Gettin' loved up and stuff

You might have noticed it was Valentines day recently and super it was too :) Some people don't celebrate it because they are, apparently, so fab to each other the rest of the year they feel they don't have to. Well, frankly, we are the most lovey family I know (lol!) but that doesn't stop us being EVEN MORE SO on Valentines day :) Anyway, the kids would never forgive me if I allowed this day (or any other seasonal event) to go past without recognising it.

So, Rosie made a postbox before the 14th and put it in the hall and we all made little cards for each other and put them in. Tim, who knows I love Hello Kitty, brought me a little Hello Kitty coaster to put my cup on and put it in with my card which was very sweet :) I cut the kids sandwiches into hearts at lunchtime and served them up strawberries with vanilla sugar for afters. Then, of course, Tim and I had a rather lovely (and loving!!) candlelit dinner, complete with bubbly, after getting the kids into bed.

All very gorgeous :)

Other than that, it's all been pretty quiet and nice and peaceful round here (which is how I like it!) Much homeschooling going on - April continuing to thrive on Montessori (just ordered a complete set of coloured beads for all the activities that we'll need them for!) and the New Child Montessori curriculum guides are continuing to serve us well - actually, that's an understatement - we LOVE them! Rosie is on a mixture of Montessori, GCSE maths and "real life" learning - very Montessori Erdkinder if I'm honest. She still adores her horse riding (despite taking a bit of a tumble recently!) She's been riding Lizzie an ex-point to point horse who is VERY speedy - she constantly wants to be at the front of the group but Rosie handles her very well :) Both girls are continuing to love Guides and April's doing very well now she's moved up to Brownies.

So that's about that - don't forget those who are interested, Winterwatch (one off special) is on Wednesday 22nd!

'Tis gone

Our poor old Nissan has gone to meet it's maker. Alas, it has been written off. This, of course, was not wholly unexpected and, as such, we have been trawling car showrooms for the last couple of days in search of a replacement. We decided that since the Nissan WAS getting on a bit (12!!) that it just made sense to spend more and get something much newer. In the end, we got one of these (not THIS one, we don't have a pic of ours!):

2008 Mazda 6. Very nice car, very sleek, very silver and very elegant looking with plenty of room for Tim's lengthy legs. Drives beautifully. It's beautiful ... £8,000 worth of beautiful. Gulp.

Anyway, after that rather alarming bit of shopping, we went off to M&S and did some more normal shopping in the form of food and then got home. Exhausted. Who'd have thought car shopping could be so tiring?! *laughs*.

Swings and Roundabouts

Well hello there :)

Another update for you - stuff has happened of recent days so here goes.

First, regular readers may well remember me mentioning a mole on my face (ooo! back in about November of last year). At the time, I'd been to see a cosmetic surgeon with a view to getting it removed but, being an absolute wimp when it comes to needles/blades/blood/doctors-in-general, I decided to try a more natural approach first. I'd been recommended castor oil as a way of getting rid of moles (even the fabulous lady I get my essential oils from recommended it). So, I got some and started religiously applying .... did it work? Well, yes and no. Initially, it really, really did! Within a couple of days it had started (yuk, sorry) crusting over and flaked off! Wow! I thought, this is going to be easy! Only it wasn't because it just refused to budge after that no matter how much stuff I put on. Oh drat!

So, after Christmas, I admitted defeat and made an appointment with the lovely Mr Tiernan at New Hall Hospital (Salisbury) and then fretted and chewed my nails off until the day of the appointment which was this Tuesday just gone. I can honestly say that even childbirth wasn't this scarey - the thought of having something cut off ANYWHERE is terrifying enough, but my face .....?! Yikes!

To cut a long story short, it's gone :) Mr Tiernan was fab and kind and reassuring. It was all numbed up with a local and then he shaved it off level with the skin and then burnt out the roots. Admittedly the sound/smell effects were pretty awful but other than that it was fine. After it was done, he said "do you want to look at it before I dress it?" To which I replied "no!" Uuurggh! I can just imagine it being like that scene out of Batman where Jack Nicholson becomes the Joker ... looking in the mirror and bursting into manic laughter while the poor surgeon frets "... but these instruments I have to work with ....!"

*Bursts into manic laughter*

Anyway, I can take the dressing off on Saturday then it's just a case of waiting for it to heal which can take a while.

What else? A silly little thing - April wrapped Floyd in a blanket when he was asleep on her bed - aaah! :)

My lovely, wonderful hubby brought me some new nature table stuff namely, a house, silks and fairies (there is 1 silk and 1 fairy for each season). I also made some little Valentines decorations for it - here are some piccies - still wintery at the moment - can't wait to change it for the spring one :)

The spring, summer and autumn fairies/silks that are not in use yet

Anything else ... hmmm, let me think .... hmmm .... oh yeah ....

Oh. Dear.

Tim got smashed into in Sainsbury's carpark (while he wasn't even moving!). The car is gone - at the assessors .... being assessed ..... probably won't get it back as it's getting a bit old. He, fortunately, was ok and not injured which is the main thing. However, since he had only VERY recently spent about £300 getting it serviced and having new tyres etc, his was the best example of "contained anger" I've seen in a long time.

He WAS angry but, if the car is written off then, he just said "oh well, it was getting on, might be good to get something newer". How he can shrug these things off so easily is beyond me ... I just explode *shrugs*. His self control is masterful :)

Oh, and finally, we've booked our holiday! Yay! There was a bit of hoo-haa when Tim found out he couldn't have the time off from work that he originally wanted, but we got there in the end. We're going to Centerparc again only staying in a posher villa this time *laughs* - with safe (which I was determined to have this time because I was always worried about leaving our valuables lying about) and en-suites and maid service. Nice :)

Photo heavy!

Helloooo!

I thought I'd be reappear before everyone thought I'd gone for good!

Ok, quicky update on the website. I have added another craft to the crafts page and I've got several recipes that I'm in the process of writing up to add to the food page. There WAS another page that I was umming and aaahing about doing but I've decided to put that on hold for the time being. This is largely because I don't ever seem to have the time to sit down and do it! It's one of those projects that I'm hoping to work on over the next couple of months or so.

So what else? Here come the pictures!

There has been .....

Work on projects - this is something April did for her animals in winter project. She made a folded book ....

 

 

 

 

Ploughing through GCSE maths (with the help of the very splended CGP video lessons)

Baking of glittery cupcakes (yum yum) by my good self

Crocheting of dusters (again, by me)

I also made April a fun bunch of stuff about alliteration :)

The first crocus of (early!) spring ... more please!

... and, finally, April doing some really funny daddy-related things. Firstly, paper dolly daddy! Can't say I entirely like the thought of him wearing an orange and green stripey skirt but hey-ho *laughs*

.. and this is really funny - daddy at work!! Stick man daddy shown doing various things (that actually did happen!)

Top left: Daddy driving the van (although it looks, for all the world, like he's crashing into a tree!)

Top right: Daddy twisting his ankle jumping clumsily out of van (and that facial expression is probably fairly accurate...)

Bottom right: Daddy in the New Forest being greeted by a 3 legged cat giving him a dead mole. Yes, that really did happen!

Bottom left: Daddy delivering stuff to a VERY grumpy, nit-picking chef. Mentioning no names obviously. Readers of this blog probably wouldn't know who it was anyway but the mushrooms being delivered by stick daddy are significant ..... *laughs out loud*

Love the way she always gives Tim incredibly curly long hair! His hair isn't this long OR this curly - he looks like Charles II!!

That's all folks!

Bear with .... bear with .....

There may be little in the way of blogging at the mo - I am (taaa-daaa!) FINALLY getting to grips with remodelling my website. For too long my poor, neglected site has had dusty corners with half finished pages but not more!

So I'm cutting back on some web related stuff in order that I can spend time with my dear old website. Facebook - sorry to say, got bored of spewing "snippets" of my day already, true, it's excellent for keeping up with some friends but it IS dull. So, FB is easy to ditch for a bit. Sims Medieval - oh dear, oh dear. I have become terribly addicted to this game so that IS harder to put on the back burner for a while. Blog-hopping ... hmmmm - most of the blogs/sites I really love are in my sidebar, then there are a couple I actually do like but just haven't added (usually because they are infrequently updated). However, there ARE some blogs that I read simply because ... erk, how can I put this delicately? .... they are the blogging equivalent of car-crash telly - savvy? Those blogs I will read NO MORE, it's too sad for words. You Tube - oh my god! I recently discovered someone had uploaded ALL the episodes of Crime Traveller! For those who don't know, this was a series in the 90's which starred Michael French as a time travelling police officer. It was, in my opinion, utterly brilliant - but they only made 1 series :( Still, I'm engrossed and loving it and it's hard ... to .. tear... myself....away .....

There is very little I can cut back from away-from-the-computer in order to free up more time and nor would I want to. I won't compromise on my kids education/social life, my home or my hubby.

So, anyway, expect some stuff changing over the next few weeks. If you visit my homepage (which you will have to type in manually as I don't have a top bar yet) you can see updates and pages added and so on. At the moment, there is this blog, the craft page and the recipe page. The craft and recipe pages are works in progress and will be added to as I do stuff but the pages are up ready to receive so to speak. I also have a couple of other ideas brewing away which may or may not see the light of day depending on how I feel.

What you will NOT be finding (sorry to those who might have been expecting it) is a page of homeschool materials or anything like it. Long term readers of this blog will know why I no longer share my items with the general public but for those new here, it's basically because I got fed up with the theft, nastiness and general unpleasantness that came with it. It's extraordinary - you do what you think is something nice and end up being treated like rubbish because of it! *shakes head in wonder*. I do still make Montessori materials (we still do Montessori after all!) and I have FOLDERS full of stuff which I COULD have shared. Seems a shame, but there you go. I tried and tried for the longest of times but it seemed the more I did the more crap I got. So, I've learned, as it were, that you can only bang your head on a brick wall for so long and then you decide the pain isn't worth it *shrugs*.

So that's that .... watch this space :)

Sunny days!

We've had some really quite unseasonably warm weather recently (certainly nice after the horrific howling gales a little while ago!) Consequently, we've seen a fair bit of wildlife that probably shouldn't be pootling about at this time of year.

Yesterday, we spotted a Red Admiral butterfly fluttering around outside our living room window and I noticed that it seemed to have settled down on the front of the house to sunbathe. I grabbed the camera and went outside, found the butterfly and started giggling - it had landed on our house number and, for all the world, looked like something we'd stuck on as a decoration! :D

It was very beautiful and lovely to see - if a little early in the year. These warm days have certainly helped to ease us into the new year gently. :)

"back to life ..."

Just a quicky today - having lunch soon then off out to buy April new shoes!

So, we're back into our usual routine ...... back to this mostly:

... work those kids .. bwa-ha-ha! Rosie's messing about with some general maths review until some GCSE maths stuff I've ordered for her turns up.

 

We've started reading a new history book (which has prompted much amusement with acting out various things with toys afterwards!), worked on physics, maths, art study and grammar.

Did grammar with April this morning - we started Montessori grammar work just before Christmas so today I quickly review articles and nouns with her. Usually, Montessori uses a farm environment to teach grammar but we use a ... erm... medieval/fantasy scene instead. Even Rosie joined in with this and was sort of teaching April for me ... "this is an article" ... good fun :)

 

 

Course, when this was finished, it quickly turned into a game of knights and dragons (after stuffing all the grammar symbols away first!)

 

Oh, who is that in April's little hand (at the top)? Why, it's Link! My homemade Link to be precise - made many moons ago and now looking a little worse for wear! :D

 

A New Year

So here we are, Christmas done and dusted, New Years Eve done and dusted and we've come tumbling out into 2012 :)

Normally by now I've done my new year post, in fact, I've normally done it just before new year. I looked back into my archives and realised that I always did a post about stuff I wasn't happy with and wanted to change, things I was desperate to do or achieve, homeschool work I wasn't happy with and wanted to change. All change.

It occured to me today that I hadn't done it this (last!) year and I wondered why. When I really thought about it, I realised that it was because all the things I wanted to change or do away with I actually did do last year - there was nothing left. I am, in fact, perfectly happy with the way my life is - I don't want to change anything. The homeschool work is fab, the house is nice, we as a family are happy ... I am content :)

Now, of course, that's not to say that I don't have things that I am aiming for - I'm practicing my new recorder (oh! the alto sounds soooo much better than the descant!) with Tim accompanying me on the piano most times, I'm increasing my crochet skills (just completed a little shrug - my first clothing done in crochet!) and I'm perfecting my baking skills. It's just there is nothing I feel I MUST change or get rid of - the things I want to do are just little, "pottering" things that increase my happiness even more.

It's quite refreshing really! :)

So now the Christmas decs are away and I've hoovered through and the house is back to normal. I'm sorting out the homeschool stuff ready for back to work and Tim also goes back to work on Thursday (he was very lucky and got the time off between Christmas and New Year).

Today we got out for our first walk of the year and went to Avon Heath. It was gloriously sunny and all blue sky (we timed our walk perfectly because just as we finished it got dark and started raining). Where we have had a lot of rain over the last few days it was incredibly boggy and muddy and the stream was very swollen - we had one great bit where we had to make our way across the water by climbing over some wobbly logs - a bit scary!

So that was Christmas :)

Hellloooo! Hope everyone had a perfectly lovely Christmas and is feelin' all relaxed and looking forward to the new year. We certainly are :)

Here is a lightening tour through our festive jollies - lots of "bubbly" blurred pics for you to enjoy *laughs*.

Christmas Eve was terribly, terribly busy. Tim went into work really early because they asked him to in case it was really busy, which it wasn't (it WAS busy the day before!) While he was there, I set about doing a LOT of cooking and cleaning and this wasn't easy because I didn't feel particularly well (cold). Anyway, dosed up on Beechams, I got on with it - I iced my Christmas cake (yes, one of those stars is a little wet because I'd only just finished decorating - that's water for sticking the holly on!):

 

I made cupcakes for the kids (who don't like Christmas cake):

 

... and I made mince pies - had a bit of a star theme going on this year! Oh, and the gorgeous Tala tin was part of a set of 3 that I got as a pressie from Tim which I obviously didn't have when I made the pies - this pic was taken later :)

 

Christmas day was just LOVELY - that's all I can say really. Yes, I did still feel a bit coughy and under the weather but it's amazing what some bubbly and fun with your family and cool pressies can do to perk you up!

Here are some random piccies from the day including our pressies. Now, I always feel a bit "bad" for posting pics of pressies - seems a bit show-offy. Then I thought, this blog is for our own personal memories as much as anything so hey-ho :)

So, pressies first :)

Tims - no, I didn't accidently photograph the same Debussy book twice, he received 2 copies of it!

Aprils - definately had the shakes with this photo!

... those blocks (in the first pic) were fantastic and well worth the money - she's played with them a lot. They came from Myriad and are really heavy and beautiful (and actually a lot bigger than they look in the picture)

 

This was one of her favourite pressies - a Waddledee!

Rosies - she did astonishingly well for 3ds games and books this year (she got replacement copies of a couple of her Harry Potter books that she has read to death!)

... just to prove that, even at 14, they don't grow out of "toys" - Rosie totally loved her wooden sword - she has mock battles with April in the garden :)

Mine :) I was lucky enough to get LOADS of Tala baking stuff this year which I was so, so happy about - I love the retro gorgeousness of it :)

This was one of my favourites - my beautiful Alto recorder from Tim :) REALLY wanted to learn to play this - it's much deeper sounding and more mellow than the descant (soprano). It also uses different fingering so it's taking some getting used to! It's pretty big and I'm still making adjustments to the lowest hole (on the right hand) to get it in a position that my little pinkie can cover easily! Here it is next to the descant which I already had:

So that's the pressies, here are a few other general pics :)

... the after lunch flop *laughs*

Rosie on the Wii

Tim reading ....

... there was a lot of this going on to :)

Yesterday, as we usually do on Boxing day, we went over mum/Tony's for nibbly food and pressies. As ever, it was nice and relaxing - food very yummy! :)

Today we're chillin' I got a load of tidying up and disposing of wrapping paper and stuff to do but it can wait :)

Next stop ... New Years Eve. Tim and I don't "do" New Years Eve in the traditional sense (i.e go to a party, get wildly drunk and snog someone inappropriate). We both hate the forced, "it is New Years Eve so we WILL be jolly" ... erm.. jolliness of it. So, for us, it's nibbles, champagne, Jools Holland and ... and snuggles ;)

Cake heaven

Unashamedly "housewifey" post today - all food and craft!

I've dug out my Christmas cake stand (what with it being soooo close to Christmas day!) and have been making yummy teatime treats to go on it. Here are some recent choccy chip muffins - very gorgeous - I PROMISE I am going to get my recipe page up in the new year and start adding these things!

 

The other thing I did a couple of days ago is marzipan my Christmas cake - heavens! It smelt boozy when I unwrapped it! We'll be getting squiffy on it *laughs*.

I always have this "issue" when it comes to marzipan-ing and icing my cake because I get really irritated with trying to get the bottom nice and even. Before, I've always tried to cut the bottom while the cake is flat on the worktop and it's never worked very well and I've ended up doing a patching job with bits of marzipan/icing and got cross.

This year I had a lightbulb moment (quite why I never thought of it before, I don't know). I looked at the cake and looked at a dinner plate ... hmmm ... the central, slightly dipped part of the plate was SLIGHTLY larger than the circumference of my cake. Hmmm. Aha! Put the cake on the plate, cover with rolled out marzipan (clearly - not going to just stick a slab of marzipan on top!), grab sharp knife and cut round the bottom level with the edge of the dipped bit of plate. On removing the spare marzipan, smooth down the bottom and it's PERFECT! No patching!

Sometimes I surprise myself ....

Mmmm! SMELL the alcohol!

 

 

Bingo!

 

Away from food, I've been crocheting (generally only when the heating has been on because otherwise my hands are too frozen!) I'm waiting for same yarn to arrive in the post (absolutely GORGEOUS deep plum colour) so that I can start a nice warm shrug to go with my dresses but in the meantime I'm doing squares. I decided, on impulse, to use up all of my scrappy bits of pastel coloured yarn and make granny squares. Eventually, I'll piece them altogether and make a throw or something - given the colours, it will be nice for the spring .... so I've got a project to keep me busy over the winter :)

That's about it for today folks! :)