it! In the end the snake gave up and disappeared and the toad, although shaken, hopped off apparently unharmed.
Here's the (utterly brilliant) photo Tim took - if you click on it you get the bigger version. It looks like the snake was just resting it's head on the toads back but it actually had it's jaws wide open round it.
If you want to see the wrestling match in action, I stuck the vid on You Tube. It's very short, only about 11 seconds and it's a bit gruesome really! The thing to remember is that the toad survived this *smiles*
Monday, July 14, 2008
Montessori homeschool resources
Getting ready for a new school year here (amongst other things!). For those of you interested in Montessori as a method (ooooo! how we love it), here are a few resources to help you on your way. Today I'm focusing more on the "how to" such as curriculum and lesson plans - on another day fairly soon, I'll do some materials links.
The Moveable Alphabet Excellent blog by a Montessori teacher. Full of ideas.
My Montessori Journey Another wonderful blog.
Montessori Mom Links of the Day A great blog tha provides (almost) daily lesson ideas.
Shu-Chen Jenny Yen's Albums Free Montessori lesson albums.
Montessori World Free lesson albums.
Montessori lesson presentation videos These are excellent. Scroll down the page until you come to the list of videos by Tami Elliot. Each section contains several videos.
Michael Olaf Free pdf versions of The Joyful Child and Child of the World - their Montessori information books.
Moteaco Lesson albums for 3-6 and 6-9 years.
Montessori Scope & Sequence This page from a Montessori school website has some excellent pdf's for the scope and sequence right through to 12th grade.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Zwinkied!
Hello lovely readers! You may notice that I've added a new avatar to the sidebar - this is my Zwinky avatar. Yes, it does KIND of look like me - with regards to the hair and the sort of clothes it's wearing (mostly, although sometimes I go for rather outrageous stuff - unlike real life!) but I'm not quite that slim!
Zwinky (and Zwinktopia - the world) is a very strange place. I originally looked at this as a fun game for Rosie but on close inspection it turned out that it would almost certainly be too adult for her. The vast majority of the people that go there are over the age of 30! Yes, you do get teenagers but they are in the minority. It's free - just create your Zwinky and go - and very fun, lots of arcadey type games and you can earn Zbucks from the games and get yourself a virtual room which you can then decorate and invite people back to. You can spend your Zbucks in the virtual mall and buy cute gear for your avatar and, obviously, you can chat (again, this is where I would say it's VERY adult)
All very, very silly but an amusing way of passing a little time AND you get the shopping buzz without having to actually spend any real money *laughs*.
Anyway, if anyone fancies it, come and find me - you can get to all things Zwinky by clicking on my av in the sidebar (or you may have to copy/paste the link)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Pre-birthday musings
So, here I am a couple days away from the celebration of the day I was born ....... 38 years ago! I'm in a reflective mood today so here are my thoughts.
I've realised that I'm a far more confident, happy person now than I was years ago (by that I mean teens and early twenties). The early part of my teenage years were pretty much ruined by my mothers incredible jealousy and sniping towards me. The last part were ruined by my father sodding off (although I can't actually blame him now tbh) and me being left with my stupid, out-of-her-face mother who sat in bed all day shredding wedding photos and popping pills. She played out the slightly "Miss Haversham" role wonderfully and, to my knowledge, probably still does.
Her biggest sin at the time was not weeping and wailing over the loss of her husband (although had she been a better wife in the first place, she might not have lost him) but the fact that she failed to remember that she was the mother of 3 children - one of those children was only 10 years old at the time. His care, for the most part, fell on the shoulders of his 17 year old sister. Me. So, that time when I should have been out with my friends, shopping, and just having a typical "teenagery" time were spent making sure he was ok. Ironing his schoolclothes, giving him money for his lunches, taking him into town and taking him in to work with me on a Saturday because he was so terrified of being left alone with her. Looking back on it now, it all seems a bit unbelievable.
In the early part of my twenties I married for the first time, largely as a means of getting away from my mother, only it didn't quite work out right because he turned out to be an alcoholic wife beater. Regular readers will have picked up enough sippets about that particular sorry part of my life for me to not have to go into details here again.
So, now.
I've had enough years with a decent, loving man to have finally started to put the rubbish in the bin and actually start living. Most of the time I can look at myself squarely in the mirror and say "actually, you're not too bad at all" and mean it. Having kids with Tim has allowed me to concentrate fully on giving them the best life they could pretty much have - filled with happiness .... like one long endless summer holiday. No, it's not all perfect but it's as bloody perfect as I can possibly make it.
Even fairly recent events .... over the last few months ..... have actually worked out good for me. Amazing, how certain things bring other things to a head. I'm a better person now - less likely to fly off the handle or read too much into stuff or take things personally. I still get wildly angry when I read what some people (particularly women) write in their blogs - I especially can't stand women who pick their husbands to bits - you know the sort of thing "Oooo! he's such a typical man" or "I didn't ask him to do such and such because he'd screw it up ... huh! typical!" Stuff like that. It really gets my back up because there is NO need for it and these people fail to see that, very often, it's their husband (or boyfriend) going out to work that allows THEM to stay at home and look after/homeschool their kids. Their bloke goes out and works his butt off and then they (the woman) gets on her blog and says "god you wouldn't believe it ... that idiot husband of mine forgot to post a letter for me! Honestly, I can't rely on him for ANYTHING" (and yes, I've actually seen that written and plenty of other similar things like it.)
Of course, this brings me on to Tim. No, he's not perfect (are any of us?) BUT he works bloody hard, is a good dad, a loving husband and wonderful company. I wouldn't dream of getting on here and slagging him off to the whole world. In fact, I wouldn't slag him off anywhere - I wouldn't do it because I know how much he does so that I can stay home with my kids.
So, I'm happier. I've calmed down. I'm more focused. I can look at myself (most days) and actually like what I see. I appreciate what I have. I've learned to handle problems in a slightly less dramatic, over the top fashion. I've learned that some relationships are not worth holding on to no matter how painful ending them may be (my mother and certain former friends for example) and that my life is better without them. I've learned that some relationships are definately worth holding on to ... my husband - no, his hair isn't as short as I'd like and the only time I've seen him in a suit was our wedding day and he is bloody, utterly gorgeous in a suit *sigh* and he does have a tendency to prefer his bed to getting up but he's still totally wonderful ...... my kids - those cute sproglets that were a complete surprise to me because I didn't think I'd have them and now I want nothing more than to do as Rudolf Steiner suggests .....
Receive the child with gratitude
Educate them with love
Let them go forth in freedom
My god! Maybe after 38 years I'm finally grown up! *laughs* Ok, I'm grown up in the important ways but I'm still very, very capable of being silly and having girly moods over stupid things (which often result in Tim giving me raspberries on the belly!) and giggling hysterically (and usually to Tim's utter incomprehension) over the most ridiculous things and getting waaay over excited at Christmas (and birthdays!). I think these are good things and things worth holding on to no matter how old you get.
I LIKE being this age and I'm happier to be where I am now than where I was a few years ago.
I've rambled enough. On with the day.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Food and Birthdays
Today is ..... 
Edited: I forgot to mention when I wrote this post that another piece of good news recently was that Rosie passed her Level 9 Proficiency award at her trampolining class *smiles*. She's doing fabulously well!
Today was really quite nice and sunny after yesterday's wall to wall rain. I mean it rained. All. Day.
After Tim got back from work we went off to Castlepoint and got some book vouchers, birthday cards and a helium balloon for Luke (Tim's mum's adopted son) as it was his 10th birthday. We kind of thought book vouchers might be a bit dull for a 10 year old but apparently it's what he wanted. The helium balloon was a silly thing that I had a spontaneous urge to buy *laughs*. As we were getting into the car, I handed it to Rosie and said "don't let it ......."
Go.
She let it go. Luckily I made a grab for it and shoved it into the car and slammed the door before it had chance to escape again.
After we got home Tim made shepherds pie for dinner. We've had ALL homemade dinners this week which is pretty damn good. Actually, we mostly have homemade dinners but sometimes we just have some ready made thing but this week we've had:
- 2 slow cooker dinners (chicken in white wine and chilli). The slow cooker is "my" thing. I love my slow cooker!
- Shepherds pie.
- Tim's utterly divine pasta bake.
Don't know what we're having tomorrow - ready meal probably ha! ha! I DO know what we're having on Tuesday though .... chinese takeaway! Duck with pancakes! Ooooo! yummy. This will, of course, be my birfday dinner :) I'm very excited about my upcoming day! The day before, Tim is taking me shopping without the kids to get some new clothes (this is with money from his mum) AND he's taking me to Lush to get lovely smellies (I SO love Lush). On Tuesday I'll get my new camera!! Not only that, but James is getting me a super-dooper new graphics card for the pute as the one we had went bottom-up and I can't play the Sims at the moment coz we've had to put our old crappy one back in :(
I'm a very excited bunny!
Monday, July 07, 2008
Ooooo!
Today is ....... 
Guess whose birthday it is on the 15th? Go on, guess .... Heehee! MINE!! *big grin*
I'm VERY, VERY excited because I already know what Tim is getting me and it arrived in the post this morning and I SOOOO want to play with it!
The camera we have is good but tbh, I needed one with a few more gadgets and that I could record videos with sound on (the one we have doesn't have the sound). So, our old one is going to Rosie and I'm getting the snazzy new one!!
I think Tim had better get it wrapped up quick before I start having to investigate!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Homeschool curriculum
Today is:
Been beavering away putting Rosie's curriculum for August together (yes, we are starting homeschool earlier this year). I've put a LOT of thought into what to use this year and am really please with what we've come up with.
Maths:
The CIMT
maths programme We are going to start with Year 3 because, in my
opinion, this curriculum is extremely advanced. Although it says it's
supposed to be for British schools it is, in fact, based on the
Norwegian school maths system and is not really similar to the NC. I've
printed out the first lesson book, the first lot of lesson plans, the
copymasters and the manipulatives. I've read through the whole thing and
familiarised myself with it and can't wait to get started! I can't
believe it's free!!
English:
Rosie does SO much reading and writing in everyday life that I'm just not going to worry about this so much this year. All I'm going to do is get a basic, colourful workbook for Year 6 (probably Letts Wizard Wimstaff one) and just let her do a page every so often. No need for anything else so I'm not going to sweat it.
Science:
Chemistry! Ages ago Rosie got a chemistry set and we've done a grand total of ONE experiment from it out of a huge bookful. So, we're going to do chemistry and the usual nature study.
History:
We are beginning a study of the history of Britain using the Heinemann
series. You can't buy these books any more but I got the whole set from
Ebay for pennies. We're skipping the Romans as we did them not long ago
and starting with the Saxons and Vikings. We're going to do narration,
online games and notebooking. To go with the book I'm making some
notebooking pages. Again, I've uploaded them to my homeschool page.
Geography:
We're just continuing with hands-on stuff using Montessori materials for this. Rosie had great fun with the puzzle maps and so on. If it ain't broke don't fix it *smiles*.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Updates
Today is ... 
Website update - I've decided to keep our photo page (link up the top of the screen) and will be adding some more stuff to the homemaking page tomorrow. Also, will be starting to add homeschool printables to the homeschool page pretty soon.
Edited: We've FINALLY had the builder round to look at the bathroom so the work will be done while we are away on holiday!! I'm very excited - I think it's going to end up being mostly white with white floor tiles, white wall tiles with chrome trim and silver venetian blinds - very stylish! We were also guaranteed that the work would not take too long and would be finished by the time we get back *smiles*
Friday, July 04, 2008
Lavender Powder
Today is ..... 
Inbetween doing my cleaning this morning, I've added a new pdf to the homemaking page - lavender carpet freshner. I used this myself when vacuuming today and the results are heavenly *smiles*.
Going to be adding several of my homemade cleaning recipes over the next few days so do look out for them.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Reorganising, rethinking
As well as giving my website a much needed revamp, I've been doing the same at home. Over the last week or so Tim and I (he did the mostly the garden and I did indoors) have really done wonders with our house. It looks beautiful and decluttered and tranquil now *smiles*. Doing this has given me the chance to put out some of my home "makes" - for example, in our hall way, I've put a revamped noticeboard, a decorated box for my make up and a flowerpot. I made the flowerpot by wrapping plain string round and round an old tin, gluing it in place and roughly painting it gold. I added some lavender that I cut from our garden and, in the small space of our hall, it smells divine! I also keep my mad, spotty shopping bag in the hall and you can just about see it in the picture.
The only thing that spoils this pic is the chipped paint above the radiator (must do the walls soon!):
Oh, and I took another photo of Mo today ..... he spends most of his time indoors these days, sleeping on the bed. Sometimes, though he ventures outside (but never going very far) and he sleeps in the sun for a bit.
I've been giving a lot of thought lately to homeschool ... in particular April. She has, herself, expressed a desire NOT to go to "big school" because (in her own words) it would "take too long to be home". She means that she doesn't want to stay there all day (I believe in being honest with my kids and telling them the truth and, in the case of school, she would have to stay there most of the day). She does enjoy her nursery but I believe that is because she is only there a couple times a week - it's a change of scenery for her.
Sure, there are benefits to school for her BUT they are far outweighed by the benefits of homeschool....
- Freedom to grow at her own pace
- Freedom to choose social activities that suit her
- Freedom to play more instead of spending the vast amount of time doing schoolwork and homework
- Freedom to be with her sister and parents more instead of being separated from them for huge amounts of time
The biggest benefit of her being at school is to me ........ a bit more freedom (selfish eh?) She clearly DOES enjoy a challenge but *shrugs* I guess challenges can be found in other ways.
I've still applied for a school place for her but, given the above, and given the fact that we may well move before she is due to start, I can't see her going ............. we'll see.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Don't Panic.
Don't be alarmed if things go a bit weird with the old website over the next few days. I'm going to give the whole thing a face lift (again!).
- Going to re-do the front page (looking a bit, well, lifeless)
- Going to add a new homeschool page which will link to another new page which will be ....
- My homemade homeschool bits and bobs (notebooking pages, household forms, a few montessori bits etc)
- Resurrect my homemaking page. I had a homemaking blog once before and do dreadfully miss it *smiles*
- Either tidy up or get rid of the photo page. Getting a bit tedious maintaining it to be honest.
That's all folks!
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